Pastor Chris Oyakhilome unveils Tsion electric cars as Evangelist Tonto Dikeh’s new ministry rolls out bold church projects — here’s what stunned Nigeria.
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of LoveWorld Nation has unveiled a new line of electric vehicles under the Tsion brand at the New Economy Unveiling (NEU) 2026, marking Christ Embassy’s bold step into Nigeria’s technology and mobility space.
In a striking coincidence, Evangelist Tonto Dikeh’s newly founded ministry rolled out major church-support and charity projects around the same time, throwing both figures right into the middle of national conversation.
Two names took over Nigerian timelines this past week, and neither of them arrived quietly.
On one end you had Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, the LoveWorld Nation founder who has taken more than his fair share of knocks over the years. On the other, Evangelist Tonto Dikeh, the former Nollywood star whose turn to faith has kept people talking non-stop.
The two do not share a common backstory or anything close to a similar path — yet somehow, within the same handful of days, both of them grabbed the public’s attention and shoved every other trending topic aside. Pastor Chris Oyakhilome
The louder move, without question, came from Pastor Chris Oyakhilome. At the New Economy Unveiling (NEU) 2026, the man of God pulled the wraps off something almost nobody saw coming — a whole line of electric vehicles built under the Tsion brand. And this was no little pet project tucked away in a corner.
The unveiling was tied to a much bigger dream inside Christ Embassy: building independent energy, manufacturing cars locally, and putting up its own infrastructure. Pastor Chris Oyakhilome
The lineup did the rest of the talking. The Tsion range rolled out with the Tsion Passion, the Tsion Falcon, the Vision Series, and the OG Series — a mix of luxury-styled SUVs, sports cars, smooth coupes, and convertibles, every single one of them running on electric power.
The whole thing was big enough that even mainstream Nigerian media, usually not in a hurry to hand the ministry good press, ended up covering the unveiling straight from the clips flying around online.
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome
And if you thought that was the end of it, the pastor himself suggested otherwise. Oyakhilome dropped a hint that the best was still on its way. That same NEU 2026 gathering also unveiled a so-called “wealth liquefaction” scheme, one built on the idea of turning waste into profit.
Pastor Bolaji Idowu of Harvesters, clearly blown away by what he saw, said his mind had been stretched, calling the whole thing a living example of what it means for the church to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world — not sitting around waiting for anyone else to hand them a solution, but showing what they can do right there in the marketplace.
Then the spotlight swung to a very different, but just as talked-about, story.
Even as the argument raged over whether her under-a-year discipleship training was enough to make her a general overseer, Tonto Dikeh announced that her ministry would be donating a church building and renovating others — moves she said were led by the Holy Spirit and not by human favouritism. Pastor Chris Oyakhilome
Under what she is calling the “Church-Building and Support Initiative,” her New Wine Prophetic Tabernacle promised to repair and strengthen altars across communities, fitting out churches with essential equipment and structural upgrades.
Writing on social media, she said the ministry was stepping in to support and lift churches through renovation or by supplying essential equipment, and she went as far as asking interested churches to send in a bill of quantities and a rough cost of what they needed.
For a ministry that is not even a month old, that kind of ambition naturally raised eyebrows. And for the critics who had already dismissed her as too spiritually green to lead anything, the sheer pace of it was hard to wave away.
Pastor Emmanuel Iren’s timing could not have been better, and his words added real weight to the moment. He pointed out that mega church pastors make up less than 0.6 per cent of the entire clergy, while the overwhelming majority of faithful ministers run smaller congregations that genuinely battle to cover the basics — sometimes struggling just to pay church rent.
Plenty of churches, he said, have closed their doors for no reason other than a lack of money, and he urged people to let love move them to support these smaller ministries. That, in plain terms, is the very gap Tonto Dikeh says she is trying to fill — and she tied part of the effort to the birthday of her mentor, Pastor Jerry Eze. Pastor Chris Oyakhilome
Beyond the church buildings, her New Wine Tabernacle reportedly went even further, clearing the hospital bills of every child born across Abuja and Port Harcourt on August 22.
Each mother and child, the reports say, also went home with essential supplies for early care and comfort. For anyone still accusing her of dashing out of discipleship to plant her own church, the fact that she linked the gesture to her mentor’s special day arguably settles the matter — she is clearly still operating under his guidance, so where exactly is the problem?
And honestly, the bigger conversation here runs deeper than either of them. The old assumption that a new believer must always crawl slowly up the discipleship ladder is being seriously questioned, especially for people who feel a real calling and have already finished foundational training somewhere else. Pastor Chris Oyakhilome
The counsel of 91-year-old Robert Tillman Kendall, a man with over seventy years in ministry, cuts right through it. Asked for his biggest piece of advice to young ministers, Kendall reached for Acts 4:13 — the moment the religious leaders were stunned by the boldness of Peter and John, two men who were unschooled but had spent time with Jesus. His counsel was refreshingly simple: know your Bible, pray a lot, and God will use you beyond every PhD and seminary degree out there.
Naturally, not everyone is clapping. Both figures are still catching heavy fire online. For all the praise the Tsion electric vehicle venture has pulled in, it has also attracted a fair amount of mockery, with people asking how many LoveWorld members could realistically afford the new technology. Pastor Chris Oyakhilome
One lawyer even reportedly questioned whether a church registered as an incorporated trustee can legally go into car manufacturing — conveniently forgetting that the LoveWorld Nation already owns a commercial bank and is hardly short of legal minds to advise it.
The takeaway, at least the way supporters of both ministers frame it, is a familiar one — stay true to whatever you believe God has placed in your hands, and do not let other people’s opinions drag your eyes off the ball. Critic or fan, nobody could really argue with the fact that both Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and Tonto Dikeh have, once again, made themselves completely impossible to ignore.
Written by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi — a sage, storyteller and branding specialist who welcomes feedback at nmiringwu@gmail.com.
What’s your honest take — is the church boldly stepping into new territory, or drifting too far from its core mission? And do you think Tonto Dikeh started her ministry too soon? Drop your thoughts in the comments and share this with someone who’ll definitely have an opinion.
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