Nollywood actress-turned-evangelist Tonto Dikeh has offered a stark new interpretation of the turbulent behaviour that once made her one of Nigeria’s most controversial celebrities, saying addiction and emotional pain were behind many of her destructive decisions.
Dikeh, who now leads a Christian ministry, said the anger and disorder seen by the public were not simply reflections of her personality. They were, she said, the actions of someone silently asking for help.
“I was once the chaos people judged. The noise. The mess. The broken decisions,” she wrote in an anti-drug message shared with her followers.
“But what many didn’t see was the truth behind it all. Behind the anger, the addiction, the self-destruction, was a soul screaming for help, not attention.”
The Nigerian actress said she had been searching for relief from pain she did not know how to express.
“Drugs weren’t the problem; they were the symptom. Addiction wasn’t my identity; it was my escape from pain I didn’t know how to name,” she said.
Dikeh did not specify which drugs she was referring to in the new statement. However, she has previously spoken in detail about her struggles with smoking and alcohol.
A 27-year smoking habit
During an emotional testimony at Streams of Joy International Church in Abuja in December 2025, Dikeh said she started smoking at 13 after growing up around a father who smoked.
The 40-year-old actress described herself as a “constant smoker” and said the habit had continued for 27 years.
She also disclosed that she had struggled with alcohol, sometimes drinking large bottles of vodka alone until she lost consciousness. Dikeh told the congregation that her faith had helped break her desire to smoke and drink.
The testimony added important context to the outspoken public image Dikeh cultivated during her years as one of Nollywood’s most recognisable personalities.
She became widely known through films including Dirty Secret, Divine Grace and Night Wedding before expanding into music, influencing, philanthropy and politics.
Her personal life and relationships also generated years of intense publicity, much of it driven by public arguments, allegations and highly personal exchanges on social media.
Dikeh’s latest message appears to ask audiences to reconsider that period of her life—not by excusing harmful behaviour, but by looking at what may be happening beneath the surface of addiction.
“Never stop praying for the person”
The actress said people battling addiction should not be reduced to their worst actions or treated as beyond recovery.
“So hate the drugs. Hate the addiction. But never stop praying for the person trapped inside it,” she wrote.
“That person is not weak, not worthless, not beyond redemption.”
Her appeal also reflects the increasingly public role faith has taken in her life.
In January 2026, Dikeh said she had nearly become a pastor at 19 and believed prayer and healing were her calling. She described pain as one of the reasons she had repeatedly run away from that calling.
In August, she announced the establishment of New Wine Prophetic Tabernacle, an interdenominational spiritual movement holding weekly fellowship in Abuja. The ministry describes its mission as prayer, revival, evangelism and helping people find spiritual freedom.
That progression—from movie star and celebrity provocateur to politician, evangelist and ministry founder—makes her latest admission more than a standalone anti-drug statement. It is part of Dikeh’s attempt to reinterpret her highly public past as a story of pain, recovery and religious transformation.
She said her own experience was proof that addiction does not have to decide how a person’s life ends.
“When I was written off, God was writing a comeback,” she said.
“And if God could pull me out, restore me, and give me a voice, then no soul is too far gone.”
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