Nigerian pastor Chris Oyakhilome's health claims: eat more salt, fluoride is rat poison, no vaccine has ever worked

Review

Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, founder of Christ Embassy and a preacher with a large international following, used a series of 2025 sermons to make health claims that contradict established medical evidence. Africa Check investigated and found serious problems with every one of them.

Claim 1: “Eat more salt, not less.”

Oyakhilome told his congregation to eat more salt, claiming hospitals secretly treat patients with salt under different names. This directly contradicts medical consensus. High sodium intake is a leading risk factor for stroke and heart disease, and the World Health Organization recommends limiting salt consumption. The “hospitals use salt secretly” claim has no evidence behind it.

Claim 2: “Sodium fluoride is a major ingredient in rat poison” and “one of the main causes of cancer.”

Fluoride is added to toothpaste in small amounts to prevent tooth decay, and to some public water supplies at safe levels for the same reason. The fluoride compound in rat poison is a different substance at a different concentration — this is the “chemical appears in two things, therefore the two things are the same” fallacy. On cancer: there is no evidence linking fluoride to cancer in humans. The claim is outright false.

Claim 3: “No vaccine has ever worked.”

Vaccines are among the most studied and validated medical interventions in history. Smallpox was eradicated through vaccination. Polio has been eliminated in most of the world. Measles deaths dropped by an estimated 23 million globally between 2000 and 2023 thanks to vaccination. The claim is not a matter of debate; it is a denial of the historical record.

The pattern

Oyakhilome was previously sanctioned by the UK regulator Ofcom for airing 5G-Covid conspiracy claims on his TV channel, and in 2024 falsely claimed a new malaria vaccine approved in Nigeria did not work. The health claims are not one-off errors; they are a recurring feature of his preaching. The authority of the pulpit is being used to displace the authority of evidence, and the audience is a congregation that has already decided to trust the speaker before the claim is made.

Verdict: False

Every health claim investigated by Africa Check was found to be wrong. The salt advice is dangerous. The fluoride claims are false. The vaccine denial contradicts the historical record. This is religious authority deployed against medical evidence, and the cost is paid by the people who follow the advice.