On Friday, TikToker and actress Pelumi Olawuni, better known as Abike Shugaa, posted an hour-long YouTube video breaking her three-year silence on her fallout with Toyin Abraham. Three days later, Nollywood X is still reading.
Per Abike: ₦50,000 for two scenes in 2021’s Ijakumo, cut from the final edit without her knowing. She found out at the premiere, after inviting her friends. ₦500,000 for a supporting role in ‘Malaika,’ plus ₦10,000 to ₦15,000 transport for TikTok content shot at Toyin’s house. Funke Akindele, she said, pays her $600 to $800 per promotional post. Things escalated when she unboxed Funke’s ‘A Tribe Called Judah’ PR package. Toyin, per Abike, sent “angry, cursing” voice notes and later threatened, “If I leave her, she will make sure she ruins my life.”
Toyin fired back on X the same day, confirming the figures, blaming the ‘Ijakumo’ director for the cut, and adding, “Nobody will pay an upcoming actress that much.” By Saturday, she was posting, “Ever since I made over 1B, I never rest. Na, like, this level be?” The replies dragged her for sounding flippant. This is also the second Funke-adjacent public fallout Toyin has been pulled into in a few weeks.
The bigger picture sitting underneath all of it: one of Nollywood’s top-grossing producers paying a protégé ₦50,000 for a cinema role while the Oversabi Aunty billion-naira era keeps rolling. The camp economy that has quietly shaped Nollywood casting for a decade just got its WhatsApp chats leaked.
