Trailblazers of Adventism in Nigeria, 1900s-1930s

The Pew Research Center reports that out of the 80 million (50.8%) Christians in Nigeria, there are 60 million Protestants (or broadly defined 37.8%), 20 million Catholics (11.0%), 40,000 Orthodox Christians, and 810,000 other Christians (Pew Research Center 2011). Among Protestants, mainline, mission churches, and Pentecostal and/or Nigerian Initiated churches play key roles in the religious and social arena of Nigeria. Among the mission churches, Seventh-day Adventists with about 234,200 members (2018 Annual Statistical Report 2018:94) constitute a small percentage of Protestants in Nigeria. One of the reasons for this might be that they were late comers to the religious scene of Nigeria. While the earliest Christian mission to Nigeria can be traced back to the 16th century for Catholic missionaries (Isichei 1995:45) and to the late 1840s for Protestant missionaries, Adventist only arrived in Nigeria in the early part of the 20th century. Popular opinion and several historical monographs have placed the coming of Seventh-day Adventists to Nigeria in 1914. The account claims the British Adventist missionary, David C. Babcock along with two other Africans, R. P. Dauphin and Samuel D. Morgue as the first missionaries to Nigeria. According to this popular study, while Babcock and his team started work in Western Nigeria in 1914, Jesse Clifford started work in Southeastern Nigeria in 1923, and John J. Hyde began mission work in Northern Nigeria in 1931 (Anosike 1971; Agboola 1987; Kuranga 1991; Maigadi 2005; Alalade 2008). Hence, Babcock (and his associates), Clifford and Hyde are until today considered the pioneers of Adventism in Nigeria. This is the main reason why Babcock University was named after Babcock as the pioneer missionary in Nigeria. Trailblazers of Adventism in Nigeria, 1900s–1930s Chigemezi Nnadozie Wogu