The Contributions of the Christian Missionaries in Building the Nigerian Nation, 1840-1960

Much of the existing works on the history of the evolution of modern Nigeria seem to be concentrated on the activities of three principal bodies from Britain: the British explorers, the British traders and the British colonial administrators. Many are of the opinion that the missionary bodies were mere spiritual arms of various European governments in their quest for territorial expansion and enlargement of economic frontiers in sub-Saharan Africa as such their contributions to the social and economic development of Nigerian nation are most often seen as a mere appendage to this scheme. Nevertheless, the galvanizing of the diverse people of Nigeria may not have been achieved by the mere order of British royalty. Even the tools of military, economic and political impositions were not enough to nurture a national consciousness. There was the wrestling down of traditional cultural/tribal consciousness, educational re-tooling of the mind and the personnel training in preparation for nationhood. This is the gap that this paper has filled. The missionary activities in Nigeria, especially their educational programs helped to whip-up the consciousness of a shared identity and helped to train a new set of elite that championed the course of nationalism and constituted a virile leadership for the young nation at independence. The paper made copious use of recorded history of missionary involvement in shaping the society and training its first generation of leaders and of observable evidences of continued impact of the emergent churches on the social, cultural, political and economic life of present-day Nigeria.