Reaching the Unreached: Nigeria’s Urgent Call to Global Missions

Imagine a community of people — perhaps tucked into the folds of the Sahel, or hidden along the shores of Lake Chad — who have never once heard the name of Jesus Christ. Not rejected Him, not walked away from Him, but simply never encountered Him. No missionary has come. No radio broadcast has reached them. No Bible exists in their tongue. They live, love, suffer, and die without ever knowing that the Son of God shed His blood for them. This is not a hypothetical. Across West Africa and beyond, millions of people remain unreached by the gospel. And the question that every Nigerian Christian must sit with is this: what is my part in changing that?

Nigeria stands at a remarkable crossroads in the story of global missions. With over 200 million people, a deeply religious culture, a growing and energetic church, and strategic positioning between the largely Christianised south and the predominantly Muslim north, Nigeria is not merely a mission field — she is a mission force. But responsibility comes with readiness, and readiness must be rooted in Scripture.

The biblical mandate for reaching the unreached is not a suggestion buried in a footnote. It is the direct command of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew 28:19-20, He declared: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” The word “all nations” carries enormous weight. The Greek word is “panta ta ethne” — all people groups. Jesus was not speaking only of political nations but of ethnic and cultural communities, including those who are currently beyond the reach of the gospel. This commission was not given to a special class of super-Christians. It was given to the church — which includes the church in Nigeria today.

The Apostle Paul understood this urgency with piercing clarity. In Romans 10:14, he asked: “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” These are not rhetorical questions meant to satisfy academic curiosity. They are a chain of accountability. Every link in that chain represents a human responsibility. If the unreached cannot hear without a preacher, and Nigerian Christians are equipped, educated, and empowered by the Holy Spirit — then who else should go? The logic of Paul’s argument lands squarely on the shoulders of the African church, which is now among the fastest-growing expressions of Christianity on earth.

Consider also the vision recorded in Revelation 7:9: “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb.” This is God’s intended end — not a homogenous crowd, but a gloriously diverse multitude. Every tongue. Every kindred. Every people. Nigerian Christians are called to participate in bringing that picture to fulfilment. The Hausa believer who crosses cultural lines to reach the Kanuri. The Yoruba church planter who relocates to Northern Nigeria. The Igbo missionary who serves among unreached peoples in the Sahel or the Horn of Africa — these are not extraordinary anomalies. They are ordinary obedience.

So what does this practically look like for the Nigerian Christian sitting in a Lagos apartment, a Kaduna compound, or a village church in Enugu? First, it begins with prayer. Jesus Himself commanded in Luke 10:2, “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” Intercession for unreached peoples is not a substitute for going — but it is the fuel that sends people. Join a prayer group focused on unreached peoples. Learn the names of unreached communities in Northern Nigeria and beyond — the Fulani, the Kanuri, the Shuwa Arab, the Zarma — and pray for them by name.

Second, Nigerian Christians must support missions financially and practically. Many gifted missionaries from Nigeria lack the resources to sustain long-term work among unreached peoples. The local church has a responsibility to commission and fund gospel workers. This is not a burden — it is a privilege. Third, some reading this article are called to go personally. Organisations like Calvary Ministries (CAPRO), Evangelical Missionary Society (EMS), and SIM Nigeria are actively recruiting, training, and deploying missionaries from Nigeria to unreached peoples. The pathway exists. The question is whether you will step onto it.

There is also the immediate mission field within Nigeria’s own borders. The 10/40 window does not begin in some distant land — it brushes against Nigerian soil. Reaching the unreached can mean crossing the road, learning a language, building a relationship with someone from a community your church has never intentionally engaged. Missions is not always a plane ticket. Sometimes it is a deliberate, Spirit-led step outside your cultural comfort zone.

The Nigerian church has been blessed abundantly — with numbers, with gifting, with zeal, and with an increasingly global footprint. But blessing always carries responsibility. The parable of the talents in Matthew 25 reminds us that what has been given will be accounted for. Nigeria has been given much. The unreached world is waiting. Heaven’s gallery is not yet complete.

Today, will you pray for an unreached people group by name? Will you investigate one Nigerian missions organisation? Will you ask God plainly whether He is calling you to go? The harvest is great. The labourers are few. And you — Nigerian believer — are not an accident of geography. You are a strategic placement of God in one of the most pivotal mission-sending nations on earth. Do not waste it.