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

Imagine a man in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea who has never heard the name of Jesus Christ — not because missionaries failed to try, but because there were never enough of them. Now imagine a woman in the Sahel region of West Africa, just three countries away from Nigeria, who has grown old and died never knowing that a Saviour walked out of a tomb two thousand years ago. These are not hypothetical tragedies. According to missiological research, there remain over three billion people today who have no meaningful access to the gospel. The question is not whether God has noticed them. The real question is whether Nigerian Christians have.

For too long, the global church has treated missions as a Western export. But the wind of the Holy Spirit does not blow in one direction, and the Great Commission was never addressed to one continent. It was addressed to disciples — and Nigeria, with over 90 million professing Christians, has the manpower, the linguistic reach, the geographic positioning, and the spiritual hunger to become one of the great missionary-sending nations of the 21st century. The only thing standing between that potential and its fulfilment is obedience.

The biblical foundation for this call is unmistakable. In Matthew 28:19-20, the Lord Jesus Christ 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: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” This mandate was not a suggestion. The Greek word translated “go” carries the weight of a command issued by a commanding officer to his soldiers. It is not a call for the spiritually adventurous few. It is an order given to every believer.

Nigerian Christians must understand that this commission applies directly to them. God did not place Nigeria at the crossroads of sub-Saharan Africa by accident. The country shares cultural threads with Francophone West Africa, has diaspora communities on every inhabited continent, and produces graduates in theology, medicine, engineering, and education who can enter restricted nations as tentmakers just as the Apostle Paul did. Paul himself declared in Romans 15:20: “Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation.” This was Paul’s defining ambition — to push always toward the unreached. It should be ours as well.

But who exactly are the unreached? They are the people groups among whom the church is so small and so weak that it cannot evangelise its own community without outside help. They include the Fulani belt stretching across West Africa, the Tuareg peoples of the Sahara, the dense Muslim populations of northern Nigeria’s neighbouring countries, and animist communities in Central and East Africa. They include urban migrant workers in the Middle East and Southeast Asia who encounter no Christian witness because no Nigerian believers followed them there with intentionality. Isaiah 6:8 captures the spirit of what is needed: “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” Isaiah did not wait for a committee to select him. He volunteered. Nigerian believers must cultivate that same instinct.

Practically, what does this look like for the Nigerian Christian sitting in a church in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, or Enugu? First, it means praying with geographical intentionality. Rather than praying generally for “the nations,” believers should adopt specific unreached people groups by name and intercede for them consistently. Organisations like the Joshua Project publish detailed information on unreached peoples that any believer with internet access can use to pray with precision.

Second, it means giving sacrificially to support Nigerian missionaries already in the field. Many Nigerian missionaries serving in difficult regions are underfunded and undersupported. The local church bears a responsibility not just to commission workers but to sustain them financially, emotionally, and in prayer. Acts 13:3 records that the church at Antioch “had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on” Barnabas and Saul before sending them out. Sending is not just a moment — it is an ongoing posture of support.

Third, for those willing to go personally, there are now structured pathways. Nigerian mission agencies such as Calvary Ministries (CAPRO), SIM Nigeria, and AIM Africa provide training, field placement, and pastoral care for those called to cross-cultural work. Young Nigerian graduates should consider whether God is calling them not just to a career, but to a field. Professionals — doctors, engineers, teachers, and businesspeople — can enter nations that would refuse a traditional missionary visa, and carry the gospel as a living witness in their workplaces and communities. This is tentmaking missions, and it is one of the most strategic opportunities of our generation.

Fourth, Nigerian churches must build a missions culture from childhood. When children grow up hearing stories of missionaries, praying for unreached peoples, and understanding that salvation is not meant to be hoarded but shared, a generation of willing labourers is formed. Missions must leave the periphery of church programming and take its place at the centre.

The Lord Jesus said in John 4:35: “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” The harvest is not coming. It is here. The fields are white. The labourers are few. And Nigeria — rich in faith, rich in people, rich in courage — stands at a moment of extraordinary opportunity.

The unreached are not waiting for a perfect moment. They are waiting for a believer willing to go. Will you pray? Will you give? Will you go? The Commission has not changed. The Commander has not retreated. The only variable is your answer.