A Seventh-day Adventist Church building in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, was ordered bulldozed by local government officials on October 12, says Joseph Ola, president of the Adventist Church in Nigeria.
The almost new church building, finished at the end of 1999, was completely demolished. “The building and everything inside-the pews-everything, was destroyed,” says Ola. “People had worshiped there the previous night, but the next day it was gone.”
Church leaders were told that the building was destroyed because county authorities “did not want any churches in that area [called Gariki].”
“Many other denominations built churches in Gariki, and the government authority said they will drive all of them away from that section of the planned city,” he says.
“Last Sabbath, some members worshiped under a tree, some worshiped in small groups in people’s homes,” says Ola. He adds that members meeting in private homes have to be careful that their singing does not violate the so-called “no noise” zoning regulations that restrict activities in residential districts.
Yakubu Musa, president of the Adventist Church in the Abuja area, said earlier this week, “This is our own time of trouble now in Nigeria, because the people are being persecuted.”
“The church members are very demoralized,” Ola says.
Ola explains that although the Adventist Church in Abuja owns land in another part of the city, where the local authorities have indicated they will allow a Christian church, they have no money to build a new church building. “All that we had this year in our budget is what we used to buy the land,” says Ola.
Nigeria, a western African country bordering the Gulf of Guinea between Benin and Cameroon, has been torn by ongoing tension between the Muslim majority and Christians. Some Nigerian states adopted Shari’a (Islamic law) this year, a move allowed under Nigeria’s 1999 constitution. An expansion of Shari’a in the northern state of Kaduna prompted religious riots in February this year, leaving 2,000 people dead and a continuing uneasiness between different religious groups in the country.
The Adventist Church has approximately 150,000 members in Nigeria, worshiping in more than 1,000 congregations.