The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nigeria continues its efforts to receive government recognition for the Sabbath, or Saturday, the church’s day of worship.

“We have been putting our case forward to the government for the past seven years,” says Joseph Ola, president of the church in Nigeria. National exams and voting still occur on Saturdays, Ola reports. Students cannot attend a university in Nigeria if they don’t take the exam. Applications to Babcock University, the country’s only Adventist operated university, exceed the space that the school offers. “Our enrollment cannot take all of our children,” Ola says.

One regular approach of the church toward the public is a dialogue with the media on current issues. “They [appreciate] our truthfulness and concern for the community,” Ola says. 

The church in the region has attracted the attention of several prominent leaders of society, according to Ola. The president and several state governors have visited local churches, including head of state Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who visited the church’s Babcock University for a Sabbath worship service.

“For years I have never heard a message so powerful like this. This is the true church of God,” said the governor of Ondo State, who worshipped in a local church in Akure.

“They believe that when they visit us, their prayers are answered,” Ola says.