Sustainable Development Goals and the Baptist Convention in Nigeria: A Critical Overview
- August 28, 2021
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: IJRISS, International Relations
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue VIII, August 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186
Sustainable Development Goals and the Baptist Convention in Nigeria: A Critical Overview
Emmanuel Adelekan Ojewunmi and Akeem Amodu
Department of Politics and International Relations, Lead City University, Ibadan, Nigeria
Abstract: The paper attempts an appraisal of the contributions of the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC) to the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). With the use of primary and secondary data and historico-descriptive designs the paper assesses the roles and contributions of the Nigerian Baptist Convention in the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). The paper identified some factors inhibiting the influence of the NBC, in particular, and Faith-Based Organizations FBOS, in general, on making an impact in the drive towards actualizing the UNSDGs in Nigeria. Against the background of its findings the paper recommends measures for roadmapping contributions of the NBC to the actualization of the UNSDGs in Nigeria.
Keywords: Faith-Based Organizations, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Nigerian Baptist Convention
I. INTRODUCTION
Baptist is a term describing individuals belonging to a Baptist church or a Baptist denomination. The name is derived from a conviction that followers of Jesus Christ are commanded to be baptized (by immersion in water) as a public display of their faith (Ajayi, 2009:1). Furthermore, Baptist Christians are commonly identified as Christians who emphasize the authority of the scriptures, salvation through faith in Christ; believers’ baptism by immersion; congregational church government; and religious liberty (Pierard: 2005: XV).
Reverend Jefferson Thomas Bowen brought the Baptist Missions to Nigeria in 1850; and, in 1914 when Lord Lugard amalgamated the Northern and Southern Protectorates, the Nigerian Baptist Convention was inaugurated in Ibadan at First Baptist Church, Idikan, Ibadan, Oyo State of Nigeria. As submitted by a scholar of Baptist History “the mustard seed of Baptist work was planted in this land in 1850 by Revd Thomas Jefferson Bowen, a Missionary of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, USA” (Ajayi, 2014:16). The church’s headquarters is at Oke-Bola, Ibadan Nigeria and it has about 13000 branches around the whole country.
