Today, Christianity is one of the most significant characteristic features in Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. It is one of the dominant realities that all must reckon with, a powerful fact that cannot be wished away.

The expansion or spread of Christianity in the last 100years in Africa has been so pervasive and dramatic that this has been called, and rightly so, 'the fourth age of Christian expansion. '’1 It is possible that 1 out of every 5 Christians in the world today is an African.

The wave of conversion or adoption of Christianity in Africa in the last few decades has been epidemic. And this is not only true for Churches of African origin but also, and even more so, churches of foreign origin.

For instance, more Anglicans attend church in Uganda than in England while Kenya has the largest Yearly Meeting of Quakers2 and Zaire has the largest numbers of Brahamists (followers of William Marionn Branham) outside of United States. If there is any hope of perpetuation of Christianity or of the survival of Christian values, ethics or culture, that hope lies in Africa and not Europe nor even America.

The centre of gravity of Christianity today is undoubtedly in Africa. While hundreds of people stop being Christian everyday in the West, a larger percentage become Christian's everyday in Africa.

This is the hour of Africa's glory. This is the defining moment for Africa's spiritual regeneration, liberation and restoration.

The same place once called the 'dark continent' and characterized as one ‘universal den of desolation and destitution' now has become the place where the light of God now shines. However there is a history behind this phenomenon and we do well to appreciate this fact.

The British government had declared the lucrative slave trade illegal in 1807 due largely to pressures from Christians in the West, who formed the vanguard of the Abolition Movement. This development forced traders to turn to legitimate trade in palm oil, ivory and other items.

As early as 1826 they had established themselves in the Delta Area for trade in local products which was to grow for the next seventy years, with the formation of the Royal Niger Company. However, British administration did not officially commence until 1861, the year that Lagos was ceded to the Crown.

The ceding or annexation of the settlement of Lagos as a colony had been carried out ostensibly for the purpose of stopping the iniquitous slave mart. This colony which had been a veritable slave mart because of its strategic native was to come under the jurisdiction of the governor of the West African Settlement resident in Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast colony.

During the Great Scramble for the African pie by European powers in 1885 at Berlin, the Conference acknowledged Britain's claims to the Niger Basin; and Britain would in turn give the Royal Niger Company power “to administer, make treaties, levy customs and trade in all territories in the basin of the Niger and its affluent. ” The British took over from the Royal Niger Company in 1900 with the declaration of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria.

The same year saw the Niger Protectorate became the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. Fourteen years later the two Protectorates and Lagos were amalgamated to form the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria with the capital in Lagos.

. .