Spasmodic missionary activities started in Benin in 1515 when some Catholic missionaries set up a school in the Oba’s palace for his sons and the sons of his chiefs who were converted to Christianity. The Catholics, through the influence of the Portuguese traders, were the first missionaries to set foot on Nigerian soil. The primary objective of the early Christian missionaries was to convert the ‘heathen’ or the benighted African to Christianity via education. The second missionary endeavor to Nigeria was marked by the advent of the first English- speaking Christian mission in Badagry in September 1842. The Christian missionary school in Nigeria was without any doubt an adjunct of the Church. It was a replica of a similar development in Britain during the Dark Ages. The missionaries were generally strong disciplinarians and they had abiding faith in manual labour and the rod as the cure to all ills —idleness, laziness, slow learning, truancy, disobedience, and irregularity of attendance. In the 17th century, the Roman Catholic missionaries found their way to Nigeria. They came into cities like Benin and Warri where they preached Christianity. But they were unable to convert the kings and traditional rulers as these leaders were only interested in the guns and mirrors the Europeans offered them. Eventually, slave trade was abolished in the British Empire in 1833 and many of the slaves were freed. Many years later, some of these slaves returned to Nigeria with the religion they had learned from their Europeans masters. The education provided by the missionaries was also instrumental in converting a good number of slaves to Christianity. One of the slaves that was instrumental to the advent of Christianity in Nigeria was Samuel Ajayi Crowther who was captured by the age of 12 by Fulani slave raiders and sold to Portuguese slave traders. Ajayi Crowther later regained his freedom and became the first African to be ordained bishop by the Christian Missionary Society (CMS). Additionally, Crowther was a pioneer of local Christian missionary work in the country and he was pivotal in the translation of the Bible into Yoruba language. Over the years, Christianity has grown rapidly. In 1953, the percentage of the Christian population was 21.4% and that percentage has doubled to over 50% with over 75 million Christians in Nigeria. Currently, the Southern part of the country is dominated by Christians while the Northern part is composed of predominantly Muslims. Recent estimates put the percentage of Nigeria’s population that practice Christianity between 40% – 49.3%. Of that percentage, about 74% are Protestants, 25% Roman Catholic, while the rest are split among other Christian denominations.

Today it's estimated that there is over 41,000 different religions all claiming CHRISTIANS today!

What Jesus commissioned wasn't different religions with contradicting teachings and conflicting doctrines all claiming worshipers of the same God rather all his disciples must have the same line of thought! John 17:22; 1Corinthians 1:10; Ephesians 4:3

So if you find different religions claiming they are DENOMINATIONS it's a lie from Satan the God of this world {2Corinthians 4:4} he is the one who oversew weeds (false religions) among the find seed Jesus purposely planted {Matthew 13:25} you need to find out the group preaching, teaching and practicing what Jesus commanded among all these religions! 1Thessalonians 5:21

Yes it’s your duty to search out the truth if you truly seek it. You are to be like the Berean Christians in Acts 17 and use your Bible to know the genuine faith. Jesus himself told the disciples that false prophets and teachers would arise in his name and they also confirmed it!
When you see copies of something you must acknowledge the existence of the original!
Salvation is in the person of Christ and his church is the one that faithfully obeys his word.

Benekkk:
■ Yes it’s your duty to search out the truth if you truly seek it. You are to be like the Berean Christians in Acts 17 and use your Bible to know the genuine faith. Jesus himself told the disciples that false prophets and teachers would arise in his name and they also confirmed it!
■ When you see copies of something you must acknowledge the existence of the original! Salvation is in the person of Christ and his church is the one that faithfully obeys his word.

Religion has its foundations cemented in the doctrines and traditions of men, which Jesus Christ warned were nothing but antiChrist lies with the purpose of deceiving many away from God. So, most definitely, your church religious churches have nothing to do with what Jesus Christ said or taught.

As for searching for truth, it is one thing to truly search and another to adopt the ways of other men pretending that means you have truly searched. All the likes of Ajayi Crowther and others did was copy the religion of those who were masters over them, and nothing more. You can tell this from the fact that they too copied the ways of the other religious men

lascos912:
The Christian
missionary school in Nigeria was without any doubt an adjunct of the Church. It was a replica of a similar development in Britain during the
Dark Ages. The missionaries were generally strong disciplinarians and they had abiding faith in manual labor and the rod as the cure to all ills —idleness, laziness, slow learning, truancy, disobedience, and irregularity of attendance. In the 17th century, the Roman Catholic missionaries found their way to Nigeria.

The statement in bold is exactly what Jesus Christ condemned of the Pharisees, the adoption of an outward appearance of godliness while their insides were filthy and empty.