When Thomas Birch Freeman, an Anglo-African missionary fought several personal battles including the loss of a dear wife to step foot in the muddy creeks of Badagry in modern day Lagos to become the first Methodist minister to arrive Nigeria on September 24, 1842 his mind was made up on one thing: spread the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. The son of an African freeman, and an English
mother (December 6, 1809-August 12, 1890) first landed in then Gold Coast (Ghana). From there he ventured into the creeks of what is today regarded as the beacon of Western civilization and Christianity in Nigeria and headquarters of Badagry division and not too long after he made impact felt by establishing schools, hospitals while penetrating the hinterlands with the gospel. It was therefore not surprising when the Methodist Church Nigeria recently rolled out the red carpet to mark the 170 years of Method-ism in Nigeria. Addressing the media on the double celebration, the Prelate of the church, His Eminence Sunday Ola Makinde left no one doubt as to the relevance of the arguably the oldest church denomination in the country, as outlined the achievements of the church since 1842. According to him, one of the pioneering efforts of the missionaries included the establishment of Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesha by The Wesley Guild Britain as well as the under-fives clinic at Imesi-Ile in the late 1950s, noting the pioneering work of David Morley and Margaret Woodland at Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesha. The first Medical Director of the hospital was Dr. Andrew Pearson. After the Wesley Guild Hospital, the Wesley Guild UK also helped to establish more hospitals in partnership with Methodist Church Nigeria. Such medical institutions cut across every cadre of health needs including: Royal Cross Methodist Hospital, Uzuakolia hospital of international standard and very soon it will commission a Methodist Church Nigeria School of Nursing; a Motherless Babies Home also in Uzuakoli. Following the stigma of leprosy then, the MCN also established a Leprosy Center in Uzuakoli, where people afflicted by the dreaded disease were kept far away from the rest of the society; over 7,000 lepers were treated and rehabilitated and today there are no more lepers at the center. The church also has the Bethseda Hospital at Ikachi Ainu in Igede, Benue State complete with a standard Maternal and Child Hospital of international standard in addition to a School of Health Technology. There are three psychiatric hospitals to cater for patients with such challenges in the country to its credit. They include: The Restoration Center, Agboke in Ben-ue State; Psychiatric Hospital, Igede and the Amudo Itumbauzo Cent-er for Psychiatric Illness, Uzuakoli in Abia State, not forgetting the Meth-odist Hospital at Ifaki, Ondo State and Drm Andrew Pearosn Hospi-tal, Igbo-Ora in Oyo State. Education
In the field of education, Makinde opined that it would be an understate-ment to pronounce Me-thodist Church Nigeria as the pioneer of West-ern Education in Niger-ia, stressing that the missionaries did not just bring the gospel of Christ alone. Thomas Birch freeman and other missionaries established schools alongside the preaching of the gospel, beginning with a nur-sery school in Badagry in 1842. They proceeded from that foundation level to a secondary and teachers’ training colleg-es with aid from over-seas churches. The schools contributed immensely to the education and training of many notable present and past leaders of our nation, including the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamidi Azikwe, Chief Alvan Ikoku and Pastor Daniel Kayode Olukoya. Others included Lagos State governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fasola (SAN), who announced during his goodwill message at the opening ceremony of 43/8th biennial conference of Methodist Church Nigeria that he attended Methodist schools for his elementary and secondary education (Birch Freeman High School, Surulere, Lagos.) Nation building and character moulding
One of the duties of mission schools is to build high moral standards and characters besides giving education which is why most of the people trained by the mission schools had sound moral and capacity development training which stands them out in their various chosen careers. But the military took over all these sch-ools without any compensation. With the political wind of change in 1999, some state governments have been returning those schools to their original owners. Methodist Church Nigeria is not relenting in her effort to bring education to the doorsteps of every household in this great nation. The population of MCN schools continue to grow every year with the establishment of more schools. From that humble beginning in 1842, MCN now has 95 Nursery and Primary Schools and 72 Secondary Schools in different parts of the country. In accordance with the mission statement of the Church which can be summarized as eva-ngelism and social actions; Evangelism is winning people for Christ, linking them with the church and instructing them in the scriptures, while social actions are services which the church renders to the society, such as building or establishing schools, hospitals, clinics and giving employment to people among others. It has recently established a private university in Ondo State named, Wesley University of Science and Technology Ondo (WUSTO). All these show the church values the role of education in the development of this country. Despite this hefty and fulfilling evangelical mission laced with num-erous accomplishments, Makinde was of the opinion that the best is yet to come.
“We simply cannot afford to rest on our oars, not when our country, Niger-ia is in desperate need of qualitative change and transformation. The pov-erty level in the country is deepening just as un-employment is at an all time high. Social justice has become a mirage while the gap between the rich and the poor is at an unprecedented state.
“Today, there is no mid-dle class in our society and the economy is not encouraging for entre-preneurs. We are at a crucial and critical stage in our drive to nation-hood. The threat of in-security has become a daunting and monstrous challenge. As a Church; we are not prepared to close our eyes to these ills. We are not prepared to keep quiet and watch the ship of State sink. Rather, we are committ-ed, more than ever to join forces with the progress-ive elements in the Land in ensuring that we have a safe landing. We have a passion which is re-newed towards forming a progressive partner-ship with Governments at all levels, Communit-ies and Neighbourhoods at ensuring that we bequeath a lasting lega-cy to our Children’s Children and the gener-ation unborn just as we inherited from our fore-fathers who fought with everything in them to give us a Nation full of hope, equal opportunit-ies, safety and shared prosperity. One of the clear eviden-ce of this commitment is found in our foray into the area of science and technology with the setting up of a Wesley University of Science and Technology, in Ondo town, where we are partnering with govern-ment to build capacity in many young minds. We believe that technolo-gical advancement is the future and that Nigeria cannot afford to be left behind.
