Baháʼí Faith in Nigeria
After an isolated presence in the late 1920s, the Baháʼí Faith in Nigeria begins with pioneering Baháʼís coming to Sub-Saharan West Africa in the 1950s especially following the efforts of Enoch Olinga who directly and indirectly affected the growth of the religion in Nigeria. Following growth across West Africa a regional National Spiritual Assembly was elected in 1956. As the community multiplied across cities and became diverse in its engagements, it elected its own National Spiritual Assembly by 1979. Estimates of membership vary widely - a 2001 estimate by Operation World showed 1000 Baháʼís in 2001 while the Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 38,000 Baháʼís in 2005. Early years Richard St. Barbe Baker lived and worked in some of the southern provinces of Nigeria in 1927-29, extending his Men of the Trees project of environmental conservation, and as a Baháʼí since 1925. In 1941 Nigerian Kingsley MBadiwe spoke at the New York Baháʼí center. Wide-scale growth in the religion across Sub-Saharan Africa was observed to begin in 1950s and accelerated in the 1960s. In 1953, Shoghi Effendi, the head of the religion, planned an international teaching plan termed the Ten Year Crusade. During