Nigeria

18 profiled groups with documented operations in Nigeria — 2 Extreme-band, 7 High-band, 9 Moderate or below. Presence here describes documented operations, not a judgement about Nigeria or its communities; many listed groups also operate elsewhere.

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Political / Ideological

Boko Haram / Jama'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihad

Boko Haram (officially Jama'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihad, 'Group of the People of Sunnah for Preaching and Jihad') is a Salafi-jihadist terror organisation founded in 2002 in Maiduguri, Nigeria by Mohammed Yusuf. The popular name 'Boko Haram' translates as 'Western education is forbidden'. Mohammed Yusuf was killed in police custody in 2009; Abubakar Shekau took leadership and turned the organisation toward terrorism, producing an estimated 40,000+ deaths and 2 million displaced 2009–2024 across Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. April 2014 Chibok mass-kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls is the highest-profile incident. The 2016 splinter ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province) and Shekau's 2021 suicide produced organisational fragmentation; both factions continue operations.

Christian

TB Joshua — Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN)

Lagos-based Nigerian Pentecostal mega-ministry founded in 1987 by Temitope Balogun (TB) Joshua (1963–2021). Vast global televangelism reach via Emmanuel TV. The 2024 BBC 'Disciples: The Cult of TB Joshua' investigation documented decades of sexual and physical abuse of disciples; the 2014 SCOAN guesthouse collapse killed 116, mostly South African pilgrims.

Christian

Sub-Saharan African prophetic / apostolic high-control churches (umbrella)

Umbrella entry covering a documented pattern of high-control prophetic and apostolic ministries within Sub-Saharan African Christianity, primarily concentrated in Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Kenya, and documented in the South African CRL Rights Commission 2015–2017 reports on the 'commercialisation of religion and abuse of people's belief systems' alongside sustained African and international press coverage. Several specific named ministries within this pattern are profiled separately in the catalogue. This umbrella covers the pattern at the genre level; it does NOT generalise to the broader diversity of African Christianity.

Christian

The Brotherhood of the Cross and Star (Olumba Olumba Obu)

Nigerian Christian-derived movement founded by Olumba Olumba Obu (1958) in Calabar. Followers regard the founder as God incarnate. Distinctive white-clothed worship, communal living, and total surrender to founder's authority.

Christian

Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (Daniel Olukoya)

Nigerian Pentecostal mega-church founded in 1989 by Daniel Olukoya in Lagos. Distinctive aggressive 'spiritual warfare' / deliverance theology framing nearly every life problem as ancestral curse, polygamous-husband spirit, witchcraft attack, etc. ~10,000+ branches in Nigeria; substantial diaspora reach.

Christian

Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (Nigeria, D.K. Olukoya)

Nigerian Pentecostal Spiritual-warfare megachurch led by Daniel K. Olukoya. Substantial financial demands and a ministry centred on aggressive 'deliverance' prayer against alleged demonic strongholds.

Christian

Christ Embassy / Believers' LoveWorld (Chris Oyakhilome)

Nigerian Word of Faith megachurch led by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, who hosts the global LoveWorld broadcast network. Fined by UK's Ofcom in 2020 for COVID-19 5G conspiracy broadcasts.

Christian

Cornelia Connelly Society / Society of the Holy Child Jesus

The Society of the Holy Child Jesus (SHCJ) is a Catholic women's religious community founded in 1846 in Derby, England by Cornelia Connelly (1809–1879), an American-born convert. SHCJ operated girls' boarding schools and day schools across the UK, Ireland, and the United States from the 1840s through the late 20th century. Mid-20th-century coercive-control patterns at the schools have been documented in survivor memoirs, *Guardian* + *Irish Times* 2024 reporting, and the broader Irish state-inquiry context (Mother and Baby Homes, Magdalene Laundries). The contemporary order has substantially reformed and operates a much smaller educational footprint.

Christian

Living Faith Church Worldwide / Winners' Chapel (David Oyedepo)

Nigerian Word of Faith megachurch led by Bishop David Oyedepo, founder of Africa's largest church auditorium (Faith Tabernacle, 50,000 seats). Substantial financial demands tied to prosperity teaching.

Christian

Deeper Life Bible Church (W.F. Kumuyi, Nigeria)

Major Nigerian Pentecostal megachurch led by W.F. Kumuyi (1973). Distinctive Holiness movement teaching with strict modesty and behaviour code.

Christian

Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG, Adeboye)

Largest Pentecostal denomination originating from Nigeria. Led by Pastor Enoch Adeboye since 1981. Substantial monthly Holy Ghost Convention.

New Religious Movement

Grail Movement (Abd-ru-shin)

International movement around Oskar Ernst Bernhardt ('Abd-ru-shin') and his 1920s–30s work 'In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message', administered from Vomperberg, Austria. Adherents treat the Grail Message as the definitive revelation of creation's laws. Governmental sect-observatories in Europe have catalogued family complaints about exclusivity and estrangement; documented coercion is limited, placing the movement in the Moderate band.

Christian

Legio Maria (Legio Maria Church of Africa Mission)

Legio Maria is a large, long-established African Initiated Church founded in Kenya's Nyanza region in 1962-63 by Simeo Ondeto, Gaudencia Aoko and a woman styled 'Mama Maria' after breaking from the Catholic Church. Formally registered in 1966 with government estimates of roughly 90,000 followers, it grew into one of Africa's largest African-initiated churches, spreading across East and Central Africa. Members venerate founder Simeo Ondeto (d. 1991) as an incarnation of Jesus ('Baba Messiah'). A 2009 succession schism between rival 'Pope' claimants has produced over a decade of litigation and periodic factional violence, and academic ethnography documents a communal physical-discipline practice ('chwat') for speech judged spiritually false — together the core of a comparatively narrow adverse record for a movement of this scale and longevity.

Islam

Tijaniyya — Niass Faydiyya (Baye Niasse lineage)

Senegalese-rooted West African branch of the Tijaniyya Sufi tariqa, descended from Sheikh Ibrahim Niass (Baye Niasse, 1900–1975) of Kaolack, Senegal. ~50 million muqaddam-affiliated adherents across West Africa and the global African diaspora.

Christian

Celestial Church of Christ

The Celestial Church of Christ (CCC) is one of the largest churches of the Aladura family — the West African praying-church movement profiled in this catalogue's composite entry — founded in 1947 in Porto-Novo, Dahomey (now Benin) by carpenter Samuel Bilehou Oshoffa after a visionary experience, and grown into a communion of millions across Nigeria, Benin, and a worldwide diaspora. Its worship is instantly recognisable: white garments (sutana), barefoot services, candles, incense, and an elaborate ritual code, with spiritual power exercised through visioners and prophets whose trance-derived messages guide members' decisions. The church is an open denomination with voluntary membership and ordinary exit; it appears here as a comparator documenting how visionary authority and strong ritual boundary-codes operate inside a mainstream communion — including the documented friction points: gender-exclusion rules, succession schisms after Oshoffa's death in 1985, and abuse cases in some diaspora congregations prosecuted as such.

Other

Yoruba Traditional Religion / Ifá (mainstream)

Mainstream Yoruba Traditional Religion / Ifá and its diaspora variants (Santería in Cuba, Candomblé in Brazil) are low-control reference points for African Traditional Religion.

Other

Modern Yoruba Isese movement (mainstream)

Modern Nigerian Yoruba Isese / orisha revival movement. Mainstream voluntary tradition.

Islam

Tijaniyya Sufi Order (mainstream West African)

Major West African Sufi tariqa founded by Ahmad al-Tijani (Algeria, 1782). Tens of millions of adherents primarily in Senegal, Nigeria, Mali, Mauritania. Mainstream low-control reference point for Sufi traditions.

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Complete list of 18 group profiles