Jonathan to chair BSN 60th anniversary lecture as Sanusi

General secretary and chief executive officer of the Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN), Pastor Samuel Sanusi, has urged government, policymakers, religious leaders, educational institutions, influencers and decision makers to take urgent steps towards educational reform and improvement of reading culture in Nigeria.

He stated this at a press briefing to announce events for the 60th anniversary celebration of the BSN.

Pastor Sanusi lamented that reading culture has dwindled in contemporary Nigeria. He noted that parents in the past used to make reading the Bible compulsory. But, today, even in churches during service, people reading the Bible from their phone when the sermon is going on is a big issue because of distractions. He said Christians should endeavour to use the hard copy of the Scripture while in the church. He urged the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) to promote evangelism because priority should be placed on preaching the gospel that people might believe and be saved.

“The Bible Society of Nigeria will be 60 years on February 8, 2026, having been founded on February 8, 1966. The theme for our 60th anniversary is ‘Celebrating Impact and Building a Legacy of Hope’.

“Our work at The Bible Society of Nigeria remains making the Word of God available and affordable to Nigerians in their preferred languages and formats, helping them engage with the Word of God through life-transforming programmes. We do this through Bible translation, publishing, distribution, organising life-transforming programmes and fund-raising.

“We want to call on the government to reconsider its abolition of indigenous languages as a medium of teaching in schools. You will recall that, in November last year, the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, announced the ban during the Language in Education International Conference 2025 organised by the British Council in Abuja. The reason given for this action was because of the rate of failure in national examinations conducted by WAEC, NECO, and JAMB. To us this action will not encourage the growth and usage of our mother tongues. We should be proud of our languages. The death of a language is the death of a culture and the death of a people.

“Language is part of our identity, and we should be proud of it anywhere, any day and at any time. Some languages have gone into extinction in Nigeria because they were not in active usage. We translate the Bible into Nigerian languages because not everyone understands the English language. Prioritising English language over our indigenous languages will not do us much good. Let us teach our children mother tongues both at home and in schools.

“Other countries in Africa and elsewhere also adopted other foreign languages as a medium of national communication or official languages but not to the detriment of their own local languages.”

He explained the work of the organisation, including efforts to have the Bible reach as many people as possible in various languages: “Now, we are working on 11 different Bible revision/translation projects at different stages of completion”.

Patrick Ohakanwa, chairman of the planning committee for the 60th anniversary, explained that the anniversary is to celebrate 60 years of significant milestones, service to God and man: “It is also a celebration of faith, resilience, service, sacrifice and enduring impact of the spiritual and social life of our nation.”

He highlighted aspects of the week-long programme, which will showcase their achievements and impacts in the mission work, including a Founder’s Day lecture and awards, chaired by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

“On Monday, February 2, 2026, we have a Bible exhibition at the Lagos Bible Guest House, 4, Commonwealth Avenue, Palmgrove Estate, Ilupeju. We encourage the public to come and see the interesting items that will be on display. Among the items are two different copies of the handwritten Bible, the Bible in various Nigerian languages and the Legacy Bible. The Legacy Bible weighs 15.4 kilogrammes and is in five languages.

“On February 3, there will be a Bible Walk from the National Stadium, Surulere, to Obanikoro. And on February 4, we will host our partners to a dinner to appreciate them for their support as well as the dedication of the second studio at Ibadan for the Deaf Bible Translation Project.

“February 5 is the arrival of our foreign guests, who will be in Nigeria for the CEOs’ conference. It was planned to coincide with our anniversary programme so they can be part of it.

“Day Five, February 6 is our Founder’s Day lecture and awards, to be chaired by a former President of Nigeria, His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, while the guest speaker is Pastor Poju Oyemade, Senior Pastor of The Covenant Nations. We will have a thanksgiving service at The Covenant Nations on Sunday, February 8, 2026.”

The BSN, Sanusi said, has produced a 13-episode documentary of activities, which will be shown on Dove TV from the last weekend of January or first week in February, as well as the public presentation of a book commemorating BSN’s 60 years of Bible work in Nigeria during the period. The book is titled ‘Six Decades of Impact, Transmitting the WORD, Transforming Lives.’

“Among what I can consider one of our greatest achievements in the last 60 years is the ability to help the deaf hear the word of God. By that, we have broken any known barrier to man that makes the word of God inaccessible. Globally, only the USA has the complete Bible in sign language – American Sign Language. And they achieved the feat in 2020 after 39 years of work. You may then ask: What happens to other deaf Christians in other parts of the world?

“Nigeria is the first country in Africa among other Bible societies to build a centre dedicated to Bible translation into Sign Language. The centre was built in 2017. The deaf in Nigeria had no form of Scripture until BSN, in partnership with DOOR International and the Presbyterian Church Nigeria, took up the challenge in 2014. Between 2014 and 2023, 222 Chronological Bible Stories have been translated and produced in the Nigerian Sign Language for the deaf community. With this, the deaf community in Nigeria now have an idea of what the word of God looks like in their heart language, while awaiting the completion of their Bible.

“Having completed the translation of the Chronological Bible Stories, the next phase became the translation of the complete Nigerian Sign Language Bible, beginning with the New Testament. In October 2023, the journey to translate the full Bible into the Nigerian Sign Language began with the Book of Matthew. The Book of Matthew is completed and ready for use. The team is currently working on other Books of the New Testament. This translation is far more expensive than the regular translations. For example, from 2023-2024 alone, we spent over ₦105.3m on the project. Our goal is to make the full Bible available in the Nigerian Sign Language within the next 20 years or less, if sufficient resources are available,” the BSN general secretary said.

“We organise Trauma Healing for churches and train church leaders on how to handle cases of trauma, while Macedonian Call is used to assist those in Internally Displaced Camps (IDPs) and slum dwellers with relief materials, clothing, back to school packs for school children and Bibles. The Macedonian Call project commenced in 2018 and has benefited over 50, 000 people in over 20 Internally Displaced People’s Camps in Nigeria. We hope to spend the sum of ₦306,372,700 on this project this year, subject to availability of funds from our donors and well-meaning Nigerians.

“We joyfully invite Nigerians to join us as we celebrate 60 years of God’s faithfulness to our organisations. We know that in the last 60 years some organisations have gone to extinction following the difficult operating environment. We count it as a privilege and give God the glory for preserving us and our organisation for 60 years and still counting.”