The Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) is one of Nigeria’s oldest and most geographically rooted Protestant denominations, with its heartland in Plateau State. The church operates schools, clinics, community centres, and agricultural programmes across the Plateau.
When inter-communal violence in Plateau State forced the closure of over 70 COCIN church buildings across multiple local government areas, the impact was not only religious. It was material and immediate.
Each closed church was a community anchor. Many housed or co-located with primary schools. Several were the only health facilities within viable distance of their communities. Some ran feeding programmes for orphaned children. When the churches closed, these services closed with them.
The COCIN crisis on the Plateau is a case study in what happens when faith infrastructure disappears. The gap it leaves is not merely spiritual. It is educational, medical, and nutritional. It is a gap that government services in those communities did not exist to fill.
