The Western Nigeria Union Conference (WNUC) held its Pathfinder Camporee from August 10 to 17, 2025, with the theme "A Call to Obedience". The event took place at Remo Secondary School (RSS), in the city of Sagamu, Ogun State, in southwestern Nigeria.
According to the announcement published by the Union itself, the camporee was led by its Youth Ministries and planned as a week of camping aimed, in the organization's words, at "spiritual growth, teamwork and leadership" among the young Pathfinders. Each registered club took part represented by 20 Pathfinders and 4 counselors.
What the event was
The camporee is the largest type of camp in the Pathfinder program: it brings together, in a single location and over several days, clubs from an entire region. In Nigeria's case, the organization fell to the Western Nigeria Union, the administrative level of the Seventh-day Adventist Church that coordinates the clubs of that part of the country.
According to the information released by the Union, the gathering ran for a full week, from August 10 to 17, 2025, at Remo Secondary School, in Sagamu. Choosing a secondary school as the venue is common in large-scale camps, since it offers a wide area, lodging and structure for outdoor activities.
The theme "A Call to Obedience" set the spiritual tone of the program. Instead of an adventure or record-breaking slogan, the Union chose a weighty word in Christian formation — obedience —, aligning the field activities with biblical studies and reflections throughout the days of camping.
How participation worked
According to the rules published by the Union, each registered club was present with 20 Pathfinders and 4 counselors. That ratio — roughly one adult for every five children and teenagers — is typical of events of this kind, in which constant supervision is part of the camp's safety.
The Union also released the registration fees per club: a reduced rate for those who registered early and a higher amount for last-minute registrations, with deadlines set in the months before the event. The "early registration" model helps the organization to size food, lodging and materials months in advance.
All the coordination was handled by the Youth Ministries of the Western Nigeria Union — the department responsible, within the Adventist structure, for Adventurers, Pathfinders, Youth and the university ministries. It is the equivalent, in Nigeria, of the Youth Ministries that organizes the camporees in Brazil.
The camp program
The schedule released by the Union combined physical trials, knowledge competitions and artistic presentations — the classic mix of a camporee. Among the announced activities were an obstacle course, field trials, a knot-tying race and mast raising, in addition to drill and parades.
On the knowledge and arts side, the program included biblical games, theater presentations, poetry and recitation, nature journeys with a biblical basis, exhibitions of artistic works and the completion of specialties — the so-called "honors", in the English-language Adventist vocabulary.
This set of activities is not decorative: each trial draws on requirements from the classes and specialties that Pathfinders study throughout the year. A camporee works, in practice, as the great showcase in which what was learned in the club is tested before other clubs.
Read alsoAbout 5,000 Pathfinders gather at the 4th SID Camporee, in ZimbabweWhere the Western Nigeria Union is located
The Western Nigeria Union administers the Adventist clubs and churches of ten states in the southwest and south-central part of the country: Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo. Its headquarters is in Ikeja, in the metropolitan region of Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria.
In the worldwide organizational chart of the Adventist Church, this Union is linked to the West-Central Africa Division (WAD), which brings together countries of West and Central Africa. It is a structure parallel to the South American Division (SAD), to which Brazil answers — the same Pathfinder program, different administrative divisions.
The Union itself, in its current form, is relatively young: it was organized in 2013, although the Adventist presence in the region dates back to the missions of the early 20th century. Sagamu, the city that hosted the camporee, is an urban hub in Ogun State, between Lagos and Ibadan, in one of the areas of greatest Adventist concentration in the country.
Why obedience was the theme
Choosing "obedience" as the guiding thread of a youth camp is not random. The Union presented the camporee as a space for spiritual growth and character formation, and obedience — to God, to parents, to leaders and to the rules of coexistence — is one of the central values of the Pathfinder ideal anywhere in the world.
In the practice of a camp, the theme takes shape: field discipline, punctuality, respect for the drill whistle and compliance with safety rules are daily exercises of obedience. What sounds abstract in a sermon becomes, in a camporee, a routine shared by hundreds of children and teenagers.
An honest distinction is worth making: the Union released the general purpose of the event and its program, but did not publish, in the material consulted, final participation figures or statements attributed to specific leaders. This text therefore limits itself to what was officially announced, without estimating attendance or reconstructing speeches that do not appear in the source.
What this says to the Brazilian Pathfinder
For anyone who is a Pathfinder in Brazil, the Nigerian camporee is a useful reminder that the movement is global. The same classes, the same uniform in its essence, the same specialties and the same camping spirit appear in Sagamu just as they appear in any state camporee of the SAD — the difference lies in the language, the currency and the administrative division, not in the program.
If you have ever taken part in a conference, region or Union camporee, you immediately recognize the Nigerian script: the arrival of the clubs, the camp set up, the knot and drill trials, the biblical games at night and the closing ceremony. It is the same design, repeated on different continents.
News like this helps to see the real size of the Pathfinder family — millions of children and teenagers spread across dozens of countries, united by a common pledge, law and ideal. A camporee in Ogun and a camporee in the interior of Brazil are, in the end, chapters of the same story.