From Street Fighter to Spiritual Warrior: How Jesus Is at Work in Nigeria

In Nigeria, more than 75 men have walked through the Every Man A Warrior curriculum from within the African nation's prison system. 

“If I had known this path earlier, I would not be here today.” 

“Here,” for Gilbert,* means the Aba Correctional Center of Abia State in southeastern Nigeria.  

At TWR, we’re beginning a yearslong focus on how God is using our media ministry to bring Hope Within Reach. This quarter, we’re showing how hope is within reach in places of conflict and, this month, in Nigeria specifically.  

Conflict can mean war, but it also can take place at a much more individual level.  

Before his mandatory change of address, Gilbert considered himself strong, a fighter, a man of the streets. In prison, he discovered he was lost. 

The truth came to him through TWR Radio 1476. The hope found only in Jesus entered his prison cell, and then it entered his heart. 

EMAW in Prison 

If Gilbert had to be in prison, he was in the best possible prison for a new believer. Abia State was the first in Nigeria to approve the Every Man A Warrior (EMAW) curriculum in its prisons, and Aba Correctional Center was the first with an EMAW group. 

The discipleship program, which is associated with TWR, shows men how Scriptures can help them in practical areas, such as money, marriage, rearing children, sex and going through hard times.  

Founded by Lonnie Berger in the United States, EMAW with TWR has reached men throughout the world, in varying circumstances. That includes prisons. In Kenya, as in Nigeria, EMAW started in one prison. Now, chaplains in all of Kenya’s prisons — about 125 of them – have been trained to lead the curriculum.  

In Nigeria as a whole, more than 75 men have been through the entire curriculum, said Joshua Irondi, director of TWR Nigeria and of EMAW in Nigeria. The two-year process takes men through three books.  

Gilbert was one of seven inmates in the first EMAW group at Aba Correctional Center. 

A New Way of Life 

Early results are promising, Irondi said. 

“These men boldly share their experiences in quiet times, memorize Scriptures and have started an entirely different way of life, which others testify to,” he said. 

Whether inside or outside of prison, the conflicts can strike close to home. 

In June 2025, EMAW had a training session for leaders in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city. But one of the leaders had to return to his home in northern Nigeria, said Wayne Craig, EMAW director for Africa. The man had gotten word that militants had attacked his village, and one of his children was injured. (The child was released from the hospital after a few days to continue recovering at home.) 

Though conflict is ever-present, EMAW’s leaders in Nigeria aren’t discouraged, Craig said. 

“We don’t allow the current evil being poured out on the Nigerian people (and other countries in West Africa) to distract us from the work the Lord has prepared for us to complete,” he said. “God has given us wisdom and a discerning heart to follow his guidance as we move forward in the ministry work of West Africa.” 

From small beginnings, Irondi believes the work of EMAW in Nigerian prisons will lead to changed men, changed homes and a changed society, he said. 

“I look forward to God using some of these men to begin a great revival in the land by the time they are out.”  

* A pseudonym 

Images: (top, banner) In Nigeria, more than 75 men have walked through the Every Man A Warrior curriculum from within the African nation's prison system, (bottom, right) Graduates of the 2025 EMAW Leadership Training stand in a row in Lagos, Nigeria

Sources: David Irondi; email interviews with Joshua Irondi and Wayne Craig.