In this thought-provoking reflection, EMMA GOGWIM KAYI grapples with one of humanity’s most troubling questions: why evil often appears to flourish while God remains seemingly silent. Drawing from a chilling contemporary account of brutality, an unforgettable prayer by an early Ngas Christian convert and the painful realities of terrorism, abduction and violence across Nigeria and beyond, the writer examines the misuse of religion to justify cruelty and the deep frustration such atrocities evoke among people of faith
The video reminded me of the most audacious prayer I have ever heard, one said to have been offered by a woman who converted to Christianity during its early days in the old Plateau Province of Nigeria.
The video was so sickening in its bestiality that I found myself appreciating the woman’s ‘quarrel’ with God, voiced in a prayer that has remained a reference point in devotional circles to this day.
In the video, a number of men are seen lying on the ground, motionless. Not a wriggle came from any of them.
Their legs were fettered, one man’s feet chained to the next man’s, while their hands were firmly tied behind their backs. Even more chilling was the numbing silence that pervaded the space as the men awaited what was to come.
On both sides of the disabled men stood witnesses to the act, quietly ‘salivating’ as they awaited the commencement of a grisly ritual. Then the ‘main man’ in the macabre drama appeared.
Above average in height and stoutly built, he wielded in his strong arms a monstrous-looking hammer with a specially carved and reinforced head — a weapon fabricated to smash whatever it came into contact with when applied with force.
Numbed, I watched as the man positioned himself near the head of the first victim. Lifting the hammer high, he brought it down with devastating force.
What remained was a mixture of skull fragments, brain matter, blood, saliva and other bodily fluids. As the first victim engaged in death throes, the executioner moved with purpose and ‘grace’ to the second man, stood over his prostrate form and administered the same treatment.
This time, the blow did not completely pulverise the victim’s head. A portion remained, with one eye still visible.
The executioner, therefore, applied the hammer once more, flattening what was left.
I watched transfixed as he moved to the remaining victims, subjecting their soft heads to the same treatment.
After smashing the last head, the executioner looked directly into the camera and declared: “Allahu Akbar.”
At his prompting, his associates who had watched in utter silence as the victims were killed chorused, “Allahu Akbar.”
Then the video ended.
I have watched a few horror movies before and found the experience deeply unpleasant. A friend once told me about another video involving fundamentalists who compelled their shackled victims to ‘walk’ to the point of execution.
There, he said, each victim would kneel and carefully position his head before it was severed with a specially made sword.
All the executioners and their accomplices had to do afterwards was shove the victim’s head and body into a pit dug beforehand — presumably by the victims themselves — to serve as a mass grave. A heart-rending account, no doubt; a chilling tale indeed.
Prayer born of frustration
The head-smashing video is in a class of its own. Most exasperating is the semblance of ceremony and worship that the murderer and his associates attempted to confer upon the executions.
That they went to the extent of dragging God Almighty into the matter by proclaiming the revered phrase, “Allahu Akbar” (Arabic for “God is Great”), which lies at the core of Muslim prayer, thanksgiving and declaration of faith, is something I found incongruous and deeply troubling.
In fact, the executions and the use of that phrase immediately reminded me of the woman’s prayer referred to above, one said to have been offered more than 100 years ago.
The setting was an early Christian community in Ngasland, then part of the Plateau Province. Those who converted from African traditional religion to Christianity were few but deeply zealous.
Coming from a belief system where rewards and punishments were perceived as immediate and clear, they found some aspects of the Christian faith difficult to understand and appreciate.
The woman’s prayer captures this tension perfectly.
Asked to lead the evening congregational prayer, the woman — who had an axe to grind with another female worshipper — opened up on her frustrations with God’s ways and demanded a change in His approach.
“Dideh Nen. Dok fahnyi do leh ko gurmwa poh cin khi ya. Dok fah nyi khi le mutfa parce. Aka behrang do gurm kho la potong kus dirna nhi khi tong dirnu ko golashi fa bang nhe? Nha cin bice ko nha pwan ngo lashi fa mwa. Dang ka be met khi pokin khi lepo mun kishik,” she prayed in Ngas.
Translated, she said: “Almighty God, this Your silence is the cause of the troubles mankind has visited on You. This Your inaction will lead to Your death one day. If not, how come someone like this woman seated beside me is said to be Your follower too? Do something and establish those who are Yours. Otherwise, going forward will be difficult for You and all of us.”
The ‘prayer warrior’ did not want the accused to be left in any doubt. During the prayer, even with eyes closed as custom demanded, she reportedly stretched out her leg and kicked the woman she considered guilty.
It was later said that she did so to make clear her grievances against both God Almighty and the woman whom she believed God was treating too softly despite her alleged transgressions.
I never got to understand the offence committed by that woman which provoked such anger from a fellow believer. But I am convinced it was nowhere near the atrocity committed by the hammer-wielding executioner and his accomplices in the video under reference.
Terror, violence, misuse of God’s name
The words of that early Christian woman have echoed eerily in my mind as I reflect on events unfolding in recent times.
At face value, it appears as though God has been treating some of us too gently despite our iniquities. Otherwise, how can people organise murders on a grand scale, present them as offerings commanded by Him, and walk away without any visible rebuke?
If the Good Lord Almighty chose to speak out forcefully, publicly disowning those who commit evil in His name, would it not be well with all of us? Would sanity not prevail if He publicly denounced those who engage in dastardly acts while claiming to worship Him or carry out His will?
Throughout history, weaker communities have been attacked in God’s name. Men and boys are often slaughtered, property plundered and women subjected to unspeakable abuse. This has been the fate of the vanquished through the ages.
The horrors inflicted by ISIS and its cohorts upon the Yazidis, a minority group in the Middle East, remain a chilling example of humanity’s cruelty to fellow human beings.
In recent times, merely being on the right road at the wrong time or place in Nigeria has become a mortal ‘sin’. Scores of commuters have been harvested by kidnappers who force families to pay crippling ransoms.
Evidence of the escalation of this crisis can be seen in the 2025 raid on a Catholic school in Niger State by outlaws who abducted about 300 pupils, students and teachers. The victims remained in captivity for weeks before government, families and well-wishers joined efforts to secure their freedom.
Abductions come in different forms. Some are driven by the desire for ransom and are therefore comparatively straightforward. Others take more tragic and perplexing forms, leaving little room for freedom or survival.
In this category are the Chibok schoolgirls and Leah Sharibu. The architects of their suffering delude themselves into believing they are agents carrying out a divine mandate. They act as though they have been granted waivers by some god to seize and exploit anyone unfortunate enough to fall into their hands.
Such abductees, especially girls, are often forced to convert if they are not of the ‘correct’ faith, compelled into marriage, passed from one ‘husband’ or fighter to another, abused even before reaching maturity, or sold in slave markets hidden within the shadowy world occupied by terrorists.
In Nigeria’s North-East and North-West, terrorists have slaughtered hundreds of Muslims as well, using false narratives that God Almighty sanctions their crimes.
In Plateau, Benue, Kaduna, Niger, Kwara and Kogi states, where land-grabbing has become increasingly prominent, the name of God is frequently dragged into the conflict. In some of these places, marauders chanting “God is Great” attack communities, kill residents and force survivors to flee, enabling the aggressors to seize and annex their land.
Why does God remain silent?
The fate of a Mathematics teacher in Oriire, Oyo State, who was beheaded last month by his abductors in the presence of six other staff members and 39 pupils from three schools abducted alongside him — some as young as two years old — demonstrates the depths of human wickedness.
That his murderers recorded and circulated the execution on social media was deliberate. It mocked the feeble efforts of the Nigerian state and its institutions to stem terror. It planted fear in law-abiding citizens and vulnerable communities, while presenting surrender as the wiser path.
Can the family of that teacher ever truly recover from the trauma of such a loss?
Should we be surprised if his relatives and the traumatised staff and pupils ask, like that pioneering Christian woman, why silence and apparent inaction have been God’s response when evil men abducted and murdered him?
Another disturbing trend is emerging. It is no longer only terrorists who commit evil and claim divine approval. Some self-styled clerics, motivated by hatred, ethnicity, race, greed, ignorance, or the quest for visibility and influence, now use their platforms to spread falsehoods and justify atrocities.
They misread, misunderstand or deliberately misapply the spirit and letter of sacred texts. Yet, as the woman lamented in her prayer, God appears to remain silent while His name is misused by evil men.