In Volatile Nigeria, A Man Converted To Christianity. His Family Wasn’t Pleased.
At the dawn of the new millennium in northern Nigeria, while a Christian man was petitioning God with his midnight prayers, his 19-year-old Muslim neighbor was calling upon Allah through prayer.
Little did the Muslim youth know at the time is that his Christian neighbor, Moses Onuorah, would help him convert to Christianity on March 14, 2000.
Though he was a Muslim, he noticed that Onuorah had a distinct good prayer life compared to others in their residential compound, “because I used to hear him at night praying.”
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“When I woke up to do my one raka [prayer] at midnight, he would be praying. His lifestyle in the compound was different,” said Pastor David Muhammed, now the leader of Gracebreed Believers Assembly in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.
Nigeria has seen more than a decade of violence, starting in 2009 with an insurgency led by Boko Haram, a jihadist group. Now, United Nations officials say, the bloodshed has spread throughout the country and is impacting communities regardless of religion or geographic location.
It’s challenging to get an official count of the deaths, but the U.N.’s estimates earlier this year said more than 40,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the insurgency, and more than two million people have been displaced in the northeast alone. Some non-government groups estimate much higher death tolls.
“There are also disputes over land and grazing between mostly Muslim Fulani herders and largely Christian farming communities frequently escalate into deadly clashes in the north-central and northwestern part of the country,” according to a recent Washington Post article.
Before choosing to become a Christian, Muhammed had told Onuorah that he was tired of praying as a Muslim. But when Onuorah asked him to try church, his immediate answer was, “No. No. No. Church is an abomination, my family will kill me, and my mother will commit suicide.”
“I remember his specific words. He said, ‘Your mother will not commit suicide.’ I told him, ‘No, I love my mom, because my dad died when I was three years old. I didn't get to know my dad. My mother has taken the place of my father throughout my life. And this is the only person I love.’ He said, ‘No, God will not allow your mother to commit suicide if you give your life to Christ.’”
Onuorah recommended that he attend a popular nearby Pentecostal church to learn about Christianity.
Reflecting on his transition, Muhammed explained that it came at a hefty price. His mother did not disown him when she discovered that he had surrendered his life to Christ.
“But the response of the community and my father's immediate family was very harsh,” he said.
This is because “I was truly born into a very strict Muslim family in the northern part of Nigeria. For those who have heard the story about the north and how they respond to decisions like the one I made, giving my life to Christ, will tell you that it's like attempting suicide. So, my conversion into Christianity, yes, was risky, and I faced a lot of challenges. I was disowned and excommunicated from the family. An attempt was even made on my life on one or two occasions.”
A few weeks after converting, “as I was returning from midweek service on a Wednesday, I decided to hold my Bible openly. And my aunt [a hajiya] saw it and said, ‘What is this? You want to bring a curse upon me? You want to bring a curse upon my family?’ She called our family in the village, and I think she notified the villagers. On the instruction of the people from the village, she literally threw my bag out of her house.”
Muhammed said ‘Members of my father's house tried putting my mother under pressure that she’s the only one who could actually talk to me, that I would obey her, and turn back. But she noticed I had made up my mind, so she was just in the middle, and that was how it was.”
After being disowned by his family, Muhammed added, “they did not talk to me again. I remember visiting home a year or two after I got born again. When I looked at their countenance, I wanted to stay longer. But that same night, I had to escape and run away because I didn’t know what they could have done to me that night.”
His relationship with his father's family was not good. Their hearts melted toward him only when they discovered that he was studying law at a university in Nigeria.
“They were wondering how I was sponsored. So, it was around the 500-level [final year of university], when I was in year five at university, that members of my father’s house started coming close to me, trying to be friendly because I am the first lawyer and only lawyer in the family,” Muhammed said. “The entire family suddenly became proud of me because their son is a lawyer. But at the beginning, it was not so. It was very difficult.”
He added: “But one of the things that God helped me with early as a believer was to study his word, meditating on the scriptures, and praying. In those early days, I heard a lot from Him. He guided and directed me. He led me aright, and the Holy Spirit was there to help me. That was the only thing that helped me."
Now, Muhammed, also a practicing full-time lawyer and lead partner of LawHaven Solicitors and Advocates, has taken a bold step to save and educate orphans who lost their parents to Islamic jihadists.
He also supports widows who have lost their husbands. His service to orphans and widows is carried out through his organization, RACHAM Empowerment and Humanitarian Foundation. It is supported by Pastor Gary Wilkerson of World Challenge, the son of the late renowned American Christian evangelist David Wilkerson.
He explained that their work is risky, “and it’s a work of faith that we are doing, and we believe that the one who called us is always able to protect us.”
As the widows “have gone through a lot of traumas”, they are provided counseling.
Verification of potential beneficiaries is done through pastors, community leaders, leaders in internally displaced persons camps, as well as the Red Cross and similar organizations that work with these camps.
So far, 3,313 orphans have benefited from the foundation and received school uniforms, school shoes, clothing, books, food, and other materials. A total of 257 orphans in primary and secondary schools, and higher institutions are receiving scholarships to help them further their studies. Additionally, the foundation provides bedding and conducts frequent medical services at no cost to those living in camps.
Over 5,000 widows have received training in baking, beadmakingand tailoring. A total of 518 widows under his foundation’s supervision have been awarded business grants, classified as seed capital. The purpose is to empower them to lead better lives. Some utilized the grant to buy sewing machines. To ensure that the grant is used wisely, the foundation offers them financial management training.
Muhammed said, “The key challenge that these women face is illiteracy. … Then the fear and the trauma of what they have been through, as well as other things they are still facing.”
Their meager income is insufficient to save up as they fend for multiple dependents.
“These are some of the things that they go through. … From time to time, we reach out to them,” he said, “but their health is also a challenge because of the emotional trauma and challenges that they have been through.”
Vicky Abraham is an investigative journalist based in South Africa and has reported for the Mail & Guardian, City Press, Assist News, the Nation newspaper in Nigeria and Nation Media Group in Kenya.