Nigeria. Catechist forgives man who tried to kill him over his ministry
Despite several attacks and one attempted murder, Yahaya and his family decided to remain in Sokoto to carry out his ministry of service to the Church.
Around 3 a.m. on 19 April, 2023, the security fence around Tobias Yahaya’s home, near Holy Family Cathedral in Sokoto, Northwest Nigeria, was breached by three armed men. Yahaya, a 26-year-old catechist, was awakened by the intrusion.
“You think of many things at that moment, because if they came inside and found me with my wife and four children, only God knows what might have happened,” he says in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). “I decided to go outside.”
Ibrahim, the leader of the intruders, took a knife and stabbed the catechist in the chest.
“I fell to the ground bleeding,” Yahaya recalls. “The two others fled, thinking that the mission had been accomplished.”
Ibrahim remained, however, and attempted to stab him again when he tried to get up. “But this time I held the knife in my hands,” Yahaya explains, “so he twisted it, seriously injuring my palms. I had to let go, but I managed to hold him close so he couldn’t use it on me again.”
By this time Yahaya’s wife had begun screaming, alerting neighbours, who managed to apprehend Ibrahim. Yahaya lost so much blood that he became unconscious.
When he woke up about 24 hours later, he was lying in a hospital bed next to Ibrahim, who was also being treated for injuries.
“I asked him: ‘why do you want to kill me?’” Yahaya recalled. “Ibrahim couldn’t reply. He was in tears. The people around me asked: ‘Why are you talking to this person? Concentrate on your health.’ I said, I wanted to know the reason why he intended to take my life.’”
Eventually, he learned that Ibrahim and his companions, who have not been apprehended, feared the catechist’s influence on the young people of the area, which is 90% Muslim. It was not the first time Yahaya was challenged for his Christian ministry.
Teaching by example
In Nigeria the ministry of catechist is much more than simply volunteering to teach Sunday school. Catechists undergo a long training and are officially commissioned. Yahaya was commissioned nine years ago by the then emeritus bishop of Sokoto, Kevin Aje. Catechists arrange for baptisms, distribute communion, and conduct services when priests are unavailable. Yahaya’s work is contributing to the growth of the Church in Sokoto. “Last Easter we confirmed 100 children in our parish,” he says to ACN.
But perhaps the greatest lesson he has imparted to his flock during this ordeal is what happened during the trial. When the judge imposed a sentence of one year in prison for Ibrahim, Yahaya spoke up.
“I asked the Muslim judge, ‘Can I hug Ibrahim?’, and there was this expression of disbelief and surprise from everybody in the courtroom.”
The judge said it was okay. “I hugged him, shook his hand, and told him ‘I have forgiven you,’” the catechist recalled. “He wasn’t able to talk to me, but I saw tears running down his cheeks. I told him again, ‘I have forgiven you.’”
Yahaya and his family went home. They were filled with questions about what to do next.
“What does God want to communicate to us through these kinds of situations? Because that was not the first attack,” he said to ACN. “I still wish to continue my work as a catechist. My wife was supportive. My mother was supportive. There were prayers, counselling from my bishop, and priests, and other people”, he recalls.
“In the midst of all the counselling, my mother, who never went to school, said something that stuck in my mind. ‘Where God intends us to be may not be comfortable, or to our taste, but that’s where we find true happiness.’ And I think she’s right.”
And so Yahaya continues, sustained by the words of St. Paul, in his Second Letter to the Corinthians:
“We are afflicted in every way but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.”
In 2025, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) dedicates its Christmas campaign to catechists, true pillars of faith in the most difficult places to maintain hope in the world.
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