When the Guest Forgets the Door: Hospitality Betrayed by a Cult of Death

 


When is a guest due their goodbye? It often feels appropriate to ask. Generosity can dull our sense of discomfort when a visit lingers too long, and in opening our doors, we invite not only company but also the subtle risk that kindness may overextend itself. There comes a moment when hospitality begins to feel less gracious and more burdensome — and with it, a faint but growing anxiety.

            It is only fair, then, to ask with sincerity: what are the true limits of hospitality? Across the nation, the rising tensions between herders and farmers have begun to erode the recognition of the householder’s rights. Those once welcomed in goodwill have turned hostile, abusing the very generosity extended to them. Nigeria, in general—and some states in particular—has become a theatre for a grim ritual: a cult of death. People who treat murder casually, even as a joke, now roam our streets armed and shielded by impunity. Communities in Benue, Taraba, Plateau, Kaduna, and Edo have become altars where blood is regularly spilled, while those in power appear indifferent, unwilling or unable to clean up the mess.  

Douglas Murray in his book: On Democracies and Death Cults writes

“When a society loses the will to defend its values, it opens the door to those who have none. And when life itself ceases to be sacred, what emerges is not freedom, but something far darker — a cult of death masquerading as progress.”

This “cult of death” is not a mere metaphor in Nigeria—it is a lived reality. We have leaders who mourn with one breath and shrug with the next. Communities bury their dead by the dozen and are told to be “patient” in the face of state failure. We have laws celebrated in theory but rendered meaningless in practice. And we have perpetrators emboldened by the knowledge that the worse their actions, the less likely they are to face justice. There is no ideology more dangerous than one that regards human life as disposable. This death cult feeds on neglect and thrives in the shadows of failed governance and ineffective security. It grows on the silence that follows each report of carnage, on promises that dissipate like smoke, and on cycles of retaliation that harden hearts and fracture communities. Each fresh attack is a sacrament reaffirming its power, demanding yet more blood be spilled in its name.

There is no time left for moral confusion. Nigeria is not merely facing a political crisis—it is staring into an abyss of meaninglessness, where violence is normalised and virtue punished. To confront this reality, we must first call it by its true name: this is not simply conflict. It is the worship of destruction. It is the normalisation of murder. And it must end.

The question remains: how long will this death cult be allowed to thrive before its worshippers are stopped for good?


 Hemen A. Emmanuel O.S.A

Colegio Mayor Mendel. C. del Rector Royo-Villanova, 6, Moncloa - Aravaca, 28040 Madrid

Madrid, España.   

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