With Uche Nnadozie

Everywhere you turn the news is about the killing of Nigerians for ritual purposes. This is not the usual seasonal occurrence which by itself is bad, this time, these killings are frequent and cuts across cultures. It appears to have become a fad. Something that people get shocked about. Nigerians have become dead to the news of ritual killings. It has become normalised and the “business” is booming. The fact that folks see it as a business summarises our dilemma. But more grievous is the realisation that the culprits have become bolder and are mostly young people. The same people that are involved with internet fraud, otherwise called yahoo-yahoo. The ritual-patrons call themselves yahoo-plus boys!
Like most social issues in Nigeria we hardly pay attention. The government is worse. They behave as if they don’t hear about it. Other stakeholders equally maintain a stoic silence. The clergy, schools and traditional institutions pretend not to hear. The family is the worst. They don’t care. To make matters worse, the family and the clergy are the main enablers for this crime. Parents support their kids who are in this business. They encourage them, consult diviners and protect them when they run into problems. Kids who barely finish secondary school are railroaded into yahoo. Some manage to make it out of secondary school, but then get into the university or polytechnic to become czars of fraud and murder. They bring home expensive automobiles and build homes for their parents even as young adults without any queries from their parents.

Also, even when there is an involuntary censure, the answer is always that the boys didn’t steal government money. They also retort that in the case of fleecing people from abroad, that it was some sort of reparation. That they were not forced and the victims are greedy that’s why they fall into their “friendly” traps. This is what we see these days across the country. State capitals in states outside Lagos and University or Polytechnic towns are swarming with faux cash. To be honest there is a fraud economy in Nigeria and it is not insignificant. Yahoo-yahoo and yahoo-plus industry feeds a certain kind of the luxury market in the country. Car dealers, hotels, online retailing, telecom operators, high end telephones, especially iphones, fashion shops etc sell a substantial stock of their goods to these fraudsters.
Ritual killings take the garland today as a result of the very wide complains over time. The harvest of body parts is on the increase prompting people to give repeated advisories to loved ones who are on a journey or who live for work early. Then folks who live in secluded areas are equally affected. These could be students in towns that are not fully developed who are forced to live away from the “city centre” due to high cost of rent. There is also the taxi drivers who easily fall victim. Drivers on uber and taxify are the most affected. Then we have young women who easily get lured into their deaths. Their boyfriends kill them because of their vulnerability. Then the other segment of “girlfriends” popularly called “runs-girls”. These are young girls mostly in school or awaiting admission but find sex as way of keeping busy. They pretend not to be prostitutes, yet are easily talked into sex with expectations for monetary reward. They travel anyhow and are simply susceptible to become victims of the horror of money ritual.
From Ilorin to Offa, Abeokuta to Ijebu Ode, from Epe to Lekki, Ikorodu to Ikeja, from Enugu to Nsukka, Nnewi to Onitsha, Warri to Saplele, Asaba to Benin the story is the same. More and more people are having their heads severed from their bodies. Our young are dying because their mates are not interested in working hard. They have this entitlement to be rich or to be citizens of Nigeria who they feel haven’t done a lot for them. But this reality isn’t about blaming anyone. This is a personal decision taken to become rich quick. It is a decision taken by loafers who don’t want any sacrifice. Because they don’t value life, they don’t value the money either and they don’t value the society. This is why they litter the communities with ill gotten wealth, obscene way of life and corrupt the conscience of the communities through bribery by subterfuge.
Yet, we must make progress. The society must awake to its responsibility. We can’t continue with this way of life where perverted kids have the effrontery to subdue older generation parents and clergy with corrupted money. What I complain about is the democratisation of blood money. The society is broken if we indulge folks who advertise their ritual reward. The future is bleak, ladies and gentlemen, if we turn a blind eye and let this systemic rape to continue. Therefore government must step in to arrest the situation at this time. There is no best time for character to step in governmental agencies must do their work. From the National Orientation Agency to the police and other law enforcement agencies, they have to address the crime part of this major problem. The EFCC should brace up and soap collecting bribe so they can tackle this menace head long.
More importantly, the church and mosque should stop their leaders from enabling this crime; becoming the prayer vessel of deranged young men so as to pinch off cash is evil. Young men must be thought delayed ward. No society develops by fraud. It’s a moral burden that we all must bear until we succeed.
_______________