The trending stories of many Nigerian youths getting involved in money rituals, last week took a new twist when some members of the House Representatives called for a state of emergency on ritualists.  Some of the lawmakers had taken the floor to lay blame on Nollywood home movies which they alleged helped in pushing the youths to indulge in this abnormal culture of get-rich-quick.

This assertion by lawmakers has already stoke some disagreement from some section of the Nollywood industry as the likes of popular actor Yul Edochie had already blamed mismanagement of the economy by our political leaders as the cause of money ritual which in any case has been an age-old phenomenon only accentuated in recent time by extreme hardship and poverty.

It is no longer news that many young Nigerians have now taken it as a way of life to become rich through spilling of blood of either their biological close relations, friends whether male or female or any other vulnerable persons.

Most of the young men who are into internet fraud known as ‘Yahoo’ are pointedly leading the pack in this new ignoble and bizarre venture that has added a more dangerous dimension to Nigeria’s security challenges.

Nobody seems to be safe anymore as some boys now use their brothers, fathers, mothers, girl friends, wives etc for ritual, all in the name of getting money to spend. The trend has fastly become a way of life and more youths are getting enticed into it without the least imagination of the consequences.

As the trend has become a national issue, it is good that it has attracted attention of the lawmakers. But if as they  have suggested for a national emergency on ritualists, is going to be actionable, where is going to be the take-off point?

This question becomes pertinent because many of them in the House cannot in all honesty, exonerate themselves from the same culture of ill gotten wealth that laid the foundation of their career in politics.  Many of them belong to one cult group or the other to acquire both economic and political power to the exclusion of those who are genuinely inspired to be in politics but do not have the financial wherewithal to pursue their ambition further.

Some of the lawmakers were campus cult members in their school days and have thrived so far in life through such cult influence and  not necessarily out of their personal merit. Most of the political office holders in Nigeria of today got their positions based on certain cult related agreement and compromise.  Let us be sincere to ourselves.

If therefore, the law makers want a national emergency against ritualists as being canvassed, we suggest that such emergency should begin with those of them who are into one secret cult or the other. From the legislators to judicial officers as  magistrates, high court judges, to Supreme Court justices, including governors and ministers, let the emergency on secret cultism begin with them.

Like Yul Edochie posited in his argument that the increase in money ritual in Nigeria is largely caused by the hardship and poverty on the land, we want to partly believe in such assertion but extend the argument further by blaming our political leaders whose lives hugely depend on primitive accumulation.

In some quarters, parents are receiving knocks for not doing enough to checkmate their children who indulge in money ritual or associated indulgence. Yes, it is convenient to argue as such, but the larger blame should go to our leaders who live in outlandish luxury at the expense of the populace. Their primitive accumulation has caused serious unemployment for the youths in the country.

Nigeria is a country where leaders appropriate the resources of the nation to themselves and families. They use phoney means to award multi-million and billion contracts that ordinarily should be competed for, by qualified persons and entities to themselves. Such contracts are never executed whereas huge sums have gone down the drain.

Some past and serving governors have converted their states assets to themselves and families with regular flow of income which ought to belong to the state coming into their private coffers. Those who have stolen billions from public treasury are given soft landing in the name of plea bargain, that is why those who committed economic sabotage of stealing 4000 metric tons of Petroleum valued N200million could recently be asked to pay N2000 fine and get out of hook while the same product valued N200million is sold for N15million.  This can only happen in Nigeria.

The youths who are today indulging in money ritual are all observing the rot in the system from our leaders. They  wrongly but firmly believe that they can as well become prosperous through any means possible irrespective of its genuineness or lack of it.  To them, morality, righteousness, godliness are all strangers. The end justifies the means as far as they are concerned.

While condemning the increasing incidence of money ritual among the Nigerian youths, we hasten to advise that there should be a national re-orientation towards wealth acquisition.

Those in leadership position should divest themselves of ostentatious life style that provoke the envy of the masses when it is glaring that such life styles are not funded from their genuinely earned personal incomes. Our leaders should stop appropriating so much to themselves and should make stealing of public money a felonious offence punishable with either life imprisonment or death penalty.

The law enforcement agents find it extremely difficult to fight questionable sources of wealth acquisition because the institutions being relied upon to do so, are in themselves largely corrupt. Is it the police, judiciary etc? The whole system has been smeared with foul odour that leaves everyone smelling.

We would therefore suggest that the national leadership must look beyond mere declaration of state of emergency against ritualists when the entire system is driven by ungodly spirit. Let the cleansing start with the leadership.


    Warning: Undefined variable $social_share in /home/secubdae/public_html/wp-content/themes/the-next-mag/library/templates/single/tnm_single.php on line 846

    Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /home/secubdae/public_html/wp-content/themes/the-next-mag/library/templates/single/tnm_single.php on line 846

    Warning: Undefined variable $social_share in /home/secubdae/public_html/wp-content/themes/the-next-mag/library/templates/single/tnm_single.php on line 849

    Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /home/secubdae/public_html/wp-content/themes/the-next-mag/library/templates/single/tnm_single.php on line 849

    Warning: Undefined variable $social_share in /home/secubdae/public_html/wp-content/themes/the-next-mag/library/templates/single/tnm_single.php on line 852

    Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /home/secubdae/public_html/wp-content/themes/the-next-mag/library/templates/single/tnm_single.php on line 852

    Warning: Undefined variable $social_share in /home/secubdae/public_html/wp-content/themes/the-next-mag/library/templates/single/tnm_single.php on line 855

    Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /home/secubdae/public_html/wp-content/themes/the-next-mag/library/templates/single/tnm_single.php on line 855

    Warning: Undefined variable $social_share in /home/secubdae/public_html/wp-content/themes/the-next-mag/library/templates/single/tnm_single.php on line 858

    Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /home/secubdae/public_html/wp-content/themes/the-next-mag/library/templates/single/tnm_single.php on line 858
0

You may also like

Comments

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *