What hitherto constituted inherent African traditional powers through which certain authorities were exercised have now been turned into vulgarities because of the greed for wealth by youths; ELEOJO IDACHABA writes.
Call it the new trend and you will be right because it has become the latest crime in town with different appellations like ritual murder, yahoo yahoo and now it has taken a somewhat higher nomenclature of yahoo plus. It is the craze among the youth to garner wealth overnight thus leading them into ritual murders and fetish practices.
While the government is battling with insurgency, banditry and kidnapping in the northern and central parts of the country, incidences of ritual murder, especially by the youth with the intent of arriving at sudden wealth, reared its ugly head in most states across the southern part of the country.
Penultimate week, the social media was awash with the troubling news from Abeokuta about a young lady, referred to as Rofiat, who was murdered by her boyfriend in conjunction with three others. After their arrest, the boys claimed that they got the inspiration for the act from the social media.
While narrating the sordid details, Soliu, the professed boyfriend of Rofiat, said when the victim visited him on a particular Friday evening, he strangled her and cut off her head immediately with the aid of his accomplices whose names were given as Wariz Oladeinde, Abdulgafar Lukman and Mustakeem Balogun.
Soliu then narrated how they had contributed money and purchased the ingredients needed for the ritual while waiting for the day they would kill the lady whom he said was introduced to him in December 2021.
He said Mustekeem, one of the accomplices who used to attend the same Islamic society (Asalatu) with Sofiat, was the arrow head of the heinous act, adding that he was the one who brought the guidelines from facebook and pestered the group of friends to carry out the act in order to become rich without delay.
“In December last year, Mustakeem gave me her number that I should be dating her. The first time Sofiat came to my house, I informed Mustakeem that she was around and that she had agreed to my proposal for a relationship. The second time Sofiat came, I told him, but he told me that she is not a good girl and advised that we should use her for money ritual.
“Mustakeem said he saw a guideline for ‘Osole’ (money ritual) on facebook and had a screenshot of it. Since then, he had been disturbing me that we should use Sofiat for money ritual, but I didn’t agree with him.
“In fact, on many occasions, I lied to Sofiat that I am not at home just to dissuade her from coming because I didn’t want her to be a victim.
“But eventually, Sofiat came to my house on a Friday. I was inside my room with her while Mustakeem was outside. Later Mustakeem told me that we should go ahead and use her since all other needed items for the rituals are ready,” he said.
Other incidents
That is not all, in January, a video of a woman whose son tried to use her for money rituals surfaced on the internet after the woman escaped with blood stains on her dress and was found in the streets of Owerri giving thanks to God for the supernatural escape. Blueprint Weekend gathered that the woman’s son invited her over to Owerri for a normal, innocent visit, but unknown to her, it was with the intent of using her for rituals to acquire wealth. According to the boy, he was asked to do so by a ritualist.
Within the same period, five young boys of about 16 years old were spotted naked at the Epe branch of Zenith Bank in Lagos with only pampers.
According to them, a ritualist had told them that whenever they appeared like that in the bank, the bank’s automated teller machine (ATM) would dispense invaluable amounts of cash to them, but that never was. It was, therefore, a horrible sight that day seeing those boys in that state. This and many other instances are found in recent times; thereby one wonders what has actually gone wrong.
Society to blame?
This and many more, in the opinion of many people, are one of the influences of social media and why the industry needs to be thoroughly regulated.
A sociologist at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Dr. Luke Ahazuem, in his opinion, said the evils in society are the product of what society allows.
“I read the sordid account of that murder in Abeokuta, but that was not the first and only times such atrocious behaviours are put up especially by youths. A year ago, it happened in Uyo when a young man killed his girlfriend after raping her, it has happened severally in other parts of the country, but the reasons are not far- fetched.
“The society breeds the kind of behaviour and youthful exuberance that it wants. How do you explain a situation whereby young men are largely influenced by the political elite negatively and expect society to remain the same? Not with the influence of social media now,” he said.
He, however, cautioned against unbridled demands by parents on their children with the intent of meeting certain needs.
Music and films
On his part, a Nollywood actor, Damola Olatunji, noted that the type of music people listen to and the movies they watch go a long way to influence them in society.
He said, “What do you expect from a child singing a song like Daju – Wuwa Ika – Kaala? Or from a child watching movies based on ritual killings and robbery every day? What do we expect from a society where fake life and flamboyant lifestyle of people with unknown source of income is celebrated?
“I am so scared for this generation. We want everything so quick without following due processes. Hard work and dignity is no longer in our dictionary. We no longer celebrate good virtues, but now the reverse is the case. May we never fall victim in Jesus’ mighty name.”
Another actor, Ayo Ajewole, popularly known as Woli Agba, said people need to stop embracing any act or words that do not promote dignity and good virtues. According to him, those dirty words register in the minds of the children and teenagers and people need to rise against that.
“I am saying this without mincing words that we all need to rise against it. We just can’t keep smiling while we allow dirty words to register in the minds of the children and teenagers. We just have to stop embracing any kinds of acts or words not promoting dignity and good virtues,” he said.
Parental control waning?
On his part, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, attributed the upsurge in social vices such as violent crimes including drug abuse, rape, and cultism and ritual killings to bad parenting.
Aregbesola, who said parents are the most potent tool to stop vices, maintained that the upbringing of children and students should not be left for teachers, but should be a joint effort of parents, old student associations and tiers of the government.
He said this in Akure while hosting the 1975 set of Akoko Anglican Grammar School Arigidi Akoko. He lamented the rate at which young people engaged in ritual killing under the pretext of looking for quick wealth.
He, therefore, appealed to teachers and parents to be more committed to the upbringing of children for a better society, saying bringing up children in a good manner would go a long way in taking good care of youths, prevent vices and any wrongdoings ravaging the society.
“There is an entrenched moral decadence as many parents crave for material wealth desperately, while they abandon their primary responsibility to their children who eventually become tainted through such circumstances.
“When parents are sensitive to what their children need, to the company they keep, definitely we are going to have well-groomed and disciplined children,” he said.
A cleric’s take
This latest trend, according to clergymen, is a sign of spiritual decadence and fall in moral standards. First to speak against the menace is the pastor of Salvation Church based in Port Harcourt, Pastor David Ibiyomie, who took a swipe at the perpetrators, the yahoo yahoo boys. Although the social media was awash with a backlash from that section of society when he spoke about it a fortnight ago, while re-echoing his stand on evil last Sunday, Ibiyomie said, “What shall it profit a man if he becomes a yahoo boy and loses his life? Even if he gains all the money in the world and loses his life, it is vanity.
“The soul is more important to God than internet fraud and money rituals. No matter how you want to colourise it, it is called stealing and God does not like it.” He continued: “Take, for instance, an armed robber is a thief because he steals by taking something from people by force; so also is an internet fraudster or yahoo yahoo boys who do the same for money.
“As a servant of God, I curse the root of that diabolical means of getting wealth, just as Jesus cursed the root of that fig tree. These people are denting the image of the country and not everyone in Nigeria is a thief or fraudster. We don’t hate them, but we condemn what they do. All we are asking them to do is to stop those evil acts and embrace truth. Do we now begin to celebrate a situation whereby somebody would kill another person in order to get money? God forbid! How terrible our value system has degenerated in society.”
‘Rape of African traditional powers’
While writing on Money Ritual: Nigeria’s New Normal, a teacher of Oral African Literature, Promise Adiele, said in those days, magic, sorcery, animism, and voodoo as ritual practices served various purposes for Africans. According to him, when there was drought and famine, Africans offered sacrifices to their gods. When sickness ravaged the land, sacrifices were offered. When circumstances confounded the living, they consulted the dead to ask questions.
He said, “Generally, through constant propitiations via ritual processes, Africans lubricated the spiritual thoroughfare between them and their ancestors. In contemporary times, these practices currently represent significations of spiritual vulgarity in many parts of Africa including Nigeria.
“The most offensive is the morbid recourse to these practices by Nigerians for diverse purposes including wealth creation.
“Currently, the African practice of spiritual regeneration through diverse ritual processes has become a source of diabolic fetishism to create wealth.”
He said further, “I watched in utter horror a video where young men were defecating in public and eating their human waste for money rituals. No arrest was made, no voice of admonition, and no one bothered to show concern. Rather, people were busy video-recording the scene to circulate on various social media platforms. Indeed, our generation is collapsing fast. “I read the story of a 28-year-old young man who, after graduation, could not secure a job.
According to the account, the young man used one of his testicles to undertake a ritual and entered into a relationship with the devil. Afterwards, the young man became a billionaire. Promptly, a chieftaincy title was conferred on him by the elders in his village. He built a hospital, constructed roads, reconstructed the market square, demolished the local church and built a cathedral. Three years later, a thunder strike mangled his body beyond recognition. He writhed in pain and confessed his dealings with the devil before he died. These are sordid accounts of how African value systems have been debased into vulgarities.”
As it is, no one knows what would be the next trending crime, but as for yahoo yahoo for money rituals, it’s no doubt a further dent on the image of Nigeria.
