A Wake Up Call To Tackle Money Ritual Among Youth In Nigeria

Recently, there has been a surge in ritual killings carried out by youths in the country. Surprisingly some of them are carried out by teenagers. The get rich quick syndrome has engulfed the mind of so many youths that they no longer see dignity in labor. They now seek shortcuts to succeed even without trying. If this issue is handled with levity and not nipped in the bud, I am not a harbinger of bad news, but it will definitely escalate into something worse. What is prevalent among them is internet fraud which is called “Yahoo Yahoo”.

With the high rate of ritual killings, from information gathered, these youths while engaging in online fraud now perform rituals to be able to ensure that they amass so much money from their online scam. Just recently a video went viral where a group of boys, 3 in number with ages ranging from 15-16 stated that they left their base to come and learn internet fraud in another state. Also, some group of teenage boys in their quest for quick wealth beheaded a teenage girl on the instructions of a herbalist which they were eventually caught.

Seeing these things, I begin to ask myself where did things go wrong. Giving a thorough thought to it, I concluded that so many things are actually behind the get rich quick syndrome among youths. Government, parents, Entertainment industries, society, etc all contribute to it. They have failed to play their role well.

Starting with the government, with Nigeria being one of the headquarters of poverty coupled with a high rate of unemployment that has ravaged the whole country, anything is expected from the youths. The government has failed in keeping them engaged with jobs and also giving meager pay to most government workers. The youths have no option but to seek routes that they believe will better their lives. Although some engage in decent jobs, while some others engage in online fraud coupled with ritual practices.

Not in any way justifying their actions, but once the issue of unemployment is tackled by the government, I believe there will be a decrease in these dastardly acts carried out by the youths. The government is treating the issue of unemployment with levity, and with the rate at which these rituals are happening, if nothing is done the streets might not be a safe place again especially females who are their prime target.

Most Parents on the other hand have failed in their duties. There seems to be an increase in bad parenting. I don’t see any reason why a responsible mother would rejoice and thank God after her teenage son suddenly comes home with an expensive car without any legit traceable source of income. What happened to parents questioning their wards about their sudden wealth instead of encouraging them and praying for them. If parents can wake up with their parenting roles, the issue of fraud will be reduced. Parents need to properly warn their wards about the repercussions of engaging in such illicit acts. Instead what we have today are parents who go as far as buying laptops for their children to start online fraud.

The entertainment industry has also contributed greatly to this. There needs to be a reform in the contents they put out for public consumption. For instance, in the film industry, “Nollywood”. They should stop displaying content that glorifies fraud and ritual, instead, they should produce content that teaches about the danger of engaging in such acts. They should be intentional about putting out content that teaches great lessons to make people, especially youths, desist from engaging in fraud, rituals, and other vices in the society. They should depict sad endings of fraudsters/ritualists and people who chose a negative path in life to pass a message across.

Also, musicians can play a vital role in curbing these acts. They should produce songs with lyrics that talk about the dangers of fraud and ritual and also condemn all other illegal acts. Instead, what do we hear these days “if you no get money, hide your face”. Lyrics like this encourage people, especially the youths to go the extra mile just to make money legit or not. This is not the way to go. Although there are few exceptions of musicians who give out great music that pass great messages, a collaborative effort would be ideal. Society can also play a big role in this, by ensuring that they do not give chieftaincy titles or any other titles to people with questionable sources of wealth and also, society shouldn’t glorify such people.

With the high rate of fraud and ritual killings, going on in the country. It is indeed a wake-up call to the government, society, entertainment industries, etc to join efforts to help curb this menace before it ravages the whole nation.