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One is bewildered that human life in our nation has continued to lose value like its currency. The loss transcends the consequence of reduced purchasing power. The sanctity of human life is being desecrated by a nation whose moral values have taken flight. The media, social and traditional, have lately been inundated with arrests of people who engage in wasting lives for rituals, even as others kill to harvest organs. The aim is a quick fix to wealth. The nation is increasingly becoming one of quick fixes to political power, to wealth, to fame, to trending on social media via release of sex videos and so on. Since the matter of elections is still within the precincts of the law, we shall do well to let justice run its course. The law of a people may be a reflection of the people or their socio-economic barometer.
But the matter of wasting human lives in mostly phantom chase for wealth seems like a reverse to dark days. I do not know if such rituals amount to money, though some insist it does, but the tendency is for most of it to depict a people whose morals have engaged the reverse gear. Examples are replete. In May 2023, 29-year-old Amos Olaleye reportedly claiming to have been encouraged by his mother, was arrested for killing his sister and performing sex with her corpse with the aim “to bring an end to the poverty in the family.” How would that happen? I am yet to come to terms with the foolery. Perhaps, I am naïve.
In a recent case in Andoni, Rivers State, 12 suspected Internet fraudsters, also known as ‘yahoo boys,’ were arrested in August 2023 for burying a day-old baby alive in a macabre ritual. In October 2022, Friday Odah, 21, and Poso Idowu, 20, were arrested in Owode Egba, Ogun State, for butchering a 40-year-old man, Abdulahi Azeez, for ritual. In July 2022, police in Bauchi State apprehended one Isaac Ezekiel, who had allegedly plucked the eyes of 16-year-old boy, Uzairu Salisu, for money ritual purposes. His two accomplices, Nensok Bawa and Yohanna Luka, were also arrested.
Some people have undertaken studies on this, and have found the increase as the cumulative effect of the collapse in the moral authority of social institutions, including the family, schools and religious organisations, many of which seem to have exalted material benefits above integrity. The growing army of unemployed youths is certainly another contributory factor. These misguided youths resort to quick fixes and sell their souls to the devil in exchange for survival. The political class has created a false corona around fetish practices as a gateway to relevance and greatness, given that some of them have been caught engaging in fetish practices, most of which are fake ways of retaining the loyalty of their allies. Such people set bad examples for young people.
The other day, I was nonplused to learn that a hardworking young woman I know had her baby stolen in the market. The poor woman displayed her wares in a whee barrow, and kept her baby by the side to attend to her numerous customers only to weep a bucketful when she found that one of the numerous customers went away with the baby, resulting in a frantic but fruitless search in the market. One of two things could happen. The baby would be sold to a syndicate that supplies such to ritualists or the poor baby’s organs would be harvested after the baby would have been kept somewhere to grow to a certain age. I read a well-researched novel titled Sarah House, by Ifeanyi Ajaegbo to know that such abominable acts reside with us in the society.
Compromise by law enforcement agents, particularly the police, has worsened the matter. Most times, when such criminals are arrested, it would be to extort money from the culprits and become their allies. Security agents must step up their game to deter these unconscionable acts. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has been waging a relentless way but the increasing horde of culprits seems overwhelming.
The herbalists, spiritualists and religious charlatans abetting the ritual killing of innocent people should be identified and brough to justice. State authorities should collaborate with traditional and religious institutions to smoke out the perpetrators of these heinous acts and bring them to book. We need to retool institutions in charge of ethical values to drum values into the people. The matter of job creation has become paramount given that the army of unemployed youths has moved from a time bomb to exploding bombs. The well-known consequence of massive unemployment is mass crime. The religious organizations, which ought to restrain the people, seem to be more prone to reaping from the crime than abating it. The society where honest people feel like fools would certainly become a breeding ground for crooked people.
