As part of the direct consequences of abandoning the time-honoured value system which prioritises industry and diligence over tacit support for vaunting ambition to get rich quick, and at all costs, the Nigerian society is currently bedeviled by diverse acts of criminality and antisocial behaviour. One of such asocial conducts is manifesting as the burgeoning menace of trading in human body parts, ostensibly for money rituals. And it would appear that the perpetrators are already set in their ways, with their eyes on the ignoble ball, and will not be swayed by campaigns, including press editorials against the dastardly act. Just early this month, one Dauda Bello, a 54-year-old man, was arrested by operatives of the Ogun State Police Command for killing and severing the wrists and ankles of Mesesi Adisa, a 71-year-old woman. The body parts cut off by the suspect were reportedly sold to another person in the crime chain who is said to be at large.

Also, in Delta State, towards the end of June, one Volt Blessing Gabriel, a 33-year-old man, was arrested by the police after his wife reported the disappearance of their 20-month-old son whom he had claimed was with one of his relations. But upon interrogation of the suspect, it turned out that he had killed his own son at the alleged prompting of a friend who advised him to kill the boy and rub his blood on his forehead in order to get rich. Reported cases of killing for money rituals are legion, and perhaps reported incidents of missing persons, which were actually cases of killings for money rituals, are even more. It has become a terrible and pervasive menace in the society.

It is ridiculous that Nigerians keep pursuing this barbaric interest in money rituals, leading to the unfortunate death of many victims even where there is no proof of riches coming from the rituals. For instance, all the individuals who have consistently made the Forbes’ rich list locally and internationally are known to exemplify hard work and diligence. Besides, even those who were suspected to be money ritualists in the past always ended up in ruins, so what then is the attraction in killing fellow human beings in order to create and access imaginary wealth? To stem the tide, the acts of flaunting wealth and being accorded societal recognition for same should be discouraged. In times past, you dared not flaunt any sudden wealth without arming yourself with the full account of its origin as your close relations would be at the vanguard of the people that would start interrogating you about the source. And you risked being alienated or even ostracised if you couldn’t come up with satisfactory explanations. Today, the situation is different: persons of wealth with shadowy sources are accepted, recognised and even venerated in their communities.

The government and the society have to pointedly address this issue by embarking on massive public enlightenment to let people realise the shortcomings and futility of money rituals. The need to embrace hard work and diligence as the surest and most honourable avenue to becoming rich and affluent, and not the morally reprehensible and criminal route of money rituals, must also be emphasised. There should be deliberate reorientation in this regard in schools, churches and mosques. Also, the government needs to apply the laws strictly on those involved in the trade of human parts in order to show that it would not condone such stupid and criminal endeavours. The report by the police of a ritual killer in Ogun who cut off parts from his victim after killing her ostensibly to use the human parts for some ignoble ends is just one of the scores of cases that happen regularly, and they are a sordid reflection of the sorry state of affairs in the country.

It is saddening that the inordinate quest for money and riches without breaking a sweat has now turned into a pervasive interest in the use of human parts for money rituals, even when the efficacy of money rituals yielding the desired outcome is suspect. The society has become really decadent and needs to urgently embrace value reorientation and moral rearmament.

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