In this era of so much technological advancement, especially artificial intelligence where machines are practically taking over jobs from humans, it seems absurd that some people, especially Nigerian youths, are going into juju, cultism, voodoo, charms, black magic, money rituals and so many deadly practices. Meanwhile, their counterparts in other climes are busy with new discoveries. Sadly, some of the youths do this just to kill for politicians who push them aside once they come to power. It’s so bad that some nations that Nigeria is far richer than in natural and human resources, are far ahead of her in development indices because of this backwardness. Imagine where some young people are proud to say they eat excreta just to get rich! Nigeria is indeed in dire straits.

In this report, Saturday Vanguard sought the views of experts and stakeholders on what must have gone wrong and led the youths to such decadence. Does ritual killing, eating of excreta bring wealth? Suddenly, young people are going back to practices the world appeared to have left. This became very noticeable with the emergence of separatist groups and then with attacks by the so-called Unknown Gunmen masquerading as freedom fighters in the South-East, youths began to go back to practices that had been abandoned, ostensibly for protection. Excerpts:

Criminals

For Professor Charles Soludo, Anambra State governor, these youths are simply criminals hiding under certain practices to perpetrate their evil. Addressing newsmen while some unknown gunmen were being paraded in the state with charms and fetish items all over their bodies, Soludo said: “Anambra receives its share of influx of Igbo from other South-East states and other parts of Nigeria. We discovered that a whole lot of the youths are joining them. Let’s be very clear; real objective of these criminals causing mayhem in Anambra, albeit of disparate groups and gangs, is lucrative criminality and foisting their idolatrous religion on the region. Unfortunately, every criminal gang (including cult groups) claims to be a ‘liberation movement,’ making it difficult to differentiate between genuine agitators from criminals. Unfortunately also, the criminals now dominate the space,” he said.

End-time

Responding, Dr. John Emilimor, a US-based Dental Surgeon turned Pastor, says he is not surprised by the things going on in society today because the Bible already warned us that they would happen.”My strong opinion is that it is partly an end-time sign. The Bible says in Matthew 24: 12 –”And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”

2 Timothy 3: 1-4 says: ‘….in the last days, perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.’

“This is a generation that rewards illicit wealth and has little value for moral integrity. That is what we are witnessing today. Satan, as the god of this world, drives the spirit of mammon. It is a global thing, not just Nigeria,” he stated.

Emilimor noted that ”cultism and ritual killings have always been with us. Social media just made more people hear about it. Also, the activities of false prophets who deceive to win converts and prosperity doctrine, contributed to the greed and covetousness in today’s society.”

Speaking on the issue, General Overseer of New Testament Life Mission, Abuja, Bishop Joshua Nissi noted that human resource/capital is the most important aspect of a nation’s wealth, more important than material or natural resources and so, a nation with a hardworking and creative youth population will develop very rapidly.” He named peer pressure, parental negligence, unemployment/ underemployment, increasing school drop-out rates, crime and deviant behavior, limited sports and recreation facilities, as some of the causes of social vices among youths.

Why join cult?

Former US Marine, President/Chairman, Governing Council, Institute of Criminal Justice and Criminology Administration and Assistant Vice-President, Safety and Security Operations at the American University of Nigeria, Yola, Dr. Lionel Vonfrederick Rawlins, says that literacy level has little to do with the increasing number of youths joining cult groups as according to him, membership of cult groups cuts across every segment of society. “The word cult, comes from the word occult, which means secret or hidden hence, the reason not much is known about cultists. Not everyone who joins a cult is ‘brainwashed’ or ‘illiterate’ as most believe; many are educated. They have their own reasons for joining a cult.”

Corroborating what Rawlins said, Nissi noted that although cultism actually “emerged from one of our higher institutions of learning in the 60s, then splintered into horrific, autonomous cult groups that leaked to the bus-conductor, the butcher; from the cities to remote villages; gruesomely murdering people. According to Mr. Ike Onyechere of Exam Ethics Marshall International, no fewer than 10,000 people have been killed in cult-related violence across the country between 1996 and 2019. While more deadly cult groups are emerging, most, if not all of these dangerous cult groups, are steeped in sorcery and bloodletting fetishism.”

Nissi would rather blame the gross social decadence on the high levels of corruption in the country. ”Corrupt politicians still use cultists to intimidate their opponents and rig elections. They budget millions of naira for hiring thugs and cult groups during elections. We must sanitize our entire systems to save our country from sliding into oblivion.”

Commit crime, stay relevant

According to Rawlins, there is a link between rising cult activities and criminality in the society. He said: ”Many join cult groups out of fear and were forced or coerced to join. Those who joined willingly, did so for power over others, and to maintain that power, one has to have access to wealth, and since most who join cults are poor, their only way of obtaining that wealth is through nefarious activities such as robberies and other devilish ways such as the initiation of religious rites, using voodoo orjuju, culminating in ritual killings. Let us not forget the folklore and culture that glamorize these activities, making them attractive to the get-rich-quick and the greedy.”

Continued Rawlins: “Obtaining and maintaining that power gives them access to girls who would not normally look at them. As silly as this seems, the belief that they could get any girl they want is a driving factor. There is the feeling that they cannot be intimidated, but instead, they will instill fear, and be feared. To the youthful in Nigeria, success means having “the girl”, money and respect. Wherever you find young men growing up in a society with limited academic and career opportunities, as we see in Nigeria, with the amount of unemployed youths, cultism becomes an attractive way to embrace the get-rich-quick syndrome, to earn money and respect.”

Degeneration

In his contribution, the traditional ruler of Obosi Kingdom, Anambra State, His Majesty, Igwe Chidubem Iweka, Eze Iweka III, blamed the proliferation of money-ritual practices on the degeneration of the social and spiritual life of Nigerians. He said: ”The social and spiritual life of Nigerians has degenerated into something so horrible and that leaves us all wondering what the future holds. It’s a matter of grave concern for our posterity when one reflects on the ever worsening proliferation of money-ritual practices. Every day we hear about cold-blooded killings of innocent people, the so-called Yahoo-Plus get-rich-quick ritual killings. Ritualistic cannibalism, consumption of human faeces and other gross practices have become common among our youth, all in the name of becoming wealthy. No one is safe in the hands of these ritualists; albinos and hunchbacks who are in high demand by ritualists, are especially careful of being kidnapped and slaughtered for money rituals.”

Criminals not traditional worshippers

Agreeing with Gov. Soludo, Iweka said that these people are simply criminals and not traditional religious worshippers as they would want people to believe.

”Those criminals who erroneously attempt to link diabolical practices to ancient African spiritual worship are usually the perpetrators who try to justify wickedness by linking it to some fictitious ancient modes of worship. True, there were dangerous deities in ancient times to which human beings were sacrificed, purportedly to boost the powers and efficacy of the spirit being. Powerful ancient warriors unjustifiably killed and ate body parts of their opponents, believing they would acquire the inner essence and strength of their victim. Never has there been a history, tale or fable of individual ancients killing children or each other for the utterly mundane reason of becoming rich. Some of our early forebears may have been considered crude or uncouth by western assessment but our ancestors had honour and integrity and were very industrious.”

The respondents all agree that unemployment, poverty, bad economy, hunger etc., have led many youths into cults and criminality. Said Iweka:”When Christianity and Islam took centre-stage in Africa, most African religions were as diversified in worship modes as our numerous cultures and languages. Ancestral worship was a common mode, all of which had no homogeneous bond uniting the various worshippers under one religious movement as in Christianity. In these modern times new, deadly spiritual practices are evolving from the shrines and diabolical altars of obscure witch doctors. Today, fake pastors, witch doctors in disguise, abound who, coupled with our shattered economy, have caused our teeming, jobless, starving youths to fall prey to these wicked charlatans.”

Yahoo-Plus boys

Nissi noted that theYahoo boys whom he described as a new class of criminals, with their laptops and unlimited ill-gotten wealth, are taking over Nigeria’s social space. “You’ll see them in the biggest hotels and social gatherings, flaunting their loot and corrupting the up and coming youth, who see them as role models.”

Money ritual

In the same vein, the Regent of Nri Kingdom in Anambra State, His Majesty, Prince Ikenna Onyesoh said that so-called money ritualists are simply criminals. “Who told our young men that human beings can be used for money ritual? This is simply stealing of human organ but they make it look like money ritual. These people are criminals. They simply kidnap people, kill them, take their organs, put them in coolers with ice and sell.”This agrees with Dr Emilimor’s position who noted that”organ harvesting business is on a higher scale now that medical science has improved in transplant procedures.”

On cultism, ritual killings and other vices, Onyesoh agreed that they have been on the rise amongst young people and it’s disturbing.

”They have been going on not just in Igbo land but generally in Nigeria where young people are getting it all wrong about acquiring wealth. When you think about it and about all that has been happening and how we have lost our values in understanding what it means to spill the blood of an innocent person and the implications, they forget that when innocent blood is spilled in Igbo culture, there is a ritual that must be performed, it is called iko mmee, ie atonement after a murder has been committed. The atonement must be done for that community to recover because the spirit of the victim is never at rest until those rituals are performed. After the atonement, there is ikpu alu which is a sacrifice of expiation. It serves as a ransom to reconcile and redeem the sinner; then ikpochi onunu, because where there is an alu (abomination), spiritually, there is an onunu (a pit) that needs to be filled. When all that is done and the place is cleansed, in some cases, the victim’s spirit would ask that he/she is reborn meaning that the person responsible for the killing or his/her family, has to marry, have a child in the victim’s name for the victim’s spirit to be at rest.”

Continuing he said: ”These young men forget that many years ago when there was still slave trade, that some families are still recovering from the effects of selling or killing an innocent person. Some families are still going through those things spiritually so when you fast-forward to what is happening now, they don’t even think about posterity, the damage, the darkness that they would bring to their families for doing ritual killings and all what not.

“I don’t even know who told them that killing a person would bring money. Not too long ago, we had naira scarcity, how come the ritualists didn’t provide monies? It’s all a myth and in the process, these people soil their hands and create so much problems for their families even when they die. So, it’s unfortunate the situation we have found ourselves in.”

Saddest thing ever

“That someone would be part of a practice where you would kill in order to make money and call it rituals? This is the saddest thing that has happened to us and we need to find a way to educate people, show the younger ones the people that had done this in the past that never recovered or the families where such had happened and look at the result, for them to understand what this would do in the future. We can’t give the excuse of being illiterates to make you believe that these things work; I believe it’s the society we live in. We understand that things are pretty hard but that shouldn’t take one’s morals away. You don’t even understand that taking a life you did not create, brings so much problem into your life. So spiritually, the implications, especially for the Igbos that understand what it means, what would happen when people that did all the ritual killings don’t solve those problems, is unbelievable. The problems would never go away and none of them would ever get away with it,” Onyesoh said.

Solution

“Any problem that affects 60% of a country’s population would invariably have severe consequences on that society’s future. This seems to be the case with Nigeria. No responsible nation would sit and watch the destiny of her youths destroyed without taking proactive and holistic actions to address the situation,” Nissi said, advising government at all levels, faith-based organisations, NGOs, philanthropists and stakeholders, to work together to find lasting solution.

He said that social vices and youth restiveness might be reduced if government and relevant stakeholders provide quality and accessible education to all irrespective of social status, step up campaigns against cultism and its destructive tendencies, train and educate parents on how to handle youths and support them to become persons with positive values; open continuous skills acquisition/training centers for youths; enforce punishment for involvement in social vices, create jobs and give the youths more opportunities to participate in governance and nation-building.

“If the youths of today are truly the leaders of tomorrow, it then becomes imperative to find a solution to their involvement in social vices so as not to produce a generation of vipers and a more corrupt society.” (Saturday Vanguard)

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