BECAUSE good governance over the years has been largely in abeyance, Nigerians have tended to look up to the wrong people as role models. Left in the lurch by their own government, Nigerians look towards religious leaders, often of dubious piety, for comfort over the vagaries of life, and to moneybags and socialites who are actually hardened criminals covering their tracks with philanthropy, for emotional and mental support. Nigerians, citizens of an abundantly blessed but criminally managed country, have never hidden their admiration for heroes whose lives effectively mirror what they would have loved to be if life hadn?t been such a terrible ordeal. The pestilential cast of party freaks who regularly paint the town red with cash under the glare of cameras and the adulation of musicians lost in a trance under their ?dollar rain? knows this very well, and takes advantage of it to the fullest. Apprised of the populace?s worship of their lifestyle, these celebrity criminals set the trend in couture, ruling social gatherings, night life, and even religious gatherings with their regal presence. They are the movers and shakers of society whose every step in party halls exudes affluence, and whose long list of chieftaincy titles brings the Nigerian society?s love for filthy lucre into exceptionally bold relief.

Had the operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) not arrested the wanted drug kingpin and Lagos socialite, 61-year-old Alhaja Aishat Feyisara Ajoke Elediye, on New Year Day in her mansion at the Okota area of Lagos following the interception of a truckload of illicit drug consignment from her staff on the same day, she would still have been living life to the fullest, making money rain where it matters?before the glare of cameras and the adulations of the hordes of poor people who get a thrill watching the rich and affluent live the ?glorious? life to which they aspire. As it turns out, though, the woman known as Alhaja Ajoke in social circles or Iya Ruka (Ruka?s mum) in the drug underworld had ?her true identity shrouded in mystery for years while she remained on the wanted list of NDLEA for leading one of the drug cartels operating from Mushin area of Lagos.? But the lid ?was however blown off her invincibility on Wednesday, 1st January, 2025 when NDLEA operatives acting on intelligenc intercepted a white Izuzu truck carrying 44 jumbo sacks containing 1,540 kilograms of imported cannabis and driven by one of her staffers.? Thereafter, the nation was told, operatives of the narcotics agency stormed her hideout, where they arrested her.

Hear the NDLEA: ?On the surface, Alhaja Ajoke is a businesswoman who imports fabrics and shoes from China but beneath is a massive illicit drug trade. She is also recognised as the Iyalaje of Blessing Sisters, an influential club of society women in Lagos.? Away from the influential Alhaja and her story, NDLEA officers had, in another major operation on December 27, 2024, arrested a US-trained Hollywood and Nollywood filmmaker, Emeka Emmanuel Mbadiwe, who doubled as a motivational speaker at his Lekki Hotel room following the arrest of his partner, Uzoekwe Ugochukwu James, at a warehouse in Ajao Estate, Ikeja, where he was sent by Mbadiwe to collect a shipment of 33 parcels of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis weighing 17.30 kilograms, which arrived the Import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja on 24th December 2024 from the United States on a Delta Airline flight, concealed in large wooden boxes.?

Times was in this country when people valued their name and and loathed to do anything that would hurt it and, by extension, their family and lineage. Today, a new morality subsists and people just want to be rich and recognised, including in places of worship, and will often do anything that will facilitate that status. The society worships money; every criminal activity is now described as hustling. But as we noted in previous editorials, hustling in Nigerian parlance does not convey a determination to toe the path of hard work and persistence to make wealth. Rather, it refers to an inordinate ambition to come into wealth by all means, especially by foul means. For instance, until his arrest by the police in September 2022 for kidnapping, John Ewa, alias John Lyon, a social media influencer, posed as a hustler on social media. Like the notorious international fraudster, Raymond Abbas (a.k.a Hushpuppi), Ewa habitually uploaded pictures and videos on the internet showing him living big. His known business was interior decoration and he owned a firm, Lyon Interior Hub. In a particular video, he urged his followers to work hard so that they could conquer poverty: ?My brother, hustle o!? But beneath the veneer of internet sensationalism lay a dark record. Busted by members of Operation Puff Adder, a unit of the Nigeria Police in Abuja, Ewa was a pitiable sight as he pleaded for forgiveness of his crimes, groveling in manacles.

The Nigerian masses always want to copy the lifestyles of these larger-than-life celebrities who habitually throw bundles of money at people in parties, not realising that they are actually members of the criminal underworld who cheat, rob and kill to obtain their wealth. They are criminals who compromise certain law enforcement officers with their corruptly obtained wealth and lead many people astray with their ostentatious lifestyles. If anything, the arrest of otherwise known socialites recently by the NDLEA allegedly for drug dealings speaks once again to the celebration of criminals and criminality by Nigerians without regard to the source of their wealth. Typically, those who engage in flamboyant spendings have their roots in crime. The people must come to the realisation that real wealth has to come, and can only come, from verifiable production, not abracadabra. Nigerians must resist the urge to give recognition to those with dubious sources of wealth, knowing that ultimately, anything that is not real will end up being exposed in the long run as fake and unworthy. On its part, the government must live up to billing and wean people off the accustomed worship of criminals.

We expect the NDLEA to ensure that the suspects are made to go through the due processes of the law. Nigerians expect no less from the NDLEA. Drug dealers are a menace to the society. They deserve to live the rest of their years behind bars.

And when many a Nigerian youth takes their cue from individuals like Lyon on social media, they are unwittingly setting themselves up for the inescapable crash that comes with inordinate ambition. (Nigerian Tribune Editorial)

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