Nigerians were horrified by a trending online video where two suspected Internet fraudsters, aka Yahoo Boys, were seen defecating and eating their excreta at the junction of Imo State University (IMSU), Owerri, the Imo State capital.
The two young men carried a potty to the junction and began to excrete in the potty. One of them, holding a loaf of bread, inserted a piece in his anus, ate some of the bread and also gave his colleague. Strangely, too, a friend of theirs was on hand to capture the act on video.
Well, this has been shown to be a comedy skit but is actually a true representation of what is happening in our society today, which is actually what the video actually set out to expose.
Sickening as this may be, it is not entirely new. In February 2018, a lady called Barbie Ulonna, a Facebook user, had narrated her experience during a visit to her former boyfriend, who was overheard in a conversation with his friend discussing how he ate faeces. Ulonna made a quick exit from the apartment.
Lagos also recorded its share of the bizarre. Last month, a group of five young men adorned in diapers besieged a branch of Zenith Bank in Epe, intending to withdraw money from the automated teller machines (ATM).
It was gathered that the young men were told that if they operated the ATM dressed in diapers, money would be dispensed to them without any restrictions. However, they had to leave in frustration when they were denied access to the machines.
And in Ogun State, four youths were apprehended for killing the girlfriend of one of them and cutting off her head. They were burning the head when security operatives swooped on them. Also, a mother who went to visit her son in Delta State had a close shave with death when he attempted to kill and use her for money rituals. The list from such chilling and horrific occurrences is endless. It is disturbing how depraved our society has become because of the quest for easy wealth. It is more so considering the apparent helplessness or nonchalance of the authorities and parents, which boils down to acquiescing to the evil. As a matter of fact, it seems parents have no moral plank upon which to stand and instill proper and acceptable conduct in their children because they are equally as depraved.
It is self-evident that the parents, religious institutions and the general society share a greater responsibility for the madness in the land. Of course, peer pressure and evil association could mislead the youths to deviant behaviour but no child that is given a sound moral foundation at home could be easily lured into such nefarious activities of wasting innocent lives, even their parents, in money-making rituals, and other abominable things in the quest for wealth and fame.
Analysing these issues, one of my avid readers whose identity I prefer to keep anonymous broke into my thoughts and wrote in another forum:
“I took away for a trip a small book I bought in London in 2010. This book is called ‘Thinking Strategically,’ by David J. Collins. This small book gives profound insight and steps to how to resolve almost any problem. Reading such books make me think that there is no problem, no matter how complex, that does not have a solution.
“Our primary obligation in problem situations is to have some kind of detachment from the problem, widen our antennae, collect and process as much information as possible and then give order to our thinking by sieving the wheat from the chaff. To effectively engage in finding a resolution, we have to do away with misconceptions and prejudices and interrogate and query extant approaches, such as throwing money at problems rather than reasoning through them and finding a lasting solution.
“Now, to the problem at hand. We all knew we had a problem in the entire Igbo society and are steadily being driven to this sorry past. This problem in brief started when the most entrepreneurial ethnic group in Nigeria left their struggling spirit and acquired feeding-bottle mentality. Suddenly, the Igboman that was not affected by unemployment in the 1970s after the war started wailing about unemployment and poverty. Those who insisted on going to school were derided that their certificates were useless. In between, we got the new kids on the block, the cocaine boys, who later got mixed up with fraudulent (419) business. Every person cheered them and when the downturn came, these people graduated to kidnapping and reinvented armed robbery.
“Globalisation added so much complexity. Our youths began to migrate to other parts of the world, especially the Asian countries, and most destinations that were not popular in the past. Out there, crime and drugs were their business. They made good money, came home, bought all the exotic Toyotas in town and built mansions. These were boys in their 20s and 30s. We cheered them on.
“With international outcry and policing, including harsh penal sentences, such as death sentence and long-term imprisonment, awaiting them overseas, a huge number of them relocated home to continue their business of crime. They brought home drugs and even began manufacturing them here. They intensified kidnapping to give them quick cash.
“We all cheered. The traditional rulers moved in to hobnob and give them titles. The clergy gave them front seats at the churches and knighted them. We’re ready to wed them with their local beauties, even without even one-minute marriage lessons.
“Not to be outdone, the herbalists and occultists moved in to introduce them to ritual killing and all sorts of weird things, such as going naked on the streets, eating their faeces and raping mad women. The daily recruitment of teenagers into this weird life is amazing. We have gone full circle. We, therefore, need to be active at finding lasting solutions before a new and more vicious thing enters the stage.”
Among several solutions he proffered, I picked these basic ones.
* Build inter-community consensus against crime. (All traditional rulers and presidents-general of all neighbouring communities).
* Build intra-clan consensus against crime (all PGs of towns, traditional rulers of communities and towns, the clergy, etc.).
* Engage in rigorous operation to identify residents’ and natives’ means of livelihood; isolate and run the criminals out of town.
*Form an effective information gathering and security surveillance group to identify and deal with aberrant conduct.
* Beef up the existing (visible vigilante) security architecture.
I hasten to add that the government and security agencies must rev up their operations, giving room for evil to thrive. Also, parents, traditional rulers, religious bodies and the society should wake up to their responsibilities.
It is time questions were asked when our children bring home questionable wealth. Pastors and imams must ensure that offerings, seeds and tithes should not becloud the anointing, flowing from the altars of God. The traditional institution should respect their thrones. They should stop fraternising with evil by giving titles to shady characters.
Again, it is not worth repeating that government has so far failed woefully in the discharge of its obligations to the people. It is this failure that has pushed many idle youths into criminality.
Unfortunately, the politicians are at their usual game again, jostling for who mounts the gilded throne of Aso Rock in 2023. The throne of a country beset by multiple woes and bloodbath, coursing through the four withered fingers of its coarse earth. Their eyes are trailed on personal lucre and varnishing fame, sparing no thought for the common man whose vengeance is strewn carelessly across the land, haunting both the guilty and the innocent.
Let the winnowing fan blow across the land and upturn the predatory tide holding captive the conscience of men; this is the prayer of discerning minds.