By Ayo Oyoze Baje
The race is on – the rat race. Everyone wants to get rich – very rich and quickly too. Gone are the days when people believed in the natural principles of sowing seeds, watering, weeding and nurturing while waiting patiently for them to flourish and flower to fruition. These days, many people want to get rich by all means, even if it is more by crook than by hook. But, there the problem lies.
“As much as you cannot blame anyone for aspiring to become prosperous, what is questionable, however, are the means and methods of attaining the riches. Currently, money has become a god to be worshipped.
“Millions of people see it, not as a means to an end but the end itself. To them, that end justifies the means. They would, therefore, cheat, lie, prostitute, trade in hard drugs, kill innocent souls or commit ritual murder just to get the money. Yet, it is God’s great wish for us to enjoy riches without sorrows attached.”
This quotation is from the introduction to my motivational book, ‘The Biblical Billionaires,” which God inspired me to write a few years back. The salient message here is that God can make us rich, prosperous, powerful and famous without shedding innocent blood. If He did so for Abraham, Isaac, Jotham, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Esther, Gideon and Kings Ahasuerus, Hezekiah, Asa as well as Solomon in the biblical time, why not you?
He is the same God, yesterday, today and forever. Is He not the one that made Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Oprah Winfrey and Folorunsho Alakija rich? That is the million-naira question. We shall soon come to the answer.
But for now, the critical issue of the methods we adopt, both as individuals and groups, to make money came to mind with the recent discovery of the hideout of the den of ritual murderers at Obadeyi Ajala street, Ijaiye, along the densely populated axis of the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway.
Yet, few days, later a similar one was unveiled at Ile-Zik, Ikeja, Lagos. According to eyewitness accounts, the crowd that formed at the Obadeyi scene was shell-shocked by the discovery of the ritualists’ hell-hole right under their noses! The den was exposed by a female sweeper who heard the horrific cry of a victim screaming for help. It came from an underground tunnel, which linked to a canal at Obadeyi Street. With the intervention of some people, a baby was rescued, two men got lynched and two others were arrested.
In instant reaction to the bestial and barbaric act of kidnapping innocent citizens for ritual murders, the outraged crowd allegedly set ablaze one of the suspects.
Investigations have so far revealed that he was one of a 28-member group operating under the canal. Items recovered from the shrine included dismembered bodies, charms, carvings, native soap and white clothes stained with human blood. Perhaps, the discovery will provide answers to the persisting puzzle of missing persons around the area.
Nonetheless, these sordid scenarios have ignited the pertinent questions: Who, for instance, are the masterminds of the orgy of killing hapless souls all for blood money? Who have they been selling human parts to and for what reasons? With the culture of crass impunity in the country, will these bloodthirsty vampires in human skin ever be brought to justice? I have my fears.
One is sore worried about the depth of depravity our society has sunk into. For instance, how do we begin to explain the obnoxious policy of giving amnesty to terrorists, or paying high-profile Boko-Haram insurgents in hard currency to release Chibok girls?
What about that of a state governor openly confessing to paying off known killer-herdsmen so as to sheath their swords against unarmed citizens? Whatever happened to the Clifford Orji saga of the heady ‘80s? Are we ever going to see the end of the alias Evans evolving soap drama series, given the long-winding judicial process?
The truth in all of these is that we are in a state of anomy where the family unit has broken down. Many fathers and mothers are no longer there as the protective and providing parents for their children, especially in their growing up years. In their place, they find solace in the company of denizens of the street. These lure them into all manner of crimes, beginning with pick pocketing, to armed robbery, drug trafficking and kidnapping to acts of terror.
Morals have been thrown, like meaty bones, to hungry hounds or the dogs of death! The standards and clear lines we used to have on the difference between right and wrong while growing up have thinned considerably.
The way out, therefore, is to retrace our evil-loving feet back to God from our homes, through our religious and educational institutions. It may not yet be too late in the day. As reflected in my aforementioned book, God made people rich in biblical time because they knew and adhered to His secrets on prosperity. In Proverbs 8:17, He says: “By me kings reign … and princes rule … I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honour are with me, yea, durable riches and righteousness”.
Also, note I Cor. 8:9 which states that: ” For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sake, he became poor, that ye through his poverty, might be rich.” Let us identify our God-given talents, hone them, work very hard, focus on important issues, shun frivolities and trust God to answer our prayers.
What we should do collectively is to hear God’s voice of reason:“If my people, which are called by my name shall: (a) Humble themselves, and (b) Pray, and (c) Seek my face, and (d) Turn from their evil ways, then will I (a) Hear from heaven, and (b) Will forgive their sins and (c) Will heal their land.”
Baje writes from Lagos