Until the Nigerian society takes seriously and finds a solution to the veritable challenge of moral decadence and warped value system, Nigerians will continue to be treated to deplorable spectacles and news of beastly conduct by some of their compatriots. It has now become routine to read news of Nigerians, especially young men and women, exhibiting subhuman behaviours that put a question mark on proper parenting.
This time around, the police in Minna, Niger State, have reportedly arrested three young men, Martha Andrew, James Luka and Johnson John, for luring a pregnant woman from the Rafin-Yashi area of the town to a hotel along the Eastern Bypass in Minna. Their ignoble mission, ostensibly with the consent of the woman, was to remove her six-month-old foetus and use it for money rituals. The bait was a promise of N30 million which, in all probability, these felons would not have paid the woman if they had succeeded in their awful mission.
However, according to the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Wasiu Abiodun, the suspects were tracked and arrested in the hotel. In other words, were it not for the police’s prompt intervention which was apparently intelligence-based, the country would have been treated to yet another sad news of losing a young woman and her six-month-old pregnancy in a most horrific manner. Given the mouth-watering offer made to the apparently naive young woman, it was unlikely that the three misguided young men would have spared her life. And that is even in addition to the need to cover their tracks, which may be obviated if the young woman is alive.
It is really depressing to witness the kind of moral fabric that obtains in the country nowadays where everything goes, including bestial acts that ordinarily belong in the Hobbesian state of nature. There is no respect for social values or the sanctity of human life. The paramount interest or objective is financial reward and they are willing to engage in the most obnoxious activities to attain the ignoble objective. For N30 million, the young woman was goaded into accepting to terminate the life of her unborn baby and inadvertently put her life on the line.
Given the type and circumstances surrounding the aborted transaction between her and the three men, it is safe to assume that she would not have gone out of it unscathed. Yes, the sum of N30 million may appear huge and tempting, but where proper moral value system exists and reigns, no one needs to be told that no amount of money can equate human life. The woman cheapened herself because obviously she lacks the right set of values. And for a woman to acquiesce to an arrangement that would make her to sacrifice her unborn child on the altar of pecuniary advantage is a disgrace to womanhood and humanity.
What is the society turning into? it is the case, and sadly so, that there is no level people cannot go to make money. And perhaps more concerning is the fact that many no longer believe that hard work pays. Apparently, the suspects wanted to make quick money, like many today in Nigeria where money matters. There is this erroneous but widespread belief that it is possible to make quick and huge money on a sustainable basis without breaking a sweat. Yet, no money ritualist has ever made the Forbe’s list of wealthy people.
There is a sense in which the society could be described as unhelpful in the bid to stem the tide of quick and hot money syndrome, especially amongst the youth. And that is because the society, be it the family, church, mosque, palace, associations, town and so on, and even the government, tends to give unmerited recognition to citizens with deep pockets. Even where other factors or virtues are considered for recognition, they are simply tangential and meant to fulfill all righteousness. The worst part is that often, no one bothers about how these rich men and women make their money; they are simply honoured and recognised once they are reckoned to be people of means.
This societal disposition inevitably provides incentives for citizens with low moral fabric to engage in any activity, no matter how ignoble, to make money since the end seems to justify the means. Even the morally upright are sometimes tempted to slip into decadence when they observe how corrupt and fraudulent people are treated with respect and honour while they are at best ignored or even treated with disdain. And it is saddening that the family, the microcosm of the society, has become largely dysfunctional and ineffective, such that parents and guardians are increasingly becoming less crucial in the process of character formation of their children and wards. Yet, this is the level where people with high standards of character and conduct are supposed be bred before being unleashed on the larger society. For instance, today, some parents are known to accept car gifts from their children who are still in school studying without raising an eye brow. That would not have happened in the days of yore when people valued societal norms.
It is comforting to know that the police have apprehended and interrogated the suspects who were said to have confessed to the crime. However, we urge the police to work hard at arresting the suspects’ main accomplice, ‘Gbege’, who is said to be at large. His arrest will most likely shed more light on the original plan of these felons because he is the person they were supposed to take the pregnant woman to before the law caught up with them. It is unclear whether ‘Gbege’ is a medical doctor or a ritualist priest but his arrest will be helpful. It may even escalate the charge against the suspects by adding conspiracy to commit murder to conspiracy to commit miscarriage which the police said they plan to prefer against the outlaws because there is nothing to suggest that the young woman carrying the foetus would have been alive to spend the N30 million offered her if the deadly plan had succeeded.
We reiterate that the preponderance of anti-social behaviour and criminal conduct that has become a regular occurrence in the society may not abate unless critical stakeholders, including the government, takes deliberate and intentional steps to change the extant course and trajectory of societal recognition and reward systems that place disproportionate premium on people of means, regardless of how they come by their riches.
