Wonder shall never end. If nothing amazes us anew, the word ‘amaze’ or ‘amazing’ shall lost its meaning and significance and become hackneyed. But because the word ‘amazing’ retains its allure and charm, we get to witness amazing things time and again.
Though we now live in a society where people do not grimace anymore at terrible things because of their frequency (daily occurrence) and ubiquitousness (happening everywhere), yet we still find some shocking happenings amazing. Typical of this is the case of the 18 year old girl who was in a desperate search. Desperate search? “For what?” I asked. “For ritualists”, I was told. To do what?
The Daily Trust today (27th Feb. 2022) runs a news headline that reads; “Police Arrest 18-Year-Old Girl Attempting To Sell Boy To Ritualists.” This happened in Adamawa State. The said girl reportedly lured a boy from her neighbourhood in Michika and took him all the way to Mubi in search of a buyer. Or should I say ‘hawk’? She hawked a stolen boy all the way from Michika to Mubi—a distance of about 60km.
According to the police public relation officer in the state; “She took the little boy to Mubi to sell, but when she could not reach the buyers on phone, she decided to search for another buyer. She ended up talking to the wrong person, who in turn informed the police.”
Hmm! Nigeria my country! One can just be accosted on the road by a child seller and ask if one is interested and willing to buy. To buy what? To buy a stolen child. Subhaanallah! It has become this bad. Thank God she was caught. If the trip was successful, she would have probably gone for another trip and form a child-stealing syndicate.
Could you imagine what she needed the money for? She told police investigators that she abducted the boy to raise money to buy a car and live a luxurious life. This is terribly funny. Could this even be an abduction? In most cases people are abducted for ransom. That is, there is prospect that victims regain freedom when the needful is done. In her own case, I consider it stealing. She stole the little boy to sell to ritualists where there is only accidental (miraculous) chance of regaining freedom. Yes! She stole the little boy.
What is even more amazing is that a girl of 18 already knows what luxury life is; and she is desperate to start living it by buying a car? The price of the stolen (but lucky) boy will not, of course, make her realize that premature and amateurish dream. How much would she be paid if she eventually gets the boy sold? She would have needed to go for more boys to actualize her dream. One can only imagine the number of mothers and households she would have thrown into bottomless abyss of woes and unending melancholy if she had succeeded.
In a previous article I raised the alarm that Yahoo girls are also coming on board. It is not a prophecy. It is a common sense. An undisputable manifestation of societal failure in computer age.
Where do we run to? Who do we approach? The government is unapproachable even if we assume it exists. Neighbours are not to be trusted anymore. Schools are becoming impregnating and initiating grounds. They are becoming bullying premises where pupils are bullied to describe the shapes, the sizes, and colours of their sisters’ or mothers’ pants and what lies beneath them.
Perhaps, we should run to churches and mosques. But how safe are they too? Are they not abodes of these ritualists who claim to know the unknown and demonically teach budding yahoo kids how to live a life of luxury at an age when luxury ought not to have any meaning to them? We have never been in a state of dilemma like now?
All said, the way out of this conundrum is to return and repent to God—a sincere repentance. We are people so immersed in the pool of injustice such that justice has no meaning to us anymore. Now we are caught up in the cobweb of injustice. We live in a society where crimes are tolerated. Criminals in Nigeria do not only go scot free but they are extolled. In this kind of society, one can only expect calamities to fall over calamities.
A serious government will take atrocities perpetrated by ritualists seriously; that is if it does not patronize them too. One may not be wrong to say ritualists are at the roots of most of the calamities that befall us today. They empower corrupt politicians, thieves, and 419s, cheating students, dishonest teachers, husband snatchers and remote-controlled father. Not only that, they empower cattle rustlers, kidnappers, and bandits. Recall the Katsina 35 year old woman who supplies ‘criminal charms’ to notorious bandit leaders in Katsina.
Truly, charms and drugs must be at work to carry out the horrible atrocities committed by these bandits. Put differently. One cannot be galvanized to commit such crude and atavistic atrocities only under the influence of charms and drugs. While we continue to ask for God’s intervention, let’s also try to get it right.
Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com
