A friend just discovered that while he was in Nigeria to bury his mother, some of his townspeople discussed kidnapping him for ransom, and then “wasting him.” They even conscripted his deceased mother’s driver whom he’d been using that period. This was a man my friend trusted, a man who had been with his mother for years until she died. And yet, this man was willing to have him abducted and killed for a share of the ransom.
The only reason the plan didn’t go as planned was that when the driver suggested “one shortcut” to drop him off at home, my friend’s gut instinct warned him that he was in danger. He told the driver he needed to run one more errand before going home, and made a stop at one of his cousins. He dismissed the driver and found another ride home. He left soon to return to the UK. While he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had avoided some danger by getting rid of the driver, it would take two years and the arrest of several members of a kidnapping gang in his ancestral town for him to hear just how close he had come to being abducted and killed.
I have written several times about the level of greed and obsession with (and worship of) wealth that seem to have become very prevalent in our country. Young people see folks who have become wealthy, and their first question is “God when?” It is hardly ever “God, how?” The focus is always on the end result, not on the process that led to that wealth. And when that mentality dominates a society, it is inevitable that people will seek shortcuts to riches, no matter the cost.
My friend’s experience is a chilling example of how far some are willing to go in pursuit of money. A driver who had been loyal to his family for years was so easily swayed by the promise of a share in a ransom that he was willing to betray the son of his long-time employer. The relationship they had built over time meant nothing in the face of the lure of quick wealth. It is terrifying to think how close my friend came to losing his life because of greed.
This isn’t an isolated incident, but part of a broader pattern in our society, where life is cheap and money is everything. We hear the stories. People no longer see wealth as something to be earned through hard work and perseverance. Instead, there is a dangerous obsession with getting rich at all costs. Social media, flashy lifestyles, and the glorification of ill-gotten wealth feed this toxic mindset, especially among the youth.
The lack of accountability for corruption – our politicians steal all the money they do and go scot-free, coupled with the normalisation of extravagance, using expensive champagne to wash your hands, spraying a year’s salary at a single party creates a breeding ground for criminal activities like 419, kidnapping and murder. Everyone wants to hammer. They want to be the ones being lauded by their communities for their excessive wealth. It is both sickening and dangerous.
Our people say na a ana ebido n’uno malu mma welu puta ilo. Charity begins at home. We need to, in our individual homes, begin to recalibrate markers of success for our children. I remember reading an interview with the Nigerian-British actor, Chiwetal Ejiofor, where he said that a journalist told his mother that she must be very proud of her actor son, who was a star, to which the mother replied that her daughter had just graduated from a top college, and that that daughter was the star before saying that she was proud of both of them.
Success shouldn’t just be about how much one is bringing in but how one maximises their talents and gifts, blessings from God, to live a life of fulfilment. When the only marker of success is money, people are tempted to resort to whatever means to make it. Wealth in itself is not bad, after all, we, the Igbo name our children Egodi. There is wealth. It is the get-it-by-all-means wealth that has saturated our beloved Naija that we must begin to shun and teach our children to shun. Otherwise, we will all pay the price for it.