The other people who killed Cynthia

Murdered: Cynthia Udoka Osokogu

It is understandable that there is outrage against the youths, Nwabufo Okwumo and Ezike Olisaeloka who violated the sanctity of trust and cold-bloodedly murdered Cynthia Osokogu, an impressionable young friend they met via Blackberry Messenger. And they didn’t kill her for rituals or as a result of a grudge they bore her. They killed her solely for her money!

The general feeling of most people is that justice should be quickly dispensed and the self-confessed killers dispatched to the other world that they have sent Cynthia into unprepared.

These are all justified feelings. Indeed, at times like this, one wishes there were no lawyers in Nigeria to complicate the case by coaching the killers to plead not guilty and add some years to the life span of a case that could otherwise have been dealt with within a week.

But away from all this, this incident must force us to reflect upon the monsters we are breeding among the young generation with the unconscionable glorification of money and material wealth. Our musicians sing about nothing else these days beside money and how much of it they have. Some devote entire tracks to boasting about how rich they are. The little kids know Moet, Hennessy and the names of other expensive drinks that their parents cannot afford just by listening to our local musicians.  

Our music artistes cannot string together an intelligible line of lyrics without throwing in boasts about the money they have in local and foreign accounts, the expensive cars they ride and all the mighty mansions they have in Nigeria and abroad.

Music videos, including the ones shot by an aspiring musician from the seediest recess of Ajegunle parade young men flashing dollars and rolling around in borrowed expensive cars, filled with scantily-clad women. The ones who call themselves gospel artistes fill the airwaves with songs of their desire to ride a Bentley, and not a word of how they can honestly and diligently earn it.

The pastors preach nothing else but material wealth, and openly eulogise earthly possessions and those who have been successful at acquiring them at the expense of hard work, personal improvement or capacity building.

Add all these to the street-level daily exhibition of obscene opulence by people who do not have any visible means of livelihood and you have a flourishing colony of Nwabufo Okwumos and Ezike Olisaelokas, who literally cannot wait to be rich.

In essence, the undeclared accomplices of those two evil boys are many and scattered across the length and breadth of Nigeria.

There is urgent need to stop the slide. The government can help by putting in place a tax system that severely taxes ostentation. If as an artiste, a captain of industry or high-lying professional, you are rich enough to purchase a N30 million car, you should be able to pay a tax of N10 million on it to the government to provide amenities for everybody.

We should also develop the culture of questioning unexplained wealth and find a way to encourage more responsible attitude among the so called role models in the creative industries.

May God help Nigeria.