Opinion: Politicians, voodoo and power – By BOBSON GBINIJE
“Man supposes that he directs his life and governs his actions, when his existence is irretrievably under the control of destiny” –Goethe (1749-1832)
THE ruthless apotheosisation of money, wealth, success, fame, greatness and power, etc has stimulated the cacoethes and passion for multidimensional strategies for achieving them. The deification of money and power has ascended the dangerous crescendo where human spare parts, diabolical rivalry, spiritual poisoning, family feud, voodooistic proclivities and cultic magic have become the major ritualistic paraphernalia and in their wake, leaving many people mad, dead, poor, deformed and some as mobile corpses.
The voodooistic ritualist and ritualism have continued to maintain a banal presence in the Nigerian society. Within the context of usage, a ritualist is anybody who performs the rites, mystery, ceremony and liturgy of life, using demonic mediums like sexual defilement of women lunatics, child virgins, human spare parts, incestuous orgies and adulterous escapades. But the concern of this writer in this submission is the rampageous prevalence of sexual assault on women lunatics in Nigeria. The ritualists say making love with or having carnal knowledge of female lunatics remains the most potent antidote to most problems. What a shame! We know why most ritualists and their patronisers are never tried in Nigeria. It is because they are the partners in crime with those at the helm of affairs, politicians and the rich. On November 5, 2014, this writer was driving from Warri Club at about 10:15pm when four men alighted from a Prado Jeep and a Mercedes Benz 230 V-Boot.
They pounced on a popular female lunatic who loiters around Enerhen junction and took her into Igbudu Primary School and sexually abused her. I slowed down to observe part of this show of shame. On February 19, 2014, this writer was also driving into Warri from Sapele at about 10:30pm when three men accosted a female lunatic at the Effurun/Warri Roundabout and took her into the Naval open field and had sex with her in turns. I drove to Ekpan junction and told the police what was going on, they simply laughed and said, “Mind your business.” I have seen this same scenario being played out in Port Harcourt, Lagos, Jos, Abuja and Benin City. What a shame! Some of our societal and traditional values are so disparagingly skewed against our women that when things happen to them, they are sheepishly waved away. Why will a sane male descend to the desperately depredatory level of making love to a female lunatic?
It is also an unquestionable truism that beliefs, practices and customs in Nigeria are fundamentally redolent in religious archetype and paradigms. The prevalence of gender prejudices allows for female genital mutilations, FGM, sexual harassments, rape, inheritance taboos and widow torture against our women. The woman is seen as an infrading and bovine dunderheaded noodle notwithstanding her education and status in society. Hence, ritualists have also come to see the woman as the most active ingredient in their pot-pourri of demonic concoction. It is also a basic fact that some women are part of this luciferous syndicate that is out to completely and eternally debase womanhood by their shameless involvement in women, child and girls trafficking and human rituals.
If green leaves should burn, what will dry leaves do? We call on the National Assembly to enact a law that will checkmate the activities of ritualists in our society. We call on state Commissioners of Women Affairs to immediately fine-tune logistics and orchestrate actions that will forestall the loitering of women lunatics on our streets, because it exposes them to ritualists and sexual harassments. We call on the families of women lunatics to show some remorse by attending to their own by taking them to Psychiatric centres or Mental Homes and we beseech all Nigerians,that we all belong to a common humanity and hence must learn to be our brother’s keepers. When one lunatic patient is maltreated, it is our responsibility to rise to salvage him or her. We sometimes come across pregnant lunatics undergoing the trauma of childbirth and members of the society walk past and go about their business without any qualms of conscience. Sometimes, we also see mad women carrying their own babies on the streets.
This, no doubt, exposes the baby and the mother to ritualists and other miscreants. We call on the local government authorities, state governments, non-governmental organisations, and other statutory bodies to rise to save our women lunatics and their children. As the elections approach, politicians and their ilk are preparing to acquire power by all means. They are much more prone to getting to their hierarchical echelon by voodooistic acrobatics and diabolical manipulations. Politicians are advised in their own political and spiritual interest to steer clear of human sacrifice and blood shedding.
The essayist, John Webster (1580-1625) said in his book, The Duchess of Malfi, that “Heaven-gates are not so highly arch’d as princes palaces,. They that enter there must go upon their knees.” Finally, our world is drifting towards the taratoid epicenter of horrific promiscuity and awesome materialism, where money, fame and power have become our god. We now hypocritically call the name of the true “God Almighty” in deceit. Hence, William Somerville said: “Let all the learned say what they can, it is really money that makes the man.” But money and power are transient. Let us seek integrity, instead of voodooistic ascension to power, wealth and fame. Politicians must fear God, before, during and after the general elections for Nigeria to move forward. Vanguard
