Why youths engage in money rituals, others – Catholic Bishop

Onah

The Catholic Bishop of Nsukka Diocese in Enugu State, Most Reverend Godfrey Onah, has blamed rising money ritual charm also known as “Okeite” among Igbo youths to religious leaders failure and bad governance.

Onah stated this during the 2025 South-East Colloquium on “The Rise of Neo-Religious Practices, Self-Acclaimed Prophets, Ndi Eze-Nwoke and Ndi-Eze-Nwanyi; their effects on Ndi Igbo, their Faith and Traditional Ethos” on Friday in Enugu.

The event was organised by the Enugu Archdiocese of the Methodist Church Nigeria.

The bishop noted that poverty created by bad governance and bad religion that preached prosperity gospel and manipulated followers forced neo-religious practices among Igbo youths.

Onah added that the quick rich syndrome among youths was also a driving force to resurgence of these new religious practices.

“These guys kidnapping us along the road are victims of manipulation by their own religion.

“Bad governance creates the misery upon which manipulative religion thrives and manipulative religion provides false assurances to the miserable people, and of course, flatters the leaders of bad governance.

“These religious leaders have changed religion from worship of God to casting and binding evil spirits until members are tired of it and discovered it was a cheat and deception.

“These pentecostal prosperity gospel preachers, before they knew it, their members have left them disappointed and disillusioned. These exploited and frustrated people go back and invent their own idols,” Onah said.

The clergyman stressed that religious leaders had the responsibility to present their experiences and knowledge of God to the world while government should manage the common resources judiciously as poverty bred ground of deception. Vanguard