BABATUNDE Fashola, the Minister of Works and Housing says Nigerian moviemakers should stop the promotion of money rituals in their movies as it entices similar acts and kidnapping in the society.
Describing the belief system as untrue, the former governor of Lagos state explained that money is made by man, through printing on a paper and not God.
Fashola, who spoke in a lecture titled, ‘Security of citizens as a social contract,’ at an event organised by the United Action for Change, emphasised that such mindset amplified by the entertainment industry should be discouraged as it is capable of promoting human abductions with believes that body parts – human skull, could be used to become wealthy.
Rather, he asked the stakeholders to change their script to better narrations.
“Some people believe that if you get a man’s head or a woman’s body parts, they could be turned into money. It’s not true! And when you ask people who believe in it if they have seen it happen before, they tell you someone said they had seen it,” Fashola said.
“However, it has become a reinforced belief through entertainment, social media, and Nollywood. How can a human head bring money? Money is paper invented by man, not God. They put the paper in a machine to print what we call money and that is the only place money comes from.”
It could be recalled that a number of kidnapping cases have been reported in the media including the case of late Favour Daley-Oladele, an undergraduate disembarked to make money rituals.
In 2017, kidnapping became rampant in Lagos with an extension to other parts of the country.
A year after, on 23rd December, Ondo State Chapter of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Owo local branch raised alarm over the rate of ritual killings, with the kidnapping of a 13-day old baby.
“But the challenge is the belief system. Just think about how many people have been missing – through kidnapping – because some people believe that it exists. The police could tell us the number of people they have apprehended with human parts, such as skulls. This belief system must go,” the minister said in a report by Punch.
“Therefore, all of us, including those who make the films, must reverse the story and start selling a new story that money is printed in a machine and not through any other way like money rituals.”
“It is not true, or how does that happen? What is the connection between paper (money) and cotton (pants) or has anybody seen cotton money before? Those of us who have influence and authority must take positions to see to the reversal of this kind of belief,” dispelling other claims that stealing women’s underwear makes one rich.
Olugbenga heads the Investigations Desk at The ICIR. Do you have a scoop? Shoot him an email at oadanikin@icirnigeria.org. Twitter Handle: @OluAdanikin