Of Money Ritual and Wisdom of A Seasoned Dibia

(By Wayo Guy) - The Igbo Family and the Ruinous Concept of Ogwu Ego 

My grandpa was a local medicine man. He was the earliest untrained psychologist who expanded my understanding of human nature beyond classroom education. A man of few words, grandpa punctuated his rare utterances with aku bu iro (wealth attracts enmity), a reference to his wealthy clientele who were rumored to be ndi ogwu ego.

He was the first person from whom I heard that Nwata kpaa nku karia ibe ya, a si na o kpatara ya n'ajo ohia (when a child brings home more firewood than his peers, he will be accused of fetching them from the evil forest). Looking back, I can clearly see the connection of this proverb to the ogwu ego phenomenon in Igboland.

If you are an Igbo adult, you know what the concept of ogwu ego is; it defies a precise definition simply because it is supposedly located in the realm of metaphysics or the supernatural.

If you appear to have more money than your peers and they are not clued into the secret source of your money, you are in danger of being branded onye ogwu ego. If you and your brothers are in the same type of business but you appear to excel over and beyond them, you are likely onye ogwu ego. If your townsmen and women are backward due to their laziness but you succeed by dint of hard work and industry, it is likely that very soon you will have become onye ogwu ego to some of them.

There is Nothing Like "Money Ritual"

(By Abimbola Adelakun) – There is nothing like ‘money rituals’

The gruesome murder of the Lagos State University student, Miss Favour Daley-Oladele, by a self-deluded young man in pursuit of an illusion of “money rituals” is saddening. According to reports, Favour’s boyfriend, Owolabi Adeeko, had allegedly connived with a pastor, Segun Philips, who promised to make a potion that would magically draw money for Adeeko and his mother. Now that they have been busted, the pastor claimed the ritual failed because “the spirit did not bring any money.”

I am uncertain if he genuinely believed that money would magically surface or he was merely making things up for the press, but here is the truth: There is nothing like money ritual. There has never been, and there never will be.

There is nobody that claims that “money ritual” is real that can also substantiate it. The evidence people tender about its efficacy is typically reportorial, or some fantasy they picked up from home movies. Meanwhile, Nollywood filmmakers too have never seen money rituals work either. What they rehash are urban myths and similar tales. Nobody, I repeat, nobody can make money come out of thin air or conjure it from another location.

Of Nigerians and the Lunacy of Money Rituals

(By Temidayo Ahanmisi) - Meanwhile we still do NOT have the tiniest shred of evidence to suggest that money rituals work.

Not one.

Every suspected money ritualist has a thriving business which they pursue.
The question is Why? What's the point of striving at a trade when said ritualist could just as well order money to pour from anywhere, and crisp notes would litter the place?

I think I'm moving far ahead of myself on this. In the first place, the said ritualist or the native doctors even needing to subjugate their supposed powers to currency bills is the first fail.

Why can't the ritualist be powerful enough to just get all his needs delivered willingly to his doorstep? 
Bankers would bring cash. Car dealers would drop cars and skip away. Food sellers would drop food items..

Why need money? Why "mint" money?

Rationalism trumps this base superstition at any time, but the politics of religious people in need of validation of their myths and faith would not let reason have sway and take the day over ignorance, fear and Incredulity. It is imperative to the religious to have a phantom devil so intractably powerful that they would fight tooth and nail to maintain the contrivance of an omnipotent Evil, capable of the most insane feats.