With all the Nollywood hype on
juju, money rituals, power rituals, witches and wizards, and prayers that cure
all problems, one would have thought that Nigeria would be topping the medals’
list at the on-going Olympics in London. The Americas, Asia, Europe and other
parts of the world would have stayed by the sidelines kowtowing with trembling
and trepidation as Nigeria pockets medal after medal.
But regrettably, it seems the
potency of the juju from these named climes dwarfs ours. Or, perhaps the
citizens of these continents pray better and harder than we do. Or, put more
resignedly: Maybe God loves these nations more than Nigeria.
Less than three weeks ago –
precisely on July 25 – the media reported the arrest of two men from Nasarawa
State, near the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, with the fresh head of a
seven-year-old boy. The victim was identified as Samu Danjuma, the child of
their neighbours. According to the confession they made to the police before
the media when they were paraded by officials of the State Security Services,
they had lured the boy with a loaf of bread, drowned him, and beheaded him for
sale to a man who had promised them N250,000.00.
On July 27, two men were
arrested in Lagos with the decomposing, mutilated body of their 39-year-old
brother, Akinbuyi Ajayi, in their family house in Festac Town. Some body parts
such as the head, hands, private part and a part of the two legs had been
removed from the corpse. The decomposing corpse was discovered after the two
were caught by the police allegedly selling some human parts. That led to a
search of their house, a duplex which their parents had left behind for them.
