Finding The Lost Generation

The hypocrisy of this generation is
galling, we are blaming teenagers
for going into rituals and voodoo
in order to make money
We are blaming their parents
We are crying foul
We are removing ourselves from the
equation
As if we were not the ones who opened
pandora’s box
That’s very funny
Who made money the ultimate thing
in life?
Was it not this generation?
Who started and glorified the “yahoo
yahoo” fraud?
Was it not this generation?
Was it not Oluwhatever that sang
Yahooze, wasn’t the song the DJ’s
favorite during the last presidential
campaign
The generation before us prioritized
education
Of course, there were ritualists and
fraudsters in that generation but most
of them tried the legal route first and
waited to have a break until they lost
faith in their late twenties/early
thirties and turned to crime
In fact, most of the early fraudsters
became fraudsters while they were
abroad (studying or working) before
bringing their ill-gotten gains home
to Nigeria and gaining notoriety
Most parents in Nigeria weren’t rich in
terms of money but they were very
wealthy when it came to religion
Were we not the generation that
stabbed religion in the heart?
Churches sprang up in the 90s
due to unemployment
I have studied the data over and
over again, most of them didn’t
endure but it spoke to the motive of
their founders
They were fraudsters at heart, who
only hid behind pulpits to work on
their marks
My former mechanic once had a
candid discussion with me, he
wanted me to loan him two hundred
thousand naira
I asked him what he needed the
money for
He said “Three generations shouldn’t
suffer in poverty.
My father died poor, I am poor, and
the way things are looking my son will
end up poor too So i want to buy him
a laptop and an internet modem
I want him to start doing yahoo”
The man was in his late thirties,
his son was 17
I took over the payment of the boy’s
school fees after that
I made sure he finished his OND/HND
and got a job with a printing press
The man thought I was being kind
but I don’t kid myself
He was desperate and I knew for sure
someone out there would be the casualty
of his desperation
I have been in the company of pastors,
(White Garment Church) shepherds
I was a youth pastor at this time I got
invited to a special programme to minister
After my ministration one of the pastors
approached me and said
“Do you know they told us from our
headquarters not to do spiritual work
(making soaps, perfumes, and special
totems) for yahoo boys and fraudsters?
Do you think this is fair? Is it the meager
tithes and offering that we will now
be depending on?
Has anyone ever built a cathedral with
tithes and offerings?
Didn’t the rich ones making the rules
now do spiritual work for drug barons,
soldiers being commissioned for
work outside Nigeria and police officers
seeking promotion?
Was that not how they built their cathedrals
and made it in this life?
My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth
I was just looking at him
Other pastors joined us, (This discussion
happened at Ogere, in Ogun State) and
they were nodding
I just bought my second car at this time
A Toyota Camry
They assumed since I walk in supernatural
dimensions and preach the supernatural
realities of the believer
I knew one or two things that made me
rich outside of the gospel
They didn’t know the advantage I had
at that time was my wife
She had a car when i met her and she
had started her glorious career
The car they saw was 70% bought
from her savings
We had even sold the old one before
adding some money to buy the new
one
Only I could have married a woman
like that, most of them married beneath
them so that they can control
their wives and play “The man”
I married a glory and I didn’t dim her
brightness
I sat them down and advised them to
start monthly contributions among
themselves
I told them to do spiritual work for
criminals make them accessories to
the crime committed and they will
answer for their decisions one day
I assured them that supporting a
criminal is not an act of faith and
the gains from such will not bring
glory to God
Some of them got the message
(they’re still doing the monthly
contribution till today)
The one that didn’t get the message
approached a pastor of another
white garment church to learn some
tricks and went mad a few months
later
All in the pursuit of money I remembered
a young man telling me to come to Egbeda,
Festac, and other areas in Lagos where
the main job of many was internet fraud
As an undergraduate, I was privileged to
visit one of the most expensive private
Universities in Edo state I was part of
the team representing my school for the
Nigeria Private University Games
I saw cars, exotic cars, parked in a long row
I was told the cars belong to students,
most of them couldn’t take the cars home
because their parents didnt even use
such a car at home
That was the foundation we laid
This is on us and we must begin to retrace
our footsteps towards God
In the last few years, we have seen the
evil teenagers and young adults are
capable of if left to their own cultism,
fraud, rituals, rape, and murder is nothing
to them
They are too young to understand the
concept of consequence
Too childish to understand the meaning
of discretion and our generation is
spurring them on
I have seen too many parents looking
the other way because of lack
I have seen fathers practically pretend
they couldn’t see that their daughters
had entered into prostitution while
pretending they were working as event
waitresses because of food I have seen
mothers pretend their sons won some
money playing sports bet rather than
call them to order
Illiterate parents especially are very
easy to fool, they have no clue what
their children did with the computer
Some even assume their children were
“working” hard.
A young man bought two Benz jeeps
in Ketu, Lagos State
The cars were delivered on a Sunday
When his father saw the cars, the man
packed his bags and moved back to
Ado Ekiti, he said he knew the cars
arrived only a few days before the
handcuffs
The boy’s mother cursed him for refusing
to celebrate their son’s success
The matter was dragged to church a few
weeks later when the man when
the man insisted he wanted a divorce
if his wife wouldn’t move to the village
with him
What can a pastor do here?
Counsel?
Pray?
Be sensitive to the leading of the Holy
Spirit and exercise a lot of discretion
Within six months, the boy was arrested
and the cars seized but it was not a
deterrent for others I know people,
young people, who were deliberately
sponsored by their family members
and sent to Malaysia so that they can
learn and do internet fraud
If you meet a yahoo fraudster today
and tell him what he is doing is wrong,
he will most likely reply you by saying
his victims are insured and therefore
there is no real casualty
We have bred a monster that does not
understand the meaning of consequence
and we will have to put a leash on this
monster by returning to God as a
generation.

-GSW-