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The mirage of quick riches – Part 1

OBINNA NWOSU Written by OBINNA NWOSU · 1 min read >

A young undergraduate from one of the federal universities in Nigeria traveled to his village, for his cousin’s wedding ceremony.

Jaden, as he was fondly called, was in his final year, studying Mechanical Engineering.

So, he got home a day before the wedding and was warmly received by his family members, who had not seen him for three months, since he left home for his final year, first-semester course work.

There was so much excitement in both his nuclear and extended families because it was a great opportunity for a family reunion.

His happy mother, who knows that her son enjoys roasted corn, quickly roasted two fresh and soft cobs of corn for him, serving them with boiled groundnuts.

While he was busy consuming this homemade delicacy, his mother rushed into the kitchen to prepare dinner for him.

Besides, his younger and only sister, who could not hide her joy of seeing her brother after three months, hurriedly boiled some water for Jaden to have his bath. There was no electricity to heat bathing water, so the only option was to use the firewood stove.

The electricity supply in his village was so bad that they only had it available for three days a month. The electricity distribution company provides power at the end of the month to enable them to collect their monthly unmetered bills from the poor villagers.

Afterward, Jaden had his bath and joined the family members outside the family house, where they had dinner together.

There was a mango tree in front of the house, so everyone gathered there at night to cherish the cool and fresh village breeze, and that is usually where most family members take dinner.

After dinner, Jaden chatted boisterously with other family members to catch up on recent happenings in the village. It was a happy home, notwithstanding that they were not well to do.

Subsequently, everyone retired to bed to get some rest before the next day’s occasion.

The next morning, they all prepared and went to the church for their cousin’s wedding. The reception followed the marriage service at a football field within the church compound.

The wedding reception progressed as planned until it was time for the couple to dance.

Immediately the couple started dancing to the beautiful tunes of Frank Nneji’s “It’s your wedding day”, some young men, numbering seven, appeared with bags loaded with bundles of naira notes.

They began to “spray” the clean naira notes on the newly wedded couple, as they danced to the melodious music tunes. Some of them threw the notes into the air, with the naira notes raining down on the couple.

While this was happening, everyone gathered to watch these young men, aged between sixteen and twenty-five years, who had no known means of livelihood, as they treated money as nothing in the midst of the poverty-stricken villagers.

For them, it was an opportunity to display their ill-gotten wealth and show the villagers that they had arrived.

In addition, it was a time to lure some unsuspecting youths who wished to be like them into their occult group.

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