The book: “Better than Rituals and Sacrifice: A Book that Exposes the Evils and Futility of Money Rituals,” written by Reverend Festus Olusegun Bankole (2020, Jodad Publishers) opens with the yearnings of the author to be his brother’s keeper, and need to address the nagging problem of ritual killing. And he begins the book by stating that ritual killing is a common phenomenon in Nigeria, citing media reports and court cases of series of cases of ritual killing and mysterious disappearances of people in the last decade.
He reports that based on these referenced cases, both young and old people are engaged in killing for ritual, especially with vital body parts missing when the corpses of victims are found.
In the first chapter (and part one) of this well-researched, 17-chapter book, the author reports that both young and old, as well as clerics either committed by themselves, or commissioned others to lure victims to be killed for ritual purposes; husbands kill their wives or men kill their girlfriends for money rituals either for themselves or others. He also laments the almost-ubiquitous social media accounts that now audaciously invite people to patronise them for “legal money ritual business”, “instant money without blood”, “money ritual without sacrifice”, etc. all with displayed phone numbers, and graphic information.
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For Dr. Bankole, these bold advertisements of money ritual merchants “are signals for a state of criminalities” where “more innocent people will be missing as the get-rich-quick syndrome is attracting more followers. More Nigerians both old and young want to be wealthy without sweat. More Nigerians are cueing into the idea of using blood of fellow human beings for ritual.” (P8)
In the second chapter, Dr. Bankole copiously reviews literature on rituals, characteristics, types, purposes and consequences. He explains that most people have misconceptions about ritual. He argues that while most people see ritual as evil, he declares that “all of us have been involved in one form of ritual or another” and based on his exploration of various definitions of ritual, he states that it cuts across all cultures since it is innate in human beings, and present in one form or another “in all religions, cults and societies.” (Pp10-11).
He insists that sacrifice is an integral element in Christianity (tithe, offering, fasting and taking care of the needy); Islam (obligatory Zakat and giving of alms to the poor), and African Traditional Religion (offering of various food items at road intersections). For the author, rituals follow a sequence, are performed regularly, and involve words and pronouncements in form of incantations, recitations, sermonising, and oath-taking. We also read that rituals are inseparable from sacrifice.
The author breaks down the intricacies of rituals, especially in religious circles, types and uses, including initiation rituals, worship, and investigative rituals, among others. The author also gives us a peep into what he describes as political ritual, which includes swearing-in ceremony, inauguration of board members, and commissioning of government projects.
Relying on his many years of ministerial and theological practice, he pushes his thematic focus by diving into the intricacies of Christianity to state that rituals are beneficial to human beings. He uses the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as a theoretical framework for the book, to aver (P19) that this single act of Christ has paved the way for Christians; consequently therefore, they are to desist and refrain from making rituals to solve problems.
The third chapter of this 187-page book exhaustively examines rituals in some selected regions and religions of the world, including the Ancient Near East in the present day Middle East (Israel, Palestine, Babylon), the Far East (China, Japan, Taiwan, etc.) and African Traditional Religion, and so on.
In the book, Better than Rituals and Sacrifice, Reverend Bankole also explains the concept of sacrifice as something that is done or given up in order to get something else. In the fourth chapter, he itemises the reasons sacrifice is offered, but insists (P34) that none of the sacrifice is for money. Among the reasons for sacrifice are: to appease angry gods which had been offended by human beings, to curry favour of the Supreme God or lesser gods, and to thank and appreciate what the deities had done in the lives of adherents in the past. Others include ensuring the continuous existence of the deity in the community, to alter the effect of bad destiny, and to provide food and drinks for human beings.
The fifth chapter focuses on money rituals. Here, the author argues (P36) that money ritual is “the latest device of man to circumvent all the decrees and principles of God concerning wealth acquisition” and “rejection of God and his plans for humanity.”
While acknowledging that money ritual is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria, the author is worried that human beings, especially youths in Nigeria and other African countries, and even older men and women, are now looking for money in frightening ways. He laments the level of desperation for money these days which lead to some offering their “manhood” as sacrifice to acquire wealth, or sleep in graveyards for days, or choose “to be inflicted with wounds that will never heal”. He is bothered that desperation leads some to sacrifice their comfort by sleeping in coffins or murdering their wives for money rituals.
Going down memory lane, the author highlights the role of the media, especially the role of theatre practitioners in their campaign to discourage money rituals in their presentations and potent portrayal of money ritual as having unwholesome, terrible, and dire consequences. He also takes the reader on an excursion of the Ghana model after the government there became worried by the “Sakawa” culture over there (their own equivalent of “yahoo-plus”). He equally prescribes this model for Nigeria (P43) even though he thinks that the Nigerian government “seems to be looking the other way when a case of ritual-assisted crime is reported.”
For him, the Nigerian governments at the state and federal levels need to “act pragmatically to stop ritual-assisted cybercrime because of its evil effects on the ritualist, the victims and the national economy.” In fact, the author argues that the claim of poverty or joblessness for killing for money ritual is “lame excuse which is not tenable anywhere”, and concludes by providing solutions to poverty, which include but not limited to sowing seeds, perseverance, regular tithing, and so on.
The author opens the second part of the book with eulogies for men of honest enterprise and integrity who made their wealth by sheer hard work in Nigeria. He writes that we have an endless list of people who rose from grass to grace, whose rise from obscurity to prominence was through hardship and suffering, determination and perseverance. So he dedicates this section to exposing some of the godly actions that people have taken throughout history and contemporary times to become rich and wealthy without engaging in any form of killing for money. Such actions as exhaustively examined in the book include obedience (biblical personalities who obeyed God), hard work (young, hardworking Nigerians like Davido, etc.), integrity (exhibited by people like Obafemi Awolowo, General Murtala Mohammed, etc.); contentment, perseverance, determination to succeed, discipline, prayer, and the kingdom of God.
In the last chapter of the book titled, Futility of Money Ritual, the author avers that those who engage in money ritual are only “forcing their way to get what God is not ready to give them”, because nobody can have what God is not ready to give him or her. He insists that money ritual is not found in the Holy Quran or the Holy Bible, but it only exists in magic and witchcraft. Thus the author undertakes his homily on the undesirability of money ritual and its bad consequences (P181) because “each money ritual has a taboo attached to it and once the taboo is offended, there is always a bad consequence.”
He insists that money ritual is undesirable, because “perpetrators die early” in most cases; and are sometimes made to sacrifice something vital to their existence in life. For the author, “any attempt to use ungodly means to get it will backfire.” (P182) In his closing charge therefore, the author states (P183): “If you are planning to join ritual-assisted-cyber fraud group (Yahoo-Plus), please have a rethink because it has an adverse consequence, which is untimely death.”
It is a strongly recommended work both for edification and research purposes.
. Olatunbosun is a broadcast journalist and fact-checker and book reviewer at Splash FM 105.5, Ibadan. He can be reached via molatunbosun@splashfm1055.com and on X and Instagram @miketunbosun.