Get-Rich-Quick Syndrome and the Incidence of Human Rituals among South-West Nigerian Youths: A Sociological Analysis of Associated Factors

Abstract

Weber’s Protestant Ethics and Spirit of Capitalism represents the ethics, moral virtue and strict attitude toward hard work as a fundamental way of wealth creation. The Yorubas also extol ethics and moral virtue of hard work as means of making money to escape poverty. The study is explorative and dialectical, probing and opening up the reality of motivated human killings for money ritual among the Yoruba youths, in the course of struggle for survival and to escape poverty amidst limited economic opportunities, deprivation and inequality in wealth distribution. The study investigates the factors that could have influenced the inordinate desire of these youths to get rich quick and accumulate sudden wealth and riches. The study was carried out in Oshogbo. Accidental sampling method was employed to sample a cross section of respondents from the indigenous communities in Oshogbo. Three hundred and sixty (360) respondents were randomly selected and sampled with open and close-ended questionnaires. Out of this figure, three hundred and forty one (341) questionnaires properly filled and returned were analysed for the study. An in-depth unstructured interview (IDI) was also conducted with five other respondents in each of the indigenous communities. The study reveals that the present inordinate desperation of the youths to get-rich-quick is influenced by unemployment, online and Nollywood videos, peer influence, poor parenting and change in societal value system, economic deprivation and inequality in wealth distribution characterized by marginalization, limited opportunities and social exclusion of these youths perpetrating the criminal acts. Finally, the study recommends that society should exhibit zero tolerance to the get-rich-quick syndrome of these youths. The federal and States governments should create job opportunities for the youths. The youths should also be encouraged to engage in entrepreneurial skills acquisition ventures that will provide them with means of earning income and wealth generation.

Keywords: Get-Rich-Quick, Human Rituals, South-West Nigeria, Youths, Associated Factor.