GET RICH FAST’ SYNDROME AND THE RITUAL KILLINGS OF WOMEN IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIA

Abstract

The fight to halt violence against women is still a huge struggle. Unfortunately, ritual related crime of ‘’get rich fast’’ syndrome has further exacerbated violence against women in Nigeria -which is a particularly extreme kind of violence against women.  In order to prepare ritualistic concoctions that can make the offenders wealthy, protect and advance them, ritualists target the breasts, vulva, ovaries, head, and other physical parts of women and girls. Existing research have studied kidnapping for ritual, its consequences for security and prevalence targeting minors, lunatics, the physically impaired and albinos but little attention had focused on the ‘’get rich fast’’ syndrome of   ritual killing as a form of gender-based violence against women in Nigeria. The study explained ritual related crime considered a pervasive trend against women by men in south-western Nigeria as an absurd get ‘’rich fast syndrome’’. The study detailed how women fall victims, their relationship with the male perpetrators and the reason for this act against women. Three Nigerian newspapers—the Punch, the Sun, and Vanguard—that covered ritual-related crimes from January 2019 to June 2022 had their content analyzed. These chosen publications are widely read and have their headquarters in Lagos south west Nigeria. The states of Oyo, Lagos, and Ogun were deliberately chosen because they are economically strong, draw young women looking for better opportunities and have a disproportionately high incidence of criminal vices. A total of 1008 publications were analysed during the period under review. The results reveal that 54 men with just one woman who acted as an accomplice to her husband was involved in the ritual related killing of women. This shows that males are the ones who commit crimes against women related to rituals, therefore making it gender based violence against women. The result also shows that women are more likely than men to be victims of crimes associated to rituals, reasons for this include women not being physically strong like the men, these women trusted their male partners who use romance, her quest for marriage as a bait to lure and extract her bodily parts. The result also shows that social –cultural beliefs as well as patriarchy which see women as less than men and next in line after slaves to be used for ritual purposes are also contributing factors to the slaying of women for ritualistic get rich fast money. Also, the result shows that another reason for ritualistic men targeting women is the low status of women where her reproductive parts like her breast, vulva and other parts are deemed portend for get rich fast concoctions to be prepared by herbalist. Discussions on ritual crimes are generally broad, but women are being targeted for their body parts by desperate men who, with the help of ritual doctors, prepare these severed female parts for quick money rituals. Ritual-related crime against women demands immediate attention. Thus, in order to stop this terrible trend, the government must apply a gender lens to address ritual-related crime and use all available tools to ensure that it is completely removed from society. Addressing crime will also address gender-exacerbated violence against women.   Key words: ritual crime, get rich fast syndrome, domestic violence, yahoo plus.