Money and society
Good day the great people of this community.
Last week I discussed how crime and corruption has eaten deep into the fabrics of Nigeria. The insecurity is propelled by widespread corruption among those in authority and by extension, the populace. The post was inspired by 'crime and corruption' by the reggae legend, Lucky Dube.
I sat down and thought of what the causative factors of societal menace could be and I arrived at one answer. There is one thing that every human is striving to have. Some do that legitimately while we have some that acquire it with a do or die mentality. A child recognizes it before most other things while growing up. The name is money.
I heard some people say the love of money is the root of all evils while there are others that argue the statement, insisting that the lack of it is rather the root of evil. However being poor or rich is relative. A millionaire is a poor man to a billionaire. One thing that I have come to understand is that most crimes whether by the rich or the poor are associated with money.
Many people have been reported to withstand the temptation from every other thing but money. From the point of birth, one needs money to live his life till the point of death. After death, money is needed for buying materials for internment.
You hear of the powerful in society. You hear of the weak, the downtrodden, the educated, the uneducated and when you study this social stratification carefully, you would realize that money does the classification.
Because of the role that money plays in our social lives, it is taken advantage of to perpetrate all sorts of atrocities. People steal, maim or kill to get possession of money. Some want to ride big cars like they see in the street and in the movie.
Kidnappings, an example of which I talked about last week, is on the rise because some people are desperate to acquire money.
If I want to talk about the effects that money has on humanity, space and time won't permit me to do that.
I am inspired to write this post by a song by Lucky Dube titled 'money.'
He started by telling us his opinion of how love no longer makes the world go round. Money has taken its place instead.
Source
He talked about how the judge is influenced by money to miscarry justice.
"Doesn't matter what they say
I've done here today
Just look the other way
Like you always do
When you see......
Money money money"
In the above lyrics, a person standing trial was telling the judge to consider the money he had in his hands and absolve him of any crime. Reminding the judge that that is what he always does when he sees money.
This song reminds me of my experience about 16 years ago. I had a misunderstanding with a powerful (rich) man in our community. The man reported me to the police and I was arrested. I was thrown into the cell for more than 24 hours without asking me to make a statement.
The following day of my arrest, the police investigator and the man brought a cutlass to the station and claimed that the Cutlass was recovered from me when I went to the man's house to assault him and his family. I was shocked because it was a false allegation. Ironically, I wasn't in town the day that they claimed that I came for the attack.
Instead of investigating properly, the police were pressuring me to confess to what I never did. I was slapped and booted when I insisted that I would never confess to a crime that I didn't commit.
The man that got me arrested came to me to brag that he would make sure that I rot in detention without trials in front of policemen. His money made him call the shots for police on the job that they were trained to do.
My dad never kept quiet in his demand that I should be charged to court or be released from detention. He explained my predicament to some human rights activists and they intervened and I was released afterwards.
What kept me in detention for three days was the effect of money on influencing the dispensation of justice.
Today, we have thousands of Nigerians languishing in various detention facilities because the process of making them face prosecution diligently has been bastardized.
When institutions like law enforcers and judiciary are corrupted, it poses danger to the fight against crime and corruption. An innocent person that is made to suffer may come back from prison or detention to take up the crime that he was falsely accused of committing.
Let's be the voice of the voiceless in any way that we can so that the innocent don't continue to suffer due to a corrupt system.
Be in control of money and don't let money take control of you.
Video sourced from YouTube.
Great post & Good Song, it´s a shame humankind adores the dollar more than itself
It's very shameful. That's a practical example of money controlling human instead of the other way round. Thank you for the support.
I feel emotional about your story in this post. Money has been the order of the day.. people manipulating each other because they have money and think that all powers belong to them. It's sad you had to be detained for three days for a crime you didn't commit. Glad some people came to your rescue at last. If only cases will be judged rightly without the influence of money, some people in captivity today will be free
Great post, however, I think you should add the YouTube link to the song
Have a nice Sunday
!PIZZA
You are right @nkemakonam89. If you visit prison and interview some of the inmates awaiting trials, you would be surprised about the predicaments of some of them. On the issue of kidnapping, if the government doesn't tighten her belt, we haven't seen the worst. See what is happening in Ekiti where school children were kidnapped with their teacher, Oyo, Ogun etc. Banditry and kidnapping were abominable acts a few years ago in those areas. The current hardship being spread by the sitting government may cause more insecurity challenges. Every of this problems is caused by money. Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate your observation. I'll add the link now.
Let's remain positive and pray for our country.
$PIZZA slices delivered:
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It's unfortunate you had to go through all that brutality all in the name of the power money has. As you said, a lot of people are a victim of this, with no nobody to defend or fight for their right. Money is the root of all evil? Amazing post. Thank you for sharing this song, it is one my favourite oldies.
It's a world of the survival of the fittest and the qualifying term is money. Thank you for visiting.
I have loved Lucky's musical style although I'm not a raster man lol but his pattern of musical organisation is something classic. However, what he underscored through his music is what that has bedeviled our time where people would paint issues given financial involved and the mentality of "who came with a bigger pie" we need to stay neutral irrespective of people's pressure on issues of justice and judgement because what goes around in life also comes around. Nice publication.
Dube's songs together with those of Bob Marley remain my best because of the messages they passed. You would listen to a song released in the 80s and you would think that the song was released yesterday. The world is still suffering from the ills criticized by those songs. Money! Money!! Money!!! It has caused a lot.
Money has caused a lot indeed.