Finding A Last Generation

The hypocrisy of this generation is 
galling, we are blaming teenagers 
for going into rituals and voodoo 
in order to make money 
We are blaming their parents 
We are crying foul 
We are removing ourselves from the 
equation 
As if we were not the ones who opened 
pandora's box 
That's very funny 
Who made money the ultimate thing 
in life? 
Was it not this generation? 
Who started and glorified the "yahoo 
yahoo" fraud? 
Was it not this generation?
 Was it not Oluwhatever that sang 
Yahooze, wasn't the song the DJ's 
favorite during the last presidential 
campaign
The generation before us prioritized 
education 
Of course, there were ritualists and 
fraudsters in that generation but most 
of them tried the legal route first and 
waited to have a break until they lost 
faith in their late twenties/early 
thirties and turned to crime 
In fact, most of the early fraudsters
became fraudsters while they were 
abroad (studying or working) before 
bringing their ill-gotten gains home 
to Nigeria and gaining notoriety 
Most parents in Nigeria weren't rich in 
terms of money but they were very 
wealthy when it came to religion 
Were we not the generation that
stabbed religion in the heart? 
Churches sprang up in the 90s 
due to unemployment
I have studied the data over and 
over again, most of them didn't 
endure but it spoke to the motive of 
their founders 
They were fraudsters at heart, who 
only hid behind pulpits to work on 
their marks
My former mechanic once had a 
candid discussion with me, he 
wanted me to loan him two hundred 
thousand naira 
I asked him what he needed the 
money for 
He said "Three generations shouldn't 
suffer in poverty. 
My father died poor, I am poor, and 
the way things are looking my son will
end up poor too So i want to buy him 
a laptop and an internet modem 
I want him to start doing yahoo" 
The man was in his late thirties, 
his son was 17 
I took over the payment of the boy's 
school fees after that
I made sure he finished his OND/HND 
and got a job with a printing press 
The man thought I was being kind 
but I don't kid myself 
He was desperate and I knew for sure 
someone out there would be the casualty 
of his desperation
 I have been in the company of pastors, 
(White Garment Church) shepherds 
I was a youth pastor at this time I got 
invited to a special programme to minister 
After my ministration one of the pastors 
approached me and said 
"Do you know they told us from our 
headquarters not to do spiritual work 
(making soaps, perfumes, and special 
totems) for yahoo boys and fraudsters? 
Do you think this is fair? Is it the meager 
tithes and offering that we will now 
be depending on? 
Has anyone ever built a cathedral with 
tithes and offerings? 
Didn't the rich ones making the rules 
now do spiritual work for drug barons, 
soldiers being commissioned for 
work outside Nigeria and police officers 
seeking promotion? 
Was that not how they built their cathedrals 
and made it in this life? 
My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth
I was just looking at him 
Other pastors joined us, (This discussion 
happened at Ogere, in Ogun State) and 
they were nodding 
I just bought my second car at this time 
A Toyota Camry 
They assumed since I walk in supernatural
 dimensions and preach the supernatural 
realities of the believer
I knew one or two things that made me 
rich outside of the gospel 
They didn't know the advantage I had 
at that time was my wife 
She had a car when i met her and she 
had started her glorious career 
The car they saw was 70% bought 
from her savings 
We had even sold the old one before 
adding some money to buy the new
one 
Only I could have married a woman 
like that, most of them married beneath 
them so that they can control
their wives and play "The man" 
I married a glory and I didn't dim her 
brightness 
I sat them down and advised them to 
start monthly contributions among 
themselves 
I told them to do spiritual work for 
criminals make them accessories to 
the crime committed and they will 
answer for their decisions one day 
I assured them that supporting a 
criminal is not an act of faith and 
the gains from such will not bring 
glory to God 
Some of them got the message 
(they're still doing the monthly 
contribution till today) 
The one that didn't get the message 
approached a pastor of another 
white garment church to learn some 
tricks and went mad a few months 
later 
All in the pursuit of money I remembered 
a young man telling me to come to Egbeda, 
Festac, and other areas in Lagos where 
the main job of many was internet fraud 
As an undergraduate, I was privileged to 
visit one of the most expensive private 
Universities in Edo state I was part of 
the team representing my school for the 
Nigeria Private University Games 
I saw cars, exotic cars, parked in a long row 
I was told the cars belong to students, 
most of them couldn't take the cars home 
because their parents didnt even use 
such a car at home 
That was the foundation we laid 
This is on us and we must begin to retrace 
our footsteps towards God 
In the last few years, we have seen the 
evil teenagers and young adults are 
capable of if left to their own cultism, 
fraud, rituals, rape, and murder is nothing 
to them 
They are too young to understand the 
concept of consequence 
Too childish to understand the meaning 
of discretion and our generation is 
spurring them on 
I have seen too many parents looking 
the other way because of lack
I have seen fathers practically pretend 
they couldn't see that their daughters 
had entered into prostitution while 
pretending they were working as event 
waitresses because of food I have seen 
mothers pretend their sons won some 
money playing sports bet rather than 
call them to order 
Illiterate parents especially are very 
easy to fool, they have no clue what 
their children did with the computer 
Some even assume their children were 
"working" hard. 
A young man bought two Benz jeeps 
in Ketu, Lagos State 
The cars were delivered on a Sunday 
When his father saw the cars, the man 
packed his bags and moved back to 
Ado Ekiti, he said he knew the cars 
arrived only a few days before the 
handcuffs 
The boy's mother cursed him for refusing 
to celebrate their son's success 
The matter was dragged to church a few 
weeks later when the man when
the man insisted he wanted a divorce 
if his wife wouldn't move to the village 
with him 
What can a pastor do here? 
Counsel? 
Pray? 
Be sensitive to the leading of the Holy 
Spirit and exercise a lot of discretion 
Within six months, the boy was arrested 
and the cars seized but it was not a 
deterrent for others I know people, 
young people, who were deliberately 
sponsored by their family members 
and sent to Malaysia so that they can 
learn and do internet fraud 
If you meet a yahoo fraudster today 
and tell him what he is doing is wrong, 
he will most likely reply you by saying 
his victims are insured and therefore 
there is no real casualty 
We have bred a monster that does not 
understand the meaning of consequence 
and we will have to put a leash on this 
monster by returning to God as a 
generation. 

-GSW-