Opinion:



It is perplexing how everyone wish that a new month could spin out wealth, fortunes and money for them. A New Month cannot dish wealth, fortunes and money, only an investment can dish them. Investment in time, investment in intellect, investment in social participation, investment in opportunities...and so forth.



A new month provides us with more "time", more "opportunities" and more everything the new month brings with it, but it requires that we "invest" ourselves in what the month brings with it and what it concretely offers us. "Seek and you shall find...knock it shall be opened unto you."



More importantly, have we, Nigerians, seen how destructive our"money" mentality" as influenced the aspirations of the generation of the youths coming after those who are now in their 50s in this country? A very high percent of Nigerians have lost their sense of morality, service and humanity to the "love" they have for "money". The Holy Book says "the love of money is the root if all evil".



Do we wonder what the problems are in Nigeria that make us appear to the whole world as "a sleeping giant"? It is a better picture to depict Nigeria as "a sleeping giant", at least we are shown to be at rest. But no Nigerian is seemingly at rest, because even the troubles of the Boko Haram insurgency is more of money making than for the Islamic purity they propagate as being the means of their agitation.



So we find idle Nigerians - who have no means of survival, and needing to survive - go beyond acceptable norms to raise money to survive. In my opinion, apart from Boko Haram being a creation of selfish, unpopular "leaders who force themselves to lead" the people, it is an avenue of earning a living by members of operating the insurgency



In "the BBNaija house", a housemate, "Dorothy", is said to have revealed how, as she aspired to be a part of the reality show, had her parents warned her "not to return home" after her participation in the show. She, however, submitted finally to her passion, hoping she would put in her best to win the price, in order to force the parents to accept her back - is it all about parental poverty and shame of lack? It is all about "money", and we can see the "love" of it in every sector of our national life and public considerations.



The "Dorothy story" is just one way to indicate how the reality show is causing serious challenges in our families. The purpose of the reality show itself is to raise an obscene amount of money for the sponsors. What does Nigeria get? A paltry tax! What is injected into the economy? Nothing but greed and the chase vanity. Paying for what you watch should be substantially beneficial to you and your country.



It is very clear that when making money is the focus of an endeavour, and not any "production index", which should show that an "output" of money, is from an "input" of work, the purpose of such endeavour is narrow minded and critical. A productive output from input is how an excellent and virile economy is grown. An economy is not grown by the amount of money in it, but on the balance of "the factors of production". The money the economy throws out should be from products thrown out from work inputs.



Now, with the kind of huge monetary transfer involved in unproductive wealth, locked down by televising the immoral assemblage of young men and women, who preach "earning well through laziness" - the lack of viable and feasible input to our economy in terms of manpower and human resources development - is clearly how it is not enough to grow an economy by just earning money out of it without the complementary benefits to the economy.



The government permitting this to happen leaks the opportunity for those "brained washed" into seeking such unworked for earnings, and leads them into their own works - insurgency, kidnapping, arm robbery, cultism, cyber crines, currency round tripping, elitist stealing, proliferation of tithes and offerings, prostitution, political thuggery and "all (the) evil" spun out by its "root" - "the love of money".



This is why I do not respect Nigerian deep pockets because majority of them cannot let out how they arrived at their wealth. Many billionaires today made their wealth from our economic crisis as a people - from black market foreign exchange racketeering to black market petroleum products dispensations. From official inflation of contract figures to the outnumbering of actual staff by "ghost workers".



How can Nigeria survive all these and raise it heads from our focus on a single point corruption watch - watching office holders only. There are so many other angles and dimensions of corruption that our government is ignorant about.



The BBNaija House is one example of official permitted evil, Boko Haram is an unofficially permitted one, Banditary is another unofficial one, killer herding is another, elitist stealing and black market operations are some of the officially permitted evil - all these methods of earning money because government cannot provide jobs is helping to promotes the mental poverty, spiritual insanity and social unbalance we suffer as a country.



We must change the "brooding angel" over Nigeria - it is an evil angel, it is clearly an evil angel. Otherwise, we will never rise from the present witchcraft holding us down as a nation. As we enter into the 8th month of this year, let us strive to contribute positively to the building of a strong, independent and a virile society.



Welcome to August 2020 Nigeria! Happy New Month.



Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria via "time.subsidaries@gmail.com

A