Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has said that most
movies churned out by the Nigerian movie industry encourages money
ritual and kidnapping.
The former Governor of Lagos State who disclosed this while speaking
on the topic ‘Insecurity: Taking actions against organised crime’ at the
4th annual public lecture/symposium organised by the United Action for
Change urged filmmakers to change the narrative to save innocent lives.
Fashola added that the claims of a human parts being turned into money is a myth and shouldn’t be reinforced in movies.
He said;
“Some people believe that if you get a man’s head or a woman’s body
parts, they could be turned into money. It’s not true! And when you ask
people who believe in it if they have seen it happen before, they tell
you someone said they had seen it.“However, it has become a reinforced belief through entertainment,
social media and Nollywood. How can human head bring money? Money is
paper invented by man, not God. They put the paper in a machine to print
what we call money and that is the only place money comes from.“But the challenge is the belief system. Just think about how many
people have been missing – through kidnapping – because some people
believe that it exists. The police could tell us the number of people
they have apprehended with human parts, such as skulls. This belief
system must go.“Therefore, all of us, including those who make the films, must
reverse the story and start selling a new story that money is printed in
a machine and not through any other way like money rituals.”
Fashola also stated that claims of women’s panties being used for
money rituals is fallacious as there is no connection between paper and
cotton.
He added;
“It is not true, or how does that happen? What is the connection
between paper (money) and cotton (pants) or has anybody seen cotton
money before? Those of us who have influence and authority must take
positions to see to the reversal of this kind of beliefs.”