The get rich quick is a syndrome that has deluded the minds of many Africans, especially young Africans. It is because we have a money- and power- driven society in which you can get away with all kinds of evil, provided you can buy your way through.
IS MONEY ALL WE NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL?
Our psyche has been programmed to believe that money is all we need to be successful in life by virtue of our experiences and environment. It is heartbreaking seeing a boy of fifteen years old, who is supposed to be in school, sitting down day and night before a computer and looking for how to defraud people of millions of dollars. It is a reminder that we are in a crazy world, because we cannot just phantom the motivation behind such indulgence.
It is obvious that this young boy has been influenced by the environment in which he grew up, which is the corrupt African society.
The get rich quick syndrome stemmed from corruption in the African society and if Africa does not deal with corruption as fast as the speed of light, many more syndromes of this kind will emanate in our society.
We now see funny titles and captions on books and magazines like “How I made 1000 000 dollars out of 100 dollars within two days” and you wonder what legal business or investment could have yielded such an incredible interest? Anyway, those who are publishing and selling the books already know what the society wants, which is “quick wealth”; therefore, they have decided to take advantage of it.
EFFECT OF GET RICH QUICK SYNDROME ON OUR CULTURE AND TRADITIONS
Even our cultures and traditions are not spared by this syndrome. In times past, people who were outstanding in their career, businesses and all other endeavors were always honoured traditionally within their communities by community leaders and royal fathers, in recognition of their outstanding performance and accomplishments. These acknowledgements came in form of chieftaincy titles conferred on the fellow who was remarkably outstanding in his or her endeavors. Nowadays, it is no longer the case. What we now see is a case of the highest bidder e.g. a fellow who can buy luxury cars for the traditional rulers and their aides will be considered for such titles.
Friends, let us take a look at the educational sector, precisely the higher institutions that reserve the right to confer honorary doctorate degrees (honoris causa) in recognition of distinctions or accomplishments not achieved in course, but for the sake of honour to any fellow who deserves it. What do we see these days? Doctorate degrees are being conferred on the highest bidder by higher institutions. The same individuals who are being given honoris causa are the same people the anti-corruption agencies are hunting.
National Awards! Maybe we should not even go there, or should we talk about it? We believe that it is the highest form of recognition that should be given to a citizen of any country, for being fabulously formidable and exceptionally excellent in their chosen career.
This should be in recognition of an outstanding performance of the people who have contributed immensely to the development of their country and showed acts of patriotism in their profession. Such people should be in the category of those that should receive national awards, which is what it used to be. But nowadays, the standard has been compromised.
Private Organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations and many other organisations that reserve the right to give awards in recognition of outstanding performance, now throw awards around to the deserving and the undeserving, as long as you have a deep pocket.
All the recognitions that were mentioned above are supposed to be sources of motivation for patriotism and excellence; but today, they are catalysts for the get rich quick syndrome i.e. people want to get rich quick at all costs, in order to be able to receive the recognitions which they do not merit. Now, the question is how do we solve this problem? But before we answer that question, we have another question which is a guide to the answer of the first question. “Why do people get away with evil?”
The get rich quick syndrome (GRQS) has cost us the untimely death of many of our loved ones. Take for instance, in the aviation industry a plane that is not airworthy and certified airworthy by the officer in charge because he had received kickbacks from the airline operator, when the airplane unsurprisingly crashes in flight, many lives would be lost. Such inhumane display of greed and avarice, which led to the death of many people, should be reprimanded and such individuals should be apprehended.
In addition, the get rich quick syndrome (GRQS) has led to many road accidents e.g. when inferior materials were used to construct a road such that the road could not stand the test of time thereby resulting into pot holes which are major causes of accidents on our roads. It would have been better, if they were humane enough to fix the pot holes they caused as a result of their “I don’t care” attitude which led to the use of inferior materials to build roads. Instead of fixing the problem they caused, they will rather play around with the ill-gotten wealth.
Many of such bad roads have led to the disability and even death of many of our loved ones. Though, these corrupt individuals might have enough money to play around with and spend on their friends and family members, but the health damages and deaths caused as a result of this heinous and corrupt act cannot be reversed.
This is why we have to open our eyes to the reality of the havoc that is being caused by the get rich quick syndrome which has given rise to a society where our perception of success is “having a fat bank account” rather than “making a positive impact in our generation”. It has become of no significance what you do and how you do it to become rich. Therefore, the younger generation have subscribed to internet fraud aka yahoo yahoo since what you do to make money and how you do it is no longer important.
I remember what a friend once told us that adults, who are complaining about the moral decadence among the younger generations, have forgotten that they were the ones that raised them. Since all that matters now is becoming a money bag, many African youths are pulling out of schools in order to subscribe to internet fraud. Moreover, even those ones in schools are carefree about their education, since education has been devalued in the society that it can spell doom for the future of our continent.