I travelled to Nnewi, the second commercial city in Anambra State Nigeria on 12th January, 2012. I took public transport. The reason for the public transport was the biting effect of removal of fuel subsidy in Nigerian which was on the 12th day and the 4th day of the nationwide strike to protest its abrupt removal. The bus I boarded at Onitsha going to Nnewi was a mini with the capacity of 15 passengers if seated three in a seat. The bus had 3 passengers on each seat of the bus with the exception of one that had the conductor, making a total number of people in the bus 16 person.

I sat at the seat before the last by the window to enable me get fresh air when the bus will be in motion. Inside the bus, two persons sat by my right. At my extreme right was a young man dressed on jean trousers and jacket. When I look closely, I saw him holding two stickers. This caught my attention and with a closer look, it was the exact kind of stickers that one sees on Hollandaise wrapper. The sticker bears Guarantee Real Wax Printed in Holland. The sticker was fresh. It has never been pasted on anything.    

When I saw it I was baffled. If actually this man pulled it from a wrapper, it would have torn in some place. I started wondering. Do the producers of this wax bring them in without the stickers on them? How come a sticker of a product made in Holland is not on the product but in hands of a man here in Nigeria? After serious thought I concluded it is a fraud. The stickers were printed in Nigeria here with the sole aim of pasting them of inferior wax to make more gain.

This is one of the ways most marketers defraud unsuspecting buyers. The fake real products and make it look like the original. This act is very common in this country where everyone do what seem good to him in a bid to make money. Where have people placed character? Where is integrity and fidelity in business? Even though people make money must you be involved in the very act just to be like them?

This is one of the reasons why most people within one year of starting a business will acquire heaven and earth and you will be wondering how they make this their money. This most worrisome side of it all is that virtually all of them are Christians that you will see in the church every day. In their market stores and shops, they spend hours every morning in prayers before they start their business. I remembered there was a story told me by a brother early 1990 how a young man who newly gave his life to Christ confessed how they use to clear the watts written on electricity bulbs and write higher watts just to make money.

Making money through fraudulent means does it pay? Are there no consequences? Do they (those who practice) think they will go unpunished? Proverbs 11:1 says, “Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, But a just weight is His delight.” Again in Proverbs 20:10, it states that, “Diverse weights and diverse measures, they are both alike, an abomination to the LORD.” Why must people devise evil ways of making money? It beats my imagination that people who even do this are people you see read bible and go to church always. It is an evidence of vanished conscience.

Our generation should know that money is not all. We should not throw character, integrity and good name over the board. We should realize that a day of reckoning will come when we all shall give account of our deeds before God. What will you tell God? Will you tell Him you never knew that cheating is sin and evil? Do you think you will be exonerated? Beware because the day of reckoning you do not know.