Web scammers and the rest of us
Criminalizing 140 million people
TOPE ORIOLA STAFF
If you haven’t received an e-mail soliciting your utmost silence and unfl inching co-operation in a juicy fi nancial transaction, then you probably don’t have an e-mail address. The purported “Nigerian” web scams are everywhere, popularly known as “advanced fee fraud” or “419.” “419” is the section of the Nigerian constitution that bars fraudulent activities. Why are web scams associated with Nigeria?
Th e ABC News on one of its programs, 20/20, in late 2006 went to elaborate lengths to uncover some of the scams in Nigeria. With the active co-operation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria, a body specifi cally established to combat fi nancial crimes, ABC’s chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross beamed the arrest of some con men to the world.
However, typical of American media, Brian Ross over-sensationalized his report and made comments that rubbished what would have been a conscientious report. Ross describes Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, as a “sprawling, crime-ridden, disgrace of a city.” Brian Ross went ahead to analyze the lyrical content of a “hit” song in Nigeria, “I go chop your dollars,” which literally means “I will swindle your dollars off you,” by Nkem Owoh, better known as Osuofi a. Osuofi a sang about swindlers as “masters” and the swindled as “mugun,” a Nigerian parlance for fools.
Th e excessive emphasis on Osoufi a’s song as an indication that Nigerians hero-worshipped fraudsters further tainted the report. It is like judging Americans by the lyrics of rap music by 50 Cent. Nkem Owoh (Osuofi a) is an engineering graduate turned actor, comedian, then singer, positively maximizing his nuisance value to make a living in a depressed economy; only ABC would have taken seriously his badly composed song that Nigerians merely mocked for its comic content. Th e song itself does not fi t into any music genre in Nigeria and became a “hit,” as ABC observed, because it was absurd. Absurdity sells everywhere. I expect an American to know that. Hence, using the popularity of Osuofi a’s song to journalistically, but unempirically, validate the perceived high social recognition of fraudsters in Nigeria is like giving the Nobel Peace Prize to George Bush Jr..
“Nigerian” web scams have become a monumental embarrassment to Nigerians at home and in diaspora. With the help of organizations like ABC News, many people no longer distinguish between the criminal activities of a few and the honest hard work of the majority. Perhaps most of the scam e-mails come from Nigeria, but to tacitly suggest that all of the e-mails do, and that all Lagosians or Nigerians in general glory in “419” is stretching credulity. Criminality has no nationality just as legal pietism knows no geography. It is heartwarming to note that a research company, Chatham House, was reported by the BBC as stating that “Criminal activity is carried out by a small minority of Nigerians, relative to the size of the country.”
To his credit, Brian Ross did point out that “greed” lures Americans to fall for the bait of fraudsters. However, his approach was purely ahistorical; a sort of treatment without diagnosis. In an article titled “Transnational Crimes: the case of advanced fee fraud in Nigeria,” in Pan African Issues in Crime and Justice, Ihekwoaba Onwudiwe argues that those who get swindled know it worked in the past. In the words of Onome Osifo-Whiskey, managing editor of TELL, arguably Nigeria’s best news magazine, “under the Nigerian military we became a nation without standards, one in which men who could not have risen above the rank of staff sergeant became generals and heads of state, making us a plaything for the dogs.” Some people in Europe and North America benefi ted from money laundering and blatant looting of public treasury, and contributed to the fl eecing of Nigeria during those days of the locusts. Nowadays, however, there are new syndicates on the block who promise so much but deliver nothing.
Th ose involved in web scams in Nigeria are mostly “computersavvy” youngsters, as the ABC report observed. Hence, they can send e-mails to addresses only they know whence they came. Years of military misrule, socio-economic and political crises and loss of confi dence in the state have combined inter alia to push some youth into such crimes. “Vice does not belong to humans, but to ill-governed humans,” as Vincenzo Ruggiero points out in Understanding political violence: A criminological analysis. Such youngsters could potentially provide veritable recruitment grounds for any computer conglomerate if their talents are positively harnessed by a government that cares for its people.
Brian Ross’ choice of words in the report indicates the mindset of a journalist who had concluded a report before going to the fi eld; a shiny example of what good journalism should not be. Journalists get away with such bogus generalizations because of the ultra-uncritical public they serve; a public that accepts news reports as the gospel truth without the slightest scrutiny.
Th ough the report neither presented a balanced picture of the people of Lagos nor the eff orts of the EFCC at guiding against fi nancial crimes, it is high time the Nigerian government put its house in order. Until gainful employment is provided those who are able and willing to work and a favourable socio-economic environment is guaranteed to ensure good quality living for all, we can expect to have more of such damaging reports. My heart bleeds for my motherland.
Tope Oriola is comment editor of the Manitoban and a graduate student in sociology.
