Drugs and Scams: Are Nigerians Guilty or Not Guilty?

 

It's a widely held belief among the global community that Nigerians are fraudsters. It's so popular that people commonly refer to various forms of confidence tricks as "419" resulting from the Article 419 of Nigeria's Criminal code which states in part that "Any person who by any false pretence, and with intent to defraud, obtains from any other person anything capable of being stolen, or induces any other person to deliver to any person anything capable of being stolen, is guilty of felony, and is liable to imprisonment for three years".

In fact, Nigerian scam is so popular that it has an entry in the Wikipedia.  People, especially those in Europe, America and some parts of Asia, have their inboxes and spams filled with emails by certain princes or daughters of a murdered dictator, where they are asked to help them transfer a huge amount of money (usually millions or even billions of dollars) stashed somewhere by their late father. Successful movement of the money out of Africa and into the account of the person reading the email will earn the latter  a share of the loot. But to begin the transfer, the person reading the email has to send a little sum of money for the paper works and for "settling" lawyers and bankers involved in the transfer (usually tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, a minuscule compared to what she stands to gain at the end of the deal). This fraudster usually pretends to be in a refugee camp or even in prison. So, he is not allowed to handle money and therefore can't pay this little sum. Not surprisingly, many innocent citizens have fallen for the scam. 

Greed, most believe is the sole reason many fall for such cheap scam. A Nigerian comedian and actor, Nkem Owo, had a song on this titled "I go chop ya dollar". A part of the lyrics says "oyibo people greedy. Dem greedy. I say dem greedy. Dem greedy. I no see dem tire. That's why when they enter my trap, I dey show dem pepper". In simple translation, he meant that foreigners are greedy and never gets satisfied. Therefore, whenever he corners them fraudulently, he shows no mercy.

Whether foreigners are greedy or not will be left for another day. Whether it's the tenets of established trust in a society where people generally have compassion to help others out of "hell holes" even though they will be compensated afterwards. Or if it's sheer stupidity. We are yet to establish. Fact: many people get defrauded in this manner.

In the case of drugs,  Nigeria has increasingly been fingered as the number of Nigerian traffickers increase. It's a frequent occurrence around Asian countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and China, for Nigerians to be paraded on pages of newspapers with titles such as "Nigerian Drug Ring Busted". In many of these countries Nigerians are either on death rows or serving long and short prison sentences on drug related cases. Many too have died from complications arising from ingested drugs owing to delayed flights or detainment.

It's been established that Nigerians engage in drugs and frauds. It's also true that many victims of Nigerians' inconsiderate behaviors abound across the world. But the glaring questions are: Why are Nigerians engaging in these activities? Or as Digital Journal opines, are Nigerians suffering racism by overly publicity granted to Nigerian criminals while other nationalities engaging in these crimes are under reported?

The response will obviously be poverty. Since it's clear that anyone able to pull off fraud over someone who owns or controls thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars must be of average or more intelligence. This suggests that there are many other things such a person could do if the talents and skills are well channeled. But are those opportunities available in Nigeria? The answer is: not much.  World Bank says that as of May 2013, there are 70 million Nigerian adults living below poverty line.  With massive poverty and high level corruption by public office holders the average Nigerian youth, despite high educational attainment, has no source of income.

 At this level, depression and frustration set in. People are then pushed to go any limit simply to put food on their tables. Crimes can never be allowed or supported, but it's important to establish their basic causes. Nelson Mandela says that "when a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw".  At this juncture, I find it pertinent to end this piece. However,my question remains.  Drugs and scams: are Nigerians guilty or not guilty?