UNEMPLOYMENT, POVERTY AND NIGERIA’S YAHOO ACADEMIES
It may not sound like much. It may even draw chuckles of amusement along the way, but to the discerning and the circumspect, it is a disaster in the making, a crisis that may in the long run overwhelm Nigeria’s much touted crime-fighting activities.
Two incidents, all in February 2024. First, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested about 14 individuals suspected of internet fraud at a ‘Yahoo Academy’ in Makurdi, Benue State. Items recovered included laptops, ATM cards, phones, generator and a Toyota Corolla car.
Similarly, on 14 February, 2024, men of the Commission stormed different residential locations in the Akure metropolis, including some student lodges, and arrested over 30 suspects including 14 students of the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) and 19 others for suspected internet crimes. According to the Head of Media and Publicity of the Agency, Dele Oyewale, operatives of the Commission from the Benin Zonal Command acted on intelligence in carrying out the operation which was carried out in the dead of night. Items recovered included ten exotic cars, phones, laptops, one motor bike. He pledged that the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.
Following the operation which was carried out around 3AM in the night, the Students Union Government of FUTA has strongly condemned the move which some students said they thought was kidnapping.
In a biting statement by the president of the Student Union Government (SUG) of the University, Olayemi Oluwasoromidayo, the EFCC raid which roused some of the startled students into detention while men slept, was an insult to the Chiarman of the EFCC who had banned such raids.
Were the students really asleep? It is common knowledge that internet fraudsters popularly known as ‘yahoo boys’ hardly sleep. The challenge is as real and as formidable as it has ever been. But the truth is even more frightening.
They call it the streets or trenches or HQ or whatever else it is their young minds can conjure. There here is a whole terminology for it.
The game that is predominantly played across the internet features young people including children some as young as 14. They crowd the internet space and maintain a constant lookout for unsuspecting people they nonchalantly refer to as clients. Their clientele includes Nigerians but are predominantly drawn from pools of the unsuspecting across the world. Older demographics are favoured as long as there is liquidity and gullibility. But they don’t discriminate as long as the online client is willing to part with some money. This has become a uniquely Nigerian experience.
On 8 November 2022, super internet fraudster Ramos Olorunwa Abbas, also known as Hushpuppupi was sentenced to eleven years in prison by a US Court. His charge sheet which was as long as his list of assets and investments all fraudulently acquired. His confessions also mentioned some unholy alliances with high ranking Nigerian officials.
All these had a common provenance – an extensive internet presence and a cunningly criminal mind. For years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States tried to lay their hands on him all to no avail. Today, while it may be good news that Abbas is cooling his heels in some US prison, it is by no means the only news.
While Hushpuppupi is years away from being released from prison, his influence transcends the boundaries of the prison where he is held separated from the riches he found from fraud.
Today, with Nigerians reeling from incalculable hardship as the economy repeatedly tanks, Hushpuppi’s trademark skill has spawned an army of acolytes distinguished as much by an aversion to hard work as a voracious appetite for the good things of life.
With the proliferation of mobile devices, Nigeria is witnessing what can simply be described as an epidemic of internet fraud of immeasurable proportions.
Internet fraud has become so common in Nigeria today that it is now the crime of choice for many young people, as well as one of the most complex challenges facing law enforcement agencies in Nigeria.
The fact that despite the operation and implementation of the Cybercrime Act by Nigeria’s sometimes overzealous law enforcement agencies, cybercrimes in many forms remain a raging problem which calls for introspection.
An entire generation faces an erosion and corrosion of its core values if nothing beyond detention and incarceration is done.
It goes beyond feeding young, frustrated Nigerians into Nigeria’s insatiable prosecution machine. More than anything else, it is a matter of justice. The problem of internet fraud hints at a larger darker problem – poverty which manifests in unemployment.
While there is no excuse for crime, the link between crime and poverty is a historical one. Nigeria would labour in vain if it thinks that it can curtail one without confronting the other. Tackling the root causes of internet fraud must begin from fixing poverty and unemployment among young people. Until this is done, what is already a massive problem will only grow bigger and bigger.
Ike Willie-Nwobu,
