In what his promoters have primed as one of his most inspiring speeches since this campaign commenced, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was quoted as saying that he will convert the so-called “Yahoo-Yahoo” boys into tech experts who would produce chips for industries. The former Lagos State governor was also quoted as describing himself as a very knowledgeable man who found a way to tame the Atlantic in Lagos and hence would bring that knowledge to bear in creating wealth and new opportunities for Nigerians.
If anyone wanted to take Asiwaju’s claim to knowledgeability seriously, his apparent lack of understanding of the simplest technological facts exposes his frightening ignorance and further confirms his false claims about the wonders he purportedly performed in Lagos. For the avoidance of doubts, Lagos is naturally positioned to be the most prosperous and most developed city in the entire Africa. This vision would have been met, had the blueprint of visionary leaders like Pa Lateef Jakande and even military administrator Buba Marwa been kept to. Lagos is today rated as one of the world’s biggest slums because of Tinubu’s poverty of knowledge, bigotry and corrupt tendencies. With its high internal revenue, it’s huge population, natural resources and strategic geographical location, individuals like Tinubu should have been in prison for squandering the wealth of Lagos and dampening her prospects for development. But that’s a story that has been told many times and by different people, so, I would rather we focus on the blunder of “converting yahoo boys to tech experts”.
Probably, Tinubu and his team understand internet fraudsters to be individuals who are knowledgeable or well trained in ICT. But nothing can be farther from the truth. Internet fraudsters are what they are, and nothing better. They are criminals and there wouldn’t be any need to use any euphemism to qualify their atrocious escalades.
It is not for the lack of opportunities or the absence of the right operating environment that these individuals take to crime. In America, where we have departments in the military for technological based operations and which has the most advanced and most supported internet and other computer based technologies, there are still internet criminals and the American law enforcement agencies do not make excuses for them, but ensure that they are made to face the wrath of the law.
Even with our pitiable lack of support for tech entrepreneurs in Nigeria, Nigeria has still seen a number of our youth conquer the world through technology. We have Nigerian youths who develop and sell apps. Paystack was developed by Nigerian youths; Ezra Olubi and Shola Akinlade, and this app was bought for 200 Million Dollars by Stripe. We have numerous other Nigerian youths working in the ICT and making huge amounts of money without resorting to crime.
90% of internet fraudsters whom Bola Tinubu ignorantly as tech savvy youths who lack opportunities hence, their resort to crime, are common criminals who are unskilled in the real art of ICT, but use their basic knowledge to defraud unsuspecting victims.
Nothing has given Nigeria a bad image across the world than the high rate of involvement of Nigerian youths in internet fraud, and it is expected that any responsible leader who truly means well for Nigeria would rather condemn such acts of criminality instead of excusing it. Promising to turn internet fraudsters to tech experts is not very different from promising to turn armed robbers to police officers.
