Our nation fell into the hands of political tricksters, economic swindlers and young men who wanted to be rich without working during Babangida’s reign of deceit in the mid-eighties. As government self-serving commercialisation and liberalization policy ceded ownership of thriving public enterprises to favoured members of the military junta and their fronts who were never groomed for such challenges, such enterprises collapsed and our nation was turned to major importer of labour of other societies. From Abacha all through the current fourth republic, it has been bare-faced stealing by those who have access to government funds directly or through tax waivers to fund importation. This was the genesis of wealth acquisition without work in our nation. It is therefore not a surprise that a whole generation of Nigerian youths between ages of 20 and 40 that are today involved in drug trafficking and cyber fraud grew up in an era of wealth without hard work and age of lawlessness.
Now the chicken has come home to roost. Other countries are now insisting we cannot export lawlessness into their nation. Ghana our neighbor, South Africa we helped to liberate from apartheid minority rule, Malaysia whose palm oil revolution we supported through donation of oil palm seedlings and Saudi Arabia, spiritual home to many Nigerian Muslims and now America , source of N23b annual diaspora remittances are asking us to put our own house in order.
If importation of fake and substandard drugs and goods, drug trafficking and setting up and running businesses illegally and other criminal activities are tolerated in Nigeria, putting an end to such criminal activities became a campaign issue for South Africa president, Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa in the recently concluded South Africa election. Many of our youths convicted for drug related offences are on death row in Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Malaysia. Last week, it was the turn of the US to remind us that people cannot get rich without working in their country.
Of the 80 people the US authorities indicted for wire fraud, romance scams and business email compromise crime and for swindling millions of dollars from U.S. businesses and individuals, 77 were Nigerians with 74 of Igbo extraction. As a people that prefer to play the ostrich, reactions of Nigerians and the representatives of government have only reflected this hypocrisy. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Nigerian in Diaspora Commission chief, doesn’t want few bad eggs to spoil the name of Nigeria. She has therefore urged “those accused in Nigeria to voluntarily turn themselves in to American authorities to clear their names”, adding that Nigeria should extradite the defendants “if relevant international treaties between the two governments are invoked.”
On his part, a concerned Igbo commentator, Fredrick Nwabufo in a piece titled ‘The Igbo have a problem’ which has since gone viral in the social media blames everything on “Igbo culture that glorifies ‘’money’’ crime – ‘’ego mbute’’ – the culture of money grubbing and worship, as the-be-all and end-all of everything. He therefore wants his Igbo compatriots to “stop celebrating people of unknown fortune, name and shame those with illicit wealth in our communities and upbraid them instead of giving them chieftaincy titles and front-row seats in church”.
Both are wrong. Dabiri trivialises our tragedy as a nation. Stereotyping by Nwabufo also deprives us the important lesson from the tragedy that has befallen our nation. We currently have over 50m Nigerian youths who believe it is possible to be rich without work. This fallacy has been reinforced by various institutions of society. Our orthodox churches that promise salvation through sales of grace, the Pentecostal prosperity prophets that have replaced Christ’s message of salvation in heaven with message of prosperity through miracle and our young artists that celebrate nothing but vanity, money, women and sex. Our youths neither read in order to be able to articulate the problems of our nation neither do they vote during elections except in BBN realty show which celebrates decadence, sex, and an illusion of life of leisure without work for winners of N60m in a game of chance similar to the miracle the churches and other institutions of society promise.
Fredrick Nwabufo has no need for self-contrition. If out of the 21 Nigerians on death-row for drug peddling in Indonesia, 20 are Igbo from his Anambra State, if lynching of Igbo citizens in Asia occurred in 2013 over alleged criminality, if some armed robbers of Igbo origin launched an attack on a bureau de change in Dubai, and if Nigerians are a pariah in South Africa partly due to the activities of some Igbo drug cartel”, it was not just because of Igbo culture which by extension is also now the prevailing culture in our society, it is precisely because the Igbo excel more than others in whatever they set their eyes on. As Ahamdu Bello put it, if you employ an Igbo man as a labourer, he will strive to become the head of labourers. As for glorification of ‘’money’’ crime – ‘’ego mbute’’ – the culture of money grubbing and worship, as the-be-all and end-all of everything”, show me one ethnic group in Nigeria where that has not replaced culture of hard work, perseverance and selfless service to one’s community. All those Igbo youths whether in Ghana, South Africa, Singapore of America where they are currently undergoing persecution and prosecution, have tried to do is outdo the rest of their Nigerian compatriots in what has become a dominant Nigerian culture.
Indeed no one should weep for the Igbo nation. Rather we should weep for ourselves. What we are faced with is a national plight and all of us are going to suffer the consequences. Diaspora remittances put at about N23b will be affected. Unfortunately, immediate victims are recipients who are mainly old and elderly people. The real estate as well as the capital market will also be affected.
And as part of the price we have to pay for not putting our own house in order, South Africa which is currently investigating about 6,000 Nigerians is excluding Nigeria from her free entry visa lottery.
With the latest American action, the rest of the outside world, concerned about the criminal activities of some of our youths will most likely start to tighten the noose against us. With Ghana and America deporting our youths, with lynching going on in South Africa, beheading in Saudi Arabia and with a generation of Yoruba and Igbo youths at home who want money without work now exploiting the herdsmen/farmers crisis to visit terror on their own people, our harvest basket is full.
The challenge is not just for the federal government but the state governments who have failed to provide security for their people despite collecting between N4b andN10b as security vote every year, the bulk of which is said to go into upkeep of political thugs and for destabilising their own political parties.
