Is Nigeria A Country Of Scammers

Maybe we need to get our media to start labelling these nations as well. I'm a Nigerian and I'm not a scammer. No memmer of my family is a scammer but I get stereotyped by the western media.

Why doesn't our media also run some doumentaries on the lives of westerners? Their immorality and indiscretion etc. Why don't we have programmes to highlight that many westerners are drug users and junkies? why don't we have programmes to show how well our students fair academically when they are abroad?

Perhaps one of the problems is that quite a few of us suffer from "inferiority complex" or "colo mentality" where they are unable to see anything wrong in Nations which are economically better than we are.

The best you can do is to educate. Some people are so ignorant of facts. I once heard the media call Nigeria a muslim country.

@Mariory, Nigeria is a muslim nation because IBB inducted it into ioc (islamic Organization council) But as for these attention on scammers, me no know, its is quite vexing that despite the negative publicity surrounding these shameful deceit, people are still falling for it. For once, the media needs to get its focus from Nigeria and also concentrate on American scams like paid online typing, pharmaceutical products that promises to restore your youthful vigor, lotto from fraudulent companies informing you that you have won a million dollars (and in small print, will issue out a warning), etc, etc.

America can never focus on the positives they always have to point out the negatives of a country and use that to represent them Now all those igonorant americans who are close minded will now believe that if your nigerian your automatically a scammer *sucks teeth*

u see , i said it did i not, No disrespect 2 u but please don't sterotype all of us because not all of us are scammers anywyas if people are stupid enough to fall 4 such scams then u deserve to be scammed I mean if they use their sense, common sense should tell them that it most be a fraud I mean if i put yourself in the victims position ; if u got an email from stranger telling u that they have found or have  28.5 million dollars that there willin to give to some stranger 4 a small fee to pay would u believe that? I mean it jus doesn't make any sense Those people who a duped are jus blinded by their greed so I say that is their problem 4 bein so damn greedy

i have thought of that a long long time ago, not just because of the 419 thing but because of the mentality of the western media that label Africa the way they like.
Nigerians generally don't do feel inferior

i get the feeling that they like to kabel other peoplebecause it makes them look better.

In any case, 20/20 (and several others)  is notorious for this type of rubbish. They interview a few respectable looking academics here and there, do some nice video editing, and try to make a case whose conclusion has been reached before any investigation. Fact is these "talking head" shows as they are called have very little credibility among  well educated americans.

At least we don't have a congressman molesting children 

This is what China did, except on the flip side. Up until a decade or two ago, their reputation was that of lazy, unscrupulous characters. It was common to see poor rural villages in China. Now you can't just go there, setup cameras in some nameless village somewhere and start filming malnourished kids. Add to this,  they have an active media campaign to show their positives.

Perhaps  we should adopt the same tact. I for one am tired of some "humanitarian" flying into Sheraton at Abuja, and then driving some hundred kilometers into the forest somewhere and proclaiming this is what Nigeria loooks like.

Nigeria is NOT a muslim Nation. Nigeria is still a secular country. Babangida was just a notorious thief who tried to drag us completely in every kind of available mud

not just Nigeria, Africa is the big project for downcast in the mainstream media.

@ Jammin
I see where your comin from because yes as humans it is our human nature to react  with caution to a situation such as the 419 case but if u think about it the scams that the scammers do are so dumb and unbeliveable when you think about it You jus have to be smart enough not to be fooled by their scams I mean all scammers, not jus nigerians, prey on naive people who fall for such things so u jus have to outsmart them and not be blinded by your own greed and like i said not every nigerian is a scammer jus as like not every jamacian smokes weed or have drug addicts

@Davidylan it was good that God gave you a little sense.
 Its even better that you used it to recognise how idiotic that bit of stereotyping was.

This is news to me.

adcon, thanks

This country is not a nation of scammers. By no means is it so.
Some people from Nigeria are scammers and earn a living by scamming.
The vast majority of Nigerian people though are honest people who go about their business lawfully.
The other Nigerian group who are scammers are led into it by frustration from another bigger scammer who is the "governments of Nigeria." These are the biggest scammers in this world.

The Nigerian government will promise electricity and we end up buying more candles/ lanterns
They promise to provide jobs but retrench enmass workers at various parastaltals.
They promise to build and improve schools only to privatise and sell the schools.
They spend billions on road everyyear and there is no road anywhere to show for it.
They fight  and assasinate each other like scammers who do not share the spoil properly.

What more proof have to conclude that this is a nation of scammers. Check out this maths,

Nigerians are 3

some Nigerians are honest = 1
some Nigerians are scammers = 1
Nigerian governments at all levels are scammers = 1
population of scammers = 1 + 1 = 2.
:- 3-2 = 1.
Nigeria is a nation of scammers, You are right!

By such a comment, this seem to be a non-issue to the quoted poster. Logic would dictate that defending a bro(past experience) is more important than the image of his country.