‘‘Yahoo Yahoo’ and the Death of Young Nigerian Minds’
-By Sunday Eyitayo Michael
“My friend just bought a range rover”
“Wow, that’s great news. What does he do for a living?”
“Gee” (Gee is a slang name for internet fraud. Or ‘street’, ‘yahoo yahoo’)
“Uhm!”
“He’s into ‘Alibaba’, they are the ones that receive in ‘block’. The other one that bought a house in Lekki is into ‘apartment’. Let God bless my hustle, I know one day this ‘dating’ I’m doing will pay big. I just need the right set of clients”
“Do you feel fulfilled defrauding people? Why not do something more creative or consider hard work that will add value to people’s lives and give you success?”
“Brother, money is fulfillment. My father has been very hardworking for a very long time now and he’s still a poor man, frustrated because of lack of money and freedom”
“Someday, somehow, if he follows the right path, he will find success and die a happy man”
“I don’t want to live to that age and still be hoping that someday I will be successful. Come to Lagos or Benin, etc, you will see young boys of 16, 17, intimidating you with big rides, flaunting wealth and all they do is ‘gee’”
“But I heard the Nigerian police are seriously going around catching people involved”
“Haha! Story. They are just looking for ‘bread’. When you are caught, depending on your level, you pay. They know we make it big, so they charge us accordingly, sometimes N300,000, N100,000 or even N50,000 and you are free to go. But it’s nothing, we make far more”
“On an average, how much do you earn?”
“We earn what no government job can pay, not even oil. ‘Alibaba’, N100 million above, ‘apartment’, over N50million, ‘dating’, over N1million”
This was my conversation with a ‘yahoo’ boy, as they call it, and he’s in no way different from 60-70% of the youths in Nigeria. Internet fraud have become the rave among youth, a fast spreading disease eating deeply into the system, it’s now even the dreams of children. Fathers now support their children to partake and pastors do thanksgivings for them, knowing well, what they do and even organize prayer and fasting so that ‘clients’ pay. I know there is a lot wrong with Nigerian government policies, and the corruptions from above that frustrate so many down trying to work their way up, I know Nigeria has become a very sick cow that we can barely milk, but there are other ways out.
Nigeria now breeds a flock of lazy youths who have decided to kill their creative minds and settle for cheap routes like internet fraud. I don’t know the way out, I’m still searching. I don’t even know how it all started, but we can’t blame the founder of internet or the one so cheerful enough to introduce internet to Nigeria. But one thing I know is that its roots are already so deep that it would take so much effort to uproot it. I also know if we don’t uproot it, someday, somehow, it would ruin us all. But to begin, how do you convince someone who earns about N100 millions by just sitting behind his laptop to stand up, think, work hard and earn less than N100,000?

Hmmmmm

Street ti take over

Man must hustle, Man must chache, I ain't ready to die a poor man. Hacked bit4coin wallet readily available for linking within an hour after payment, CC for sale, (if u know u know).

“Someday, somehow, if he follows the right path, he will find success and die a happy man”

That's ironic. A sad end, straight to as well as in hell instead.

Fathers now support their children to partake and pastors do thanksgivings for them, knowing well, what they do and even organize prayer and fasting so that ‘clients’ pay.

May God help us. Most of them are rather in Church seeking for miracles and, thereafter, offer 'testimonies'. That's an evil mind. People no longer seek God's presence but instead, miracles for evil purposes.

OP, I think your post should end up at FP as well as an article in a newspaper. Why can't you be a guest columnist for a newspaper and write on this. Or you could write and submit to papers like Thisday, because they receive opinions from readers.

If only such brilliance and dedication can be channeled to a legit hustle... Nice right up OP....As for the title,I don't think the Nigeria youth mind is dead,it only contacted virus which can still be cured...