Imagine Nigeria in the hands of Yahoo Boys
Imagine 20 to 30 years from now, when our youths, who are Yahoo boys today become leaders of tomorrow. These are the youths who depend solely on scamming people for a living. They live large, spending money like it will go out of fashion, forgetting that everything that has a beginning must have an end. They understand the power of money and wealth, poverty is a disease they never wish to experience. Money must always be in their hands, they will do anything to get money. What will be the fate of Nigeria, when these boys today become men tomorrow?
They have taken over restaurants and fast food joints, hotels, social hangouts and girls. Men have now been reduced to mere window shoppers as most can no longer afford Jeans trousers due to the intimidating posture of these boys. Yahoo boys have made shopping so expensive. Hoteliers, restaurant and fast food owners, operators of bars and joints and those who trade in clothing and saddles are cashing in on the Yahoo boys bonanza, forgetting that what goes around comes around. They have become adults too soon in a most bizarre way. They have graduated from Yahoo to Yahoo plus. When this source of money ends, what becomes of Nigeria. What will they graduate to become? Thieves? Armed robbers? Kidnappers? Or politicians?
With their unbridled quest for wealth, excessive and inordinate desire to acquire money and riches overnight, they will do anything to make more money. According to Larry Burkett, get rich-quick thinking leads to three basic errors: Getting involved with things you cannot understand; risking funds you cannot afford to lose, that is, borrowed funds; and making hasty decisions. Each of these actions violates one or more biblical principles… Together they constitute a sin called greed.
They are an army of fraudsters who are in charge of our economy, they have taken over the schools, they bribe their lecturers for marks, they are not interested in learning. The get-rich-quick syndrome breeds laziness, indolence, and an entitlement mentality.
The population of Yahoo Boys is way higher than that of the graduates in Nigeria. Everybody is striving to reap where they did not sow. Boys as young as 11 years old, are involved in the scheme. The frustration that goes through the mind of salary earners, adults when they see these fraudsters is quite disheartening. They are everywhere, unleashing havoc to unsuspecting victims and they celebrate their loot with so much impunity.
Sometime in April this year, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, made startling revelations during an interactive session with media executives in Abuja, that banks in the country lost over N8 billion to internet fraud, that is the Yahoo-Yahoo Boys, in 2022. He narrated how cyber crime has hurt the companies and its negative effects in attracting direct foreign investment for the country. He lamented that no fewer than 71 percent of companies operating in Nigeria were victims of cybercrime in 2022.
More alarming, is the existence of 419 training schools across the country where they harvest children from primary schools. They start indoctrinating them. These are facts. According to the EFCC Chairman, they even ask their parents to sign an undertaking. After that, they induct them and some of these fraud tests start paying their school fees and indoctrinate them into cyber crime; as young as they are… Even children of those from wealthy homes are doing it now. It’s a trend. The Commission (EFCC) disclosed that it arrested not less than 258 Yahoo Boys, in May 2023. This is but a drop in the ocean. Social media giant Meta, sometimes in April 2024, announced that it removed 63,000 accounts connected to the Nigerian cybercrime scene that were attempting to target users in the United States in financial sextortion scams. The accounts were being operated by the Yahoo Boys.
The repercussions of Yahoo boys are going to bigger than we imagine. It is an eruption brewing to explode. Government needs to do more than it is doing now. It has to nip it in the bud. Otherwise, they will invade our polity. They will become Governors, Chairmen, Executives of various establishments, leaders and even Presidents. They are a disaster waiting to happen. In no distant time, if this menace is not checkmated, what will happen will be better imagined than experienced.
Get-rich-quick syndrome is springing up in the country, and enjoying unprecedented patronage and appeal among Nigerians, especially the youth. Whatever has a beginning has an end. What will become of Yahoo boys who have solely depended on the scheme. What will their future and the future of Nigeria look like when the become the leaders of our great nation? What will they turn to? Will Nigeria be safe?
The term ‘Yahoo Boys’ started to be used in the early 2000s to refer to financially motivated young Nigerians conducting scams commonly called ‘yahoo yahoo’ or ‘419 fraud’ in Nigerian slang. The Yahoo Boys aren’t a single, organised group. Instead, they’re a collection of thousands of scammers who work individually or in clusters. Often based in Nigeria, their name comes from formerly targeting users of Yahoo services, with links back to the Nigerian Prince email scams of old.
