McMafia by Misha Glenny

Author:Misha Glenny
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780307268624
Publisher: Knopf
Published: 2008-10-26T16:00:00+00:00

Infected by the corruption of the Nigerian state (itself a cankered product of British colonialism), the Igbo traders of the 1980s and 1990s dealt in those products without regard to any moral considerations save a clear and admirable aversion to violence. But then along came an invention that enabled them to steer financial fraud operations without even crossing the threshold of their front door—the fax machine. And soon the Yoruba, the Hausa, and dozens more of Nigeria’s ethnic groups took up the example of the Igbo and began indulging in one of the most exuberantly mischievous examples of crime in history. The possibilities would multiply with the proliferation of the personal computer around the world; cybercrime is a new type of criminal threat that assumes several different forms. But the Igbo can stake a strong claim as trailblazers in this entirely new and lucrative genre—the 419 scam or advance fee fraud.

For many Nigerians the degree to which their country has become associated with and even defined by the 419 culture is both a scandal and a disaster. But according to the musician Dede Mabiaku, the 419 scams were merely the diseased chickens of colonialism coming home to roost in Europe and the United States, like some moral avian flu in the era of globalization. The huge popularity of the 419 anthem, “I Go Chop Your Dollar,” suggested that these sentiments are widely held in Nigeria:

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