Is 419 in our genes? - Politics - Nairaland
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| Is 419 in our genes? by Winnergal(f): 4:55am On Jan 22, 2008 |
I have been hearing about this a long time but couldn't believe it: Our country's name has been dragged in the mud. Even when applying for visa. i heard it's more difficult for Nigerians to get a Visa than other countries. Why are we so different from other countres. Do we have this 419/corruption in our genes or something? Some say it's because of poverty, but i don't buy that idea because there are other African countries poorer than Nigeria and yet they don't practice such corruptive acts. What exactly makes us different from other African countries  |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by Jakumo(m): 5:23am On Jan 22, 2008 |
Credence must be given to the theory that attributes a genetic basis to Nigeria's reputation for crime and fraud. While not ALL Nigerians are predisposed to illegality, international crime statistics will attest to the sad truth that Nigerians ALL OVER THE WORLD do seem to conduct themselves with a presumption of entitlement to un-earned wealth that leads to criminality, apprehension and jail time in most countries, but which is rewarded with accolades and chieftaincy titles in Nigeria. |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by Nobody: 5:59am On Jan 22, 2008 |
Since lawlessness rule the day in Nigeria and the necessary authorities don't care about it, then other nations would teach us- preferably deal with us on how to obey the law. Just for the record, 419 is not in my genes. |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by WesleyanA(f): 6:11am On Jan 22, 2008 |
you should set up a DNA test center for us. Then maybe you can confirm your hypothesis. your genes will be tested first for signs of fraud (419). |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by Nobody: 6:49am On Jan 22, 2008 |
stillwater: What more can i say? |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by opokonwa(m): 7:48am On Jan 22, 2008 |
We are too much in a hurry to make money. Our value systems are so poor b/c our past and present leaders set the pace with Greedy corruption. We are too uncreative to think positive. We tend to cut corners in almost everything we do. Making Nigerians one of the most deceitful people on earth.  Too bad but I love my roots. |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by Mutegi: 8:17am On Jan 22, 2008 |
Because our people don't want to channel that knowledge in inventing new things. Thats a longer route |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by Blackcat(f): 3:58pm On Jan 22, 2008 |
Yes in every Ibo and Edo man's blood |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by Winnergal(f): 7:07pm On Jan 22, 2008 |
WesleyanA: Hey, the question is obviously just a rhetorical one. Of course 419 is not in our genes. I am/was just wondering why we are famously known for our corruptive acts, that's if you know what i mean. It is, trying to analyse why we do what we do. |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by WesleyanA(f): 12:03pm On Jan 24, 2008 |
Winnergal: I guess i was just tired of reading one more "nigerians are 419" topics. lol good question. I think one of the reasons is that advance fee frauds (419 scams) are very effective. they seem legit and the emails are sent to thousands of people that there are bound to be a few who fall for each one .I don't know why but the first time in my life that I got an e-mail like that, I thought it was REAL. of course i don't have money to reply to it and wouldn't have anyways 'cause i was a little indifferent to the poor guy who's family was murdered by abacha and wanted to save his money in my account. lol Advance fee fraud didn't origniate with Nigerians but the digital (cyber) version did. or at least we're most famous for it. It started in the 1990s by unemployed youths. it is cheap . . .you don't have to meet anyone all you need is to forge some documents, have an available computer and program to send mass e-mails to thousands of people at a time, so i guess it spread. People in the US lost over 100 million dollars (reported cases only). that's a LOT of money so I guess they decided to create some mass awareness of the situation. That's why we Nigerians are famously known for fraud. because of the mass awareness initiative by US and other foreign countries to prevent foreigners from falling prey (nightly news, CNN, immigration, etc). Even though I think they go overboard and do unfair damage to our country's reputation. ie. Oprah's infamous "All Nigerians are corrupt" quote. lol hopefully in the next decade this would be history. . . http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/00446/AdFee_fraud.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud by the way, we didn't make the list of top ten most corrupt countries (even though we are somewhere in the middle or upper bottom).And as it naturally should, corruption correlates with poverty and state of govt. etc http://www.infoplease.com/toptens/mostcorruptcountries.html |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by romeo(m): 12:49pm On Jan 24, 2008 |
Blackcat: Exactly in the blood of your filthy parents |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by kaycrystal(m): 2:42pm On Jan 24, 2008 |
romeo: too harsh bro!!! way too harsh!!! her comment was uninformed, but u going this harsh is not acceptable as well! @ poster maybe we shd also focus on our naija pple doing the positives and not get carried away with whatever label the bad ones want to put on us! |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by romeo(m): 2:51pm On Jan 24, 2008 |
kaycrystal: My intention was to be harsh to her Her comment was outrageous |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by gozzilla(m): 2:59pm On Jan 24, 2008 |
yeah that why we are losing the battle of convincing the world that we can be clean. we are too harsh in reporting the negative. too soft in talking about the positive. dont overreact brother convince them |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by blackcat1: 3:44pm On Jan 25, 2008 |
romeo: Idiot!!! if not that I had been banned before for bad behaviour  , I would have replied you earlier. But fellow nairalanders have already replied and since I want to be a good blackcat this time the insult will not be too harsh in other words I will only repeat your words but brush them up a little bit  . Here goes.Your stinking,rotten,filthy parents and all your fucking brothers and sisters have been condemned to perpetual 419 |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by JeSoul(f): 4:09pm On Jan 25, 2008 |
blackcat1:  haba make una play nice now. There's no need for this. Blackcat when I saw ur comment I actually laughed and didn't take it serious. and was going to reply like this Blackcat:thank God I'm an Edo woman!  |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by tosinadeda: 4:15pm On Jan 25, 2008 |
Every 1 in naija has a fraudulent mind but really d truth must be said,the ibo tribe is more notorious simple |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by JeSoul(f): 4:20pm On Jan 25, 2008 |
tosinadeda:why now? you're asking for trouble by saying that. Generalizing like that no good at all, e no good and e no true. |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by Blackcat(f): 4:22pm On Jan 25, 2008 |
JeSoul: My dear most of my girlfriends are Edo ladies and they too are not happy about the bad name some of the bad ones among you Edos do to bring your well respected name down. Everyone knows how respected the Bini Kingdom was before some of the useless ones started rubbing your name in the mud. |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by tosinadeda: 4:28pm On Jan 25, 2008 |
Jeseol the ibo tribe are so industrious that they can establish the best market in africa,but no instead majority of them business men prefer dealing with substandard stuffs rather than the original. The pathetic part is that this terrible act applies to drugs,food and essential things dat the ordinary nigerian needs |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by grafikdon: 8:47pm On Jan 25, 2008 |
Here we go again--- someone asked a simple question and all of a sudden, it turned into another tribal war. If only people can pause and ponder before they post, maybe---just maybe people like Dr watson will stop calling us retarded spear chucking monkeys. |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by romeo(m): 9:08pm On Jan 25, 2008 |
blackcat1: This shows that your bad behaviour is genetic!! because you're still on it. self confession is good I didn't know you were 17 before  |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by folahann(m): 12:58am On Jan 26, 2008 |
Well it's in some |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by Kobojunkie: 4:13am On Jan 26, 2008 |
There is no such thing as 419 in the gene. It is just another learned behaviour. We have people who are brought up to believe that what you have makes you more human than the next man and we live in a world that seems to glorify this sort of ideas by the day. Gullible minds pick up on these ideas and way of seeing life and decide to run with out of hopelessness, they are easily won over by such. Most of those who decide to become 419ers are usually people who feel they can not make it any other way and that the best way for them is to run the 419 route. Many of them have to sacrifice reason and logic to become what they are and once they do that they become like people with low self esteem issues; nothing else makes sense or will do it but 419. I mean there are many Nigerians today who still believe in hard work and respecting and loving their neighbours. But if you spend time talking to someone who deals in 419, you will come off with this SELF issue. The person has this serious delusion that he has to somehow do it the 419 way to protect himself. At first it may seem that he/she is doing it to better family and more but if you drill deeper, you will learn that in the end, all those are cover for deeper issues which all end in the fact that these feel the world should bow and revolve around themselves and many of these are willing to sacrifice even family to get what they want in the end. Many of these people pick this up early in life. From family or from peers and even watching celebrities and politicians early in their lives. |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by MP007(m): 5:43am On Jan 26, 2008 |
1. Level of poverty- People that are rich in nigeria are considered lucky instead of being blessed 2. Over- spiritualism- 3- isolation from the international community- Thats why everything looks so golden when a typical nigeria leaves the shores of nigeria 4. Pressure from family,friends and the community- friends believe money grows on trees in the western world, "segun just bought a house for him mama", chinedu bought a car for him papa within 6 months of leaving for america" , what are u doing with ur money (dollars" 5 Selfishness- |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by naijawebe(m): 5:31pm On Jan 29, 2008 |
Not just the Ibos and Edos my friend. I applaud the poster who brought up this serious and stern issue that is giving Nigeria/Nigerians a black eye and BAD NAME all over the world. The fact is that people from the Southern part of the country are predisposed to this nefarious acts and as such the culprits. How often do you hear an Hausa name been thrown around? I know everyone will jump on this post and criticize me, but then that has always been the problem with Nigerians. When we are accused, we quickly throw our defensive shield just to counter the accuser. Of course that is what civilized people should do, but before doing that why don't we all ask ourselves why the accuser came up with that analogy. There is always an iota of truth in every story. It doesn't have to be the whole story. Let us always look at our people before defending them. For your information I am an Edo, so don't just try and suggest that I am an Hausa or from the North. Far from the truth. I am sick and tired of being looked at as a potential 419 once you tell an American at work that you are a Nigerian. Would you blame them? Absolutely not, that is the story they hear and read everyday from the web, TV and the print media. Every 419 caught, tried and if found guilty should be put to firing squad. I know you would say this is a harsh penalty, but how then do we rid these rogues from the society? Give me your thoughts. Firing squad stopped Armed Robbery in Nigeria during the days of the Military back in the 60s and 70s. Do I want the military back in Nigeria, you bet I absolutely don't. "NOTHING IS SO EASY AS TO DECEIVE ONE’S SELF, FOR WHAT WE WISH, THAT WE READILY BELIEVE" |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by LiquidMind(m): 5:36pm On Jan 29, 2008 |
I love Naijas ways |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by Inkwazi: 10:17pm On Jan 29, 2008 |
There is no 419 gene. Period. But there are genetic factors in other things that lead to such behaviour and they are common throughout africa, not just Nigeria. Corruption is largely the result of an inherent inability to look ahead to the future. Too many Africans think only about the here and now. "Grab what ever I can get, because, tomorrow it may not be there', is the common ethos amongst Africans. And, yes this same ethos occurs in other cultures as well, but not at such a critical mass as it does here. And other societies look far enough ahead to set up systems that punish this behaviour, whereas in Nigeria (and a host of other african countries) it's rewarded!!, even encouraged. Now the genetic factor?, well for thousands and thousands of years, African people have been subsistance people, hunter/gathers who didn't develop agriculture, beyond that of subsistance farming, and this 'subsistance' mentality is what keeps them from looking ahead more than a couple of hours, and this, in turn, leads to corruption, As an example, An African man doesn't think about how being a policeman can make your community more secure, but rather he thinks how being a policeman will give him the opputunity to extort and graft, Short term thinking rather than long term community based thinking, Thats the difference between a Nigerian and a Swede, |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by Jakumo(m): 7:09am On Jan 30, 2008 |
That is a well thought out historical perspective on African corruption, Inkwazi. The reality is of course that nobody in the outside world particularly cares why Nigerians are so grossly over-represented in the criminal world. The international community has just learned to accept that Nigerians as a group will unhesitatingly lie, steal and cheat by instinct and should never be trusted under any circumstances. It is a similar common sense survival instinct that enables most people to be content with avoiding interraction with poisonous snakes, even though they may remain un-enlightened regarding the evolutionary and zoological basis for the existence of snake venom. That recoil and avoidance response may take generations to unlearn even if Nigeria were to magically transform itself into a bastion of honesty and altruism in the next 24 hours, genetic or cultural predispositions aside. |
| Re: Is 419 in our genes? by Kobojunkie: 8:45am On Jan 30, 2008 |
Inkwazi: great observation!!! This happens to be the reason why we continue to be going in circles more than we are moving forward in so many areas in Africa. The Average African does not see how he is to make decisions today, invest in his future now. We have people who want to continue with what they have now as long as it works and somehow, magically, things will take care of themselves in the future. |
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