IS IT A CRIME TO BE A NIGERIAN?

Native Camp, an online teaching platform.

                                       

I cannot count the number of online and offline opportunities that I have missed because I’m from a country that is not included in those things.  For instance, about two years ago, I was high and dry; I mean I was exceedingly broke. So I took to the internet, looking for ways to make passive income. By the way, I found tons of online opportunities but many of them- like 96% of them were fake. The remaining 4% that are genuine are inaccessible to me because I am a Nigerian.

Have you heard about Clickbank before? It is one of the most genuine affiliate marketing networks on the internet and affiliates are actually making cool cash from it on a weekly basis. When I read up about it, I quickly went to its website and tried to register but my application kept bouncing back then I was sent a message that unfortunately my country is not included among the countries that are allowed to be part of Clickbank.

I was mad with anger. Because I don’t give up easily, I began to ask why then I read it that because of high level of internet fraudsters from my country, Clickbank had permanently banned my country from being included. So it was just because of the so called Yahoo Boys that I have been denied access to legally earn money online? A myriad of questions shot through my mind after that. Is our government aware of this? If yes, what is the government doing about this?

 I remember recently, FBI came to Nigeria to arrest over eighty internet fraudsters in Nigeria, it was really hilarious. It is a slap on the Nigerian government that we cannot clean up our own mess and an outside had to come and do that for us. The question is, are there no internet fraudsters in the US who have duped Nigerians? Has Nigeria ever been called or allowed to arrest them, you already know the answer!

Let’s move on.

So I accepted my fate and moved on.

 I kept searching for other online genuine opportunities and  came up with a handful of them. Many of them by the way excluded Nigerians but the few that even allow Nigerians have conditions that are almost impossible to meet. For instance, many of them demanded for a Paypal account. Paypal is another story entirely but I won’t bore you with its sordid details. Having a Paypal account for a Nigerian is almost impossible until recently when Paypal allows Nigerians to have Paypal accounts but we can only use it to buy things online, we are not allowed to receive money into it. Aren’t they smart, they want us to spend our hard earned money, but they don’t want us to make money, what a scheme!

Paypal, an online payment platform.

Last week, I attended a seminar on how to teach and make money online.  The seminar lasted for about three hours. After the theoretically aspect of it was done, we began registration. During registration, we were sent a mail that we didn’t fully read in our excitement. So we finished the registration and began a mock test. I scored 98% percent in that test and I was the highest scorer at the seminar by the way so everyone was congratulating me that I have gotten the job already. There were about four stages before someone can actually start teaching on the website. At the last stage, you have to teach one of the admins of the website so that they can be sure that actually know how to teach. I was connected with an admin in a video call and the first thing she said was “I’m sorry, your country is not allowed to be part of us right now because our students are complaining about bad network in your country and we are losing a lot of clients because of that. We will contact you as soon as things improve, I hope that you understand? Thank you for your interest sin Native Camp”.

That was what she said.
I was not even allowed to say a word throughout the whole call, I could only nod and grunt. When the call was disconnected, other candidates at the center all piled up around me and began to ask me how the interview went because I was the first person to do it that day. When I told them what had been said, I could read the disappoint on their faces and the anger in their expression. After spending money and time attending the seminar and at the edge of breakthrough, our government has dealt us a big blow- it cannot provide a reliable and speedy internet connection.

Ordinary internet connection.

This time, we were denied access to make money online, not by the activities of the yahoo boys but by the foolishness and greediness of our own leaders. By the way, Nigeria pays exorbitant prices just to access the internet. The amount that it costs an average Nigerian to access the internet for a few hours in a day is what it will cost his US or even a Ghanaian counterpart to access the internet for the whole week.

I wish I have been compiling the list of those websites and organizations that Nigerians are not allowed to be part of, the list would have gone on and on. At that seminar that day, I watched as everyone sat dejectedly and was lost in thought. The facilitator at the seminar sympathized with us that the company had to exclude Nigerians when we were trying to be part of the system. He told us that if there is any other opportunity, he would let us know.

 Though the seminar ended at 3PM, yet some of us stayed back till 6PM or thereabout, talking about our bad government and hopelessness that seems to be a constant companion for an average Nigerian.

Offline, there are no jobs in Nigeria. You could have a master’s degree in Nigeria and still be jobless, education here in Nigeria is just meant to get some pride even if the holder has nothing in his or her head.  The few available online jobs are not meant for Nigerians yet the Nigerian government expects the jobless youths to remain idle, it is impossible. As I was watching everyone talking that day, I was wondering how many of the people at the seminar that day that would eventually join this yahoo yahoo bandwagon. The desperation on the faces of some people that day was enough to confirm my fear. Most of the people at the seminar were at least first degree holders, other had master’s yet they were not gainfully employed. So in the end, these set of people would be forced into internet fraud and the number of fraudster will increase and this country will sink deeper into corruption!