Prior to that disparaging broadcast on ABC 20/20, Dr Phil had devoted an hour on Nigerian e-love scams on Thanksgiving day. These broadcasts painted Nigeria as a country peopled by scammers and con artists. Anti Spam software industry is a money-spinning venture, which to my little knowledge has not benefited any Nigerian. This is not to praise these scammers or spammers, who do a great deal of disservice to Nigeria, but there should be some balance on the part of western press which always portray everybody in Nigeria as scammers even though Switzerland is not part of European Union and European Economic Area which makes it a money launderer's haven. Let us remember that fraudulent accounting practices and corporate frauds from Sunbeam, Waste Management, Enron, Global Crossing, Qwest, and WorldCom cost investors about $300 billion which is 1/10 of Nigerian national budget. The difference here is that US has a rigid legal process that brought most of these corporate fraudsters to book, but the same process is non-existent in Nigeria. It's also mind refreshing to know that Reuters reported that the US has more prisoners than any country in the world. I wish they had shown how Congressman Jefferson of New Orleans got $90,000 bribe from his Nigerian accomplice or how Halliburton paid bribes in order to get contracts and evade tax in Nigeria.

Besides, all Saudis cannot be called terrorist because some disgruntled Saudis were involved in 9/11 or some terrorist activities. Also all Italians cannot be called mafia since there is a high prevalence of mafia in Southern Italy or could all Northern Irish be called terrorist because of violent and bitter ethno-political conflict between Catholics and Protestants? More so, does it make sense to call all Mexicans drug traffickers even though most of their customers and accomplices are based in the US? This is a shear selection of western journalism that always portrays the weak as a victim and cause of all ills of the society. There needs to be a holistic debate about scams in Nigeria because there is no difference between a scammer and a victim since every scam letter sets the tone of the transaction" illegally acquired wealth".

It also seemed to me that ABC's 20/20 crew did a shoddy journalistic work by saying that every Nigerian glorifies scammers without looking at how hip-pop culture, which glorifies gangs, sex, drugs, and so many deviant behaviors cannot be said to be a standard behavior in the US. "I go chop your dollar sound track " is a satire meant to warn greedy 419 future victims, besides, Nkem Owoh is a popular Nigerian actor not a singer. I believe comparison is based on two known conditions and the comparative benchmark employed by ABC crew was that of a xenophobic and stereotypical sentiment typical of American media. They also said that Americans were losing billions to Nigerian scammers, where as oil is the only venture where US trades with Nigeria in billions, not scams. I get inundated with scam emails ranging from free vacation, lottery, free viagra, phishing emails, paypal system update scam from the US. Now does this mean that everybody is the US is a scammer? NO If you watched "We Were Warned'' on CNN, where they depicted Nigeria with sub machine guns, even though they had shown some human faces in Saudi government and Aramco as well as that of Hugo Chavez despite his frosty relationship with the US. I was asking myself why didn't CNN show a human face, maybe a government official from Nigeria. Why did CNN depict Nigeria with arms despite the fact that Saudi Arabia is more prone to violence and terrorism?

A cause for action should embody but not limited to drafting a strong letter to Nigerian Embassy to know why it has not publicly refuted most of these unfounded allegations. I wonder what's the job of our foreign diplomats who are saddled with responsibility of packaging and marketing Nigeria abroad. I remember before the premier of Box office hit comedy, BORAT, Kazakhstan government ran a four-page advertisement in The New York Times extolling its democracy, education, power structure and women liberty in order to disapprove of the way it was portrayed in BORAT. We also have to condemn these scammers because they are really doing a lot of damage to Nigeria's image abroad.

Author Unknown

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Ms. NaijaRules 2008

Endless Hope Is Better Than A Hopeless End

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