As everyone knows, I am extremely critical of the EFCC, which was established as Nigeria’s hope for a saner society. My criticism is even sharper each September, the month in which the law requires it to report to the National Assembly. Hopefully, this year, within the next week or so, it will.
Last week, Ola Olukoyede, the commission’s current chairman, decried mounting internet fraud, money laundering, and economic sabotage among the youth, noting that they now cost Nigeria billions of naira annually.
Also affected, according to him, is the erosion of the country’s image and the imposition of visa restrictions on innocent Nigerians.
He urged young people, particularly in the South, where “Yahoo-Yahoo” practices are prevalent, to instead embrace productive ventures such as digital innovation, entrepreneurship, agriculture, and the creative industry.
“Fraud is not success; it is a trap,” he counselled. “Easy come, easy go. Many who follow the path of ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’ end up losing their freedom, reputation, and future. The law is catching up with them, and digital footprints never disappear. Don’t destroy your tomorrow with shortcuts today.”
Chairman Olukoyede, strictly interpreted as a pastor, is correct—those words could easily have come straight out of the New Testament or sounded like a sermon in church this morning.
Pastors in authority, or those seeking it, remain a fascinating species.
Vice-Presidential candidate Yemi Osinbajo, for instance, once warmed up a crowd by clarifying the source of their distress.
“When the righteous are in power, the people rejoice,” he proclaimed.
His election ticket with the fake anti-corruption champion, Muhammadu Buhari, went on to win the presidency, and for eight years, they showed Nigerians what it truly means to be miserable. We have yet to hear a righteous apology from that pastor.
The question is whether fraud is considered a “trap” only when it comes in the form of Yahoo-Yahoo. Because when a pastor delivers a homily, it ought to hold true for the entire community—including the pastor himself.
The Yahoo practice is indeed reprehensible, and I wholeheartedly join Mr Olukoyede in condemning it. But to condemn it without acknowledging its social roots is to preach a false and dangerous doctrine.
It also diverts attention from the reality that Yahoo-Yahoo is a direct consequence of Nigeria’s persistent lack of leadership and failure to invest in human capacity development.
No, we do not all need university degrees to contribute meaningfully to society or to earn a decent living. But what has happened over the past two decades, for example, is that the ruling APC has betrayed the youth by failing to implement the very education plan it marketed to seize power.
In its manifesto, it declared that it would invest heavily in education to enable Nigeria “follow the example of India and China, which became industrial powerhouses within a few decades.”
Among other promises, the party guaranteed free education; quality education at all levels to create a pool of skilled Nigerians that would form the bedrock of its economic development agenda; increased spending on social welfare programmes such as health and education to around 35 per cent of total spending; and a tripling of education spending over the next 10 years, up to 24.5 per cent.
It is now 10 years later, but while various APC chieftains are buying homes for themselves and their families abroad, and sending their children to good schools out there, the party’s 2025 proposed education spending is a scandalous 7 per cent.
Beyond that, there is no sign of the three million new jobs annually that the party promised, leaving those who manage to survive our tortuous education programmes scrounging for food on the streets.
So, while Yahoo engagements deserve to be lampooned, it is evident that Nigeria’s unemployment and underemployment provide ample temptations for many young people, including serving as election thugs.
Worse still, these lofty pastoral speeches have a loophole: they do not address the difference between the money made by digital fraudsters and political fraudsters. That is because there is none; sometimes, political careers are even sponsored by Yahoo boys.
But there is worse: Nigeria’s political landscape is now clearly dominated by crooks and charlatans with various degrees of criminality and complicity.
Principle and character are hardly cherished currencies any longer, and sometimes it is the devil who appoints the saint to high office or invites him to a seat at the high table.
If, outside the church, we are truly committed to guiding young people away from a life of crime, especially when speaking in an official capacity, then simply criticising them on the grounds of morality is not the right approach.
Pointing fingers and judging their actions as right or wrong does little to address the underlying issues or create meaningful change. Instead, it becomes a superficial exercise that does not consider the complexities facing the youth and the societal context that influences their choices.
The right approach is to live the sermon and guide by example, which is often absent in a nation where public officials would rather preach than practise.
Part of our collapse is that, in the past two decades, the EFCC has transformed into a church where the guard dog barks safely at the soft target.
The EFCC might wish to reconsider its massive task and restructure as a tripod: a Yahoo sub-agency that specialises in that genre of criminality; another that focuses on the states and local governments; and the main body that targets the federal machinery.
The problem is that the will has rarely existed to run the commission as a robust and serious agency aimed at serving the public purpose rather than the government.
Among others, as I have argued repeatedly since 2008, the EFCC operates as a part of the mess, not above it.
And this is the reason the EFCC does not fulfil its annual reporting obligation, as does the Auditor-General.
Year after year, EFCC bosses are far more interested in protecting their juicy jobs than in being able to say, “I’m just doing my job.” You cannot run this commission with a civil service mentality.
In the end, the only way to discourage Yahoo operatives is to open the door for them to develop and deploy their skills legally. You cannot routinely assail the cubs while enthroning, fortifying, and protecting the filthiest lions.
And if you are looking for the real reason why visa regulations are being tightened for Nigerians, it is because Nigeria’s most visible and powerful—the ones on whom foreign intelligence agencies maintain fat files—increasingly have filthy profiles.
But it is 2025, and I may be wrong. Perhaps, next week, as September ends, we will learn that the EFCC has submitted a comprehensive and robust report that we can celebrate.
And that it is not ashamed of its archive of reports since 2007.
Every society’s hope lies in its youth. Buhari derided and dismissed ours, two years before ENDSARS woke it up.
If we protect and nurture it, rather than expose it to hunger, criminality, and greedy politicians, now is our chance to advance with the world.