Yahoo boys now parenting the parents
Just when I was beginning to think nothing could shock me, this happens; I heard a young man in my community, who was into cybercrime, otherwise known as yahooyahoo, has ‘hammered’ and got a new apartment for his mother.
The boy’s success in defrauding a stranger via the internet, has catapulted him, his mother and siblings into wealth and a new life.
They have moved out of the ghetto, so to say.
The boy, his mother and siblings, however, probably never stopped for a minute to wonder and ponder on the victim’s fate after he/she realizes that he/she had been defrauded.
This has been known to lead to many victims to walk the pathway of suicide. The money, most times, is the victim’s lifesaving.
But emotions and sentiments are not what this article is all about.
I’m heartily disturbed at the emerging culture of parents and relatives accepting that their children and wards are into cybercrimes and actually applauding the move. Parents are beginning to feel that there’s nothing wrong with it. Some even argue that it’s better than armed robbery. That’s absolute nonsense.
A crime is a crime and every offender is likely going to do time for it, not matter the nature of the crime.
What kind of mother accepts her kid to rent an apartment for her using proceeds of crimes? What kind of a father accepts a car gift from his kid, bought for him with proceeds of crime?
What kind of parents allow a kid, who has no job, to take over his upkeep?
Sadly, these are the sort of emerging parents we are beginning to see today in our society.
The truth is this; today, almost in every community in Nigeria, everyone knowns those who is into cybercrime and nobody seems to care a fig about it.
Nobody wants to do anything about it.
In fact, if anything, youths who are into cybercrime are these days celebrated for ‘hammering’ after a ‘mugu’ has paid. It’s shocking and almost brings tears to my eyes.
Many parents moral values have become so warped, that they reasoned with their stomachs, trinkets, expensive clothes and cars. All these bought for them by their children.
As this culture of acceptance continues to grow, many youths are continually taking to cybercrimes like ducks to water.
Indeed, parents have been discovered to be taking their children to herbalists to prepare potent charms for them that would make them to become a success at the cybercrime business. The shame!
As a parent, when you allow your child, who is still in school or who doesn’t have a job to begin to fend for you, that’s when you begin to lose control over him/her.
It’s a parent’s responsibility to take care of his child and fend for that child. It’s a parent’s duty to ensure the child receives the best that he/she could provide.
Most importantly, it’s a parent’s duty to ensure that his/her child has a sound moral upbringing. I really don’t understand the sort of value a parent is supposed to impart in a child, when he/she is busy collecting proceeds of crime from that child.
In May this year, two students, Oriade Adebisi, 22, and his girlfriend Julian Eke Imaga, 18, both students of Olabisi Onobanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, were murdered.
Their decomposing bodies were discovered after they had been missing for some days. They were murdered by Muritala Babatunde and Taiwo Rasak.
Babatunde, who introduced himself as a dropout of the Olabisi Onobanjo University, further disclosed that he was a cultist and the number one leader in his confraternity.
He further confessed to being into cybercrimes. According to him, he and Adebisi were friends and used to share proceeds of cybercrime.
The unholy wedlock crashed after they baited and caught another ‘mugu’ (victim) on the internet. Adebisi refused to share and bolted with the money.
Blind with rage at being outwitted, Babatunde organized and killed Adebisi. He also killed Adebisi’s girlfriend, Julian, in order to silence her.
The crux of my story was that this same Adebisi was just a 200 level student and drove an expensive car. Babatunde claimed that Adebisi loved exotic and expensive cars.
Indeed, the deal money, which Adebisi ran away with, was to pay for another car, which was already at wharf, waiting to be cleared.
I noticed that when Adebisi’s dad was interviewed, he said that Babatunde was feeding the media pack of lies, but he never explained how a young man got to have enough money to be living large on campus. He didn’t talk about the car the deceased was using or the one waiting at the wharf to be cleared.
I’m not saying Adebisi deserved to die, I’m saying that parents should pay more attention to their children. When you sup and dine with the devil, you should be ready to expect anything.
There was a day my six-year-old son brought a broken pencil home, he said a classmate gave him.
I was angry; I told him to return it when he gets to school the following day and never to collect anything from anyone again. The foundation is what matters.
Rather than mourn our children, it’s better to start monitoring and warning them. Yahooyahoo is a crime and there’s no need dressing it in a borrowed rope. A crime is a crime.
I just hate it when people say, that “he had to do it because there was no other means of survival.”
Come here, see my vomiting my intestines out in outrage. It’s just rubbish; seeking and needing an excuse to perpetrate or continue in a crime.
As parents, remember, there’s no ignorance in law. If your kid is arrested for cybercrime, he/she is going to jail. Don’t even allow me to start telling you horrible stories of what adult male inmates do to younger inmates in prison. Prison, is another world.
God has blessed you with these kids, what is your stewardship going to be when you are asked to give an account?
If it’s cool to embrace crime because of poverty, the country would have been overtaken by criminals. Investigation has showed that crime, among youths, has nothing to do with poverty or wealth. But more with friends and the misconception of yearning to belong to a certain group. Indeed, if we must accept poverty in the factors, then it would be a very small percentage.
Many rich kids, whose parents are busy gallivanting round the globe, trying to gather more wealth, are into cybercrime.
The matter of cleansing the Nigerian society of yahooyahoo/cybercrime begins with parents and from our homes. Let’s not pretend we don’t know.
If we say our children are leaders of tomorrow, then, they shouldn’t be upcoming leaders with criminal records. If we begin to monitor our children and teach them the right values at the foundational age, even friends will find it difficult to convince them to break the beliefs and values they had grown up with.
If we can begin to speak out against the culture of accepting cybercrime in our community, perhaps we shall begin to garner respect in international cycle. A great nation, begins with a great family.
JULIANA EBERE FRANCIS IS THE FOUNDER, YOUTHS AGAINST CRIME
(YOUTHLENS.COM)
08023684524.
First Published 2018
