“FELLOW Nigerians, we have put our country to shame! As if that was not enough, we are increasingly soiling our already tarnished image beyond our borders due to increasing cases of cyber crime, including online fraud cases involving banks,” said Terence Ukwa, a student pastor with the Mountain of Fire Ministries in Nigeria.
As the year comes to an end, we take a closer look at cyber crime in this most populous African country.
A random survey conducted over the weekend involving people drawn from Information and Communication Technology (ICT), cellular mobile and telecommunications companies, Christian society, policy makers and the general public, revealed widespread concern over Nigeria’s battered image across its borders owing to high level and sophisticated organized cyber crime.
The interviewees were generally worried that cases of cyber crime, internet pornography, abuse of online visa applications and online banking, among other felonies, were on the increase in the country.
Ukwa said Nigeria’s image was now at stake following dozens of thousands of cyber crime cases reported since 2007, with the country being rated the world’s third worst affected country.
People interviewed by our reporters suggested that the government and the IT experts should join hands to combat the increasing cases of cyber crime being committed through modern technology.
“I have heard of so many people losing millions of Naira to online banking fraud while cases of child abuse, pornography and online visa application abuse continue to soar. Fake passports with fake visas, particularly for countries such as South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States are reported to have gone up in this country.
“These crimes are committed by well-trained experts in the IT, telecommunications engineers, computer experts, mobile cellphone experts and others, yet the government is not paying much attention to ways of fighting the crime,” said Ukwa.
Shiela Oliseh said she knew of several people whose email addresses were blocked by criminals intending to abuse them.
Oliseh claimed to have lost close to N200 000 worth of online business as a result of the actions of cyber criminals.
“Instead of putting technology to better use, my fellow brothers and sisters in Nigeria are using it to commit crime. This is bad for our image as a nation,” said Oliseh.
Vivian Uche, a computer student at a commercial college in Lagos, suggested stiffer sentences against those found abusing technology.
“Tough sentences would be an answer to the increasing cases of cyber crime currently taking place in this country. I would like to suggest that the IT industry employs experts capable of detecting crime before it can spread. This would help the government in reducing cyber crime in our country,” said Uche.
Others felt the government should also train police to specialize in cyber crime.
But Julia Victor argued that Nigeria’s image was being soiled by the media that was continuously focusing on the negative things about the West African nation.
She argued that positive stories about Nigeria were not reported, and the focus of the international media was on crime.
“Media is to blame for most of the negative stories we hear about Nigeria. I do not understand how the international journalists operate, especially the ones in our country because to them news is anything that is anti-Nigeria and its people.
“When are we going to hear or experience some kind of positive reporting about Nigeria and Africa as whole? I find the international media being guilty of furthering their hidden agendas, especially when reporting on Africa.
“Take the case of Zimbabwe for example, the world believes it is President Robert Mugabe who messed up the economy yet in actual fact it is the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai who ganged up with the West to advocate for regime change using sanctions. We all know about Tsvangirai in the early 2000 campaigning for power cuts, blocking aid to the starving people as well as cutting of fuel supplies, but strangely the same media is saying ZANU-PF is the problem.
“Technology has been abused by those who crafted it in order to promote their desired objectives and agendas. Instead of using technology to address economic woes and underdevelopment, the developed nations are using it as an experiment to further their desired secret objectives for their own benefit,” said Victor.
ITNewsAfrica.com
I’m afraid Julia doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about. Mugabe’s fall started when he snatched farms away from high output white farmers, and gave them to inexperienced Zany PF cronies, who had no idea how to farm. Productivity and food output went downhill fast. The sanctions have always only targeted the looting Zanu PF individuals and their companies. It is only since this year, when Mugabe went on a murder spree after the March election loss, that a few effective sanctions wwere put in place, such as stopping the supply of German paper to print bank notes. Please get your facts straight.
Julia has expressed the highest degree of ignorance, in this century.
Learn and ask quesitions before making comments, that’s my advice.
Policy drives the political and economic fortunes of any country. Zimbabwe is an agro-based economy and Mugabe embarked on a suicidal land reform policy that spiralled negatively into the agro-industries
I dont blame you. I blame your ignorance and lack of wisdom, Julia.