…As some parents, relations benefit from proceeds of fraud
Earlier this year, campaign posters of a young man in his early 20s was everywhere for the president of a Community Development Association (CDA) election in a Lagos luxury estate.
The incumbent leadership had to postpone the election when it noticed that the candidates for the position of the president were stepping down for a boy who is even younger than their last children.
Of course, the CDA executives amended the constitution to allow the outgoing executives to run another two years instead of allowing a suspected ‘Yahoo Boy’ to rule.
The boy, who allegedly bought two houses in a month in the estate, was too bold and mistakenly rubbing his apparently ill-gotten wealth on the faces of those old enough to be his father and also richer than him.
The above is common place across the country as the society seems to value money more than morals and hard work.
Also, sometime in March, during the Women’s Day celebration, Girls Are Mothers, a girl-child advocacy group, raised the alarm at a townhall meeting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, over the growing school dropout rate of girls.
The group was worried that the syndrome of ‘who-school-help?’ is becoming popular now among secondary school girls, hence fueling their dropout to look for easy life.
“There is no easy life out there. Your mothers worked hard to earn money to send you to school, also finish your school and work hard to take care of yourself and children too,” Margaret Ekong, an executive of the group, admonished girls during the meeting in Port Harcourt.
The Warri, Delta Sate-based group, has visited places like Uyo, Benin, Sapele, Obigbo, Ugheli, Kaima, among others with its ‘Education Pays; Hardwork Pays’ campaigns for girls.
But its admonitions seem to fall on deaf ears as the girls are bent on easy life at all cost.
Apart from dropping out of school, the girls are also not interested in apprenticeship to acquire empowerment skills or petty trading, Ekong observed, decrying the ugly trend.
Bolanle Fagade, a hairdresser, whose outfit in Gbagada, Lagos, is thronged by girls for apprenticeship, also raised the alarm, saying that fewer girls are coming now and she keeps losing even the experienced ones to the soft life syndrome.
“Yahoo Boys is our problem. They have money and give these girls plenty of it and that is why they don’t like any apprenticeship again,” she lamented.
She also expressed shock that rather than use the money from the boys to establish a business, they are lazy and just enjoying money they did not labour for.
Read also: Nigeria’s labour market crisis: How ‘Yahoo’, ‘Hookup Culture’ drain talent
“The sponsor of one of my former apprentices came complaining to me that she doesn’t open her salon again. When I confronted her, she said that her Yahoo fiancé pays her triple the money she makes from the shop just to always hang around him. That is crazy from a girl I thought was decent,” she decried.
But a female Point of Sales (PoS) vendor, who admitted the pressure to get a ‘Yahoo Boy’, noted that everything in the country is now all about money, and why will one suffer when you have opportunity to get money on a platter of gold.
“They said ‘Yahoo Boys’ money is fraud, some say it is ritual and others say it is cursed. From the politicians, business people and even Pastors and Alhajis, which money in Nigeria is clean?
“Money is money, no matter how clean or dirty it is because I have suffered enough,” the 23-year-old, who gave her name as Joyce, insisted.
On why the much efforts to get a Yahoo boyfriend, Stella Nshe, an Abuja-based fashion designer, noted that the ‘boys’ treat their women well.
“No matter the number of girlfriends, the boys have enough to go round, they keep giving and the girls keep praying for open doors for them.
Who wan suffer double in this hard time?
“Our girls are enjoying the money as it lasts, though some unlucky ones are paying with their lives,” she said.
On the other hand, many young men, who are doing legitimate businesses and even some professionals are being lured by the easy life or soft life of the ‘Yahoo Boys’.
Kolade Olubanwo, a young civil servant in Abuja, confessed always being intimidated by the soft lifestyle of these guys, who in a sane society should be in jail.
“Recently, our driver spent 15 minutes arguing with the police at Apo Junction for doubling the amount he usually pays. Our saving grace was the emergence of Yahoo Boys in two black and tinted glass Lexus saloon car. The police smiled and let us go without paying anything because bullion van has arrived.
“Our tricky driver slowed in restarting the engine until we all saw the cash gifting from the money boys,” Olubanwo said.
Apart from the road scene, the most devastating for Olubanwo, who can do little with his new minimum wage, is the luxury estates these boys live in.
“They are my mates, why will estate agents allow a 20-25-year-old to buy house or pay rent in such luxury estates, is it all about money, about who can pay?
“I think the society has declined further and that is very bad for us as a people because hardworking young people like me may not hold on for long to join these guys, we are humans too and need good life,” he said.
That is not all about the money boys, soft life guys, ATM machine and whatever name those who benefit from their largesse call them. The most annoying part of it is that some parents and families now see nothing wrong to have a ‘Yahoo Boy’ son, uncle, cousin or son-in-law.
Now, some fathers look forward to a ‘Yahoo Boy’ son-in-law because money is involved.
Narrating how her son lost his fiancée to a Malaysian-based Nigerian youngster, Sarah Ikeh, a retired chief matron in a government hospital, decried that it was the girl’s family that pushed her to go for wealth than integrity because her son, an engineer with the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, is doing well.
“It is sad dear because the girl’s parents are educated and should have supported legitimate earning than quick wealth. I weep for this generation because tomorrow is already here and I wonder the kind of parents our children will become tomorrow with money answering everything today.
“Sadly, another girl my son was considering was also after money, but he eventually got a good one and is married now,” she said.
Toeing a different line, Efe Omogho, a retired civil servant, asked what people want parents to do when their integrity and honesty in serving the country for over three decades are not appreciated.
“I am retired now, but I find it difficult to face my children, especially my second son, who will always ask what my integrity in serving Nigeria for 32 years has done for me.
“See, I have resolved not to be too hard on them, I will advise and support them where necessary because the society is the problem. We keep losing good people because of the bad influences in the system. Yahoo Boys are influenced by the soft life of politicians and moneybags, who cannot point to the source of their wealth,” Omogho said.
Proffering solutions, Olubanwo said, “Our institutions should wake up, especially the EFCC. It is not about the National Assembly making laws, it is implementation that we need now to save the youth. We are under pressure from these Yahoo Boys.”
On her part, the retired chief matron pushed the blame on weak parenting and eroding family values.
“Parents should wake up, family values are almost gone, we will pay dearly for it tomorrow if nothing happens now to checkmate this trend. Face your children squarely and reject gifts and money from them when you are sure it is from fraudulent activities,” the retired chief matron warned.
For Pa Omogho, people should leave Yahoo Boys alone, and hold politicians and the EFCC responsible.
“If the EFCC is doing its job, many Yahoo Men in the National Assembly and in positions in state governments would have been in jail. The youth are watching and learning how to buy votes, intimidate and win elections. If you deal decisively with culprits, the quest for fast money will decline,” Pa Omogho admonished.
