Friday, September 6, 2019
Video - South Africa closes embassy in Nigeria due to recent xenophobic violence
South Africa has temporarily closed its diplomatic missions in Nigeria following reprisal attacks by Nigerians triggered by xenophobic violence in South Africa.
Between Sunday and Wednesday, mobs looted and destroyed shops, many of them foreign-owned, in South Africa's commercial hub, Johannesburg.
Nigeria's government has been outspoken in its condemnation of the violence.
Police say the unrest has subsided and more than 420 arrests have been made.
South Africa's Foreign Minister, Naledi Pandor, called the violence an embarrassment for her country.
"Our government regrets all violence against foreign-owned stores or Africans from other countries who are resident in South Africa," she was quoted as saying by national broadcaster SABC.
She ordered the closure of the country's high commission in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, and its mission in Lagos, following threats made to the diplomatic staff.
Have any Nigerians been killed?
Videos and images that have been shared on social media purporting to show Nigerians being attacked and killed have inflamed tensions.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, South African-owned businesses were targeted by protesters in several Nigerian cities, and the looters said the attacks were reprisals for the killing of Nigerians in South Africa. South African telecoms giant MTN closed its shops as a precaution.
In response to the violence in Johannesburg, two of Nigeria's top musicians, Burna Boy And Tiwa Savage, announced they were boycotting South Africa.
At least 10 people have been killed in the trouble in South Africa, including two foreign nationals, the South African government says, but none of the victims have been identified as Nigerian.
On Wednesday, Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama told journalists: "There are a lot of stories going around of Nigerians being killed, jumping off buildings and being burnt. This is not the case."
While the government believes Nigerian businesses have been targeted in South Africa, he added, it has no evidence that Nigerians have died.
Mr Onyeama also urged people to stop attacking South African businesses in Nigeria, saying that President Muhammadu Buhari was "particularly distraught at the acts of vandalism".
Why has the Nigerian government been so outspoken?
Despite disputing the accounts of Nigerians dying in South Africa, the Nigerian government has been forceful in its condemnation of events there.
On Wednesday, it announced it was boycotting the World Economic Forum on Africa that is currently taking place in Cape Town in protest at the violence.
"The government believes that we have to take the moral high ground on this matter," Mr Onyeama said.
The president has also sent an envoy to South Africa to "express Nigeria's displeasure over the treatment of her citizens".
Nigerians often criticise the authorities for being slow to respond to domestic crises and the government is keen to be seen to be taking action over attacks in South Africa, said the BBC's Nigeria correspondent, Mayeni Jones.
What about reaction elsewhere in Africa?
On Thursday, demonstrators in the Democratic Republic of Congo's second city, Lubumbashi, broke the windows of South Africa's consulate, AFP news agency reports.
There was also a small demonstration outside the South African embassy in the capital, Kinshasa.
Air Tanzania, the country's national carrier, has suspended flights to Johannesburg because of the violence, Transport Minister Isack Kamwelwe said.
Madagascar's football federation has announced that it will not be sending a team to play South Africa in a friendly on Saturday because of security concerns.
The fixture against Madagascar was announced after Zambia pulled out of the match earlier this week over the xenophobic violence.
On Wednesday, students in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, forced the closure of several South African-owned shopping malls.
A group also marched on the South African high commission in the city and defaced the sign outside the compound.
"We are tired of being beaten every day. We're all Africa. Why must we be afraid to go to South Africa?... We want the ambassador to address us," one protester told Reuters news agency.
On Tuesday, the African Union (AU) issued a statement condemning the "despicable acts" of violence in South Africa "in the strongest terms".
What sparked the looting in South Africa?
The attacks on foreign-owned shops began after South African lorry drivers started a nationwide strike to protest against the employment of foreign drivers. They blocked roads and torched foreign-driven vehicles mainly in the coastal KwaZulu-Natal province.
It comes at a time of high unemployment and some South Africans blame foreigners for taking their jobs.
The unemployment rate in South Africa is nearly 28%, the highest since the labour force survey was introduced 11 years ago.
The government minister responsible for small business development told BBC Newsday the rioters "feel there are other Africans coming into the country and they feel these Africans are taking our jobs".
Lindiwe Zulu said the problems were caused by the movement of people across Africa.
"We are facing a challenge that is beyond South Africa as a country. This is an African problem," she said.
Some foreigners are also accused of being involved in pushing illegal drugs.
A taxi driver was allegedly shot dead in Pretoria last week when he confronted foreign nationals thought to be selling drugs to young people, reports South Africa's News 24.
BBC
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Video - Real Estate event in Lagos focuses on bridging investment gaps in the market
An estimated 2000 delegates from across Africa gathered in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos for the 2nd edition of The African Real Estate Conference. The forum aims to bridge investment gaps and uphold standards in Africa's Real Estate market.
Video - Obasanjo commends China's achievements
With the upcoming 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, CGTN interviewed Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria. During his time in office, Obasanjo actively promoted cooperation between China and Nigeria. He visited China for the first time in the late 1980s. He said that what he saw left a deep impression.
Women from Nigeria exploited in Ghana by Smugglers
Jennifer* has spent the last few weeks on the pavements of Vienna City, a hub in Kumasi, Ghana's second-largest city, which has a bustling nightlife.
She arrived in Ghana in May, having left a crowded hostel room in Lagos, Nigeria, hoping to secure work in sales or as a waitress and send her income to her mother in central Nigeria's Ondo State.
But after a one-day bus trip from Lagos to Accra, her dreams crumbled as she reached the green hills of Kumasi.
"Please, get me out of here, this life is devastating," she said.
"They put me immediately on the street, forcing me to prostitute from 8pm till morning, every day,'' she said in a bar on Harper Road, where Rihanna's songs crackled through an old sound system as other Nigerian women outside dressed in revealing clothes waited for clients.
"Each night, I receive up to eight clients, and end up having $20 to $25 in my hands,'' she said.
Most of her money goes back into the "system" - to a "madam", a Nigerian woman, and middlemen such as hotel managers.
Women and girls like Jennifer, with some as young as 14, are victims of a trafficking network that benefits several people from Nigeria to Ghana.
The old district of Dichemso, the heart of the business, lies on the opposite side of Kumasi's city centre.
"Dichemso is where Kumasi's sex industry is flourishing, thanks to different guesthouses and hotels, such as the Plaza," said Bright Owusu, an independent researcher who has spent the last three years meeting Nigerian women forced into prostitution in the city.
Twenty Nigerian women live at one of these guesthouses, which is controlled by a few men at the entrance.
Locked in her room, 26-year-old Blessing* shared her experience.
"I am the oldest of five sisters and brothers: when our parents died, I knew I had to take care of them,'' she said.
Local middlemen convinced her to leave Lokoja, in central Nigeria, to Ghana.
In Kumasi, "they introduced me to a woman, who brought me to a fetish priest and told me I owed her 8,000 cedis [about $1,500] for my transportation: I had to prostitute to pay that sum back".
In some African countries, a "fetish priest" serves as a mediator between the spirit and the living.
Blessing refused, and ran away.
Soon after, she received death threats in messages to her phone. "The madam said the priest would throw a curse against me, but I didn't want any debt,'' she said.
After working for four months at a local market, for barely $30 a month, Blessing ultimately turned to prostitution as the only way to pay college fees for her younger sisters.
"I don't like it here, but I have to resist,'' she said.
In one year in Dichemso, she said she has met dozens of women with similar experiences.
"Every day, Nigerian girls enter Ghana, undergo voodoo rituals and are put into prostitution, and nobody seems to care," she said.
"Through rituals, madams make sure that you'll pay back a debt," said Blessing.
Debts vary between $1,000 and $2,000, while prices "are as low as 5 cedis [$1] for a short [sexual encounter] - less than 10 minutes with the client - and up to 30 cedis for half an hour or more", she added.
Owusu, the researcher, explained: "Some of these women know they'll be coming for prostitution, but they don't know that once here, they'll lose control over their life."
Voodoo rituals play a central role.
"They are the most powerful bond, one that has a strong psychological impact," he said.
Victoria Klimova, a project coordinator at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Ghana, said that national authorities do not have complete information on sex trafficking.
However, according to Al Jazeera's interviews and research, it is estimated that there are at least hundreds of Nigerian women working as prostitutes in Ghana.
Late last year, IOM launched a programme aimed at creating comprehensive data on sex trafficking and labour exploitation in Ghana, and to support the government's 2017 strategy to combat the problem.
According to the US Department of State, a trafficking investigation which opened last year has seen just three people convicted.
Out of 49 women identified as potential victims of sex trafficking, 46 were Nigerian, and 22 were underage.
The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), a state agency, in part supported this investigation.
Alberta Ampofo leads its anti-smuggling operation, which is propped up with European Union funds.
She said some "rescued women" are living at Ghana's first shelter for trafficking victims, which opened in February.
"They should cooperate in investigations, before being returned to their families," she said.
"Victims of sex trafficking are in all corners of Ghana and much has yet to be done, but there's more awareness among the population and authorities, and that's a good start."
But Ampofo said that GIS is not prosecuting fetish priests.
"How can a priest know that a Nigerian lady is a victim of trafficking, if the madam simply presents her as an employee?"
However, this is not the case of Nana Badu, a renowned prophetess in Kumasi.
In a small room in her house, there are wooden statues of oracles, bowls and bottles.
Her oracles, she said, "can give strength, bring children, make business flourish or protect from enemies".
She added that madams "come for protection so that the police won't stop their girls at the border, since I have a medicine that prevents police from seeing you".
To "help" trafficked women pay back their debts, she claimed that she is able to foster "bonds" between sex workers and employers.
"If a woman tries to escape, the oracle will put the police on her back, to arrest her,'' said Badu.
Finally, when the debt is repaid, the madam returns with the sex worker and Badu reverses a ritual to release the victim.
None of the five women Al Jazeera interviewed in Kumasi, who hailed from different Nigerian states, was aware of a 2018 edict that dissolved all these oaths, led by the influential Oba, or traditional chief, of Benin City - one of the main origins of Nigerian women trafficked to Europe.
"Traditional priests feel they are somehow untouchable here, even by authorities,'' said Owusu.
Still, their services appear to play a key role in a system that exposes Nigerian women in Ghana to daily risks, as tragically confirmed in May with the murder of a 25-year-old woman known as Nina.
"I remember her receiving a call from a client and smiling," said Blessing, who knew Nina well.
Days later, the woman's body was found outside of Kumasi. Two men were arrested for the murder.
"We collected money for the burial and called her parents back in Nigeria," said Blessing. "They had no idea of what their daughter was going through here."
By Giacomo Zandonini
Al Jazeera
Related story: Video - Nigeria locking up survivors of human trafficking
She arrived in Ghana in May, having left a crowded hostel room in Lagos, Nigeria, hoping to secure work in sales or as a waitress and send her income to her mother in central Nigeria's Ondo State.
But after a one-day bus trip from Lagos to Accra, her dreams crumbled as she reached the green hills of Kumasi.
"Please, get me out of here, this life is devastating," she said.
"They put me immediately on the street, forcing me to prostitute from 8pm till morning, every day,'' she said in a bar on Harper Road, where Rihanna's songs crackled through an old sound system as other Nigerian women outside dressed in revealing clothes waited for clients.
"Each night, I receive up to eight clients, and end up having $20 to $25 in my hands,'' she said.
Most of her money goes back into the "system" - to a "madam", a Nigerian woman, and middlemen such as hotel managers.
Women and girls like Jennifer, with some as young as 14, are victims of a trafficking network that benefits several people from Nigeria to Ghana.
The old district of Dichemso, the heart of the business, lies on the opposite side of Kumasi's city centre.
"Dichemso is where Kumasi's sex industry is flourishing, thanks to different guesthouses and hotels, such as the Plaza," said Bright Owusu, an independent researcher who has spent the last three years meeting Nigerian women forced into prostitution in the city.
Twenty Nigerian women live at one of these guesthouses, which is controlled by a few men at the entrance.
Locked in her room, 26-year-old Blessing* shared her experience.
"I am the oldest of five sisters and brothers: when our parents died, I knew I had to take care of them,'' she said.
Local middlemen convinced her to leave Lokoja, in central Nigeria, to Ghana.
In Kumasi, "they introduced me to a woman, who brought me to a fetish priest and told me I owed her 8,000 cedis [about $1,500] for my transportation: I had to prostitute to pay that sum back".
In some African countries, a "fetish priest" serves as a mediator between the spirit and the living.
Blessing refused, and ran away.
Soon after, she received death threats in messages to her phone. "The madam said the priest would throw a curse against me, but I didn't want any debt,'' she said.
After working for four months at a local market, for barely $30 a month, Blessing ultimately turned to prostitution as the only way to pay college fees for her younger sisters.
"I don't like it here, but I have to resist,'' she said.
In one year in Dichemso, she said she has met dozens of women with similar experiences.
"Every day, Nigerian girls enter Ghana, undergo voodoo rituals and are put into prostitution, and nobody seems to care," she said.
"Through rituals, madams make sure that you'll pay back a debt," said Blessing.
Debts vary between $1,000 and $2,000, while prices "are as low as 5 cedis [$1] for a short [sexual encounter] - less than 10 minutes with the client - and up to 30 cedis for half an hour or more", she added.
Owusu, the researcher, explained: "Some of these women know they'll be coming for prostitution, but they don't know that once here, they'll lose control over their life."
Voodoo rituals play a central role.
"They are the most powerful bond, one that has a strong psychological impact," he said.
Victoria Klimova, a project coordinator at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Ghana, said that national authorities do not have complete information on sex trafficking.
However, according to Al Jazeera's interviews and research, it is estimated that there are at least hundreds of Nigerian women working as prostitutes in Ghana.
Late last year, IOM launched a programme aimed at creating comprehensive data on sex trafficking and labour exploitation in Ghana, and to support the government's 2017 strategy to combat the problem.
According to the US Department of State, a trafficking investigation which opened last year has seen just three people convicted.
Out of 49 women identified as potential victims of sex trafficking, 46 were Nigerian, and 22 were underage.
The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), a state agency, in part supported this investigation.
Alberta Ampofo leads its anti-smuggling operation, which is propped up with European Union funds.
She said some "rescued women" are living at Ghana's first shelter for trafficking victims, which opened in February.
"They should cooperate in investigations, before being returned to their families," she said.
"Victims of sex trafficking are in all corners of Ghana and much has yet to be done, but there's more awareness among the population and authorities, and that's a good start."
But Ampofo said that GIS is not prosecuting fetish priests.
"How can a priest know that a Nigerian lady is a victim of trafficking, if the madam simply presents her as an employee?"
However, this is not the case of Nana Badu, a renowned prophetess in Kumasi.
In a small room in her house, there are wooden statues of oracles, bowls and bottles.
Her oracles, she said, "can give strength, bring children, make business flourish or protect from enemies".
She added that madams "come for protection so that the police won't stop their girls at the border, since I have a medicine that prevents police from seeing you".
To "help" trafficked women pay back their debts, she claimed that she is able to foster "bonds" between sex workers and employers.
"If a woman tries to escape, the oracle will put the police on her back, to arrest her,'' said Badu.
Finally, when the debt is repaid, the madam returns with the sex worker and Badu reverses a ritual to release the victim.
None of the five women Al Jazeera interviewed in Kumasi, who hailed from different Nigerian states, was aware of a 2018 edict that dissolved all these oaths, led by the influential Oba, or traditional chief, of Benin City - one of the main origins of Nigerian women trafficked to Europe.
"Traditional priests feel they are somehow untouchable here, even by authorities,'' said Owusu.
Still, their services appear to play a key role in a system that exposes Nigerian women in Ghana to daily risks, as tragically confirmed in May with the murder of a 25-year-old woman known as Nina.
"I remember her receiving a call from a client and smiling," said Blessing, who knew Nina well.
Days later, the woman's body was found outside of Kumasi. Two men were arrested for the murder.
"We collected money for the burial and called her parents back in Nigeria," said Blessing. "They had no idea of what their daughter was going through here."
By Giacomo Zandonini
Al Jazeera
Related story: Video - Nigeria locking up survivors of human trafficking
Global reputation of Nigeria dented by FBI fraud bust
The FBI's dramatic arrest and indictment of 80 mostly Nigerian cybercriminals in California last week made headlines globally. Closer to home, it has prompted concerns among Nigerians who are worried about the impact the busts will have on how the world views them and their country.
Previously, Nigerian criminality existed in the popular imagination somewhere between mildly serious and an internet joke.
Now, with the FBI's takedown of an intercontinental Nigerian criminal network responsible for millions of dollars in annual losses, some think that the country and its citizens risk facing an unprecedented international backlash.
A new era of travel restrictions?
Unsurprisingly, ease of travel is at the top of the list of concerns raised.
Nigeria is one of the world's most prolific exporters of skilled migrant labor with one of the world's least powerful passports, giving holders ready access to just 52 countries. Fresh visa restrictions are the last thing educated Nigerians need.
At 35%, Nigeria already has the world's highest UK visa refusal rate. It also ranks highly in US visa refusals with a 57% refusal rate.
After indefinitely suspending interview waivers for visa renewals earlier this year, the US Embassy in Nigeria no longer gives visa interview appointments according to local reports. The embassy's Public Affairs section has denied blocking interview appointments but has provided no further comment on the issue.
Many believe that the headlines and pictures showing the arrest of several hitherto shadowy Nigerian cybercriminals will significantly worsen the situation.
They fear that the indictment and prosecution of an organized Nigerian-American crime syndicate will give President Donald Trump scarcely-needed motivation to impose a Yemen-style US travel restriction on Nigerian citizens.
It will be recalled that shortly after taking office, Trump imposed total visa bans on seven countries in Africa and the Middle East including Yemen, Sudan, Syria, and Somalia. Some Nigerians who are American residents even fear becoming collateral damage within a new narrative of "Nigerian crime gangs."
This fear is driven in part by the experience of some innocent Hispanic teenagers who found themselves embroiled in deportation proceedings after being wrongly accused of being members of the fearsome international gang MS-13.
A sophisticated operation
Some also believe that the indictments present a risk that existing negative Nigerian stereotypes may now transcend education and income barriers.
The FBI has opened a wider window on Nigeria's internet crime problem to the world, depicting a sophisticated operation involving people with professional web development experience and organizational process knowledge.
These are not the crude "Nigerian Princes" of the popular imagination, sitting inside crowded Lagos cybercafes sending out poorly written emails. They are highly educated and well-traveled individuals, one of whom has appeared on a Forbes 30-Under-30 list.
When the implication of this sinks in, the rest of the world may well stop segmenting Nigerians and simply lose trust in them collectively.
Outside of Nigeria, the "Nigerian" identity risks becoming subsumed by the "criminal country" single narrative that once prevented Italian immigrants in the US from moving up the social ladder.
Unlike the early 20th century Italians, Nigerians have very little with which to counterbalance negative global narratives.
Italy was a global hub for art, tourism, history, religion, and food. Nigeria is a barely functional African state that struggles to fund its budget and police its borders. Adding a mafia-lite dimension to Nigeria's already poor global image risks turning Nigerians into international pariahs, which is bad news for a country that is highly dependent on remittances.
In 2018, Nigeria received over $25 billion in remittances, a figure which exceeded the country's federal budget of $23.7 billion for that year. In the context of Nigeria's dwindling oil receipts and 70% debt service-to-revenue ratio, the picture becomes even bleaker.
A full fledged-pariah state?
As the world tackles the threat of a terrifying new Nigerian bogeyman, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will come under pressure to demonstrate enforcement of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations.
Predictably, the remittance sector will come under even stricter international scrutiny than at present, even though Nigeria's internet fraudsters mostly moved on years ago.
The indicted cybercriminals typically moved the stolen funds through the Nigerian banking system, instead of parallel systems like bitcoin and gift cards (which are themselves popular with other Nigerian internet scammers). This will likely attract the attention of the US Department of Justice.
At risk of removal from the SWIFT network, which connects banks across borders and effectively underpins international trade, Nigerian authorities will almost certainly do whatever they can to restore some semblance of global confidence in their KYC and AML enforcement.
On the whole, individual Nigerian citizens and organizations may well suffer localized backlash due to last week's indictments, but the Nigerian state itself is unlikely to suffer much. This is because unlike the North Korean regime, Nigeria's government neither plays an active role in cybercrime nor is it openly hostile to the international community.
The EFCC has already started collaborating with the FBI to arrest indicted suspects in Abuja with extradition to the US in view.
Going forward, the Nigerian government is best served playing a compliant and competent role in the prosecution of this case. Ultimately, that could be the difference between becoming a full-fledged pariah state and merely remaining a poorly-regarded one.
The state will always be fine, but the citizens? Not so much.
By David Hundeyin
CNN
Related story: FBI charges 80 people connected to Nigerian romance scams
Previously, Nigerian criminality existed in the popular imagination somewhere between mildly serious and an internet joke.
Now, with the FBI's takedown of an intercontinental Nigerian criminal network responsible for millions of dollars in annual losses, some think that the country and its citizens risk facing an unprecedented international backlash.
A new era of travel restrictions?
Unsurprisingly, ease of travel is at the top of the list of concerns raised.
Nigeria is one of the world's most prolific exporters of skilled migrant labor with one of the world's least powerful passports, giving holders ready access to just 52 countries. Fresh visa restrictions are the last thing educated Nigerians need.
At 35%, Nigeria already has the world's highest UK visa refusal rate. It also ranks highly in US visa refusals with a 57% refusal rate.
After indefinitely suspending interview waivers for visa renewals earlier this year, the US Embassy in Nigeria no longer gives visa interview appointments according to local reports. The embassy's Public Affairs section has denied blocking interview appointments but has provided no further comment on the issue.
Many believe that the headlines and pictures showing the arrest of several hitherto shadowy Nigerian cybercriminals will significantly worsen the situation.
They fear that the indictment and prosecution of an organized Nigerian-American crime syndicate will give President Donald Trump scarcely-needed motivation to impose a Yemen-style US travel restriction on Nigerian citizens.
It will be recalled that shortly after taking office, Trump imposed total visa bans on seven countries in Africa and the Middle East including Yemen, Sudan, Syria, and Somalia. Some Nigerians who are American residents even fear becoming collateral damage within a new narrative of "Nigerian crime gangs."
This fear is driven in part by the experience of some innocent Hispanic teenagers who found themselves embroiled in deportation proceedings after being wrongly accused of being members of the fearsome international gang MS-13.
A sophisticated operation
Some also believe that the indictments present a risk that existing negative Nigerian stereotypes may now transcend education and income barriers.
The FBI has opened a wider window on Nigeria's internet crime problem to the world, depicting a sophisticated operation involving people with professional web development experience and organizational process knowledge.
These are not the crude "Nigerian Princes" of the popular imagination, sitting inside crowded Lagos cybercafes sending out poorly written emails. They are highly educated and well-traveled individuals, one of whom has appeared on a Forbes 30-Under-30 list.
When the implication of this sinks in, the rest of the world may well stop segmenting Nigerians and simply lose trust in them collectively.
Outside of Nigeria, the "Nigerian" identity risks becoming subsumed by the "criminal country" single narrative that once prevented Italian immigrants in the US from moving up the social ladder.
Unlike the early 20th century Italians, Nigerians have very little with which to counterbalance negative global narratives.
Italy was a global hub for art, tourism, history, religion, and food. Nigeria is a barely functional African state that struggles to fund its budget and police its borders. Adding a mafia-lite dimension to Nigeria's already poor global image risks turning Nigerians into international pariahs, which is bad news for a country that is highly dependent on remittances.
In 2018, Nigeria received over $25 billion in remittances, a figure which exceeded the country's federal budget of $23.7 billion for that year. In the context of Nigeria's dwindling oil receipts and 70% debt service-to-revenue ratio, the picture becomes even bleaker.
A full fledged-pariah state?
As the world tackles the threat of a terrifying new Nigerian bogeyman, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will come under pressure to demonstrate enforcement of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations.
Predictably, the remittance sector will come under even stricter international scrutiny than at present, even though Nigeria's internet fraudsters mostly moved on years ago.
The indicted cybercriminals typically moved the stolen funds through the Nigerian banking system, instead of parallel systems like bitcoin and gift cards (which are themselves popular with other Nigerian internet scammers). This will likely attract the attention of the US Department of Justice.
At risk of removal from the SWIFT network, which connects banks across borders and effectively underpins international trade, Nigerian authorities will almost certainly do whatever they can to restore some semblance of global confidence in their KYC and AML enforcement.
On the whole, individual Nigerian citizens and organizations may well suffer localized backlash due to last week's indictments, but the Nigerian state itself is unlikely to suffer much. This is because unlike the North Korean regime, Nigeria's government neither plays an active role in cybercrime nor is it openly hostile to the international community.
The EFCC has already started collaborating with the FBI to arrest indicted suspects in Abuja with extradition to the US in view.
Going forward, the Nigerian government is best served playing a compliant and competent role in the prosecution of this case. Ultimately, that could be the difference between becoming a full-fledged pariah state and merely remaining a poorly-regarded one.
The state will always be fine, but the citizens? Not so much.
By David Hundeyin
CNN
Related story: FBI charges 80 people connected to Nigerian romance scams
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