BARBARA, CALL HOME

by Linda Ecker, (9) 63-65

Barbara Kingston lived in Okene the last year of her Peace Corps tour 63-65.

When Frieda Fairburn, (9) 63-65, my Peace Corps training roommate, visited last summer, I put a book in her room called Dan Bana, a memoir by Stanhope White who was a DC in Northern Nigeria from the 1930's to the 1950's. I thought Frieda might find it amusing to look at the pictures. Not only did Frieda find it amusing, she could hardly tear herself away all weekend. She carried it around reading excerpts to me. During meals, we talked about Nigeria, DC's we had known, Peace Corps, Volunteers, and volunteering which reminded me of the Yeats line "The best lack all conviction, while they are full of passionate intensity." (The Second Coming).

The Yeats quote took me to the Nation interview with David Horowitz (July 3, 2000). I became intrigued by Horowitz when I read a review of his autobiography, Radical Son, which chronicles his conversion from card-carrying radical to arch conservative. I have not read Radical Son, but in reading the review, I realized I had read his biography of the Rockefellers which he wrote with Peter Collier, and which is credited with breaking the ground for the dynastic biographical genre.

So, back to the Nation interview: Horowitz talks about his relationship to the Black Panthers and Huey Newton and Newton's escape to Cuba after he "shot a young prostitute." Following this event in 1974, the ranks of the Panthers were decimated. Horowitz, however, remained in the fold and influenced a woman named Betty Van Patter to also join and to assume a major role in the Panther organization finances. Not long after, she was murdered, the implications being that she had discovered Panther involvement in illegal activity.

How was any of this relevant to the dinner conversation of a couple of old friends who happened to have served in the Peace Corps many years ago? Well, I had another roommate while in Nigeria, Barbara Kingston. Barbara came from Birnin Kebbi the last year of her tour to live with me in Okene. When she arrived, she took me aback by asking if I had anything to read—-this while staring directly and intently at my complete book locker. Luckily, not long afterward, and to Barbara's delight, Bob and Connie Finlay, (9) 63-64, arrived with a ton of books by folks like Polyani, Nietzche, Kant and...well, you get the picture. When Barbara left Nigeria, she was one of the PCVs who stopped by the Goethe Institute en route home. Eventually, she enrolled in a PhD program at Stanford. We stayed in close touch and saw one another from time to time on one coast or another.

During the late 60s, I was living in Arlington with my baby daughter, Rebecca, when I got a call from Barbara who said she was in Chicago and coming to Washington with the Black Panthers for one of the many demonstrations going on at that time and asked if she and a friend could stay with me. She and her friend arrived, and we talked long into the night. It seemed that she and several colleagues had left Stanford to join the Black Panthers. She was on assignment in a Chicago hospital working in a menial capacity and trying to organize the workers. And she talked about going to Cuba. I forget whether she had been and was returning or planning to go for the first time. In any case, after she and her friend left, I never heard from her again.

After several months, I tried to find her. Her parents and her sister had heard nothing from her either and did not know where she was. The Horowitz interview reawakened all of this. I have never ceased to think of Barbara Kingston. She came to be with me when my baby was born. I still have her wonderful letters filled with self-probing detail and deeply intellectual questioning.

It is possible that over the past 30 odd years, she has led a reasonable conventional life somewhere in America. But I worry. If you see her, please, ask her to call home.

Editor’s Note: The author now lives in Philadelphia where she works part-time in the library of an old Quaker school and often comes across such gems as Dan Bana that inspired this musing. ▪ Return to the Top

I WON'T FALL FOR THAT, WHY SCAM ME FROM NIGERIA, YET?

by Mike Goodkind, (16) 65-67

Mike Goodkind (16), 65-67

Editor’s Note: The author, Senior Editor for Stanford University Medical Center Office of Communications, researched Ponzi Scams for this special report to FON Newsletter.

Ponzi schemes emanating from Nigeria have bilked Americans out of an estimated $100 million a year. They’re ubiquitous—an infinite number of monkeys, an infinite number of typewriters, and sooner or later you get Shakespeare. How many e-mails does it take to make a few million bucks?

The infamous Nigerian 419 Scams (named for the Nigerian Penal Code Section that makes them illegal) have moved from the mailbox to the Internet, the New York-based postal inspector told me in an October telephone interview. Monitoring and quantifying e-mail messages on a global scale is virtually impossible, said Inspector Ed Cuevas, but two years ago when the scam was confined to old fashioned snail mail, the Postal Service reported up to 25,000 complaints a month from Americans. E-mail hits appear to be more numerous, said Cuevas, who represents the Postal Service on an interagency 419 Scam task force that includes Secret Service, FBI and other agencies.

Before hanging up the phone, Cuevas told me there were some bright spots. The current civilian government, unlike its military predecessor, is actively cooperating with other countries to stop the fraud. At least the snail mail appears to be decreasing.

If this had been a cheesy television script, I would have groaned an hour later when I took another break at my computer and opened my bicycle-touring news group. There, mixed in among such titles as My Favorite Panniers and High Range Gears, was an item headed Business Proposal and Assistance Required. The writer purported to represent himself and other top officials assigned to a Nigerian panel reviewing contracts from the former military government. The syntax was charmingly West African, but the context was seemingly designed to make the reader feel right at home as a player in international finance. The author explained that I was eligible for a 30% commission on over $26 million. Nearly $8 million for a few minutes of work was almost mine, if I (or anyone else who read the SPAM message) agreed to float money through my company bank account.

The writer said the money was left over from mismanaged construction contracts during the previous federal administration. (Don’t worry, the author said, companies that executed the contracts have been duly paid.) Panelists could share in this windfall, but because of local regulations, they needed to launder it through a foreign company. Lest I became curious, I was told that my company was chosen for this windfall in confidence through the Nigerian/Gambian Chamber of Commerce, Foreign Trade Division, during an official assignment to Banjul. To get my check, I need only supply detailed information about my company by return e-mail.

(Fortunately, a bike enthusiast sent a scam warning that appeared in the same e-mail digest).

A variation, circulated on the Friends of Nigeria listserv, included an e-mail from a purported son of the late General Sani Abacha. This offered 25% of a $27 million windfall for acting as a trustee in the transfer of the funds "which was not detected by the security operative, that was stashed by my father in one of our private house [sic].” Not much work is involved here—just fax the bank account number to the writer.

There are many other variations to this scam. The New York Times on Nov. 11, 1998, reported the loss of $400,000 from three Amish farmers in Pennsylvania who heard about an offer for a lucrative oil pipeline contract, and a West Virginia obstetrician who paid $225,000 in “fees” to gain involvement in a nonexistent equipment business.

The South African National Police has issued warnings about 419 Scams, noting that many incidents may remain unreported by victims who by participating in the schemes may be guilty of illegal activities.

Whatever the variation, the U.S. Postal Service says the scams usually ask either for an up-front fee from the victim to facilitate the money transfer, or request detailed company and financial information that is later used to withdraw assets from the victims’ bank account. Police agencies advise against sending blank invoices or company letterheads, and advise checking the business credentials of a partner.

Is there something special about Nigeria, where Cuevas said a preponderance of the world’s Ponzi schemes originate? Probably. Nigeria may not be uniquely suited for this type of international fraud, but it may be an environment with a particularly fertile soil for it. There is the matter of a freewheeling, entrepreneurial spirit, and the vulnerability of Westerners to old-fashioned liberal guilt. The letter from Abacha is titled provocatively, Save Our Soul. The author asks for quick action to prevent the family’s ruin at the hands of the incumbent democratic government. (That anyone with even the most superficial knowledge of newspaper headlines would side with Abacha over the current regime seems curious but beside the point. Ponzi schemes, apparently, don’t have to be brilliantly sophisticated and politically correct to succeed often enough to be profitable.)

Perhaps, pervading everything are the vestiges of colonialism, or more significantly that wealthy non-family members are fair game for financial opportunism. Wealthy family members have their own obligations, of course, but that’s another story.

How different is a Ponzi scheme than the losses from our small monthly stipends as Peace Corps Volunteers? True, most of us were not motivated by greed and the opportunity for easy money when we paid far too much for yams in the marketplace or gave a small child a shilling or two to help a sick mother—only to find that same urchin smoking a freshly purchased cigarette minutes later.

Oh, and there’s also the stereotyped assumption that our West African brethren are pure innocents. They have suffered for so long, that perhaps, we should forgive their childish pranks—even if the scale is millions of dollars and they use the Internet. Obviously, schemes such as this perpetuate these images and feed on the vestiges of colonialism. The very dynamics of the scam depends on being able to victimize a wealthy but naïve victim. Is that indeed a component, or at least a stereotype, of the colonial power?

Of course, there is a lesson here for Nigerians. Tactically, the obvious solution is to find a legitimate source of income. A Ponzi scheme as a government-tolerated major industry is not fitting for a country attempting to become a world player. Put simply, the Nigerian government needs to crack down hard if it wants to enhance its international credibility.

The new government has already gained the respect U.S. civil servants trying to stop this traffic. RPCVs can relate to this cross-cultural cooperation—whether it’s practiced by secondary teachers, rural development workers, or in this case, cops.

In retrospect, RPCVs are probably less vulnerable to these schemes than the general public. Our often-marvelous experiences in Nigeria were occasionally tempered with the disillusion of being scammed. The language in the 419 Scams ring familiar. Many of us came home wiser and sometimes a bit sadder.

Advice against falling for a 419 Scam should be easy. As Postal Inspector Pete Nash puts it, “If it seems too good to be true…” ▪
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MIDNIGHT IN NIGERIA

Roger Landrum, (2) 61-63

Those of us who lived in Nigeria during the decade following independence cannot help but wonder why this enormously promising country descended into the abject conditions of more recent years: brutal military dictatorships, a sea of corruption and lack of economic productivity, explosive ethnic strife, highway thugs, educational disrepair, and more. Did the brief, relative social tranquility and cultural dynamism we witnessed mask more complex social and historical realities requiring a long, tumultuous transition to a new order? After all, the US had its own disorderly eras of civil war, the Wild West, robber barons, decimation of Native Americans, the Great Depression and more.

Or, is modern Nigeria, created by British imperialism, simply a failed state doomed to continuing national anarchy and balkanization, much like some of its smaller West African neighbors?

What is it like today in the towns and cities where we lived, and for the colleagues and friends whose company we treasured?

This House Has Fallen: Midnight In Nigeria, an excellent new book by Karl Maier, provides a

fascinating tour of the country today and over recent decades. Maier has the credentials for a dispassionate, in-depth report. An American now living in London, for 10 years Maier was the Africa correspondent for London's The Independent newspaper. He lived in Nigeria 1991-93, returned frequently on reporting assignments, and in mid-1998 gathered the material for this book inside the country.

This is no sensational, condescending tract like a lot of reporting about Nigeria and Africa. Maier's reporting is deeply informed, extraordinarily vivid, and essentially sympathetic to the people of the country. He notes "Nigeria is Africa's equivalent to Brazil, India, or Indonesia. It is the pivot point on which the continent turns." He points out that Nigeria is the fifth largest supplier of oil to the U.S. market and the world's tenth most populous country. Sufficient effective structure remains in place to keep Nigeria the biggest trading partner the US has in Africa.

But, Maier is a realist. He reports "millions of Nigerians, including much of the cream of the educated and business elite, have fled their country to escape impoverishment and political repression." More ominous, Nigeria is home to 60 million youths under the age of 18 who are "seething with frustration over the lack of academic and job opportunities that just three decades before appeared to be within reach of their parents."

However, This House Has Fallen is not about statistical generalities or compelling domestic policy problems. The book is constructed, chapter by chapter, around narrated excursions into diverse corners of Nigeria. We get vivid, first-person accounts of life today and pressing sectional disputes in the oil-rich delta, Northern strongholds of Islam, the heartlands of the Yoruba and Igbo, among the surviving "retired" military elite who helped run Nigeria amok, and much more coverage.

There are telling personal interviews with such potent figures as former military head of state (1985-93) Ibrahim Babangida, "perhaps the wealthiest individual in Nigeria" and a major financier of the Obasanjo election campaign; oil rebels in the Delta State including Ken Saro-Wiwa's adult son; Islamic intellectuals, radicals, and Zamfara State governor Sani who imposed Sharia; Yoruba Oodua People's Congress secessionists; and Igbo businessmen, including former Biafran secessionist leader Ojukwu. Maier traces the rise and fall of the late nightmarish military dictator Sani Abacha to Stalin-like powers, in tandem with President Obasanjo's imprisonment, release, election, inauguration and even early executive actions. Maier's secret meetings with leaders of radical cells of Islamic youth in the North trace the goal of dealing with secular corruption and political failure by imposing a "devout" Islamic state on all of Nigeria (perverse idealism shared by religious fundamentalists everywhere, including in the U.S.) Another chapter explores massive Pentecostal church growth in the south, with Elmer Gantry figures making themselves rich and mingling in politics. Maier's reporting on religious zeal in contemporary Nigeria is a rich and spicy stew.

Midnight in Nigeria is a crazy-quilt portrait of the tumultuous, barely coherent nation Nigeria has evolved into through the weird logic of its own ethnic, political and distinctively African history. We all bring our own perspectives and hopes to such a book. One Nigeria RPCV who read the book found it deeply depressing. Another RPCV, a trained African historian, considers it a penetratingly accurate case study in the seemingly insoluble dilemmas of contemporary Africa.

Like many Nigeria RPCVs, I think about a return visit. I was glad that Maier reported on what it is like today to pass through a Nigerian airport and to travel the roads. He not only survived to write this book but he clearly enjoyed a lot of the people he reports on and admires some of what he observed. Maier wants to believe, like a lot of us, that some kind of new civil society is beginning to emerge in Nigeria from the chaos of independence. He writes about this prospect along with less desirable alternative scenarios for Nigeria's fate. There is scant evidence in Maier's candid observations for a miracle outcome.

Nigeria barely resembles what it was like when we were there. There are now 110 million people instead of 20 or 30. By 2015 Lagos will become the world's fifth most populous urban center with 23 million residents. After 40 years of independence, this book concludes Nigerians live in a "dog-eat-dog world in which the elite robbed the country's future generations to satisfy their present desires."

But, Maier is not a prophet. The people of Nigeria will find their own way to their future. Obasanjo and a new national assembly are trying to reconstruct an effective civilian government. The military, discredited and in deep disarray, is being reformed. Government commissions are tracing stolen funds and investigating officially sanctioned crimes from the inception of military misrule, in a truth-commission approach to recent history. President Clinton recently visited Abuja and Nigeria is one of four designated pivotal nations for priority attention in US foreign policy. The U.S., parts of Europe, the UN, World Bank and IMF are beginning to pour in fresh resources.

Willy nilly, Nigeria is attempting to work its way back into the world community. Read this book and see what you think. You will get as good a taste of Nigeria as it is today and in recent decades as you are likely to get short of making a return visit yourself. Maier plunges into Nigeria not only openly and honestly but also with courage and sophistication. ▪
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