Not tough on spammers, tough on talking about scammers
Nigeria has a cunning plan to deal with its reputation as
the world's centre for fraud. It is not shutting down the scams, although it has been
doing a bit of work on this, it is getting heavy with adverts and films that
mention its 419 antics.
A blockbuster sci-fi movie which caricatures some
Nigerians as gangsters and cannibals has been banned in the country. Recently a Sony PlayStation advert which implies they are
fraudsters also received the Nigerian government's attention. District 9, which has topped the UK box office for two
straight weeks and ranked in the top 10 in North America, is an allegory on
segregation and xenophobia, with alien life forms cooped up in a township set
in Johannesburg.
While everyone in the film is nasty the Nigerians are
portrayed as gangsters, cannibals, pimps and prostitutes. Their leader's name
is pronounced Obasanjo -- the same as that of Nigeria's former president. And coincidently the same as the name of a bloke who
wants me to run some money to him in an email I got the other day.
Nigeria has banned cinemas from showing it and has seized
any prints of the flick. Information Minister Dora Akunyili, who is spearheading a
"rebranding Nigeria" campaign said all countries have prostitutes and
criminals and Nigerians don't eat human flesh. She has written to the producers telling them to edit out
references to Nigeria, which of course is unlikely to happen. (She shouldn't bother writing to me either. sub.ed.)
To be fair Nigeria has been doing a lot to clean up its
act on corruption. But if District 9 is about Nigerians being criminals and
conmen she will have her work cut out for her reversing the world's view while
scammers still send out emails to gullible rich Americans.