Nigerian Fraud is well known the world over. Have you ever received an email asking you to help some chief move a large sum of money to an American bank? Well, in Nigeria this kind of fraud is known as an advance money scam and is commonly referred to as 419 in their criminal code. It may be harmless to us, who would never advance money to a stranger but in Nigeria this kind of scam has other dimensions. A common occurrence is for someone to break into your house, pretend to be a realtor and sell it to an unsuspecting buyer! Can you imagine? Boom your house is "sold" and someone is out a ton of money. All over the country people put up signs or spray paint on their houses like the one below!
The drive was exciting on many levels, mostly because the truckers are crazy! There were overturned trucks everywhere! People broken down in the middle of the road, unsafe overtaking, people racing at each other head on and potholes that forced us to swerve all over the road!
In rural Nigeria in was clear that poverty is a major problem. We passed through many towns completely build of corrugated tin roofs and small huts. We also stopped to fill our water jugs at wells that had been sponsored by the world bank, and other humanitarian organizations.
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