Something devastating happened to the psyche of Nigerians in the mid-1980s from which they have not recovered. A culture change occurred. That period coincided with the entry of General Ibrahim Babangida (retd.) in August 1985 as the head of state of Nigeria.
Concepts like advance-fee fraud and drug trafficking became widely known. Drug trafficking had come into the consciousness of Nigerians in 1984 when the regime of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) enacted the death penalty as the punishment for drug trafficking and used that law retroactively to execute three Nigerians. Until then, most Nigerians had not heard of cocaine and heroin.
Beyond the issue of permissibility that crept into Nigeria in the mid-1980s, the change in the economy was also a strong contributor. Within a couple of years, the Peugeot 504 saloon car that used to sell for between N5,000 and N7,000 from the mid-1970s to early 80s suddenly shot up in price to…