Icarus' Curse

A fraud case. Potential medical doctors. And the systemic rot in the fabric of Nigerian morals.

In the last two weeks, a series of events happened that necessitated this newsletter. Contrary to public perception, I am not the most expressive with words. When things happen to me or to people around me, I take time to process them before coming to a conclusion or realisation. Most people who know me personally may argue that I am a reactive person, while this may sound true if you superficially critique me, but, deep down, it takes days, maybe weeks before I take decisions.

Several weeks ago, AMS told me about his accomodation ordeals on a lighter note, and as expected, I told him how to go about it. Fast-forwarded to about three weeks ago, this same person told me that on his quest to getting accomodation, another classmate defrauded him. AMS explained the whole situation to me in details, showed me screenshots, and I understood his predicament.

Again, contrary to public opinion, I am not an activist. Activists die for a course - I can't; I like to call myself an advocate. This same fraudster has a long rap sheet of fraudulent activities, cold cases of shady deals he was involved in, and he is someone I am repulsed to. I have also clashed with him twice where I called out his fraudulent activities on the class group.

When we were in first year, this fraud dude scammed two persons close to me which I wasn't aware of untill our second year. It wasn't until one of them visited me in my apartment off campus that he told me about the scam. In that second year, Fraudie paid back one of them towards our exam period. At least, that I was absolutely aware of. The others were classmates and other students whom he played a fast one with and I wasn't aware until recently.

Back to the main story, when AMS told me about the issue, I was enraged. A part of me was angry with him for falling into Fraudie's traps. Another contrary opinion here: while most of the people involved would argue that my aversion for Fraudie made me not to listen to his own side on the story, hence, the reason I did what I did. The honest truth is that I wasn't after a vendetta, I was the vendetta.

That evening, I called Fraudie out on the class group, promised to have his picture and atrocities on the front page of the university newsletter which I am the Editor in chief. A couple of classmates joined in, including someone that he once scammed of his dollars. That one posted Fraudie's pictures and attached unprintable names to it. I encouraged AMS to report the issue to the Deputy Dean of Students Affairs. The Deputy Dean settled the issue, gave AMS a rightful allocation, and it was in that course I was privy to the other shenanigans that accompanies the process of getting an accomodation in an overcrowded school hostel.

Here are the facts of the matter: indeed, Fraudie pulled a fast one on AMS; Fraudie wasn't the only one involved; Fraudie was just the rag boys and his long list of scandalous activities really makes it hard for him to be clean. He is like a local dog, even when fed with bone meal, have a natural dispensation to get into the gutter and eat shit.

Two days later, Fraudie reported me to the university security for defamation. I went, wrote a statement, and the security officer said I should delete what I wrote about Fraudie. Here was where my OAU aluta spirit kicked in. First, I never lied about Fraudie; none of what I said or wrote about him was a lie. Everyone knows this. The hostel official who helped my friend secure a new space was at the meeting, and while I do not know what transpired between him and Fraudie, he was also adamant that I delete what I wrote about Fraudie.

For almost one hour, we were at it. I was threatened, the security officer said I wanted to escalate the whole issue and that my admission was at stake. They threatened, and made more threats while I did not bulge. Again, I told them that I am the Editor in Chief of the University Medical Students association, I come from a family of people who can talk our way out of the most difficult situations, and most importantly, I haven't done anything that would require I apologize or delete what I wrote. They called me stubborn, asked where I came from, wanted to know how much backings I have in this school — which, to be candid wasn't a lot.

I was firm on two things: I won't apologise to Fraudie because I haven't offended him; I won't delete what I wrote because it was the truth. When the impasses had gone on for a while and I wouldn’t be intimidated, the hostel official calmly narrated some things to me and at that point, if the matter went further, it won't be Fraudie I was fighting against but superior powers because, like I said above, he was just a rag boy and the big guns are who must not be named. He showed me messages and for the first time, I realized how messy the whole issue was and that these people were indeed, the most unscrupulous people to be involved with.

So, I told them that while I still won't delete what I posted, I would inform the public that this particular issue has been resolved and this particular fraud allegation is now false. The security officer and the hostel were okay with that. Fraudie wanted an open apology on the same group that I was called him out but he was told to manage with the offer on ground. I did write the announcement.

For the next three hours afterwards, all of Fraudie's friends in my class came for me. Here's the thing: if you are as experienced in debating as I am, then you must be used to a 1 vs 100 people intellectual battle. I decimated each one of them and how they wanted to whitewash Fraudie. None of them could make a coherent defense for him and their resolution was that they'd wait for when I'll slip up too and my vulnerability would be televised.

In the class, in groups, the issue was being discussed and I was shocked with some of the things my classmates said. Some people justified frauds; people blamed the victim who was defrauded as not being smart; one person clearly said he wouldn't speak up because Fraudie had been good to him in the past and they while he and Fraudie are no more tight people, he'd still not get involved in the issue. Again, I was presented with the shittiness of humans in public glare.

Two days later, when IM, another classmate saw me, he dragged me to a corner, sat me down and we spoke for nearly one hour. It was the most honest conversation I've had in weeks and that was what really necessitated this piece. IM made so much sense that for a second I never thought he’d have the capacity to engage me. I realized two things from our conversation: when I chase excellence, I can be overbearing; when I also commit to a cause, I do not know how to meter things. I was always operating from two extremes. Icarus' curse.

From my conversation with IM, I learnt that majority of my classmates already knew about Fraudie's ways but none of them had the boldness to call him out because they don't want to offend people. I learnt that Fraudie's cliques were unhappy with what I did, and that while none of them could walk up and confront me, they don't mind spreading salacious news about me and waiting for any misstep from me. I learnt that while it is necessary to speak up on issues, most often it is wiser to pick one's battles carefully. I wasn't the victim but I took the issue too personally that people who learnt secondhand and third-hand versions of the story knew my name more than they knew who was potentially defrauded. Again, talk about operating from extremes.

That day, I re-evaluated my parts in the issue. Why was my part the only one people remembered? Why were there people in my DMs telling me about what Fraudie did to them but they were silent in public? Why was I being threatened? Why did the security official clearly say that I should forget about Fraudie's previous crimes and that I shouldn't have called him out publicly on this issue. Why were people I thought were upstanding defending a criminal publicly? Why was I involved in the first place? Why are humans this terrible, selfish, and most noticeably pretentious cowards?

PS: Fraudie's name is Abdullahi. I only replaced it with Fraudie because it is actually one of the most beautiful Islamic names and I don't want to soil it.