Intellect without character(UNDERGRADUATES)

•It is sad that brilliant youths would take to fraudulent means to survive

It was an ingenious and elaborate scheme carefully crafted to defraud thousands of job-seeking Nigerians of millions of Naira. The six suspected fraudsters behind the crime are young Nigerians between the ages of 25 and 27. They are all well- educated and clearly have the talent and creativity to earn a living by decent and legitimate means, even in Nigeria’s admittedly difficult employment climate. Yet, they chose to apply their intellect, time and energy to defraud their fellow citizens and have now fallen foul of the law.

The criminal minds, that have made confessional statements to the Special Fraud Unit (SPU) of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Milverton, Ikoyi, are all products of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA).  They include the suspected ringleader, Oluwapelumi Ayotunde, a 500 level Estate Management student; Asaolu Victor, a graduate of Mining Engineering; Awote Temitope Emax, another 500 level Estate Management student; Emmanuel Onaopemipo Bolatiri, a graduate of the institution who deals in handsets and Adebomi Oluwatosin, a computer graduate who works with Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro, as a Programmer 2.

Clearly the most embarrassing of the lot is Fajobi Olalekan, a Mechanical Engineering student of the institution  with first class honours, who was the best graduating student in his department in 2012, and is currently working with Dee Xecutor Concept.

These brilliant but misguided and depraved youths exploited the plight of at least 2,000 desperate job applicants to criminally enrich themselves to the tune of over N5million. They specialised in designing websites of different companies and using such sites to lure innocent job seekers to apply and pay application fees for non-existing lobs. The crime was uncovered when the Special Fraud Unit of the police in Lagos received a petition from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countr ies (OPEC) Fund for International Development dated August 22, 2013, alleging that a website designed as OFID Scholarship Website with OFID name and logo was being used to defraud unsuspecting Nigerian applicants.  The victims were required to pay N2,500 as application fee through the First Bank account number 2020814607 and Access Bank account number 005941009, with the fraudulent name OFID WSAS NG.

This sad incident is another poignant reminder of the deep moral quagmire into which our society has sunk. When a society worships at the altar of crass materialism, the end of making money is what matters, no matter how foul the means. In a situation where the most venerated members of society are those who flaunt obscene wealth, even when the source is known to be criminal, there is little or no incentive to seek to earn a living through decent industry and ingenuity. It is thus not surprising that a Fajobi Olalekan with a first class university degree, which suggests brilliance, focus, industry and a capacity for disciplined study, would rather choose the easier, crime-ridden route to wealth acquisition.

Olalekan and his accomplices are unfortunate examples of intellect without character. Yet, the degree of any higher institution is awarded both for learning and character, since the educated individual who lacks moral scruples is a danger to society.

The unsavoury unemployment situation in the country has rendered millions of desperate job seekers vulnerable to the antics of fraudsters and extortionists.  At least 16 applicants lost their lives and scores of others were injured during the recent fraudulent and ineptly organised recruitment exercise into the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS). Hundreds of thousands of applicants were made to pay N1,000 each as application fees for no more than 4,000 job vacancies. Till date, no one has been brought to book for this atrocity and neither are we aware that any money has been refunded to the applicants as directed by President Goodluck Jonathan. Why then won’t other syndicates be emboldened to criminally exploit job seekers?