Note to reader: This article was first published online from my base in Benin Republic’s Cotonou, on Oct 12, 2013 @ 13:29 i.e. 6 months after I relocated (on 1st April) to the Francophone capital from Nigeria’s Lagos. I’d survived a period of extreme adversity in which for several days in my first two weeks in that new country, I’d had to sleep on the streets of Cotonou and Port-Novo after running out of money.

In this article, I discuss one big mistake some non-Nigerian Africans seem to be making in thinking about Nigeria.

To do this, I share a true story about a Francophone African undergraduate in his 20’s, who called me a thief – and meant it.

Why?

Because he daily saw me typing away on an Internet connected laptop, and I never seemed to go out to “work”…LOL!

According to him, working that way i.e. selling information products (http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/sdaproducts), custom Excel-VB driven software (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99xm1EQJJdo), web marketing systems development (http://tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets/why-you-need-a-web-marketing-system-wms-part-1-of-3/) , and writing services (http://tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets/writing-service/)  online – was only possible in developed countries.

To him, that meant that I had to be engaged in 419 i.e. Internet scam business.

And since he already knew I was a Nigerian, that made perfect sense…LOL!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF AND READ THE FULL STORY.

BACK COVER…