“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”

— Albert Einstein

There is a saying in Yoruba that goes, “Ọre ole, ole ni” which translates as the friend of a thief is also a thief. It is a proverb that calls out silent complicity, the kind that doesn’t snatch a bag or hack an email but claps when the thief succeeds.

In today’s Nigeria, that proverb couldn’t be truer than in the world of Yahoo Yahoo (a slang for internet fraud) that has shifted from shame to status, from crime to culture.

Every day, we scroll past videos of young men in flashy cars, surrounded by champagne, jewelry, and girls. Comments flood in: “Soft life!” “You deserve it, bro.” “God when?” Almost no one asks the simple question: from where?

We have created a society where the “how” of success matters less than the “what.” And that silence, that acceptance, is what keeps Yahoo culture thriving.

From Crime to Culture: When Fraud Became Fashion

In the early 2000s, internet fraud was whispered about. It was a shameful act and the domain of a few daring boys who worked in cyber cafés at odd hours. But over the years, as unemployment rose and the economy staggered, the narrative changed.

The “Yahoo Boy” stopped being a criminal and became an anti-hero — the street’s own version of Robin Hood, stealing from “the whites” who once exploited Africa.

Music videos began to glamorize the lifestyle. Artists dropped bars about “making it by any means.” Slang like “No evidence, no case” became the moral codes.

Even Nollywood caught on, producing movies that painted Yahoo Boys as victims of circumstances. They became smart youths using their brains in a country that refused to value them.

But beyond the screens and lyrics, real people were losing money, trust, and faith in humanity. The victims, often elderly foreigners, became punchlines. “Na their papa colonize us,” people joked. A generation that prided itself on “street sense” began to blur the lines between hustle and harm.

The Enablers: How We All Became Accomplices

A Yahoo Boy cannot thrive alone. He needs a stage, an audience, and applause and that is where the rest of us come in.

There are the friends who know exactly what their guys do but still ride in their cars and wear their borrowed designer clothes. There are girlfriends who accept iPhones, wigs, and Dubai trips without asking questions or maybe even helping them to get fetish, because “at least he is not robbing people.” — the irony!

There are the families who boast that their son just built a house in Lekki, even though he does not have a visible job they all know of.

And then there is the society itself, a system so broken that fraudsters are invited to donate at church, to sponsor campus events, to “empower” youths.

Pastors bless their cars. DJs hype their names. Politicians court their loyalty. Everyone benefits, no one speaks.

We have built a moral pyramid where integrity sits at the bottom and wealth, no matter how gotten, sits at the top.

The Dangerous Justifications: Poverty and the Death of Conscience

If you challenge a Yahoo Boy or his enablers, you’ll hear the same excuses:

“At least he’s not killing anyone.”

“The white people are rich; they won’t even feel it.”

“This country pushed us to this.”

“We are taking what belongs to our ancestors”

These lines may sound like survival talk, but they are really symptoms of the deeper rot, the moral fatigue currently present in the society.

Truth be told, Nigeria’s economy has frustrated millions. Many graduates roam the streets without jobs, and corruption at the top levels makes honesty look foolish. When the government steals billions, the street feels justified stealing thousands.

But justification doesn’t change the truth. Fraud, whether by a politician in a suit or a Yahoo Boy in Balenciaga, is still theft.

And the pain it causes doesn’t vanish because the victim lives abroad. Each scam erodes global trust, blacklists Nigerians, and shuts doors for honest people who just want to work.

Pop Culture as the New Pulpit

The role of pop culture in this moral shift cannot be ignored. Many of today’s artists subtly glorify Yahoo culture. They drop names of designer brands and coded slang that only insiders understand. The beat slaps, the crowd dances, and the message seeps in.

On campuses, young boys now dream not of becoming engineers or doctors but “ballers.” Instagram pages flaunt “mansion tours” which majority know can only be purchased through illegal means. Comedy skits trivialize fraud.

When culture celebrates crime, conscience dies quietly. And when conscience dies, society soon follows.

The Hidden Victims: Faces Behind the Fraud

Behind every “coded” Yahoo success story is a victim, often an old widow tricked into sending her life savings to a fake lover, or a small business owner whose hacked account was drained overnight, or a parastatal's funds being diverted to a dummy account.

These people don’t make viral skits. They don’t trend. They just suffer in silence while our influencers flaunt stolen wealth as “blessings.”

Even on a national scale, Nigerians pay the price. Visa rejections, job discrimination, and foreign suspicion trace back to the reputation Yahoo culture has built.

A few bad actors have made all Nigerians look like potential scammers. Yet, the very people who complain about that stigma are often the same ones who defend Yahoo Boys as “smart hustlers.”

Beyond the Yahoo Boy: The Burden of Complicity

The uncomfortable truth is this: the Yahoo Boy is not the only thief. The girl who accepts his gifts, the artist who glorifies his life, the parent who stays silent, the DJ who shouts his name, all share the guilt.

The friend of a thief is also a thief because silence is endorsement.

We cannot keep pretending that complicity is innocence. If we celebrate fraudsters as successful, we shouldn’t be shocked when honesty becomes endangered.

The same society that laughs at “Mugu fall, Yahoo boy chop” will one day weep when the fraud turns inward — when the scammer becomes the politician, and the stolen billions are our taxes, our roads, our future.

The Way Forward: Reclaiming Integrity

Reclaiming our moral compass begins with calling things by their real names. Fraud is not hustle. Theft is not smartness. “Fast money” is not a blessing.

Families must begin to teach contentment again; the value of slow, honest work. Schools and religious leaders must stop rewarding sudden wealth without inquiry.

Artists must understand the power of their words. If music can motivate millions to dance, it can also teach millions to think.

And we, the audience, must stop applauding thieves. Integrity must once again become the standard for respect. Because the day we stop cheering, the show ends.

Accountability Starts From You

In the end, the saying still stands: the friend of a thief is also a thief. The Yahoo culture may wear designer belts and drive foreign cars, but its foundation is rot, built on deception, shame, and pain.

And until society stops enabling the fraudsters and starts shaming the fraud, we will all remain guilty spectators in a moral crime scene.

True change begins when we stop clapping for thieves and start demanding honesty even from our friends.