“I am just a struggle-man”

For me, I am just struggling. I could not finish university because my parents did not have the money and our government does not care about the people. Obasanjo and his boys are stealing so much money while the rest of the society is falling apart. That’s the real 419. What I am doing is just trying to survive. I would not be here sending these e-mails looking for rich, greedy foreigners if there were opportunities in Nigeria. How much do I really get from this anyway? The people getting rich from this are the same people at the top who are stealing our money. I am just a struggle-man.

That is from Daniel Jordan Smith’s A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria. I’ve read parts of it before, but after being on a panel with Dan at a recent conference, I resolved to read it cover to cover. His writing is so easy to read, and this study of corruption is written in a format that is friendly to the lay reader.