Stranger Danger

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Security is one of the major qualities that make up a good city because without security the citizens won't feel safe and live in fear and this can even drive tourists and investors away, low rate of economic growth and there will be an increase in crime rate.

Talking about security; growing up I was always warned about talking to strangers or taking anything from strangers that's like a major warning to every kid growing up. When going to school or coming, I can just greet someone (of course that’s important) and after that just head straight to school or home to avoid further conversation.

Birthday parties at school we always take all snacks and gifts shared home first to show our parents to get permission before eating anything and if we dare eat it before permission then we get a good smacking. So we were always conscious and cautious of things we were warned about.

Talking about being conscious and cautious; Early this morning on my way out with a friend, both in a hurry not to miss the morning bus, we were suddenly stopped by two guys and they started asking for directions from my friend but he couldn't answer due to the fact he's new to town and when they decided to ask me, I ignored like I wasn't even there, to begin with, and they walked away.
Surprised at my attitude he asked why I ignored that I should have directed them because it’s my neighborhood and probably you might wonder why I ignored it too well. Let me take you on a little story journey.

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February 2013, I was given the sum of ₦20,000 to buy a form and apply for college and I was happy because have been begging for it and it was the school of my choice, going to get the form I was approached by a stranger who claimed he knows me very well and he probably guessed some very obvious things but I failed to take note of them because I was still a kid, then I ignored the important rule of not talking to strangers and I started conversing with him when he decided to leave he asked me to give him a handshake for my time and guess what? That was the last thing I remembered.

When I regained myself, I realized I have lost the ₦20,000 and stolen ₦50,000 more without knowing how I did it, then I realized I was blank for more than 2hrs without knowing what I was doing, I was in a state of turmoil because my fear is how do you explain to African parents that you got scammed.

After enough beating and prayers from my mum and after the storm has calmed down, I was given good food and drinks because that's one way an African parent can apologize without saying sorry. My dad is the cool-headed one who just grounded me after a hard long talk for more than 30 minutes giving me a brief history of my life.

A lot of people have fallen for this, because being good and willing to help someone asking for directions isn’t a bad thing but because the way people exploit it and turn it into something else, has made the innocent ones miss their way or get stranded in a place that is new to them because nobody wants to give them direction because of fear in getting scammed.

According to some saying, no one can miss his/her way when they ask questions.

So this has been a stigma and a big lesson to me and I have been wary of people asking for directions and asking any random questions. So the major reason I didn't answer the strangers wasn't to get duped or fall prey to their schemes because I was with my friend and a public place so they can’t try anything without people knowing about it, it was because they were coming from the direction they were asking about, which is they were looking for the primary school along the road in the area and it’s one of the most popular places in the area and of which they've passed less than 800 meters away from us. After all, it’s the bus stop is close to the school they could have asked other people before getting to us, so it was very suspicious and they also look suspicious from the way they were dressed.

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The trending one at a time was cryptocurrency scam, when people weren't fully aware of how trading and investing on crypto projects, they were people who actually scammed and ran away with millions of naira people trusted with it, how it is then was they convince you to join a WhatsApp group and pay a certain amount of money to an account and then you follow up till when it's your turn to withdraw your profit after 24hrs or 48hrs but then only if you refer other people. There are different types of scam schemes out there.

The recent one was the Squid Game coin of which the love of the movie was exploited by scammers and fans were robbed of their money of which creators got away with about $3million. This has made traders and investors wary of new coins entry the digital market.

So being security conscious has been a top priority for me and not just for me but for people who have fallen into Ponzi schemes and the stranger-danger situations because in some neighborhoods they are very common.

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Examples of the stranger-danger situations in my city are;

1. Entry a suspicious bus especially when it's filled with only men or only women,
2. The random questions ones for information,
3. Help me with your phone to call, mine is dead type.
4. Are you going my way type?

Sometimes they are not all necessarily bad but being a victim to one of these can make you see all of these as stranger-danger types of situations.