A scammer confronted me for writing against 419 – Adaobi Nwaubani

Why did you write this book in first person singular point of view? It is because it was easier to express the thought of the characters. The main character, Kingsley, had the same background as I.  The kind of schools he went to were the kind of schools I attended, and his level of English […]

Why did you write this book in first person singular point of view?

It is because it was easier to express the thought of the characters. The main character, Kingsley, had the same background as I.  The kind of schools he went to were the kind of schools I attended, and his level of English is my level of English. So, basically it was easier for me to express his thoughts, emotions and because I was going to make him the central point of the book, everything we were going to see was from his point of view. I didn’t think it was necessary to include a third person or another person’s point of view, except in the prologue and epilogue where we needed to see things from Kingley mother’s point of view. I needed to give a background and I needed to show a bit of a feature through his mum.

How much research went into writing this book? I ask because if one is  going to write from a first person  singular point of view, it means that one must have a clear idea of all the perspectives to the story and may have experienced some of the issues raised in the plot.  So how much research did you do before you wrote I Do Not Come To You by Chance?

I could have written in the third person or second person singular, but the fact is that first person was easier and because of the environment in which I grew up, I have easy access to the materials I needed for writing the book. I grew up in Umuahia which was the setting of the book. Advance Fee Fraud (419) was booming then, in the 1990s. It was rampant.  Basically, everything in the book was based on my observation, and in terms of research, all I had to do was to call somebody on phone because I was writing about the kind of people I knew, an environment I knew I was very familiar with. The research was not as intense as it might have been if I was writing about the Biafran War or something that might require more research. I was writing about something very familiar to me.

You had a picture of one man, one woman, one young man in your mind; a real life person in Umuahia that gave you a kind of motivation to do this story. Can you tell us the people you had in mind when you were writing the novel?

This story I wrote is a story of many people. People read this book and some called me to say, ‘Adaobi this is my story.’ A colleague of mine read my book and sent me a text message at night. He said this is his story. The next day he came to my desk and said what happened to the man in my book is exactly what happened to him, the only difference is that he got a fake visa to travel abroad, but basically this is the story of an average Igbo man because they face these challenges. A good degree, you finish from a good school and after graduating, there’s no job, no connections, no opportunities. Suddenly, those who were dullards in your class ride in fleet of cars and when you go to their offices you have to fill a form. You are the intelligent person but they had connections, they were connected to oil industry and all you had was a certificate. This category of young men were those who had to be fraudsters because of the frustration and humiliation they faced in the society.  This is the story of many Igbo 419ers. If they had better opportunities at the time they finished school, they wouldn’t have become 419ers. I wrote the story of the average Nigerian Igbo man of those days, because young men of nowadays become 419ers for fast money. When a man with a first class in Chemical Engineering is a scammer, then clearly something happened along the line.

How do you feel if someone tells you, you are giving an impression that Nigerians are scammers?

What I think people should be concerned about is: are there a lot of Nigerians who are scammers? That is the question we should be asking. I wrote an article for CNN about this whole 419 issue. Actually, it was supposed to be a positive article, but Nigerians took it otherwise because of guilty conscience. After the article, I got messages and comments from people, come commended me and some insulted me but there was this particular guy who sent me a message, insulting me, that I was giving Nigeria a bad image. I didn’t take it as anything. Then, he sent another message, full of insults. So I replied him in a polite manner. After he read my message, he was guilty and then he replied saying he was sorry for the insult. Do you know this man confessed to me that he was a scammer and that the white people were exploiting us (Nigerians) and that was why he was a scammer. The fact is this man is a scammer and he is worried that people see Nigeria as a scamming country. In other words, we have a sense of patriotism. To an average Nigerian, patriotism is when you defend your country, but, to me, patriotism is when I address the issues in my country until there is a change and that is the way it should be. When there is change you don’t have to tell anyone; people will recognize change.

Since you wrote the book, has it affected your life positively or negatively?

Life is a journey, each experience you have affects your life. So obviously this book has given me fame, I get to meet people, give speeches in a gathering, it has increased my pocket but all this is in the course of my life journey.

Are you tired of writing?

No, I can’t get tired of writing. I think writing is a passion so if I put my mind to write, I will write.

What is the next book about?

That is a secret, wait till the book is out.

Do you still have the time to write?

An average Nigerian can do many things at a time. If you are focused and determined, I think you are good to go. So I can write as many books as I want. The only reason I might not write is when I have not made up my mind to write.