Sakawa Boys Invade Ghanaweb

Less than 24hrs after my article was published on this website, I started receiving scam emails from the “SAKAWA agents”. SAKAWA is a Hausa word meaning “putting it in”, but it is being used as a terminology by the current generation of cyber armed robbers. These young guys have specialized in divergent ways of cyber robbery, examples include; identity theft (credit card), sending you an email about winning a USA visa lottery and expect you to pay thousands of dollars as processing fee, or an email about trying to transfer millions of dollars that they inherited after the death of a relative, but they need information about your bank account to concluded such transfer. Victims of such scams are promised an enticing percentage of such fortunes, unknowingly the next time you check your bank account, your lifetime earnings is rather gone.
I would like to take this opportunity to caution everyone who writes or reads articles on ghanaweb to be wary of SAKAWA emails. It will serve you well if you do not reply such scam emails. Because sometimes by opening such emails or the attachments your computer becomes attacked by a virus, and all future transactions on your PC could be hacked. For the layman who does not understand identity theft, it means stealing your personal information including your credit card information or your bank account information or sometimes your social security number. Sometimes this personal information are also sold to the sakawa boys by bad employees in departmental stores where you’ve used your credit card. The personal information is then used to order goods worth thousands of dollars and such transactions are billed to your account. These cyber armed robbers can sometimes hack into your computer and transfer funds from your account into another account somewhere else.
These young sakawa boys, aged between 18yrs and 28yrs, normally spend this ill-gotten wealth lavishly on women and flashy/expensive cars. The sakawa boy, who become rich overnight are the toast of the family and the neighborhood. Their parents are so proud of them, but never question where their jobless children got the money from. I could not hide my excitement when a few weeks ago the minister of information, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, promised to clamp down on these sakawa boys, coming from a Zongo community; he knows everything there is to know about SAKAWA. Emanating from his own tribe, Hon Iddrisu sent the right message to the sakawa boys, and promising to take the bull by the horn. Had it been said by a politician from another tribe, tribal and political sentiments would have been infused into the issue. About 80% to 90% of these sakawa boys come from our Zongos. NO disrespect for our Zongos, because I’m still a proud Zongo product. If this sakawa has to be brought to the attention of our leaders, it is the responsibility of the law abiding Zongo products, and also to help uproot the bad ones. Although it is not every Zongo boy that is a sakawa agent, they exist amongst us, this is a FACT.
The last time I wrote an article about educating the girl-child from the Zongo community, I received a bunch of emails, with some readers complimenting (especially women) and others castigating me as a hypocrite and an INFIDEL. Give me a break, Mr. Preacher-man, if you can’t preach about these social vices in our community, then step aside. The days of sweeping such nefarious acts under the carpet to make our Zongos look good, even though they are not, are over. If we don’t speak out about this issue and address it, who do we expect to come to our communities to address it? It has to start with us, the community and then get the government involve. Whilst on vacation in Ghana last year, I drove a friend to his construction site to find out why the masons’ and carpenters’ tools were confiscated by a group of young thugs called Land Guards. Lo and behold, most of these Land Guards are from the Zongos and bore Muslim names. There was an article on modernghana.com about a week ago about the “Gang of Four” that were arrested at the Kokomba market. Except for one armed robber, all the others bore Muslim names. The sale of drugs is predominant in our community than any other community. Are these the kind of future leaders we are grooming to take over from us? I guess not.
Can’t we get all these boys to stay in High school, go to college and be better future leaders? This may look like a long road to success to the sakawa boys. But the road to a successful and everlasting future is through education. Today sakawa is an unspeakable and untouchable topic in our community. Whoever dares to speak out about it, is accused of jealousy, because his /her son does not have what the sakawa armed robbers have acquired. Eradicating this virus called sakawa starts with the parents of the sakawa boys. Mother, what do you ask you jobless son or daughter when he starts coming home with expensive electrical gadgets (HDTV, home theater, etc), thousands of dollars for safe-keeping in your room, and eventually flashy/luxury cars? Or are you content with being driven around town from one marriage to the other and being the talk of the town? What about you mother-in-law? Do you ever ask your daughter what profession the man she brought home to introduce as the future husband does? Or are you also just content with the stolen goods he showers on you and your family as gifts. Or maybe desperate to throw your daughter to any man, because she is in her mid or late twenties and should have been married a long time ago? The least said about the father or father-in-law, the better. Although there are few very good and disciplined ones, they become toothless dogs in most cases due to the mother’s support.
I can assure you there is a day of judgement and there is a price to, when there long arm of the law get hold of your sakawa son or son-in-law. Your daughter, whose education was cut short so as to get married, might become a single mother raising five or six children by herself. Can she do it by herself, what about their education? This may end up compounding the already high level of illiteracy in our community, high rate of armed robbers and land guards. It’s about time we start exploring ways of eradicating the sakawa virus, land guards and armed robbers from our community. It has to start from our homes and then our communities, just as charity starts. If our parents and community can ensure to keep our younger brothers and sisters in both the Arabic and English school for as long they are alive. This can be achieved by sacrificing and forgoing some of the unnecessary spending on Sunday at weddings and out-doorings. The child can also help achieve this by concentrating on his books for as long as he can. The parents can also help by refusing to accept the ill-gotten wealth from these boys.
The government has promised through the Hon. H. Iddrisu to go after the sakawa boys, much is left with the community. The government might need the help and co-operation of members of the Zongo community in particular and the general public as a whole, operators of internet café. Some member of the Zongo community might find my article offensive or biased towards the Zongos. I can assure you that they aren’t any better Zongolian than I am. It‘s better to fix your roof when you detect a hole in it, than wait for the rain and blame the carpenter who worked on your house years ago. Before you start judging my article, I would advise you investigate what sakawa means and where it originates from in Ghana. Sakawa exists, believe it or not, and the earlier we chase it out of our communities the better it will be for the next generation.
Muhammed S.S Jawando (LRT)
New York Presbyterian Hospital, NY.
[email protected] / [email protected].