Aumen Journal of Moral Education in Africa

One of the prevalent crises in contemporary African society is the unbridled exploits of the “African Prince”, more commonly referred to as Yahoo Yahoo, Nigerian Scam Prince, E-Fraud, or internet fraud. It is the act of scamming or defrauding people of their hard-earned money through the internet. This notorious act has gained so much inroad in Africa, particularly Nigeria, such that Nigerians, over the years, have picked up the negative stereotype, the den of fraudsters. While one might argue that the poor economic trajectory of the country is pushing the youths into this nefarious act, this leaves one wondering about the fate of their victims, who often harm themselves or even die untimely, after being defrauded of their hard-earned money. Despite the adverse impact of the acts on victims, the African princes continue to thrive in their exploitation. It is in light of this that this paper argues that the reason behind the unabating nefarious act is that the African prince does not see the other as a human being, but as an object to be exploited. Therefore, adopting an expository and critical analytical methodology, the paper argues that Martin Buber’s “I-Thou” relationship can serve as a possible amelioration to the onslaught of the African prince. The paper relies on secondary sources such as online journal articles, the Library, and the internet.

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