Today my first book, THE YAHOO BOYS: Love, Deception and the Real Lives of Nigeria’s Romance Scammers (FSG), is finally out in the US.
The book follows four love scammers in Lagos as they scam lonely Westerners while dealing with the worst economic crisis in Nigeria in a generation.
It started with my mum falling for an American soldier who was, in fact, a Nigerian scammer. But it grew into something much bigger.
I’ve spent the last four years of my life working on this: travelling to and living in Lagos, reporting, taking notes, reading, writing and rewriting. I did more than 250 interviews and spent countless hours with the main characters of this book. I poured tens of thousands of euros into the project, to the point where I was dead broke by the end.
I’ve seen the best and the worst of human beings. I’ve laughed and cried and eaten so much jollof and egusi. I’ve had a gun pointed at me in Kentucky. I’ve read conversations with too many people talking about taking their own lives because they were lonely. I’ve met Nigerian families who split an egg four ways for dinner. Many interviewees broke into tears in front of me.
I’ve learnt that being a human being is a difficult business.
I hope you buy and read the book, so you can experience some of this for yourself.