Afrobeat musician and activist Seun Kuti has criticized Western media narratives surrounding Nigerian cybercrime, arguing that the global perception of Nigerians as primary scammers is a sensationalized stereotype that pales in comparison to large-scale Western financial fraud.
Speaking during an appearance on a US-based podcast, Kuti pointed out that international financial crimes committed in Western nations far outstrip any fraud associated with Africans.
To illustrate his point, the musician contrasted Nigeria’s national budget with the $65 billion Ponzi scheme masterminded by American financier Bernie Madoff.
"People in the West are really buying into the whole imagery sold by the mainstream media about Nigerians and scamming. But the truth is Nigerians are not the biggest scammers. Africans don’t scam at all compared to the global game," Kuti stated.
Kuti highlighted how the scale of single corporate scandals in the West eclipses the total economic capacity of entire African nations.
"Bernie Madoff alone scammed $65 billion," Kuti noted. "If you combine all of Nigeria's national budgets for a year, it wouldn’t even reach $40 billion."
Bernie Madoff executed the largest known Ponzi scheme in history, defrauding thousands of investors out of an estimated $64.8 billion before his arrest in 2008, serving as a frequent reference point for massive Wall Street fraud.
While online fraud and advance-fee scams (419 scams) have historically dominated media depictions of West Africa, international financial reports consistently rank white-collar corporate fraud, insider trading, and bank fraud in North America and Europe as accounting for the vast majority of global financial losses.
Watch the video below:
“Nigerians are not the biggest scammers. Africans don’t scam at all compared to the global game. Bernie Madoff scammed $65 billion. If you combine all of Nigeria National budgets for a year, it wouldn’t even reach $40 billion.”
— carter🌚 (@carter8f) September 4, 2026
—Seun Kuti pic.twitter.com/l8fqZF2cVA
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