The software engineering team at e86 was recently wrapping up work on a web application for a cooperative society. They had approached us earlier in the year, they wanted us to automate their monthly contribution processes. I was responsible for the notification module of the application, so I wanted to set up email notifications for the platform. For some reason, I prefer integrating this module towards the tail end of any app we’re building, I usually add it just before testing begins, I guess I’d rather avoid sending repeated emails while getting other modules to work.

Anyway, I got to work and I quickly set up a Gmail account for this purpose. I have always preferred Gmail primarily for its reliability.  Once I was done setting up the email, I realized Google had moved things around a little bit, if you’re familiar with tech, this shouldn’t be a surprise, so I wasn’t surprised at all. I was meant to set up an app password so that it would be easy to use this new account from within our application without running into security issues. The new rule is to set up two-factor authentication for the account before the option for app password setup will be active. Maybe it’s just me, but setting things up repeatedly irritates me, so I’d rather get it right the first time.
(For those who don’t know, two-factor authentication is an added layer of security on the Internet, it ensures a random code is sent to your registered phone number each time you need to log in or make changes to your account. If you haven’t set this up on your accounts on the internet, especially your social media accounts, please do so right away.)

I navigated quickly to the two-factor authentication set-up page and entered my details, it kept saying there was an error with the phone number entered. At first, I thought it was because I messed up the arrangement, so after fixing the arrangement and it still didn’t work, I tried my other number, still didn’t work. I was already becoming impatient. I switched from Gmail to Yahoo Mail only to meet the same fate. Two solid hours of my time had already gone without achieving anything.

A few weeks before this day, I was doing a chat integration for one of the websites we were building for another client. I had tried to set up an account multiple times without being able to. The chat app returned no meaningful error, just kept bouncing back. I tried all the popular network providers in the country, with the same results, then it occurred to me that they may have blocked all the traffic coming from Nigeria. I could be wrong but I wanted to take the option out of my way.

I asked my partner to visit the same site using his VPN app, it took less than 60 seconds and the account was successfully created, I was left with more questions than answers, “It’s just this chat app, maybe Nigerians have abused their servers by creating too many unused accounts.”, I said this to myself and moved on to other tasks that day.

After two hours of trying to complete a task that would normally take about 15 minutes, I was already tired and wanted to move on to other things, but I knew this would always be on my desk anyway and I am not good with giving up on things without a solid reason, so I decided to search online to see if anyone else had experienced the same thing. Google had changed their rules and they and other similar services have barred Nigerian phone numbers from completing the two-factor authentication process. This new information completely deflated me!

If I am unable to complete this process then it will be difficult to complete this project and meet up with our delivery timeline. “Which kind wahala be this one now?”, I kept thinking of what to do but I couldn’t get past the anger that was beginning to build up in me. But who do I get angry at? It can’t be Google, they are simply defending their platform, you cannot put blood and sweat into work and then allow other people to mess it up.

Certainly, my anger cannot go towards the Nigerian government, I know how much work they’re doing to clean up all the fraud perpetrated by a few Nigerians. There is hardly a week that the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) will not post the pictures and details of newly found fraudsters who have been apprehended. I realized my anger is towards the few Nigerians who have decided to subject the rest of us to all manner of embarrassments and inconveniences. On this day, I was tired of being a Nigerian!

But even under this dark cloud, I couldn’t ignore the amazing work being done by the majority of Nigerians all around the world. From the innovative tech space which I and our team at e86 belong, to the entertainment, agriculture, and manufacturing industries, Nigerians, especially young Nigerians are making a difference all over the world. This mess we once saw as little is now making us work twice as hard, it has now become more of a social problem and we need to all join hands to fix it, our government alone cannot fix it. I had to call a friend in the US to allow me to use his number to complete this process, the other alternative was to subscribe to some digital services and I wasn’t interested. Once I got his number and once he sent me the code he received, my task was completed in less than ten minutes and I moved on to other things I had for the day.

Have you also been barred from accessing a service based on your nationality?

What do you suggest we do to help the government in fighting this?