The Tragedy of Nigeria

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Lagos

A protester jumps over a bonfire set up on Ikorodu Road in Lagos during a protest against soaring petrol prices following government's decision to abolish decades-old fuel subsidies, on January 9, 2012. (Pius Utomi Ekpei / AFP / Getty Images)

The deeply dysfunctional oil-rich state now estimates its losses to oil theft and fraud at $14 billion per year:

The trade in stolen oil now involves a sophisticated criminal network and international traders who provide oil at discounted prices to refineries in west Africa and in China and India.

Makes you wonder why they are wasting time sending out preposterous scam emails when there's real money to be made through less hopeless criminal schemes.