In a recent interview with Nairametrics, Investigative Journalist, David Hundeyin has disclosed the reason why he embarked on the groundbreaking investigative journalism work he has done about the Nigerian tech space.
Hundeyin, who started the newsletter, West African Weekly, told the financial website that he didn’t dabble in investigative journalism for fame.
“It is funny when people say I am doing journalism for fame,” he said. “I had the fame. I was already pretty well known and honestly if someone is looking for fame in Nigeria, there are far easier ways to do it; I wasn’t going to create all of these enemies for myself all in the name of fame.”
On his investigation of workplace improprieties at Flutterwave he said;
I initially thought it was a story about sexual harassment or bullying. Those things are bad but if you do a story about a business doing those things, people may not really see it as a big deal. It was when I got information about the company indulging in fraud that I decided to jump on it. Because this is very useful information from an investment point of view and from the point of view of the wider Nigerian economy.
What prompted you to work on the Flutterwave story?
First of all, it was the rumour about irregularities going on within the tech space. These had been flying around for years. I had met people who swore that a lot of the tech startups were fraudulent. But it’s one thing to hear, and it’s another thing to give substance to them. When I started getting the information towards the end of last year, I was under the impression that everybody knew that I and the genius founder of Flutterwave didn’t get along, so I thought that if I did any kind of story about Flutterwave, it was just going to look like I had some kind of personal vendetta against him, so I didn’t even want to do the story.
Also, I initially thought it was a story about sexual harassment or bullying. Those things are bad but if you do a story about a business doing those things, people may not really see it as a big deal. It was when I got information about the company indulging in fraud that I decided to jump on it. Because this is very useful information from an investment point of view and from the point of view of the wider Nigerian economy.
If this continues, then it means the Nigerian economy will start getting filled with startups that have nothing in them but lies. And when this bursts, it will affect everybody because that’s how financial contagion works. So, I decided to burst the bubble before it got out of hand, to demonstrate to investors that the Nigerian tech space is maturing, as we can be relied upon to do the right thing.
What impact do you think your story will have in Nigeria and Africa?
With this, I believe whoever wants to misbehave will first have a little spark of doubt at the back of their mind that there is one crazy journalist somewhere who is communicating with people in this company, just for the fact that little consequence has been established. Nigerians respond to consequences. For instance, the guy who promoted the MMM in 2016 fled the country after the scheme collapsed and people were really angry with him. That guy is back on Facebook now and he is some sort of motivational speaker and he still gets positive replies. Everybody has forgotten so soon that this person stole N3 billion from Nigerians; there was just no consequence.
I feel like these are the reasons people continue doing these things; they feel like there are no disincentives for doing wrong things and so by implication, there are also no disincentives, and now that a disincentive has been established, even if nothing happens GB, which is unlikely, but even if nothing happens to him, the fact that his name and personal brand have taken a beating and because the things he has done have become public, just that alone is enough to give some people pause if they want to misbehave next time.
It doesn’t mean that people are going to start behaving well; I am not naive enough to think that one story will change the Nigerian tech space. People will still misbehave, but if even one of them stops doing it, or thinks twice about doing it, then I think the goal has been accomplished.
