Uber Is CIA, Was Part of US Military-Industrial Complex Collecting Intelligence Data in Nigeria for 12 Years — Nigerian Investigative Journalist, David Hundeyin

 

Investigative journalist David Hundeyin has alleged that ride-hailing company Uber’s continued operations in Nigeria were driven less by commercial interests and more by data gathering.

Hundeyin made the claim while analysing Uber’s business model in Nigeria, arguing that the company had no viable long-term business case in the country from the outset.

According to him, Uber’s global model involved entering markets with fares below those of traditional taxi operators, absorbing losses with venture capital funding and eventually increasing prices after gaining a dominant position.

He argued that the model could not work effectively in Nigeria because the country lacked a sufficiently large middle-income market willing and able to regularly pay for private ride-hailing services.

Hundeyin said people with higher incomes often owned cars or employed personal drivers, while a large proportion of lower-income Nigerians preferred cheaper means of transportation such as danfo buses, BRT, korope, keke, okada or walking.

“In the extremely price-sensitive environment of Nigeria, the opportunity cost of taking an Uber in the minds of the addressable market is the cost savings one can make from taking a danfo, BRT bus, korope, keke, okada, or even literally walking instead,” he said.

He also criticised Uber’s economics from the perspective of drivers and vehicle owners, claiming that many drivers eventually abandoned the platform after factoring in fuel, maintenance and depreciation costs.

Hundeyin said he personally drove for Uber for three months in 2016 and claimed that the cost of fuel, repairs and vehicle depreciation made it difficult for drivers to generate substantial profits.

“There was no real business case for Uber Nigeria,” Hundeyin said, adding that the company’s continued presence in the country was allegedly linked to another purpose.

“The real reason it stayed another 11 years after the entire initial set of drivers and car owners pulled out citing everything I just said, is that its real business in Nigeria was not ride hailing, but data gathering,” he alleged.

Hundeyin further alleged that Uber was connected to the US military-industrial complex and claimed that data generated through ride-hailing platforms could provide extensive information about people’s movements and social relationships.

He referenced disclosures associated with former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, alleging that US intelligence agencies could access information generated by ride-hailing and technology companies.

According to Hundeyin, data accumulated from Uber’s operations in Lagos and Abuja over 12 years could potentially provide detailed information about users’ home and workplace locations, travel routes, destinations and other patterns of movement.

He also alleged that such information could reveal sensitive aspects of people’s personal lives and relationships.

He concluded by suggesting that Uber’s decision to end its Nigerian operations may have been connected to the expiration of an alleged US government contract.

“I’m willing to bet that the decision to end Uber’s presence in Nigeria was not sudden at all, but merely the expiration of whatever US government contract it was executing,” he said.