Written by Abimbola Adelakun
Over and over again, we have been admonished not to make fun of poor
folks who were dupes of the now faltering Ponzi scheme, MMM. We have
been enjoined to be empathic, to spare those who have their money
trapped in the scheme our sharpened tongues and the smug I-told-you-sos.
recession pangs; the times are so hard it feels like the Sani Abacha
years. Nigeria is in a poor shape, people are desperate and therefore
vulnerable and in such a situation, they say, it is only fair to pity
fellow Nigerians who invested their lifeblood in the MMM.
There is an element of truth in these but they are not entirely correct…
people have embraced Ponzi schemes but does not fully explain why there
are at least eight of them going on in Nigeria right now and they all
have patrons who passionately proselytise for each. Around 2007/08,
people also fell victim to Wonder Banks and lost tons of money. What is
primarily responsible for people’s involvement in pyramid schemes is
greed, simple. Greed is a universal human failing; societies evolved
laws to regulate greed and prevent us from having each other for lunch
on the same day.
One cannot, however, talk about the popularity of Ponzi schemes without
also acknowledging how our society’s belief system has encouraged
magical thinking about money and the ways it can be multiplied. From
urban legends recycled in Nollywood that promote ideas about money
rituals, to politicians who flaunt wealth before the public even when
there is scant evidence of their productivity, to the prosperity gospel
regularly preached in churches, people are so vulnerable that they can
be played for suckers.
I once attended a church service with a friend a while ago where the
pastor asked us to “sow seeds into the kingdom” and he would prophesy
that God would make us “billionaires”. We were at least 5,000 people in
the church, how was it possible for all of us to be billionaires? The
United States has the highest population of billionaires in the world
and they have only 540 of them. How can God raise so many billionaires
from a single church and in a country where we do not even produce
pencils? Yet, all around me people enthused shouts of “Amen! I receive
it!”
Our culture has promoted a mentality that individuals can make huge sums
of money irrespective of the political and economic conditions of their
country. People have been made to believe that they can extricate
themselves from the destiny of their country because, well, their case
is different. This sort of weightless individualism being promoted does
not find a support structure in our society’s organising philosophy and
therefore opens people up to dubious schemes.
When people have been taught that money can come as a miracle, do not be
surprised when they believe virtually anything that turns them to
pliable tools in the hands of swindlers.
Online, people see a picture of dollars, luxury cars, or some other
markers of prosperity on a parody account of a popular preacher. To the
image is appended a prayer that those “blessings” can be theirs and
their eyes water at the possibility. Then, they are instructed thus, “If
you believe, type Amen” and thousands proceed to do so; poor dupes who
are sincerely convinced that there is some magic to merely typing “Amen”
to a prayer that offers them what they never worked for.
between dignity of labour, hard work, honesty, ethics, and what we now
call success; no surprise that young people fall for Ponzi schemes. My
friend, a professor in a university, told me how astounded he was to
find that his students were also involved in the MMM. They in fact,
tried to recruit him. Our joint observation was that the MMM and other
Ponzi schemes would do to the educated class what “Okada” did to the
culture of apprenticeship in Nigeria – it provided a means of earning
quick bucks for poor and struggling youths at the expense of building
skillset. Young people who thought spending two or three years learning a
trade was tedious and paid less were seduced into the futureless career
of riding motorcycles for a living.
Today, Nigeria’s building contractors have had to travel as far as Benin
Republic to find capable artisanal workers. In some years’ time,
classrooms in our tertiary institutions would have abdicated their
hallow and noble responsibility to nurture the nation’s intellectual
class and turned to recruiting centres for Ponzi schemes. Why not? You
have lawmakers and Pentecostal pastors who use the social media to
unabashedly flaunt their sports cars which they drive on cratered
Nigerian roads without being hit by a sense of irony. Their audience
take note and conclude that certain kinds of superlative possibilities
exist; they only need to find their share.
Yes, I understand the vulnerability of unlettered people who fall into
the hands of fraudsters who, for instance, ask for their ATM PINs. What I
do not understand is how people who can use the Internet to educate
themselves can believe that a scheme that turns over at the rate of 30
per cent monthly is legitimate. On the MMM website, you are asked to
type an amount into “Happiness calculator” which links to a webpage
where you see a chart of your money as it multiplies. If you type in
N5,000, “Happiness calculator” shows it can go up as much as N100,000
plus in 12 months. If you are the greedy type, you will add a couple of
more zeroes to your N5,000 and begin to salivate when “Happiness
calculator” multiplies it beyond your expectation. If you are the
Obierika character in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the kind of
person who thinks about things, you would question that kind of an
unregulated enterprise that promises so much in such a short time.
In truth, we can blame the state of our country and the very constricted
chances people have to access routes of prosperity they are aware exist
elsewhere. For instance, Pentecostal Christians call themselves
“kingdom investors” and when they put their money in dubious projects
like the MMM too, they carry over the same register of enterprise and
declare themselves “investors.” Their choice of vocabulary suggests a
longing to put their money in savings portfolios and build their
financial future like is done in stable economies. But when there is a
lack in the society, churches and other Ponzi schemes rise and fill the
gap. They give people chances to be called “investors” and those poor
folks expend all manner of irrational arguments to legitimise those
schemes.
One of the many things I found ironical about the MMM is the Marxist
bent of their “ideology” pasted on their website. They argue that many
people will work but will never amount to anything because the financial
system of the world itself runs like a Ponzi scheme. On this note, they
have a point but their truth is so overstretched it snaps like a rubber
band. Modern banking systems, for instance, may run like a pyramid
scheme but they are regulated, they do not offer outlandish profits, and
they make legitimate business investments. They are not perfect but
they are far more transparent than the MMM.
systems of this world and their destruction of people at the bottom to
sustain the wealth of those at the top, it does not urge them to
overthrow their oppressors. Instead, it merely offers them schemes that
encourage them to join the party.
I wish my readers a Merry Christmas.