Feyi
Fawehinmi has spoken about why the problems posed by the ponzi scheme,
MMM, cannot be solved by demonising those who participate in it.
Around 11pm on the 23rd of June, I decided to go to bed. I had
voted 'Remain' in the UK European Referendum earlier in the day and the
first exit polls showed Remain was ahead by 10 points. So, imagine my
complete shock when my wife woke me up the next morning to tell me that
'Leave' had won. It's not just that the result surprised me, what
annoyed me the most was that everything I read in the media and heard
from my circle of friends and colleagues told me Remain was going to
win.
Having learnt the lesson that surprises can happen when you go to
bed at night, on the night of the US election in November, I took no
chances - I stayed up till 3am and saw North Carolina, Ohio, Florida and
Wisconsin fall to Donald Trump, handing him the US presidency. Overall,
2016 was an interesting year across the world to put it mildly.
But it's not only when you close your eyes at night that you are
asleep. If we define being asleep as being oblivious to something big
and important happening around you, then it is possible to be asleep for
months and even years. In a country like Nigeria where it is hard to
get hard data on anything, the possibility of dozing off for years is
very high. You only wake up when it's too late.
The country is currently sleeping on MMM - an old Russian Ponzi
scheme that has been updated for Nigeria. In just one year, over 3
million Nigerians have signed up to it. By Nigerian standards, it is a
phenomenal achievement to acquire more than 3 million customers in one
year of operation. When I first heard of MMM earlier this year, I slept
on it by dismissing it as your regular Ponzi scheme. Here we are today
and the thing is going from strength to strength. The question is why?
What is it about this obvious Ponzi scheme that has sustained it this
far?
One thing that Brexit, Trump supporters and MMM have in common is
that they were all outside the mainstream of accepted behaviour for the
most part. The entire establishment and media were for remaining in the
EU. People who supported Brexit were either racists or those looking for
a reason to lash out at the ennui of their lives. It was not 'normal'.
So it was with Trump - given the man's behaviour and comments while
campaigning, how could any reasonable person support him over Hillary
Clinton? How can any person who was expensively educated put money in an
obvious Ponzi like MMM?
What makes MMM particularly dangerous is that those who are
currently cleaning out from it are NOT poor people. I've heard
staggering tales of oil company workers who are deep inside the MMM
vortex. People are even taking loans or pooling funds in a co-operative
to join the fun. People who put millions of naira into MMM are not poor
people. They are upper middle class or rich folk. They are also plugged
into the internet which is not a past time of poor Nigerians per se.
This is the biggest danger about MMM that is yet to come - poor people
haven't joined in yet. It is when they join that the scheme will come
crashing down and leave sorrow, tears and blood in its wake.
Simply dismissing MMM as a regular Ponzi is not going to work. The
marketing is very clever. Those who participate in it are able to
assuage their conscience by telling themselves they are providing 'help'
to people in need. It is an interesting type of help given that you
earn 30% in one month for providing it. The members of MMM have also
lately launched a blitzkrieg of publicity to normalise the activity in
the eyes of ordinary Nigerians - donating to IDPs, hospitals and the
like. It's all part of the 'help' they are providing. MMM itself doesn't
even collect the money. You are told who to send 'help' to and you
follow the instructions (this explains why it is almost impossible to
shut it down - the transactions are simply people sending money to
themselves).
The context of Nigeria's economy cannot be separated from the
scheme. It is not just that Nigeria's economy is in a recession. The
larger problem is a sense of hopelessness. Hence the middle class are
escaping to Canada while poor Nigerians are crossing to Europe via Libya
by the thousands practically every day. This is all the fertiliser that
MMM needs to germinate and flourish in Nigeria and it is.
MMM is a problem to be solved. However, like Brexit and Trump, it
won't be solved simply by demonising those who participate in it. Many
of them actually know it is a Ponzi but want to cash in before it comes
crashing down. For the most part, they are rational actors. Ordering a
crackdown by sending policemen (who are probably also invested in MMM)
to harass a few people is not going to solve this brewing social
problem.
At the entrance to the town hall of the ancient Dutch city of Gouda
is inscribed one of my favourite sayings - Audite et alterem partem- To
wake up from this sleep, we must at least hear the other side.
We need to understand what is so seductive about this scheme so we
can properly counter it, before the poor decide to join the party.
*****
Written by by Feyi Fawehinmi
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