As unemployment, lay-offs and low
borrowing hit Nigeria hard, MMM came,
offering participants an online Nigerian community that can give thirty
percent rewards on their donations to each other.
MMM Nigeria has been greeted with
applause from many and tough criticism
and scepticism from others. From the security man who has to live on
peanuts to the chief executive who cannot access bank loans, everyone
seems to feel richer and comfortable not necessarily because they have a
lot of cash but because they have "confidence" that whenever they
need
cash, they have a community that can donate to them. This is what MMM
claims is its ideology. Love over selfishness. For these people, MMM is a
saviour and they won't allow any criticism change their view. It is
amazing to see thousands of Nigerians donating to each other.
Some other people don't buy this.
They believe "it’s too good to be
true". They believe MMM is a Ponzi scheme because it allegedly needs new
members to continue to thrive.
MMM Nigeria has however continued to
grow even with bad media, something
that really worries the critics and spectators. MMM Nigeria
participants spend millions of naira monthly giving to thousands of less
privilege persons in hospitals and orphanage homes, spending time with
them in almost every state in Nigeria.
According to their website (www (dot)
nigeria (dash) mmm (dot) net)
and hundreds of participants interviewed, thousands of Nigerians have
benefited from donations they provide to each other through the MMM
platform. A participant, Ade, got donations of about N900,000.00 donations
to pay for his medical bills after previously donating N500,000.00.
MMM boasts of transparency by having
no central account (so the money
cannot be easily stolen) and being truthful with participants. MMM
strongly warns participants to donate only spare money and stick to the
ideology of helping each other. MMM resists those who want to get rich
quick on its platform by putting limitations on possible donations (ten
thousand dollars) and removing participants with multiple accounts.
These moves by MMM seem not to
impress critics, they argue that MMM has
collapsed severally first in Russia, South Africa and recently Zimbabwe.
Research shows the Russian government in 1994 saw MMM as a threat and
seized millions of participants monies in the MMM head office thereby
leading to the collapse. The Russian government excuse was "MMM didn't
pay taxes". It is hard to trust a Russian government who jailed and
killed Nicolai (a foremost economist) by a firing squad for simply
predicting the fall of socialism. The founder of MMM was arrested for
not paying taxes (which was impossible because there was no law in
Russia to tax a joint stock company for selling stocks) and later
released when he was voted into parliament in millions of Russians.
Clearly, they didn't see him as the person who stole their money, they
knew what their government had done hence the overwhelming vote.
South African banks and media
strongly believed MMM was a threat to
their economy. The media trial created a panic among participants who
didn't really understand the MMM ideology thereby leading to a panic.
People stopped donating to each other. The media apologised to MMM after
the disaster and banks unfroze accounts of participants. MMM South
Africa restarted and became stronger (www (dot) rsa (dash) mmm (dot) net).
The Zimbabwe story is what is
completely untrue. I personally reached
out to hundreds of Zimbabweans (participants and non-participants). It
is really surprising who is sponsoring such lies, a Zimbabwe participant
said. Another Zimbabwe participant said "only some Nigerian online
media are broadcasting this false news". A simple google search of
"MMM
Zimbabwe" reveals only Nigerian media carried the news which had been
posted months back by a Zimbabwe blog. The news was edited to paint MMM
Zimbabwe as dead. According to Zimbabweans, the Zimbabwean structure
was remodelled to become like the Nigerian structure (which is one of
the strongest in the world). They moved from 100% rewards to 20% rewards
on their donations. Why Nigeria media carried a false news and why it
happened at the same time remains unknown.
What is clear is thousands of MMM
participants in Nigeria are spending
even in a recession thereby keeping a lot of small and big businesses
afloat. MMM participants are also able to finance their entrepreneurial
dreams with donations received thereby creating jobs. An edge
non-participants really envy.
The job seekers, students and
pensioners are able to search, study and
live happily knowing if they need help, they have a solid community that
can come to their aide.
Smart businesses are seeking the
patronage of MMM participants because
they seem to be able to live comfortable in a recession. One of the MMM
Nigerian participants wrote "we don't have billions individually but we
have so much as a community".
I sought to inquire if cheap money is
good for the economy. A
participant replied me "Do you know how hard it is to convince you that
MMM is real? It’s not cheap money. I spent days convincing my family to
participate in MMM. Its hard work. I work as a clerk. My boss can't give
me a raise because we have lost most of our customers. I haven't been
paid for months. MMM is the only reason I can still come to work and not
beg for money to pay my children school fees, feeding and rent. Would
you say it’s bad for the economy?" He asked.
My final question to this participant
was "how long will MMM Nigeria
last?” He said “as long as we refuse to panic and keep helping each
other. Divided we fall, together we will change our world. We must audit
every news and verify every rumour. We must be wary of friends who are
waiting to laugh at us. They can't be our source of news or information.
We must be strong and surround ourselves with like-minded people. This
way MMM Nigeria will last for a long time".
My prediction: MMM Nigeria's future
in the next one week, one month, one
year is in the hands of its participants. If they keep providing
helping to each other, we will be unable to break them no matter what we
do. Their destiny is in the collective togetherness.
By Kolawole
http://nigeria-mmm.net/?i=agabavincentlfc32@gmail.com
