The Mavrodi Melnikova Mavrodi international scam known in Nigeria as the Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox, MMM Nigeria has from all intents and purposes, collapsed. It took along the savings and hopes of about three million Nigerians. Some of the victims are reported to have attempted suicide. But contrary to our culture of empathy, and being our brother’s keeper, many have taken to the media in self righteousness, berating the victims and accusing them of being greedy gamblers.
In a situation where otherwise respectable people are reported to be stealing pots of soup – out of desperation to cope with a runaway inflation that monthly posts at least eighteen percent increase – it should not surprise us that there would be millions of Nigerians attracted to a Ponzi Scheme like MMM.
Some not so informed commentators blame illiteracy, and I say they should examine the profile of the victims; many are educated and have access to the Internet. In fact, a lot got into the scheme through the Internet.
So they had access not just to the MMM website, but also to search engines like Google where they read that the scheme they were about to get involved in was created in 1989 by three Russians; Olga Melnikova, Vyacheslav Mavrodi and Sergey Mavrodi, who named their scheme using the first letters of their surnames. Some of the Nigerian ‘investors’ knew that in the 1990s, some 10 to 40 million people lost up to $10 billion in the MMM scheme.
I was aware, far back in January that the scheme was running in Nigeria and those who tried to talk me into it, were educated Nigerians with a minimum of a degree. We argued about it. But all I could see were desperate Nigerians who seem to have lost confidence in the country and were trying very hard not to lose confidence in themselves.
If so many Nigerians can make the suicidal journey across the Sahara Desert and then a more dangerous one crossing the Mediterranean Sea into Europe in leaky, overcrowded boats, are we surprised that they would take an MMM risk?
It is easy for the overfed to preach contentment to the hungry; it cannot be difficult for those with guaranteed income and who can send their children to school, to talk about morality and the MMM scam, or condemn the victims while listening to sweet Christmas carols. For many of the victims, there will be no Christmas; they cannot hear the Angels singing and do not have hope of a ‘New, Prosperous Year.’
The issue is not about religion or morality.Like the German writer Bertolt Brecht admonished, we should not be speaking in the name of morality, but in that of its victims. Like an African wise saying, ‘You do not admonish the hunchback to straighten up; if he could, he would have done so without any prompting.’
The MMM matter is, primarily, about desperate citizens trying to keep afloat in a society with little or no social security; where hunger is no crime; poverty is no sin; rat race is the norm; dog eat dog;Â market forces is the religion, and every man to himself and God for us all. As a people, we should repossess our compass and show empathy for our fellow citizens so afflicted.
We should ask why despite our past experiences with such schemes like Forum, Umanah Umanah, the wonder banks and internet scammers, millions of our people still fall prey. We should contribute to finding ways the MMM depositors can get back their funds or least a reasonable percentage of it.
If we ask ourselves why banks give ridiculously low interest rates on savings and charge scandalously high interest on loans, we will come to the inevitable conclusion that generally, banks do not serve the interests of Nigerians nor can their customers rely on them.
