N.B: This is not a post in defense of
MMM or other ponzi schemes.
To "live according to one's means" is—as a
low income earner in Nigeria—to die.
Not immediately, of course.
Life is hard in Nigeria. Our economic
realities make sure of that. It's tougher
when you're a low income earner. Have
you ever sat to ponder on what that
barrow pusher that passes by your street
eats daily? Those onion sellers from
northern states, struggling to make a
decent living? The roadside vulcanizer
making less than a thousand naira a day?
Ever wondered how their average day
goes? If you don't like to torture
yourself, don't.
The reality of over a hundred million
Nigerians is one of endless struggle for
sustenance. We live in a country where
you can literally spend all your salary on
feeding. Clean drinking water is expensive.
One has to make do with water from
boreholes, wells and rusted pipes. Your
salary a month cannot even buy you a
decent dining table. Furnishing your
apartment takes months of endless
planning.
Ours is a country one cannot afford to fall
sick in. Two months ago, I took my mom
to a hospital. She was diagnosed with a
throat infection. The drugs prescribed
alone cost N18,000. Combined with fees
for tests, consultation, etc over N25,000
was spent that day. Now think about
that. In a country where subsidized
Healthcare is near nonexistent, where our
hospitals are severely lacking in
Healthcare equipments and in various
stages of degradation where they exist, in
a country where a visit to the hospital is
preceded by appeals to whatever diety or
star one fancies for safety during the visit
(the irony) and a nagging trepidation that
the hospital personnel would misdiagnose,
prescribe wrong drugs or, depending on the
severity of the ailment, forget surgical
scissors in one's abdomen, how does one
who's earning, say, N40,000 shell out
that much money for drugs?
Considering all these, it is little wonder
why pentecostal churches in Nigeria are so
vibrant and successful. The rise of
pentecostalism in this part of the world
started during Abacha's regime. Since
then, we've seen an exponential growth in
new age pentecostalism across the nation.
Why are these churches so successful?
Well, apart from whispering words of
comfort—sweet nothings—into the ears of
the "heavy laden", they sell promises to
the masses that simply cannot be redeemed.
Miracle healing here. Unlimited source of
wealth there. prosperity, here and in the
hereafter. You're told exactly what you
want to hear. Not because it's the truth.
But because it is comforting. You part
with a portion of your money, and in
return you get happiness.
It is against this backdrop that we've seen
a proliferation of ponzi schemes in
Nigeria. These ponzi schemes are more
pragmatic in their promises than all the
churches put together. An investor (if
that's what they're called) in a ponzi
scheme makes, in one year, what the
church can't offer in ten.
This post isn't even about greed or
contentment. This isn't even about the
scourge of western consumerism and the
psychological impact of advertisement.
This is about sustenance and survivability.
This is about the one earning N29,000 a
month trying to make ends meet. This is
about the market woman scared that her
children will be chased out of school in
the wake of an upward fee review. This is
about not having to rack one's brain to
come up with what cassava-based meal to
have for dinner.
We have an economic reality that pushes
citizens towards ponzi schemes as short-
term solutions to their long-term
problems. A friend of mine was earning
about $1,000 a month as at January,
2016. Roughly the price of two iPhone 7s.
By June, his salary was barely able to buy
one. Same job. Same salary in naira. Of
course an iPhone is not a yardstick for
measuring consumption per capita or
wealth, but in an economy so heavily
skewed towards, and largely dependent on
importation, we live at the mercy of the
value of the naira.
I contend here that wealth (and by
extension the availability of money)
defines and determines our morality. I'll
explain: During the MMM boom, between
June and October, ponzi schemes were
condemned by a great many (youths
especially) as being "morally wrong."
Many young, educated people came on
social media to criticize them as
unethical. Curiously, a lot of those who
condemned ponzi schemes on grounds of
morality and ethics are people who have
had their morality (or their conceptions of
it) refined by books downloaded from
Torrent and/or other piracy websites. A
lot of the entertainment we consume and
binge on are largely available thanks to
piracy. To be well read and informed in
Nigeria is expensive. That's just the
candid truth. One has to resort to sharing
and downloading pirated copies of
materials—morally and ethically wrong—
necessary to attain the level of knowledge
one desires. During the Internet data cheat
fiesta (MTN simple server, anyone?),
gigabyte upon gigabyte of pirated
materials were sourced from the Internet
via data connectivity that wasn't paid for
by the same people condemning ponzi
scheme on moral grounds. Morality tends
to take the back seat—relegated to the
background—when our comfort, survival
and sustenance is threatened. This is not a
condemnation. It's economics.
Because we humans are analog beings. Our
morality isn't controlled by logic gates.
We don't see in 1s and 0s. Nay, our
morality is a knob. Turned on and off at
will. Listen closely to the belligerent
defense put up in favor of ponzi schemes.
Read between the lines of all the "who
you don epp?", "MMM is real, coman beat
me". Sieve through all the "Eez it your
money?" and "enemy of progress" rants.
Beneath it all is a consciousness,
desperate, yearning for help, catching at
straws, striving to survive in a maddening
world. And just like the salvation offered
in churches, ponzi schemes are as
reassuring to Nigerians "as the picture of
an oxygen atom is to a drowning man."
Source:Godswill Vesta Utong Facebook
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