BY ALLISON ABANUM

Fifteen years ago I encountered Dr Ima somewhere in Ikota,lagos. Dr Ima hails from Edo state and just graduated then as a medical doctor from the University of Benin. Our discussion was like that of two brothers born of the same parents because he taught me what people pay so much to learn for free in one day. He was into High Yield Investment Program(HYIP), it’s a program or program’s where you invest money and in 7 to 30 days you get up to 500% of money you invest and Dr Ima was making so much money from it to the point he said he was not interested in practicing as a medical doctor. He actually taught me everything I need to know about HYIP and how to make due diligence to know the programs that will collapse soon, the ones that will stay for long and those that are not real. He taught me how the founders of the programs make money and all their mode of operations. He was a guru and a friend that became a brother over time though I never ventured into HYIP because it is abstract to my values, principle and upbringing.



HYIP has been in existence for over five decades now and it keeps re-cycling, bringing all kinds of tactics to persuade or woo people into it. The blunt truth about all HYIP is that they will eventually collapse after a period of time and when it does, the founder of the Program is always the biggest winner leaving some people happy and many crying bitterly. That is what my warri brothers would call ‘ koni man die, wayo man burry am’. The popular ponzi scheme called MMM is actually HYIP in disguise. The community help tag on it is to make it look down to earth and Convincing for the promoters and marketers as it does have every single characteristics of HYIP which ultimate character is COLLAPSE. And good enough, the founder of the MMM scheme has made it clear to investors or ‘helpers’ that they should not put what they can not afford to loose. This MMM scheme came to Nigeria about fifteen months ago but began to beat heavily six months ago, and I think the Nigerian banks and other financial institution now saw the scheme as a threat and now took advantage of the political environment to kill the scheme. But I equally believe the brains behind the killing of the scheme did not do a good job from their actions and because they were dealing with a Smarter person and crime personified character in person of Sergey Panteleevich Mavrodi, their action has landed Nigerians at the mercy of this Russian Criminal.



One of the aim the government went into recession was to bring out the creativity, the Nigerian spirit, fresh ideal, new Nigeria birth, new orientation and the very best of skills from the people. Even the bible says ‘Hardship makes a man wise’, and in Urhobo land, they says ‘when a man gets angry, he gets ideas’. But as a proud Nigerian, its sad to say that this Recession has made Nigerians Vulnerable. How can a people be so foolish to put their hard earned money into a scheme founded by an ex-convict with structural family crime record? How can Nigerians be so stupid to the point that despite warnings from a public thief not to put what they can’t afford to loose, many borrowed while some gave their all to invest in a scheme that has no Nigeria office, base ,link and legal backing? This type of desperation and get quick syndrome shows Nigerians are miserable. In the Information Communication Technology (ICT) world, Russia is a red light zone in e-commerce, meaning its very risky dealing with anybody from Russia. Mavrodi saw the hand of the government coming against MMM, he first wrote diplomatically, he did not wait for response from the government before taking the bull by the horn to suspend the scheme for one month. Before he returned, he asked everyone to go and do more publicity on the scheme and came with the ideal of Bitcoin to by-pass the government. To show how smart he his, he said he was only going to pay the poor and the rich should wait but the Russian ex-convict don’t know that in Nigeria only the poor invest with heavy money in such scheme. His target is to see the new level of acceptance and how the scheme will fare among the poor on the small scale on returning to know if he will remain or sing a farewell song to Nigerians. Shockingly, this ponzi scheme called MMM on returning as become more popular than some Nigerian state Governors. What a people!.





Last week, some people were busy registering for the scheme and transferring large sum of money to people in the name of MMM. The palatable state of the situation is that, this MMM scheme is been patronized by young and educated Nigerians. A generation that will take over the leadership of this country from my own generation. MMM has shown how vulnerable Nigerians are and I urge the government to stop every war against the scheme because Mavrodi and his Nigerian agents will do more harm to the people as it stands now. When you look at the content of the letter Mavrodi wrote to the federal government, you will see a man who knows that Nigerians are foolish, miserable and vulnerable and fully taking advantage of the situation. As a trained person in HYIP, I can tell authoritatively that right now Mavrodi is paying himself heavily. Those people currently subscribing to the scheme are paying into the account of Mavrodi’s Nigerian agents and those agent are loyal to Mavrodi because a better deal awaits them in another country if Nigeria version collapse and very few investors have been paid their capital only as at the time of writing this piece. It is when the scheme is now free from federal government attack that Mavrodi will become liberal and generous to the real investors. That explains why he said he is only going to pay the poor for now and as at time of writing this piece, most people have not received their money.



The way out is for the government to do an aggressive information on ponzi schemes and warn the citizens of the dangers in it. Just like telling smokers that they are liable to die young but leave them to make their choice. If the government fight the scheme directly now, Mavrodi will do his worst and the people will hate the government more. The situation is dicey because the recession has made the government also look miserable before the people. It is equally time to end this recession fast before it begin to cause mental problem because when one is foolish and vulnerable the next is mental derail. The truth is that Nigerians are hungry and not happy with the government. A good marketer or promoter can make a bad product fly in the market place and the government owe it to its citizens to give enlightenment and information on a particular trend of product or program. It is better MMM die naturally as it was designed to, than allow Mavrodi look like a hero as he presents himself in the letter he wrote to the government.

Read more at http://politicstoday.com.ng/2017/01/21/mmm-has-shown-nigerians-are-vulnerable/