Just when Rivers PDP and the rest of the wailing wailers would have been able to state vehemently that it is President Muhammad Buhari or at least Rotimi Amaechi that stole Christmas, MMM comes along and trolls the entire holiday. If it is one thing that binds us together as Nigerians, we are collectively suffering from a latest calamity.
Nigerians are passionate about their holiday celebrations, and few if any are as important as the Christmas season to many. Spiritually, socially and economically, the holiday is an important date, falling at the end of the year and in close proximity to the New Year. It is a long period of rest, relaxation, connection with God, family, and community in a different mind frame as many take the scores of the preceding year and project their aspirations for the future.
Along comes a cataclysmic occurrence like the freezing of MMM accounts where a huge chunk of Nigerian’s have had their commonwealth to the hundreds of millions, if not billions of Naira ‘frozen’ for the time being. How apt. In the microwave that is Lagos, many Nigerians are to enjoy a freezing Christmas.
The MMM Promoters assert that it is only for a temporary period and that payments would be made after the temporary freeze. A message also popped up on one of their affiliate social media handles which asserts that MMM always warned Nigerians not to be greedy and invest more than they could afford.
Truthfully Nigerians were warned, even the Federal Government did not fall asleep in its duties in this regard. Obviously, they care about policing our money and that money would have been better spent paying taxes or depositing in banks that pay taxes.
Some banks were so perplexed by the MMM fiasco that it warned its employee not to invest in the scheme or risk punishment. An official of the bank, speaking in anonymity, stated that the management of the bank started spooling employee’s accounts to ensure none of its staff violated the policy, by mobilizing their deposits to MMM.
However many adherents to the scheme are not deterred even by the latest freezing and have vowed to continue to dabble into the scheme whenever the freeze is lifted. For these types of Nigerians there is no cure, they need a get rich quick scheme to attach themselves to, especially due to the economic climate in which they find themselves. Banks have laid off thousands, oil prices are at their lowest and there seems to be an absence of joy in Nigeria as inflation continues to skyrocket and all economic indices point south. Even a prosperity preacher recently said Nigerians should brace themselves for the worst is yet to come for world people.
There is a reason why Warren Buffet, the world’s most successful investor has never contributed a dime to a scheme like MMM. He prefers to tender his capital to companies that generate revenues from providing an actual product and service. He would never place a penny in a pipe dream because pipes are prone to clogging.