I personally think that getting involved in get rich quick schemes is much more dangerous than robbing a bank or robbing cars on the highways. The reason is because when someone attacks you in the house with a gun, at least you know that this is a thief coming… Here in lies the greatest hazards of Ponzi schemes, because they come to you in a subtle manner, making you to drop your guard.
Before I started writing these series on the activities of MMM Nigeria, as it is my custom with everything I do, I took the time to do my research on the philosophy of the company, the promoters of the company in Nigeria and the brains behind its operation.
In this article I want to introduce the public to the promoters of this scheme called that has become a sudden nightmare for millions of Nigerians. I will also like to use the opportunity to call the attention of the law enforcement agencies, especially the EFCC, to find these individuals who due to their unthoughtful activities have brought woes to millions of Nigerians.
Who Are the Nigerian MMM Promoters?
Let me quickly state here that I would not be putting forward the identities of these people if they had not put themselves out in the spotlight as promoters. Since they are already out there in the public, I am only pointing out the obvious. The names of these infamous heroes are:
1. Chuddy Anayo Ugorji – the number one MMM promoter in Nigeria, who has purportedly made five billion naira in one year;
2. Yinka Odeyemi – the number two MMM promoter;
3. Owolabi Temitope – the number three MMM promoter;
4. Ola Favored – the MMM Nigeria Public relations personnel.
“And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” – Luke 12:15
Why Are Scammers More Dangerous Than Armed Robbers?
It is alarming to see some Nigerian participants in the scheme expressing sentiments such as: they didn’t have any options, there is economic recession in the country, etc. To say that economic recession and difficulty are enough reasons to go and rob a bank is understandably wrong in the eyes of most people. What about carrying arms to stop people on the highways to take away their possessions? Can that be justified by reason of economic recession in the land? Well it is misleading and mischievous for any well-meaning Nigerian to explain away the involvement of the youth in scams, “yahoo yahoo”, or pyramid schemes for the reason of economic crisis.
“Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what every man wishes, that he also believes to be true.” ― Demosthenes
I personally think that getting involved in get rich quick schemes is much more dangerous than robbing a bank or robbing cars on the highways. The reason is because when someone attacks you in the house with a gun, at least you know that this is a thief coming, you are not mistaken about the identity of those individuals, you know who they are, and you know they are dangerous. Here in lies the greatest hazards of Ponzi schemes, because they come to you in a subtle manner, making you to drop your guard. They kind of lure you to the state where you lose every sense of self-preservation, and your protective instinct is numbed. This therefore makes you more susceptible to the devastating effect of loss.
It is danger you did not anticipate, and you cannot prepare for. In this case however as with MMM, the weapons that are being used on the unsuspecting citizens are those of deception, flattery, lies, pretense and dissimulation. These are the most dangerous weapons to detect, talk less of resisting. This method of robbery is made worse by the fact that they can only be adopted against an individual by those who are close to him or her and those he or she trusts the most.
The height of this danger is that this kind of crime targets the very foundation of the society which is trust. When there is no trust, there is no basis for relationships, commerce or even service. So when I say that this type of crime does not have justification and that it is even more dangerous than armed robbers who carry guns and weapons or those who rob banks, it is because trust stands at the foundation of any society. When there is no trust there is no relationship. When there is no trust there is no family, no business, no commerce. When there is no trust, there is danger. Where there is no trust, there is no industry. If people will always live under the fear that somebody is going to deceive them, then they will never be able to speak the truth to each other anymore. Lies and deceptions will become the order of the day in that society.
…the danger of get rich quick schemes is much more far-reaching than it first appears. This is why I strongly believe that promoters of such schemes have to be prosecuted and severely punished to the same degree as armed robbers and thieves. I understand that a lot of Nigerians tend to condemn more the physical, visible act of violence than the invisible and subtle effect of decay…
Scams, Fraud and Get Rich Quick Schemes Destroy the FOundations of Society
As important as trust is in a society, what get rich quick schemes do is even worse than just damaging trust – they damage trust among the closest of people. Meaning that people will now be afraid to trust their friends, family members, parents, and children. The betrayal of trust is always replaced by anger, distrust, aggression, lies, manipulation, deception, betrayals and fear. Basically it will be impossible to do business, because people don’t trust each other. It will be even dangerous to buy or sell because you don’t know what they are selling to you or what you are buying. It will even be dangerous to let your family members or relatives go into the street because you don’t know into whose hands they will fall prey to deception.
Without trust a society becomes:
Unreliable,
Everything becomes uncertain,
There will be doubt and ambiguity in the atmosphere,
There is no predictability,
An honest person will be difficult to find,
There will be no congruity,
There will be no integrity,
There will be no win-win relationships in the society because one party wants to win all the time by deception,
Compassion is lost,
Openness is thrown out of the window,
The idea of honour is totally forgotten because there is no honour among thieves.
So the danger of get rich quick schemes is much more far-reaching than it first appears. This is why I strongly believe that promoters of such schemes have to be prosecuted and severely punished to the same degree as armed robbers and thieves. I understand that a lot of Nigerians tend to condemn more the physical, visible act of violence than the invisible and subtle effect of decay which comes through vices like dishonesty, scamming and craftiness.
Why Do People Get Involved In Scams? A Peek Into the Minds of Fraudsters…
“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Søren Kierkegaard
For the sake of other young Nigerians, and for the sake of the future generation of our youth, I will like to make an in depth analysis of the MMM Nigeria founders argument for promoting this scheme. In a YouTube video published on September 10, 2016, and posted by Obiorah Chikodili under the title, “MMM Nigeria founders reviews MMM. Is it a scam”. I will be using the words of these leaders in this video to prove to them why MMM is a scam. These are the same presenters whose names were mentioned above.
Chuddy Anayo Ugorji – Number One MMM Promoter In Nigeria
In his own words, Chuddy Anayo Ugorji is admitting to being the first person to introduce MMM to Nigeria. That is enough to take him to court. Mr. Ugorji did not find out if the organisation he is getting involved with is legal or not. If he had done a little research, he would have found out MMM has been declared a fraudulent company in many nations. In his own words, he knew it was not registered in Nigeria and yet still signed up for it. People like Ugorji used the marketing tool of emotions to appeal to Nigerians by saying it is because of the poor economic situation in Nigeria that he brought it in. He equally propagated to have brought people into this scam; that he looked for promoters and those who would push the scam throughout the nation and that is how he found his first leaders.
Mr. Ugorji said on November 17, 2015 that he had officially launched MMM in Nigeria. How can you have an official launch without an official registration? In any civilised country where there is a law system and a credible judiciary, this number one MMM promoter Mr. Chuddy Anayo Ugorji has already condemned himself. It is one thing to say that ordinary people who are just participants got lured into it without realising what they were getting themselves into, but people like Mr. Ugorji knew exactly what he was doing, so he intentionally led people into a criminal act.
When he was asked about the legality of MMM, he avoided the question by claiming that MMM is not a business, and not an investment. So what is it? How do you make your money? Are you printing money from some factory somewhere or has it been rained down from heaven? But he was collecting his money from people, so how does he do that when he says MMM is not a business venture? So this man is intentionally lying and must be prosecuted. It has been reported that Mr. Ugorji had personally withdrawn over five billion naira from the MMM system during his one year of operation in Nigeria.
The focus of Mr. Ugorji is to recruit more and more guiders and promoters of his scheme. His interest is not in how to produce something for people, but how to recruit more operators who will deceive and collect people’s money through trading on and abusing their trust. That is what the essence of a scam is. He must be prosecuted.
He talked about MMM as being a platform where people donate money to each other, so why couldn’t they do the same thing among themselves without MMM? Why did they need MMM to do this for them? Where have these rich Nigerians, who have too much money to donate to people just like that, been? Where is the 30 percent profit coming from? Where do they get money to rent their offices, buy their computers, live large?
Mr. Ugorji was trying to use the tactics of intimidation by saying that if the government is thinking right, they should partner with MMM. The talk about donation from the rich to the poor is mischievous. The people who are taking money to MMM are not the rich Nigerians. They are the poor Nigerians who borrow money and use their last savings in the hope of getting greater returns. So it is making the poor poorer because when the operations stops, the money disappears into the thin air and into the pocket of the organisers, while the millions of participants are left to bear the consequences.
Mr. Ugorji claims that they don’t pull money from the bank or the economy, so where do those bringing money into the business bring it from? Of course from the banks, their savings, their funds, etc. By claiming that MMM operates only on the level of trust is also fraudulent because they abuse trust by taking advantage of your trust to later let you down and break that trust when they refuse to perform at the end of the day.
There are screen shots of the outrageous amounts of money Mr. Chuddy has made from this scam.
The moderator, Ola Favor, actually raised the question of the failed MMM South Africa. Instead of using that as enough reason to desist from the operation, they kept coming up with lies and deceit about why people should get involved in MMM Nigeria.
Mr. Ugorji said his plan and MMM’s is to put smiles on the face of Nigerians, which is another lie and deception. They first of all lure you in throught the high percentage on offer, making you to believe that they are actually helping you but they eventually betray that trust by taking away everything from you. So, people are first lifted up to the sky and then dropped from that height to the ground which shatters them.
The focus of Mr. Ugorji is to recruit more and more guiders and promoters of his scheme. His interest is not in how to produce something for people, but how to recruit more operators who will deceive and collect people’s money through trading on and abusing their trust. That is what the essence of a scam is. He must be prosecuted.
“He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live.” – Prov 15:27
Sunday Adelaja is a Nigeria born leader, transformation strategist, pastor and innovator. He is based in Kiev, Ukraine. He can be contacted at sundayadelajablog@gmail.com.
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