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Despite the call by Nigeria’s House of Representatives for the
country’s financial regulator and law enforcement agencies to crack down
on pyramid financial scheme called MMM, members of the community across
the country have celebrated the first anniversary of the scheme with
donations to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other indigent
people.
A member of the country’s lower chamber, Akinlade Fijabi from Oyo
State, who raised the matter in a motion of urgent national importance
described MMM as a ‘Rob Peter to Pay Paul Scheme’. After deliberations, the House asked law enforcement and regulatory agencies to clamp down on the promoters of MMM.
Some Nigerians have also described the scheme as a Ponzi destined to
go burst. But the number of Nigerians participating in the scheme has
continued to grow exponentially. There are now over 2 million active
members of the scheme in the country.
As the scheme, which its participants like to refer to as “a
community of mutual aid and donation exchange” marked its first
anniversary on Friday, members across the country donated cash and
relief materials to the less privileged.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that members of the MMM
community as part of its humanitarian week tagged, “MMM Cares” donated
relief materials to IDPs at the Gwoza and Bama Camps in Abuja.
The group donated bag of rice, garri, cartons of beverages and noodles as well as clothing, and drugs.
Seyi Bello, a Guilder in the ‘MMM Community’ said they were driven to
make the donation by their desire to affect the society positively and
help the less-privileged.
“We are marking our first year anniversary and we have decided to
come and celebrate it with our brothers, mothers and children in the
camp.
“As a community, we do not only provide help to our members, we also
extend that to the larger society as part of our social responsibility.
“In these times of economic challenges, the IDPs are the ones that
need help and support more than any other person; that is why we visited
them today,” he said.
He said that the relief items were bought from free-will donations of members in their quest to touch lives positively.
He said: “The N5 million was raised from voluntary donations by members in the FCT.
“That is what defines us as a community of people providing financial
help to each other on the principle of reciprocity and benevolence.
“In MMM there are no lenders and no debtors. One participant asks for help, another one helps.’’
Similarly, in Ibadan, Naij, an online media, reports that MMM
community members in the city donated N2.5 million to hospital patients.
The community, which tagged its charity donation “Save a life”, said it was part of the reason the group was formed.
“And part of the motive of the organization is providing for the less
privileged. We have come here and seen that there are a lot of people
in need financially and we are here to render the assistance.
“We believe that if we save these people’s lives today, they would be the ones to save other people’s lives tomorrow.
“We are here to also enlighten people that the scheme is not a scam
and to enlighten them on social responsibility by the community”, said
Eleyele Benjamin, one of the community leaders.
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