Ponzi And Its Ponds Of Problems -By Folorunso Fatai Adisa

Burton Gordon Malkiel, an American economist and writer who is most noted for his classic finance book,  “A Random Walk Down Wall “ has the following to say on Ponzi, “A bubble starts when any group of stocks, in this case, those associated with the excitement of the Internet, begin to rise. The updraft encourages more people to buy the stocks, which causes more TV and print coverage, which causes even more people to buy, which creates big profits for early Internet stockholders. The successful investors tell you at cocktail parties how easy it is to get rich, which causes the stocks to rise further, which pulls in larger and larger groups of investors. But the whole mechanism is a kind of Ponzi scheme where more and more credulous investors must be found to buy the stock from the earlier investors. Eventually, one runs out of greater fools.” When Burton said the aforementioned, he must have had Nigerians on his mind.

The farming business is thriving in Nigeria at the moment. As the business grows Ponzi schemes grow with it too. Beating your chest that all farming businesses /investments on Facebook are genuine is an extreme sport. I don’t know why many Nigerians are Disney-level optimists who are also analogous to individuals who jump from one abusive relationship to another without learning anything.

Falsely using FOREX trading as their basis of operations, we saw the way MMM went down. MBA did too. Then in the organized Ponzi where farming was used as a decoy, Eatrich Farms, by one Ambassador Sam Afolabi, was an example. When funds could not be found again, victims found their voices and that was when some of us knew about another scamming agency called Chinmark. The man has made his mark in the swindling industry too.

There is an earthshaking groaning about over a billion Naira invested in food storage with one Ovaioza whose investors are currently complaining of being scammed. Heartrending. Gullibility. Greed.

I sauntered into the Facebook app today and I was overwhelmed by posts of complaints. While I tried to dodge them, I was arrested by another post that carried a popular farm name, TITAN FARMS, and my heart sunk in sadness. Why?! Truly, an advertisement may be deceitful. From personality appeal (Artists, Kings, Social Media influencers), success appeal to strategic staging, they inundate their prospective investors with sweet tales.

Poverty is painful.  Its bouts of pain are immeasurable. Oftentimes, the poor feel oppressed and depressed. Resultantly, the poor, most times, are always ready to do the unmentionable to break free from the shackles of destitution: Ponzi, the delusional expressway to liberation.

Ponzi is a marriage between the crook and the greed who are conjoined by self-centered people— the influencers/enablers. To buy loyalty on social media. Giveaway is the bait. Dangote. Rabiu. Adenuga and so on who are metaphors for money do not do giveaways on social media. When I see business owners doing giveaways with huge monies that are enough to start another business, I suspect them. I’m not against giving but I’m against “wasteful” giving. Undue charity from someone who is trying to build a business/brand is a red flag for me.

Given the sequence of swindling that has taken place on this street between last year and this year, I hope people would have learnt their lessons. It is my wish that Government agencies in charge of financial misappropriation wade into the growing rate of defrauding in the country and ensure that culprits are brought to book. Else, this may be the genesis of suicide among frustrated citizens, victims.

Folorunso,  Fatai Adisa writes in from Abeokuta.

Folorunsofatai03@gmail.com

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