ALTERNATIVE TO MICRO-CREDIT: LAWYERS DUTY TO PRACTICALLY FIX THE ECONOMY-Bassey Akpaettim

 

Lawyers are agents of social change and social transformation. They are great thinkers. The real lawyer has the intelligence and resources to make the real change, an evolutionary change from the worst to the best. Muhammad Ghandi and Nelson Mandela amongst others too numerous to mention here were lawyers who impacted the world positively

Aware of the lawyers duty to practically fix the economy, Professor Muhammad Yunus, an Economist, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, father of modern micro-credit and founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh presented a paper titled “How Legal Steps Can Help to Pave the Way to Ending Poverty” in 2008 to the American Bar Association. There are various of these provisions or steps in our laws. They remain untapped. You and I have the duty to explore and act on these to practically fix the economy.

Alternatives: So many things are no more done the way they were done few years ago. So many sectors have come up with alternatives. The justice  sector now have Alternative Dispute Resolution. The medical sector now belief in Alternative Medicine. The energy sector is working hard to improve on Alternative Energy. An Alternative in the finance sector is therefore long overdue.

Having seen the futility of the debt and interest based economy operated on greed and corruption, great thinkers are working round the clock for a better or a new economy. This is expressed in several phrases like “spread of wealth”, “re-distribution of wealth”, “shared prosperity, “new model of philanthropy” amongst others.

Let me start with the former president of the United States of America -Barack Obama.  In his annual State of the Union address to Congress in 2015, he is reported by the British Broadcasting corporation (BBC) to have said, “Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort?

 

The World Bank’s Group twin objective is to promote ”shared prosperity and to end extreme poverty by the year 2030.” The United Nations had been called upon to legitimize “re-distribution of wealth” and to help the poor around the world by mobilizing a culture of generosity.

 

On their part Bill and Melinda Gates who are foremost philanthropists have been doing a lot globally to fix the global ailing economy. Not so satisfied with the outcome of their philanthropic gestures as the poor are getting miserably poorer they are passionately pursuing what they call “A New Model For Giving” or “Catalytic   Philanthropy.”

 

Still looking for an alternative for micro credit, John F. Ince, a social entrepreneur had this to say: “When the philanthropic sector finds a way to officer investors something above 100% loss of capital … i.e giving … then we’re really going to see the transformation the people have been talking about for years.” He continued, “Stay tuned … philanthropy is shedding its old skin and is rapidly moving into the 21st century.”

 

It is my firm belief that nothing happens for nothing and that whatever is happening is happening for a purpose. You might not know why “it is happening”.

 

Right in our very eyes, over the years, recently and ongoing we are seeing multiple schemes coming up with the objective of fixing the economy. In my last count, they were more than 200 classified as Ponzi and allied Ponzi operating in Nigeria without success and described as scam or 419.

 

Have you ever sat down to think and ask yourself,  why are these schemes always coming back and each time they come they are highly patronized even though the people are well aware of the risk? I think it is because the people are dissatisfied with the present economic system and they are intuitively looking or searching for something better which they often miss. There is a code to prosperity, every lawyer knows about this code but it is always missed.

 

Thomas Edison of blessed memory did not invent the bulb but he worked and made 9,999 mistakes before he could perfect on an already existing incandescent bulb.

 

The problem we are having in the financial sector right now is the conceptual framework of operation. Professor Muhammad Yunus attest to this bitter truth. Hear him in his book “Banker to the poor” at page 265 – “For thirty one years, I have  been working with poor people, particularly the poor women of Bangladesh , trying to do the best I could to change their lives. Much of that work was through Grameen Bank, through micro credit, which has become known around the world.”

 

He continued, “it was my experience with micro credit and with Grameen Bank that led me to another idea, one I have been developing for some years now. Seeing that many poor people remain poor, I came to realize that one particular problem lay in our conceptual framework.”

 

Be it from the work Bank United Nations, Bill Gates or anywhere the problem of fixing the economy lies on the “ conceptual framework”.

 

After many attempts to discover the conceptual framework” of an airplane led from one disaster to another, Wilbur and Orville Wright popularly known as the Wright Brothers  were credited  with inventing and building the world’s first flyable airplane and making the first controlled powered and sustained heavier  –than-air human flight using the “aileron control” mechanism.

 

Fortunately, in the micro credit or finance sector as earlier stated, so many people and institutions are “toying” day and night with the “conceptual framework” of a sustainable prosperity without success.

 

Bill Clinton, a former United states of America expresses this conceptual framework in his book titled “Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World.”

 

What then is that “conceptual framework”  of prosperity? Giving! It is the greatest money-making SECRET in history. It is an open secret! It is not enough to write a book on giving or to preach about it from the pulpit.

 

Until you are willing and obedient to APPLY this conceptual framework correctly, you will not enjoy the super abundance that flows from giving. Yes, GIVERS NEVER LACK! – this is the Alternative to Micro-Credit©.

 

Barr.  Bassey Akpaettim writes from Eket, Akwa Ibom State

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