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To make it in Nigeria is very easy. The country has a way of hyping eccentric characters. Just come up with a populist message, feign madness, display uncommon courage, have a large followership in the social media, speak loudly against ills in the society or, dramatize opposition to the ‘oppressors’ in government, many people who are unhappy with the state of affairs in the country, especially the millennials and Gen-Z, would rally round in solidarity; as a way of expressing anguish against a nation that has disappointed them.
Mr. Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), a 34-year old self-styled “online police” is a social crusader, civil rights activist, and social media influencer. He has become a cynosure of all eyes. He is a thorn in the flesh of those who make things difficult for others with their positions of authority. And as would be expected, the law enforcement agents usually monitor such a person’s steps and utterances. They look for things that could implicate him for arrests with impossible bail conditions. For them, waiting for full court proceedings would be time-wasting! We have seen such overzealousness in countless occasions. Recently, the DG of DSS, Oluwatosin Ajayi, restrained his men from the use of force in civil disputes. He does not want civil cases to be treated like criminal allegations. As good as this sounds, it will be difficult to implement with the mindset of the present politicians.
Back to VDM. He was just 7 years old when the country returned to civil rule in 1999. He didn’t fight in the civil war. He was not part of the Ali-Must-Go riots. He probably read about the SAP riots. He was not of age during the June 12 revalidation struggle. Neither did he experience the jackboot of military interregnum in politics. There was no report that he was part of the #EndSARS civil disobedience in 2020. He just grew up to see democratic rule that was projected as the silver bullet. Military regimes were lampooned by the political class. They were blamed for all the problems of underdevelopment. The famous political maxim, “the worst civilian government is better than the best military government” was used to incite the people against the Khaki boys. And they hurriedly surrendered power after tasting the irresistible honeypot.
And we had democracy. We are still enjoying or enduring democracy. 27 years of unbroken democratic rule. Almost three decades of democracy yet Nigeria is still a crawling nation in all indices. Conversely, within 30 years, South Korea transformed from a beggar nation to a philanthropic one. Nigerian citizens have not fared better and there are no grounded signs of a rosy future except political sloganeering. Is this the democracy that theorists promoted as a better alternative? The citizens are indeed in a dilemma. Politics has become “the only game in town.” Today, Nigeria is borrowing excessively because we were told that borrowing is not leprosy. Last July, the IMF noted that the federal government spent about 2% of GDP or N8.8 trillion outside the budget, to evade procurement stipulations and oversight. Yet approved budgets are not fully funded. Right questions are not asked. Oversight functions are perfunctory. The present National Assembly may go down as the worst in history. They stay more on recess to stave off internal implosion. Impunity is the order of the day. People in authority abuse the collective patrimony with reckless abandon because they know that they will get away with it.
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So, why would Nigeria not produce free radicals like VDM? His generation is frustrated and is running out of patience. All the critical safeguards against despotic rule and authoritarianism have been compromised and conquered. Young people have been disrobed by a plundering state peopled by soulless capitalists pampered by government. No welfare anchors! Young people are largely disgruntled. They are disenchanted. They are disillusioned. Politics has underdeveloped their country. Streets are littered with dunghill of hopelessness and ropes of suicide. In the words of the literary icon, J.P Clark, young people have become “The Casualties” who “await burial by instalment.”
This is not the ideal democracy that produced martyrs. Judiciary has been reportedly captured. The legislators at the federal and state levels are largely waiting for signals or body languages from the bosses in the Executive arm of government because they want return tickets. The Executive in turn brooks no opposition. The dearth of radical sensitization and general poverty have slowed down civil rights movement and labour unionization. Some lawyers and SANs who are supposed to be guardians in the temple of justice are no role models. They keep quiet and tacitly support illegality and impunity. Some are accused of subterraneous aiding and abetting of judicial corruption.
The regulatory agencies have largely turned into revenue-generating extortionists. VDM had accused NAFDAC of levying N700,000 per shop at Onitsha Bridge-Head Market with over 5,000 shops. Nigerians pay more for fuel even after Dangote Refinery had been built in a Free Trade Zone with lots of tax exemptions and discretionary import waivers. Nigerians pay more for electricity yet we have more dark hours. Public schools are shadow of their old selves. Families pay heavily to keep their wards in private schools. An average Nigerian family spends between 60% and 70% of total income on food alone, arguably “the highest percentage of household income allocated to food globally.”
Today, insecurity is Nigeria’s most troubling Achilles heel. That was probably why NBA invited VDM. He openly accused some security personnel of compromise and expressed readiness to prove it in law court. Trust the Nigerian factor! He will be persuaded to cool down. But come to think of it, how many of those sweet-talking lawyers can muster courage to bell the cat like VDM? Extreme cases demand extreme measures. Nigeria needs those who have a method in their madness to rescue the distraught citizenry from a merciless state capture and vested interests holding the country down. Whether we like it or not, there will be more VDMs. Nature abhors vacuum. And change is inevitable.
