By Victor Sunday
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The Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare, left us a comedy titled, Much Ado About Nothing. It was first staged around 1598 and it follows the households of Messina as they entangle themselves in schemes, slander and courtship, only for the dust to settle on revelations that render most of the drama unnecessary.
In the play, deception is manufactured and reputations are shredded on the strength of a rumour. An entire town is consumed by outrage before the truth quietly restores what gossip had torn down. The genius of the play lies in its title’s own irony: the “nothing” at its centre, a play on the Elizabethan pun for both “noting” (gossip) and literal nothingness, generates a storm entirely unequal to its substance.
This is precisely the register in which the outrage over VeryDarkMan’s invitation to the Nigerian Bar Association’s 2026 Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt now belongs. The much ado is not VDM’s presence on that panel but the noise that has been raised against it.
Let us be honest about what qualifies a man to speak on insecurity in Nigeria. Martins Otse, known to the country as VeryDarkMan, has stood at the scenes that lawyers only read about in news reports. He has been, by his own account, a first respondent at Yelwata. He has witnessed the aftermath of a Sallah Day bombing in Borno. He has confronted corruption publicly, at personal risk, in a country where such confrontation routinely invites lawsuits, threats, and worse.
Whatever reservations one holds about his manner, his language, or his social media persona, the credential the NBA sought from him was not an LL.B or a B.L. It was the proximity to suffering and “little” experience that most lawyers, however learned, have never had to stand in.
And let us not pretend the NBA’s stage has historically been reserved for the righteous and immaculate. Politicians credibly accused, tried, or widely reputed to be corrupt have addressed the Bar from conference podiums for years. They have been welcomed as dignitaries even as members of the NBA whisper about the source of their wealth.
How can we forget the Zazu Zeh sensation, Portable? An artiste whose public conduct has drawn far more consistent controversy than VDM’s but was invited as a guest performer at a previous NBA gathering. That was a gathering of learned men and the profession absorbed it without a fraction of yesterday’s outrage. If a musician can grace the stage as an entertainer and a politician of questionable record can be received as guest of honour, the objection to an Online Police (as he calls himself) who has put his body and his name on the line against insecurity begins to look less like a principled defense of professional standards.
Interestingly, this year’s conference theme is “Beyond Limits,” a deliberate summons to the profession to move past its own conventional boundaries and confront the ever-changing demands of justice, governance, and professional excellence. Nothing dramatizes that theme more precisely than VDM standing before the Bar. If the NBA had wanted a safe and overly decorous conference, VDM was never going to be on the list. That he was invited, and that he used the platform to say what needed saying, is Beyond Limits in practice.
The law exists to serve the society and there is a particular arrogance in a profession that gathers thousands to discuss insecurity while treating the man who has actually stood over the bodies as an interloper. Humility is not a soft virtue for a profession that wants to remain relevant. On the contrary, it is a professional obligation. Therefore, the Bar that cannot sit still long enough to learn from a witness because the witness lacks a wig and gown is a Bar that has confused credentials with competence.
In the end, Shakespeare’s comedy resolves when Messina’s gossips are shown to have manufactured a crisis from nothing. Nigeria’s legal profession would do well to let its own controversy resolve the same way, not by vindicating VDM after the fact, but by recognizing now that there was never anything to forgive. He was invited because he had something the room did not and he said it. The ado over his invitation is what deserves to be called nothing!
Indeed, de minimis non curat lex , the law does not concern itself with trifles
Victor Sunday is a legal writer, researcher, orator and public affairs analyst. He can be reached at victorsundayonwukwe@gmail.com
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