*Says “Thousands Graduate From Law School Only To End Up Selling Bedsheets”
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The social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as Very Dark Man, has responded at length to lawyers who criticised his appearance at the 66th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, singling out remarks by Femi Falana, SAN, which he said explained the objection to his presence.
Otse spoke in a video posted on Friday, and separately released a satirical clip in which he appeared in a barrister’s wig, gown and neck tabs, staging a mock courtroom scene.
“I Was So Disappointed In The Great Femi Falana”
Otse said he had listened to a range of criticisms and found most of them unpersuasive until the senior advocate spoke.
“I’ve listened to different submissions from some set of people that seem to be bitter, angry and obsessed that I, Very Dark Man, was invited to the NBA conference themed Beyond Limits to come and speak as a panellist on a topic called unknown gunmen,” he said. “A lot of people have dropped their submissions and a lot of them are pointless. But then again, I listened to Femi Falana.”
He continued: “When I listened to Femi Falana, I’m not going to lie to you, I was so disappointed in the great Femi Falana. I was really, really disappointed. But then again, after I spoke, I understood why a lot of them were upset. Femi Falana gave me the answer as to why this set of people seem to be very, very upset. This set of lawyers, this set of elites, this set of noble people, as they claim.”
“Somebody From Nowhere”
The remark Otse fixed on was the senior advocate’s observation, made on Channels Television, that the Association had in the past invited people who had paid their dues, and that “to just go and bring somebody from nowhere to come and entertain you, there are problems with that.”
Otse read that phrase as the substance of the objection.
“He said, but you just go and bring somebody from nowhere. And that is the problem. Their problem is that the son of a nobody was invited. That is simply what has been going on in the media,” he said.
He expanded on the point. “Who knows him? Who is his father? Who knows his family? What business do they have? What empire do they have? The problem these people have is that the son of a nobody was invited to come and speak where elites are seated, where big names are seated. Who is this person? Who is this son of a poor man? Who is this son of a nobody that wants to feel like a somebody? Who invited him in our midst?”
He said none of the other criticisms had made sense to him. “I listened to a lot of them. None of them could make any sense to me. Until he spoke. Then I understood what it was.”
“Which Security Expert Are We Talking About?”
Otse rejected the argument that the panel should have been filled by security experts.
“Then they go and mess it up with this talk of, you would have invited a security expert. What security expert are you talking about? Security expert that advised them that when they arrest Boko Haram that have killed millions, they should rehabilitate them and send them back to the society? Is that the security expert we are talking about?”
He said the qualification he brings is of a different kind. “In the last few years I have been present where all these things have happened. I have seen things that a lot of security experts have not seen. This is not about book. It’s about experience. And when you want to talk about security, security is for everybody. Security is not for some set of people.”
He added: “This has been the problem, because you people feel you are too good, you know better about security than everybody else.”
“I Spoke On Behalf Of The People That Don’t Have A Voice”
Otse said his purpose at the conference was to speak for those who lack a platform.
“I spoke on behalf of the poor masses. I spoke on behalf of the poor people. I spoke on behalf of the people that don’t have a voice,” he said. “But yet you people are not happy, because the son of nobody was seen in your midst.”
He defended the substance of what he said there. “The reason why insecurity will not stop is because these people are benefiting from it. What did I say that is bad? I never insulted anybody. I simply just said it to their face, because I know what my own people suffer.”
He set out the argument he made at the conference. “The more people die of insecurity, the more these people that benefit from it get more budget, get more funding to tackle the insecurity that they are benefiting from.”
“Law Has Not Been A Noble Profession”
Turning to the profession itself, Otse rejected the description of law as noble.
“This bunch of clowns are telling me that law is a noble profession. Well, lately law has not been a noble profession. I’m sorry to say. I’m not even sorry to say. It is what it is,” he said.
He put his argument as a series of questions. “Lately, when people want justice, who do they call? They call Very Dark Man. Are you not ashamed? Are you not ashamed to be a lawyer in this country, that people no longer believe in the justice system of this country? They believe in Very Dark Man type of justice.”
He continued: “And you have the audacity to say law is a noble profession. A noble profession where rich men are buying judgment every day? Where the poor don’t believe that they can get justice in the court? What is noble about that? When people can pay for judgment, what is noble about that? Have you forgotten the meaning of noble?”
On Awaiting Trial And Adjournments
Otse said the profession’s energies were misdirected.
“A lot of people are in prison awaiting trial for 14, 10 years. They have not been able to get the judge to even listen to them,” he said. “They are not talking about the justice system of the country. Now poor people, children, they fall inside prison. Why would you care?”
He added: “Instead of you people to be fighting that judgment will be very, very swift, that they will stop adjourning cases over and over and over again, you have the audacity to come out there.”
“One Of The Brokest Professions”
He also questioned the economic position of lawyers.
“Mind you, law is one of the brokest professions we have in the country, because you never talk about it. Law is one of the poorest professions in this country,” he said.
He put a set of questions. “How many lawyers are there? How many lawyers have jobs? How many lawyers actually go to court? Ask yourself that.”
He added: “And every year they say they have people graduating from law school. Four thousand have graduated from law school, only to end up selling bedsheets. You can ask them, oh, I’m a lawyer, I’m not practising. You cannot practise with the kind of justice system we have in this country.”
“I Am Not Here To Teach You The Law”
Otse said he had made his own position clear at the conference.
“If not for that topic, I would not be there. If not for that topic, you won’t catch me in a place like that. What am I going there to do?” he said. “I even emphasised that, come, I’m not here to teach you the law. What do I know about the law that I want to teach you? You know better. And that’s why people are able to manipulate it and collect money for judgment.”
He challenged his critics on their own record. “What have you people stood up for in this country? These so-called lawyers that are talking, what have you stood up for in Nigeria?”
He added: “I’ve done better than most of you put together. Go and check my record. I’ve never stolen before. I’ve never defrauded anybody before.”
“Does That Mean The Entire Police Force Is Bad?”
Otse also addressed the response of the Nigeria Police Force, which on Thursday rejected his allegation that officers at checkpoints relay information about travellers to kidnappers, and invited him to produce his evidence.
“I don’t know why the police carried that matter. It’s even a shame for them, because there’s nobody that has promoted the Nigerian police more than me in this country,” he said.
He recalled his own advocacy for officers. “I speak up every time for the police. Even their officers, I talk on behalf of them. I say that these people are not treated fairly, and they cannot properly do their job if you don’t do their welfare, if you don’t take care of them properly. If police retire, their pensions, they don’t get them.”
He then addressed the allegation itself. “Very Dark Man said that policemen at the checkpoint, a lot of them are sending information to kidnappers. Are they not? Does that mean the entire Nigerian police force is bad?”
“Public Sentiment Doesn’t Move Me”
He closed the video defiantly. “Public sentiment doesn’t move me. Anyway, you have to learn, and you have to continue to learn the hard way.”
The Skit
Separately, Otse posted a video running about three and a half minutes on Instagram on Friday, in which he appeared in a black barrister’s gown, white neck tabs, a wig and dark sunglasses, staging a mock courtroom scene with two other men introduced as his “learned friends.”
“If I may, my lords, since you people decided to ignore all the points I raised at the NBA, all the points I raised about the insecurity, the people benefiting, you people decided to distract yourself by judging me and saying I was not fit to be there because I’m not a lawyer,” he said in the clip.
He added: “I’ve been called to bar. Now you are my learned colleagues. Can we now talk about the insecurity of the country?”
Citing what he called “section 343 of the VDM constitution,” he said: “He who plays must pay. And if you play, you’re going to learn. And you will learn the hard way.”
Addressing the criticism directly, he said: “A large majority of Nigerians believe that I was not supposed to be present at this year’s NBA conference titled Beyond Limits. But my lord, I beg to differ, because I am the most qualified, especially because of the topic that was addressed.”
In one exchange he pretended to refuse a case brought by a man claiming to have been wrongly profiled. “My lord, I am here to say I will not be representing this madman in court, because how can you be looking like this and you come and meet a noble man like me to represent you?”
How The Argument Has Run
Otse participated in a panel on insecurity at the conference in Port Harcourt, and his presence has divided senior figures in and around the profession.
Falana argued on Thursday that speakers on specialised subjects should have relevant expertise, saying that if an expert is brought to discuss the security of the country, “such an individual must have contributed to the security architecture of the country.” He accepted the case for public participation on justice delivery, but said security required people involved in maintaining it or victims of abduction.
The journalist Dr Reuben Abati defended the invitation, arguing from the sociology of law that “lawyers meeting also have an obligation to listen to their clients,” and that widening participation gives the Association feedback. Professor Chidi Odinkalu made a similar argument, which Falana answered by saying his friend “was talking in the general sense. We’re talking of this particular case.”
Dr Monday Ubani, SAN, wrote that certain personalities should not grace a lawyers’ programme, later clarifying on television that his objection was to the absence of vetting rather than to diversity of voices. “I don’t have any problem with having mixed voices in our conference,” he said, urging the planning committee to “do all your fact check” before inviting guests.
Otse’s remarks on insecurity have also drawn two formal responses. On 25 August, Douglas Ogbankwa, Esq., Convener of the Security Situation Room, gave him seven days to publish his evidence, retract and apologise, or prepare to substantiate the claims in court. On 27 August, the Nigeria Police Force rejected the allegations as unsubstantiated and invited him to produce, without delay, the evidence on which he relied.
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