Lawyer and rights activist Dele Farotimi has weighed in on the controversy surrounding the Nigerian Bar Association’s invitation of social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), to its 2026 Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt, arguing that VDM’s growing influence is itself a reflection of deficiencies in Nigeria’s justice system.
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Farotimi said criticism of VeryDarkMan should go beyond the individual and examine the conditions that have made Nigerians increasingly willing to turn to social media personalities for intervention when they believe conventional institutions have failed to deliver justice.
In a video seen by TheNigeriaLawyer, Farotimi argued that a society with effective policing and a functional court system would have little need for the kind of intervention that has made VeryDarkMan popular.
“A society that has a functional police system and court will not tolerate the presence of VeryDarkMan,” Farotimi said.
He described VDM as a reflection of the society that produced him rather than an isolated phenomenon that could simply be condemned or wished away.
“VDM is merely the image in your mirror,” he said.
According to Farotimi, the conditions within Nigeria’s justice system have created an environment in which citizens increasingly believe that taking their grievances to influential individuals on social media may produce faster or more effective results than attempting to pursue justice through formal institutions.
“The society you have built requires VDM to fight for justice; it is easier to fight for justice through him than through the courts,” he said.
Farotimi then challenged the longstanding description of the judiciary as the last hope of the common man, arguing that the experience of many ordinary Nigerians no longer supports that proposition.
“They say the judiciary is the last hope of the common man. Apparently, I disagree,” he stated.
He added: “VeryDarkMan is now the last hope of the common man in Nigeria.”
Farotimi’s intervention followed debate within and outside the legal profession over the NBA’s decision to feature VeryDarkMan at the Port Harcourt conference, where he participated in a session dealing with insecurity.
The attached video alternates footage of Farotimi making his remarks with scenes of VeryDarkMan seated at the NBA conference, reinforcing Farotimi’s central argument that the controversy should not be viewed solely through the question of whether VDM was an appropriate guest for a professional gathering of lawyers.
Rather, Farotimi’s position was that the more fundamental question is why an individual operating largely outside formal legal and law-enforcement institutions has become a point of contact for Nigerians seeking intervention in disputes, alleged abuses and other grievances.
His remarks effectively turn the criticism of VDM back on the institutions of justice: if citizens had sufficient confidence that complaints would be promptly investigated by the police and disputes effectively resolved by the courts, he argued, there would be considerably less public demand for social-media intervention.
The comments come after the NBA’s invitation of VeryDarkMan generated sharp disagreement among lawyers.
Some practitioners questioned his qualifications to participate in a discussion on insecurity and argued that the Association’s intellectual platforms should prioritise persons with demonstrated professional or subject-matter expertise.
Others defended the decision on the ground that the legal profession does not operate in isolation from society and that voices representing ordinary citizens’ experiences can contribute to discussions on justice, insecurity and institutional failure.
Farotimi’s intervention falls firmly within the latter argument, but goes further by suggesting that VDM’s prominence should be understood as a consequence of citizens’ dissatisfaction with formal mechanisms for obtaining justice.
His description of VDM as “the image in your mirror” places responsibility not simply on the activist or those who invite him to speak, but on the society and institutions whose deficiencies, in Farotimi’s assessment, created the conditions for his emergence.
The position also raises a broader challenge for the legal profession and judiciary. If a growing number of citizens consider public exposure on social media a more effective route to obtaining attention than approaching law-enforcement agencies or commencing court proceedings, Farotimi’s argument suggests that the real issue is one of confidence in the administration of justice.
His remarks therefore shift the debate from whether VeryDarkMan belongs on an NBA platform to whether the justice system itself has inadvertently created the relevance and influence he now enjoys.
For Farotimi, the answer is clear: VeryDarkMan is not the fundamental problem but a symptom of a system in which ordinary Nigerians increasingly look outside established institutions for justice.
“A society that has a functional police system and court will not tolerate the presence of VeryDarkMan. VDM is merely the image in your mirror. The society you have built requires VDM to fight for justice; it is easier to fight for justice through him than through the courts,” Farotimi said.
“They say the judiciary is the last hope of the common man. Apparently, I disagree. VeryDarkMan is now the last hope of the common man in Nigeria.”
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