*Says “Thousands Graduate From Law School Only To End Up Selling Bedsheets”
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.”
Otse rejected the argument that the panel should have been filled by security experts.
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.