Bobrisky, VeryDarkMan, Femi Falana and the rest of us

The SAMOA agreement must be jettisoned, we are better off with our morality and poverty than receive the ugly aid of the West that promises to wipe out our youth.

VeryDarkMan and Bobrisky

I'm not on Instagram. I'm on Facebook. A Gen Z told me Facebook is old school, she is on Instagram. I don't ever want to be on Instagram because what I hear happen there offend my morality. Facebook, said to be more sane is not as sane, some of the sewer from Instagram gets seeped into it. One man owns the two of them. His name is Mark Zukerberg, now ranked the second richest man in the world. Elon Musk owns X, formerly called Twitter which he recently bought. These two men own our now and our future. They are in charge of the new media which are threatening to wipe us all out. Without social media a phenomenon known as Bobrisky would have meant nothing to history and social relations. But because of the new media he is dominating Nigeria’s current history and social relations.

Bobrisky is what Americans and the West call "cross-dresser." When he was born, his parents named him Idris. His father is Okuneye. He is a man, he has all the male organs. He attended the University of Lagos where this writer also attended. But we are generations apart, in my own time there was sanity on the campus, if you call yourself a cross-dresser nobody will tolerate you, lecturers will not allow you into the lecture hall and fellow students will not share rooms with you. Bobrisky, though male wants to be a woman. He has left the nation confused now, how do we treat him? What do we call him, what pronoun? He offended our currency law recently when he defaced some of them when he 'sprayed' at a party. The nation’s financial offence watchdog, EFCC arrested him and took him to court. He was to be charged for two offences, money laundering and defacing of the naira but miraculously between his arrest and his appearance in court, the charge of money laundering was dropped, leaving him with only the defacement of the naira. The judge obviously a man steeped in the Nigerian culture more than the law slammed a jail term on him without an option of fine, which the law allows. Before passing his judgement, the judge asked Idris Okuneye if he was male or female. Okuneye answered in the affirmative that he's a male. The judge was obviously annoyed that a person who gave the court a male name wants at the same time to be a woman.

How will the prison treat Bobrisky? Will they put him/her in the male cell or the female cell. Our laws and experience have nothing of such before the Bobrisky misadventure. We have been very backward on that score. Anyhow, Bobrisky the phenomenon was jailed, every Nigerian bother less how the prison authority treats their inmates. But perhaps Bobrisky will learn some lessons in chastity after his incarceration. But Bobrisky is a phenomenon, he knows how to survive in Nigeria, he has people in high places, he has connections that we the common people know nothing about. There is another youth phenomenon, an amazing revelation of the Gen Z in Nigeria. His name is as amazing as his body build and personality. He calls himself VeryDarkMan on social media. He is truly according to his name very dark and he's proud of his blackness. He has a barrel chest and he's all muscles. He is not the kind of man you would like to meet in a lonely place. His figure can scare the daylight out of a lion.

The real name of VeryDarkMan is Martins Ortse, but he gave himself that social media name. He has become the ombudsman of the current Nigerian society, the most popular young man on social media in Nigeria. He has become more relevant than the newspapers which have reneged on their social obligation to hold the society to morality and integrity because of corruption and corrupt ownership of the media. VeryDarkMan has also become more relevant than the religious institutions, especially the Church. When the Church will no more speak truth to power because of compromise and corruption, VeryDarkMan seized the opportunity and has been gathering the youth into a common national focus. He's leading a youth moral revival. VeryDarkMan, unlike the Church, the Mosque and the media has refused to be corrupted by the Nigerian society. He has, he says, refused to take money from anybody under any guise of advertising their products or to be their brand ambassador. He knows Nigeria so well that that is the subtle way a good cause can be compromised. He fights frontally and speaks forthrightly. He has taken on cheating pastors. He has a current war with Femi Falana, a SAN and an activist that has fought many battles with government and religious institutions holding them down to higher integrity and moral standard. When he callled out Femi Falana and his son, popular musician, Folarin Falana, Falz, he left Nigerians wondering whether Femi Falana is the same saintly voice they knew. Two suits for defamation against VeryDarkMan are in the courts, one by Falzs and the other by Folake Falana, lawyer and daughter of Femi Falana. A third suit against VeryDarkMan by Bobrisky who is at the center of all the suits is also in the court. Bobrisky has slammed a billion naira defamation suit against VeryDarkMan. VeryDarkMan is not retracting his allegations against Falana the father and Falana the son, neither is he seeking friendship with Bobrisky, the cross-dresser.

In a leaked telephone call between Bobrisky and another friend of his, Bobrisky had told the story of how he did not spend one minute in the prison cell because he had offered a bribe of four million naira to prison officials who had arranged an apartment near the prison for him to serve his terms on the condition that he will not move around. Bobrisky also revealed to his friend in that conversation how the EFCC had obtained 15 million naira from him to drop the charge of money laundering against him. EFCC denied this. He spoke with Falz, Femi Falana's son to raise the money needed and that Femi Falana, the father was allegedly involved in a 10 million naira bribe to procure pardon for him such that there will be no record that he ever went to jail. Whether that actually happened is not yet public knowledge. Femi Falana has denied this.

Interior minister, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has ordered investigation into the alleged involvement of the Correctional Center while a committee of the House of Representatives is investigating the allegation against the Correctional Centre. Good, but what assails the nation is more than these slipshod investigations. Perhaps they are the usual Nigerian gimmicks of covering up damaging developments. But it is more important for the legislature to make a law to curb this assault of gay and lesbianism lifestyles. Already the West is making every effort to force African nations to soften their stand on LGBTQ. The Samoa agreement is one such arm twisting of the West. Our government must know that we are two different cultures. LGBTQ is totally alien to the African culture. The only thing working for us is our culture which is very stern on morals. If we allow the West browbeat us to accept their loose culture and indiscipline we will have nothing to hold on to again.

It is widely rumored that many of our leaders in the center, the states, the judiciary, the bar, the Church, the Mosques, the universities, the polytecnics, the private sector, the banks etc are secret subscribers to the LGBTQ scourge. It is a lie that people are born gay and lesbians. It is alleged by VeryDarkMan that Bobrisky goes on the net to market his trade by teaching how his clients have sex with him and how much he gets from the deals. This is encouraging youths to be influenced and corrupted by such deals since huge money is involved. Now there are many more young male prostitutes on the streets of Abuja, Allen Avenue, Lekki, Isolo, all in Lagos and other places. Kano, Jos, Porthacourt, Ibadan etc are not left out of the booming trade in LGBTQ sex. Very prominent women, wives of equally very prominent leaders in the nation are luring young girls to hotels with offer of big money to have lesbian sex with them. I watched a video of one made public by an Abuja based lady. This evil has gotten down the ladder to the low cadre. I personally witnessed an ugly scene of it at Bode market in downtown Ibadan where I saw a woman inserting her fingers into the female organ of another woman in the open market. It is spreading like cancer in the nation. This is the battle VeryDarkMan is fighting now, starting with the chief exponent of the trade named Bobrisky.

Government must urgently step in to do some few things with the aggression it demands. The SAMOA agreement must be jettisoned, we are better off with our morality and poverty than receive the ugly aid of the West that promises to wipe out our youth. LGBTQ is animalistic and Africans are very human. The social media must be regulated. In the days of the mainstream media where the gate is well kept, the Bobrisky phenomenon will never manifest. But we are in the days of Instagram, Facebook, X and others. X is working to tear the various tribes in Nigeria apart. I left X when I could not cope with the abuses on it. The Yoruba and the Igbo are tearing themselves apart on X. Instagram and Facebook have become instruments of propagating sexual assault. They must be tamed. What X offers is not freedom at least from the African perspective. If the West can endure them because they are already built up societies, we cannot in Nigeria because we are just building our fragile nation. There must be a law to proscribe LGBTQ. Parents are apprehensive about their youths in the universities and at work. They are afraid their sons and daughters may already be in this evil. They have invaded churches and mosques. We cannot afford this scourge. Pastors who still keep the fear of God must keep their guards and rise to combat this rising tide of evil.

It is being widely rumored that some of our governors and some of our honourable men attend night parties where cameras are not allowed and where it is pitch dark. These leaders who have tons of money are the ones paying the advertisement of Bobrisky on the net. Who funds his multimillion naira surgeries and outings? An aspiring governor was seen dancing to music in a way that belies his status as a very prominent lawyer. It was in a leaked video and it is assumed he is one of those who goes to those dark places to mess up with our young men and women and pay them huge sums of money. President Bola Tinubu must rise to the occasion. If he does, he would have done so much than his so called reform which is leaving the nation hungry and angry. Nigerians will be happier.

Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos