BY REV. FR. GERALD NWAFOR
First, I want to establish that nobody under the sun falls from heaven. And nobody came out of the woods (Onwero onye awatalu na nku). We all have fathers and mothers as human beings. The statement attributed to the learned silk, Senior Advocate of Nigeria Femi Falana, that Mr. VDM (VeryDarkMan) Martins Otse was the son of nobody was distressing and wrong in all corners. I may not agree with VDM on many things, but I do not agree with Falana calling out VDM. Anybody can be called to give his opinion on any issue; you have the choice to believe or agree with the opinion. The fact that you know too many things about a particular topic does not make you wiser than the rest of us. Falana may be a legal guru, but I wonder how well he knows rocket science and playing basketball. Life is not easy; life is not straightforward; that is why it calls for humility. If I have experienced kidnapping at the hands of the Nigerian bandit, it is my story to tell because I have the firsthand present sense impression.
How can Falana castigate the opinion of VDM on the altar of not being a professional or well-experienced or the son of a nobody? I was taken aback that Falana did not attack the topic as he is wantonly known for but went ahead to attack the person of VDM. If VDM is the son of a billionaire businessman, nobody would say a word. Peter Obi always reminds us that “He wants a Nigeria where the son of a ‘nobody’ will become somebody.” This elitist movement should stop. The political class will destroy this country, but I am sure that everyone will go down with them. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I want a country where my four little children will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Are we judging VDM by what he said or by who he is? What is his background? Who raised him? The core of the issue would have been to look at the claims and the statements of VDM and know if it’s true or false. We are not being forced to agree with him. We can disagree with him on many fronts, but nothing will come out of the personal attack and argumentum ad hominem.
In this world, everyone is important. There is a reason why God put people together so do not see anyone as a nobody and discard his or her opinion. By the way, is it not Falana and co who brought APC to power, and today they are as cool as cucumber. Who has attacked him and co for that February 2012 match against President Goodluck Jonathan that gave us Buhari and Tinubu?
The people who invited VDM also invited all the presidential candidates of the 2027 presidential election. I do not want to say that some people felt that they should have been invited to speak but were not. Why should we have problems with what VDM said? I remember when Abacha, the late head of state, said that any insecurity that lasted more than one week had the fingerprints of the police and army on it. This was the president who had seen it all speaking. T.J Danjuma said that the police and the military can no longer help us to protect ourselves. He opined that we should get ready to protect ourselves. Nobody countered him.
Now, please tell me why VDM is being attacked? Son of nobody. The aristocracy being constructed today by the political class will destroy the country, Nigeria. No empire lasts forever, but we can say that the destruction of the empire may come sooner rather than later because of the recklessness of the people who claim to be the leaders. The roads are in bad shape, but the political class has all kinds of SUVs to navigate the bad roads. It is only the common man who navigates the road with his old rickety car. There is insecurity everywhere, but it is the political class who has all the policemen and army protecting them in their homes and offices. The time will come when the protection will fail because the police and the army will be insecure and the dry hand of hunger and anger will catch all. Then the uprising will erupt, and the country will catch flames. The rich and the poor will suffer the same fate.
Some people are supporting the elites who said that VDM was not qualified to speak at the MBA conference. I should remind them that the slave laughing at a slave should know that the same fate awaits him. The political class, which .001 of the whole population, has nothing good in store for them. It is a question of time; all the sons of nobody will be rusticated.
Finally, I will suggest that all the children of nobody should come together and make a point. I did not say prove a point because they have nothing to prove to anyone except those who feel they own Nigeria. They will always want to put you down so that you will doubt yourself. I tell you now that you are good enough for everything you want to be, not minding the situation you find yourself in because of the bad behavior of the political class and the rich. They want to beat you up and tell you not to cry.
How can you pick and choose who will speak and who will not speak to the public? We all have the freedom of speech as enshrined in the Constitution. If they cannot obey a constitution which they wrote and gave us, I wonder what they will obey. Everyone should get his PVC and make a lasting statement during the election. All this remote controlling of citizens should end in 2027. The children of nobody are higher in number, and since democracy is a game of numbers, the majority should win. Nobody and their children should not stand on the wall this time around. They should take back their country, if I may borrow words of Peter Obi. The country belongs to “WE THE PEOPLE.” WE THE PEOPLE shall take back our country by all legal means. I will leave you with the words of a wise man who said that “A fool can say wisely what a wise man can say foolishly.” VeryDarkMan has spoken wisely, as the son of nobody, what the sons of somebody cannot say in the public domain.
