‘Son Of A Nobody’ – VeryDarkMan Tackles Falana Over NBA Invitation

Controversial social media activist Martins Otse, also known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), has faulted the criticism by human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, over his invitation to speak at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) conference.

Naija News reports that Falana had earlier criticised the NBA’s decision to invite Otse as a speaker at its annual conference, arguing that individuals invited to address lawyers on specialised subjects should have relevant expertise or experience in those fields.

Falana stated that the Association should have invited someone with professional experience.

“In those days, the NBA brought Individuals who had paid their dues, who had who were coming to engage lawyers intellectually. We wanted to learn from them, and so none of our conferences was a circus show in the past, you know,” Falana said.

He argued that national security discussions should feature people with demonstrable experience in the field.

Reacting in a video shared on his social media page on Friday, VeryDarkMan said Falana’s remarks had made it clearer to him why some people were opposed to his invitation to the conference, describing the issue as “classism”.

He said his invitation had been questioned because of his background and status compared with those attending the conference.

“The problem these people have is that the son of a nobody was invited to come and speak where elites are seated,” he said.

He argued that his experience of insecurity qualified him to contribute to discussions on the subject.

Otse said: “Lately 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 not about book. It’s about experience.”

“Security is for everybody. Security is not for some set of people. And this has been the problem,” he said.

He said his presence at the conference was aimed at drawing attention to the experiences of ordinary Nigerians affected by insecurity, stressing “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.”

Otse said he had not expected Falana to take the position he expressed on his invitation.

“I wasn’t expecting this angle from Femi Falana SAN, but well, it is what it is,” he said.