Much Ado About VeryDarkMan’s Dark ‘Revelation’
Many people are splitting hairs over the VeryDarkMan’s release about Bobrisky, and I am here laughing uproariously: if you want to know the enormity of Nigerian institutional decay, simply Google ‘UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION (II): Drug Abuse, Sodomy, Bribery, Pimping…The Cash-and-Carry Operations of Ikoyi Prisons.’ by an investigative journalist called ‘Fisayo Soyombo. When it was first released, I read it, and I became suddenly transfixed by the degree of systemic erosion in this country called Nigeria. The way corruption has been institutionalised, it beggars belief!
Major Criminal Justice Systems (CJSs), including the Nigeria Police Force, courts, the Nigerian Correctional Systems, EFCC, etc. have been re-colonised and turned to an instrument of vendetta in the hands of the ruling class. These agencies were primarily established to reduce the alarming rate of criminality, but they’ve sadly become the major enablers of criminality! For instance, the primary functions of the Nigeria Police Force include protection of life and property, but are the police protecting the Nigerian citizens today? Also, the main purpose behind the establishment of modern prison systems in Nigeria is the rehabilitation and reformation of offenders, but the same prison systems end up producing brutal and notorious criminals today. How sad!
So, what VeryDarkMan is saying is not even shocking to me at all. I’ve heard, read and seen something severer than that!
Many ‘big men’ in Nigeria, especially the Nigerian politicians hardly go to prison regardless of the gravity of their offences, even though many of you have been conditioned to erroneously believe so! When Ayodele Fayose, the former governor of Ekiti State was remanded in Ikoyi Prison over his 2.2billion fraud, what kind of cell do you think he was given? Also, which type of cell do you think Azeez Fashola, popularly known as Naira Marley, was given? What about Pascal Chibuike Okechukwu famously known as Cubana Chief Priest? They were all given luxuriously furnished apartments instead of normal prison cells! The truth is the enormity of corruption is deep, and the corruption itself is seemingly intractable in Nigeria!
However, dragging Folarin Falana (Falz) and his father Femi Falana (SAN) into this issue is uncharitable. They did absolutely nothing wrong. No matter the severity of any crime, the accused will always have a group of people he/she can reach out to for help. I mean no matter the severity of any crime!
Similarly, presidential pardon is legal and there’s a section for it in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That section empowers the President to pardon convicts! So, whoever the President decides to pardon, it’s not anyone’s business! Remember, it’s called Prerogative of Mercy! That means, whoever the President pardons is left to his own executive discretion! And this process must be initiated by a lawyer, and Falana is a lawyer! So, collecting 10M could be his own legal charges for the procurement of the presidential pardon for his client. Let VeryDarkMan get that into his skull; it doesn’t mean Falz and Falana are aiding and abetting corruption!
But, unfortunately, VeryDarkMan is a truculent and pugnacious ‘activist,’ who knows the price of everything, but doesn’t know the value of anything! He’s recklessly dragging Falz and Falana, and he failed to put into consideration the legality and constitutionality of the process of presidential pardon as enshrined in the constitution. He insults anyone, and he feels he is equally above the law! The earlier he lowers his shoulders, the better for him! Activism and vulgarity are mutually exclusive!
I know many people hate to hear this, but Nigeria as a nation has a long way to go, and it is pathetic that we are in this terrible mess. So, for us to progress as a nation, there is a need for radical systemic restructuring! But who will bell the cat?
Sule Abubakar Lucky Mark,
Writer and Sociologist.
Email: suleabubakarmark1111@gmail.com
25/09/2024.