Human rights lawyer and activist Dele Farotimi has attributed the growing influence of social critic Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), to what he described as failures within Nigeria’s police and judicial systems.
Farotimi made the remarks while discussing the controversy surrounding VDM’s invitation to the Nigerian Bar Association’s 66th Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt.
In a video published on his YouTube channel, the lawyer argued that the emergence of individuals like VeryDarkMan reflects a situation where ordinary Nigerians increasingly look outside the formal justice system when seeking redress.
According to Farotimi, a society with effective law enforcement agencies and courts would have little need for personalities who take up public complaints and pressure institutions to act.
He said the growing acceptance of VDM among some Nigerians should therefore be viewed as an indication of deeper institutional problems rather than simply as an issue involving the social critic.
Farotimi described VeryDarkMan as a reflection of the shortcomings of the Nigerian justice system, arguing that criticism of the activist would not address the conditions that contributed to his rise.
He said: “A society that has law and order, that is ruled by law, that has a functional police system, a functional court system, would not even tolerate the presence or existence of a VDM.”
The lawyer further argued that Nigerians have increasingly turned to personalities such as VeryDarkMan because they perceive them as more accessible avenues for addressing grievances than the courts.
Farotimi challenged the long-standing description of the judiciary as the “last hope of the common man”, saying the reality in Nigeria had changed because of public dissatisfaction with the justice system.
He stated that VDM had effectively become an alternative avenue through which some members of the public seek justice.
According to him, the situation should concern not only lawyers and judges but the wider society, which he said had allowed the conditions behind the phenomenon to persist.
Farotimi also warned that the influence of VeryDarkMan could inspire the emergence of more personalities taking similar approaches to confronting perceived injustice.
He noted that other individuals were already adopting aspects of VDM’s style, describing them as “copycat VDMs”.
The activist cautioned that if formal institutions continued to fail in addressing public grievances, future versions of such figures could become more confrontational and potentially resort to violence.
He said, “If the courts are useless, the VDMs of this world will emerge,” adding that some future figures could go as far as using force to impose their own form of justice.
Farotimi’s comments come amid public discussion over VeryDarkMan’s participation in the Nigerian Bar Association’s annual conference and the broader debate over the role of social media activists in exposing alleged wrongdoing and seeking accountability in Nigeria.
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