“He Does Our Job Better Than Us” — Nigerian Lawyer Defends VDM As NBA Conference Drama Refuses To Die
Nigeria don see wahala, but this particular one na pure comedy-drama combo. VeryDarkMan the self-styled “online police,” activist, and full-time headache-giver to corrupt people everywhere waltzed into the Nigerian Bar Association’s Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt as a panelist. No wig. No gown. No LLB certificate to his name. And Nigerians have not stopped talking since.
The Gist: How Wahala Started
VDM, real name Martins Vincent Otse, was invited to speak on a panel about insecurity at the NBA’s 66th Annual General Conference, where he shared his personal experience covering violent incidents across the country and didn’t hold back on where he thinks the blame lies. According to him, the root of Nigeria’s insecurity is political, and the very institutions meant to protect citizens government, police, and the military are the ones benefiting from the chaos.
Now, ordinarily, that might have been just another VDM soundbite. But this time, he was saying it standing in front of a room full of actual lawyers, some of whom paid real money out of pocket to attend a conference meant for legal minds not social media crusaders.
As if the panel appearance wasn’t enough to set timelines on fire, the NBA went ahead and handed him a special recognition award for his activism, sealing the whole event with a photo session alongside association officials. Cue: chaos.
Barristers vs. The Streets
Predictably, not everybody was here for it. Some lawyers openly questioned why an association meant to represent the legal profession would give its biggest stage of the year to someone who never sat for a single Bar exam. One lawyer on X pointedly asked why members who paid conference fees were made to sit and listen to VDM instead of one of their own. Even during the session itself, a military representative reportedly pushed back on stage, challenging VDM’s claims about soldiers and effectively asking if he thought “all lawyers are corrupt too.”
VDM, for his part, wasn’t rattled. He clarified that he wasn’t there to teach anybody law he came to speak from lived experience, particularly on how insecurity and kidnapping now touch even members of the legal profession themselves.
Then Enter Kems, With The Take That Broke The Internet
While Barristers argued among themselves about optics and qualifications, it was a lawyer named Kems (@CJKwanye) who dropped the response Wahala Network cannot stop replaying. Reacting to a question about what VDM was doing among Barristers, Kems didn’t dodge she doubled down, arguing that VDM effectively does the job of lawyers so well that he draws the kind of trust and results many in the profession struggle to command, and suggested that’s exactly the reason he’s attracting so much irritation. Her point was simple and, depending on who you ask, either brutally honest or deeply controversial: everyday Nigerians run to VDM for justice before they run to the courts, and instead of lawyers getting angry about that, maybe they should be asking themselves why.
Naturally, the internet had thoughts. Some agreed wholeheartedly, pointing out that VDM has, without a single law degree, become the person ordinary Nigerians call when institutions fail them recovering stolen funds, exposing landlords, forcing refunds, and getting government agencies to move faster than they typically do for the average citizen with a genuine complaint. Others weren’t as convinced, arguing that confidence and outrage are not the same thing as legal training, and that conflating “getting results” with “doing the job of a lawyer” sets a dangerous precedent.
Wahala Network’s Take
Here’s the thing sha love him or hate him, VDM has built something the legal system itself sometimes struggles with: public trust that moves at the speed of a viral video. Whether that’s a compliment to him or an indictment of a slow-moving system depends entirely on which side of the wig you’re standing on.
One thing is certain though: the NBA didn’t just invite a guest speaker this year. They invited a conversation that Nigerian lawyers, activists, and internet commentators will be dragging for weeks to come.
Stay locked to Wahala Network because when the gist involves both wigs and Ratels, you already know say na must-watch.
