The ‘wayo’ imprisonment of Bobrisky, By Festus Adedayo

Will probably be gratifying if Olanipekun Olukoyede, the EFCC chair, on listening to the messy information that his operatives had been sunk within the N15 million Bobrisky  scandal, is silently getting ready an earthly purgatory for them. He should do because the colonial police did in 1947 to Ayodele Potts-Johnson… If information circulating in Nigeria from those that expertise Olukoyede’s males in all components of the nation is something to go by, he’s sitting atop an empire of maggots… These wayo theatrics, within the title of crime preventing and legislation enforcement, has to cease.

On 18 February, 1947, the Day by day Service newspaper printed a narrative whose theme, like the traditional Secretary Fowl, has remained with Nigeria ever since. It’s a story of the affinity between intercourse and corruption. The son of Alake of Egbaland and a no-nonsense choose, Justice Adetokunbo Ademola, then of the Lagos Santa Anna Justice of the Peace Courtroom, presided over the matter. After the woto woto of the prosecution and defence, Ademola sentenced a feminine welfare officer, Ayodele Potts-Johnson, to 6 months imprisonment, with out the choice of advantageous. Potts-Johnson’s crime was in demanding and amassing bribes within the sums of £5.30s and 25s.2nd from two prostitutes, Elizabeth Agadagwu and Alice George, so as to stave them off the wrath of the legislation. Christened by the Nigerian press of the time as a “sensational celebrated official corruption,” the scandal had well-known African and British attorneys, led by FRA Williams, and which included EA Akerele, JA Kester, NOA Morgan and VO Munis as defence counsel. In his e-book, When Intercourse Threatened The State (2015), Saheed Aderinto, award-winning writer, filmmaker and Nigerian American professor of Historical past and African and African Diaspora Research at Florida Worldwide College, doubled down on the story for his speculation. It’s that the favored notion that bribery and corruption had been postcolonial vices that erupted in Nigeria within the wake of army rule, was not solely unreal however ahistorical.

Instantly the prostitutes had been apprehended, relatively than taken to the workplace, Potts-Johnson escorted them to their houses. There, upon demanding £10 as bribe, the welfare officer was provided £5.30s by Agadagwu’s landlord, one Bakare, who negotiated the bribe sum with Potts-Johnson in Yoruba. Bakare promised Agadagwu would pay the stability later. The opposite prostitute, George, additionally provided the welfare officer 5s.2nd of the bribe quantity demanded. In the event that they hadn’t paid the bribes, upon conviction in court docket, the prostitutes risked two years in jail, £50 advantageous and repatriation by authorities from Lagos. However instantly after paying the preliminary bribes, the prostitutes reported it to the police. The Lagos police then handed them marked notes, which represented the stability of the bribe cash, on which was covertly inscribed, Wayo. The police additionally planted an undercover Sheriff to witness the bribery. When Toviho, Potts-Johnson’s intermediary, got here to gather the bribe cash, he and the welfare officer had been arrested.

In my piece of 6 February, 2022 with the title, “Atiku Abubakar and the sexual historical past of the Nigerian presidency,” I had explored this theme. I submitted that sexual politics defines and is commonly behind many of the corruption points in excessive and low locations on this planet. A musical observe rendered by Lagos, Epe-born Apala music lord, Ligali Mukaiba within the Seventies illustrates this. The actual observe by Mukaiba speaks in regards to the pervasive affect of girls within the lives of males, comparable solely to medicine on addicts. He sang “Mi o wa ri’hun t’obinrin o le fi’ni se/ t’o ba nwu’ni/t’o ba nj’araba eni/t’o ba l’o ya ni Sokoto/kuru kere o/kere o/kuru kere o/a o tele l’eyin ni…”

Utilizing the lurid story that immediately went viral in Zimbabwe that former Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, had suffered “a nasty blow from beneath” – an euphemism for impotency – I drilled into how central and virile political energy is and the way males of energy, by means of their libido, use intercourse as a locus of energy. Hooked up to that, I argued, is why, agreeing with Wale Adebanwi in his journal article he entitled “The Carnality of Energy,” that every one of us – students, lay students and society as a complete – “have to pay larger consideration to the methods by which obscenity might help clarify the character of energy.” From Abubakar to Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida, I used these males of energy as examples of workouts of virile members, to elucidate how libidinous politics and corruption can’t be divorced from Nigeria’s socio-politics.

A social media influencer, Martins Otse, often known as VeryDarkMan, circulated an audio dialog Bobrisky allegedly had with an unnamed ‘Alade.’ It immediately went viral. In it, somebody mentioned to be Bobrisky, alleges that he paid the sum of N15 million to unnamed officers of EFCC to have a cost of cash laundering spiked off the legal costs most popular by the state in opposition to him. The crossdresser had been jailed for six months after admitting guilt for dealing unkindly with the Nigerian naira.

Sorry, I digressed. A serious obscene scandal broke out final week. It can appear for example the above theme on the necessity for us to pay extra regards to obscenities in our evaluation of society. It’s a narrative which tangentially bears the color of intercourse, although it smells extra of corruption. With it, we will measure the barometer of how low our society has sunk and the way political and social powers are implicated within the rot of society. The story starred controversial crossdresser and ‘jailbird,’ Idris Olanrewaju Okuneye, whose allegedly leaked audio dialog has created a nationwide mess. If the authenticity of the video is confirmed, Bobrisky’s travails will deliver again to reminiscence an historical Yoruba folklore of a person referred to as Alade. He was a gentleman whose mutual pal had requested why he at all times wore his cap on a regular basis. After a lot stress, Alade determined to share the key, however on one situation – it have to be stored undisclosed to humanity. Alade then eliminated his cap, revealing a brief stumpy horn across the frontal a part of his head. His pal was shocked however promised to maintain the key. Nevertheless, he couldn’t abdomen the key for lengthy. Conserving to the phrases of not telling any human being, sooner or later the pal dug a gap within the floor into which he screamed, “Alade grew a horn (on the pinnacle)!” – Àlàdé hù’wo! Mysteriously, a tree sprang up from the opening and shortly after, each time boys blew a flute close to it, the tree echoed, “Àlàdé hù’wo!” With this, your entire village obtained to learn about Alade’s finest stored secret. 

A social media influencer, Martins Otse, often known as VeryDarkMan, circulated an audio dialog Bobrisky allegedly had with an unnamed ‘Alade.’ It immediately went viral. In it, somebody mentioned to be Bobrisky, alleges that he paid the sum of N15 million to unnamed officers of EFCC to have a cost of cash laundering spiked off the legal costs most popular by the state in opposition to him. The crossdresser had been jailed for six months after admitting guilt for dealing unkindly with the Nigerian naira. Nevertheless, in the identical audio, the Bobrisky claims that he spent his time period of imprisonment in an condominium, and never throughout the Nigerian correctional centre, as imposed by the court docket. Shortly after the allegation, the crossdresser refuted the accusations on his Instagram web page. He claimed that he was the sufferer of a setup. Each the EFCC and Minister of the Inside have ordered full-scale investigations into the scandal, with the Ministry of Inside taking a bolder step in suspending all of the prisons officers accountable for Bobrisky’s time period within the Lagos Kirikiri jail.

Past the theme of crime and corruption within the Bobrisky case is the Nigerian society’s disdain for thought-about uncommon sexuality and, particularly, Okuneye’s audacity in flaunting it. As a measure of its conservatism, the Yoruba frown at counting the fingers of a nine-fingered particular person of their presence (a kii t’oju oni’ka mesan kaa.) In my 7 April piece with the title, “Bobrisky and Jesus, the tax collector,” written instantly the crossdresser was sentenced, I mentioned this a lot. Should you flip by means of the pages of historical past, you’ll uncover, as I mentioned within the piece, that from historical instances, the world has by no means hidden its hostility in direction of individuals who profess sexual orientation totally different from the conservative heterosexual standing. That is additionally accountable for why a big chunk of the black world vents its anger on the Western world’s validation of homosexuality. Within the nineteenth century and even earlier than, the Bobriskys had been lynched like widespread criminals for his or her uncommon sexuality. Till then, gay actions had been categorized as “unnatural crime(s) in opposition to nature,” whereas sodomy obtained punished with, typically, the dying penalty.

As compared along with his precursors with an uncommon sexuality, Bobrisky has suffered one of many mildest fates. Between 1877 and 1950, over 4,000 of them had been lynched. It subsisted until a number of years in the past in America. As such, once you appraise the collage of obvious gang-ups – of VeryDarkMan and others – in opposition to Bobrisky, you’re going to get an affirmation of the Yoruba saying that he who does the bizarre must be prepared for infliction of an uncommon reprisal (eni ba se’un t’enikan o se ri, aa ri’un t’enikan o ri ri). Bobrisky’s travails appear to be society’s try and deconstruct and destroy this uncommon impresario of sexuality. If you look at this thesis in opposition to the backcloth of Bobrisky’s current innuendo that he may commit suicide, you’ll agree with me that the self-touted Mommy of Lagos is within the gulag of a conservative society and should by no means get out of it alive. Should you ask me, I feel Bobrisky commodifies her crossdressing, utilizing it as a façade for God-knows-what disagreeable money-making ventures.

If Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo is merely within the optics of being perceived as proactive, so as to save his job from the Sword of Damocles mentioned to be hanging on ministers, he ought to tell us. But when he’s genuinely thinking about reforming Nigerian prisons, he absolutely has a humongous job on his arms. It’s extra demanding than the “I swear-to-Almighty-God” raising-of-a-finger he was embroiled in final week.

The allegation that Bobrisky paid a bribe to the EFCC for a cash laundering cost to be eliminated then crept in. The viral audio, amplified by VeryDarkMan, additionally alleged that he paid bribe to jail high officers to allow him serve his time period exterior the hostile partitions of the Kirikiri jail. On this, all now we have been entertained with since final week when the obscene scandal broke, is a nationwide breakfast of hypocrisy. Why are Nigerians feigning prudery at these scandalous revelations? Are we listening to a couple of story of this magnitude of stench for the primary time? Allow us to come down from our excessive horses. In truth, the one solution to reform this nation is for each the leaders and the led to return clear with themselves. Nigeria is a completely worsted place and all of the bounds and parameters of societal civility, decency and international norms of civilised folks have damaged down irretrievably. I as soon as overheard an Edo-born jail warder detailed to a politically uncovered particular person arraigned earlier than the Lagos Federal Excessive Courtroom some years in the past, saying, “Mek dem publish me to (I’m hiding the politician’s id) mek I no purchase automotive? He no go occur!” Final yr, we witnessed an obscene altercation between DSS operatives and jail officers, proper within the premises of a court docket. Their beef was on who owned custodial energy over the embattled Godwin Emefiele. And apparently, his loot. It was later that Nigerians discovered that the scuffle was not strictly a turf battle; it was a graft battle; one thing within the mould of a robber robs the until and a thief robs the robber (ole gbe, ole gbaa).

Like Nigeria, the jail is brimming with rotund-bellied maggots, which replicate the collapse of nearly all of the values that cobbles Nigeria collectively. Aside from decayed infrastructure, overcrowding and allied points, Nigerian prisons are residence to officers who, in saner societies, ought to themselves be in jail. In 2019, investigative journalist, Fisayo Soyombo, adopting the pseudonym, Ojo Olajumoke, spent 5 days in a police cell and eight days as an inmate in Ikoyi Jail. It was within the bid to trace corruption in Nigeria’s legal justice system. There was no single whimper from the Nigerian institution. After Soyombo’s arrest and detention in police custody, he was arraigned in court docket and in the end obtained remanded in jail. He emerged with very distressing tales of illegitimate arrests, extrajudicial killings, bribery and corruption and a legal justice system that’s in a sorry case. He even claimed {that a} jail official requested him for cash to take away his title from the jailbirds’ roster.

If Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo is merely within the optics of being perceived as proactive, so as to save his job from the Sword of Damocles mentioned to be hanging on ministers, he ought to tell us. But when he’s genuinely thinking about reforming Nigerian prisons, he absolutely has a humongous job on his arms. It’s extra demanding than the “I swear-to-Almighty-God” raising-of-a-finger he was embroiled in final week. Yoruba discuss how widespread a covertly launched fart may go in its “B’a se nyo’so, l’a se nyo’gbo” aphorism. The Bobrisky allegation of Very Vital Prisoners being ferried out of jail whereas serving their phrases is nearly as outdated as corruption in Nigeria. We’ve got heard of a VIP who impregnated his spouse whereas serving his time period and who was additionally current on the little one’s christening. We’ve got additionally heard a narrative, which occurred some twenty-something years in the past, of a person who later rose to grow to be a senator and a political social gathering bigwig. Whereas in detention for alleged homicide, exhibiting his libidinous prowess, the lady procured for this Very Vital Detainee in an condominium exterior of jail had fainted underneath him.If certainly, as it’s mentioned, {that a} individuals are assessed by the best way they deal with their most weak, prisoners are weak heaps and we must be thinking about what goes on inside that house referred to as the Nigerian jail. Till Nigerian prisons grow to be locations of reform, versus being areas of torment they’re in the present day, they’ll proceed to be microcosms of our macroscopic Nigerian tragedy.

Will probably be gratifying if Olanipekun Olukoyede, the EFCC chair, on listening to the messy information that his operatives had been sunk within the N15 million Bobrisky  scandal, is silently getting ready an earthly purgatory for them. He should do because the colonial police did in 1947 to Ayodele Potts-Johnson. That is time for Olukoyede to peel himself of his church mien and put on the garb of a Dracula. In any other case, he shall be dragging within the mud his declare of a pastoral calling, perceived to be atypical with the duty of against the law fighter. If information circulating in Nigeria from those that expertise Olukoyede’s males in all components of the nation is something to go by, he’s sitting atop an empire of maggots, the place operatives are nothing greater than armed gunmen who terrorise and extort criminals of their loots. These wayo theatrics, within the title of crime preventing and legislation enforcement, has to cease.

 Kabiyesi Ladoja at 80

A blight that critics maintain in opposition to newspaper column writers is that typically our pictures go off tangent, disabling us from reaching precision. Within the course of, they declare, we mis-profile our topics, actually calling the King’s Mom (Iya Oba) the Monkey Mom (Iya Obo). My reply to them is that column writers are usually not infallible as a result of they’re columnists. Full cease! My reply is a timid parody of Justice Chukwudifu Oputa’s locus classicus assertion in regards to the Supreme Courtroom. I can’t go the entire hog and delve into its second stanza on account of its potential for immodesty. Solely Oputa, the good jurist, may so conclude in regards to the Almightiness of the ultimate appellate court docket.

The intense ones among the many critics examine column-writing’s typically imprecision to the proverbial Saare whose demonstration of data resulted in un-knowledge. In the future, Saare went to the farm however rushed again residence, panting. To his mother and father who had been troubled on what went amiss, the younger hunter informed them they need to present gratitude to their Maker as a result of he was nearly devoured by a leopard which strayed from the forest. After which, Saare started an outline of the unusual animal: “It had large, dilating eyes! It had arresting color!” options his mother and father affirmed had been a leopard’s. Instantly, Saare’s father, an Ifa priest, ordered for a sacrifice to be made to understand his luck and provide a propitiation over Saare’s “head.” When all of the propitiation supplies arrived – a giant ram, crimson oil and others – in readiness for the sacrifice, unprompted Saare then described, in his flippant finest: “The leopard was tall, had two enormous horns! It was even consuming okra!” Saare’s mother and father instantly apologised to the sacrificial crew: “Our son didn’t see a leopard. He noticed a deer.” So, Yoruba say, amonju l’o b’ekun Saare je.

In my 26 years of column writing, (together with the years of exit) I’ve had a number of bull’s-eye hits and a few imprecisions. Two personalities stand out on the checklist of topics who, in critiques of their personalities, I typically shot off tangent. They had been, the late Adebayo Alao-Akala and Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, ex-governors of Oyo State. After they had been each in authorities, my pen tormented them a number of instances. On assembly Alao-Akala, years after he left authorities, I encountered a person whose coronary heart was as pure as spring water and whose humanity was one each mortal ought to search after. When he requested me to jot down the “Foreword” to his memoir, Wonderful Grace, like a witch’s confession, because the Yoruba will say, I used to be contrite, “mo tuuba.” Whereas I’m incapable of excusing their politics and governance, I can say each are/had been nice personalities.

In my writings and media methods whereas I used to be myself in workplace, I wasn’t type to Ladoja in any respect. But, we by no means met. Nevertheless, in October, 2020, we met for the primary and final time on the College of Ibadan. I used to be privileged to be on the excessive desk with him, throughout a symposium organised by Honourable Babs Oduyoye to mark his birthday. I don’t know the place I obtained the audacity, however I walked as much as him and launched myself. He was actually overjoyed to satisfy me, thrust his hand ahead excitedly and we shook arms like they did whereas signing the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT). What he mentioned about his estimation of me, relatively than excite me, saddened me. How may I spend a big chunk of my writings demonising a person who thought so extremely of me? A few years later when talks centered on his biography, considered one of his ‘sons’ informed me he was excited on the prospect of my writing it. I used to be saddened the extra. This was the identical factor Alao-Akala did to me: he handed me a uncooked manuscript and mentioned, “besides the title, you’re at liberty to do something with it!”

Since then, I’ve drilled into Ladoja’s persona. An excellent strategist and engineer, his strongest level is that his political adversaries underrate him. As rich as he’s, Ladoja is thought for his deconstruction of wealth, each in sartorial outlook and materialism. He could possibly be cussed too, sticking to what he believes in, on the threat of ostracism.

Born on 25 September, 1944 in Gambari village, close to Ibadan and turning into a director of the defunct Normal Belief Financial institution within the yr 2000, final Tuesday was Ladoja’s eightieth birthday. Right here is wishing Oba Ladoja many extra years of fine well being on earth.

Festus Adedayo is an Ibadan-based journalist.