Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has questioned the decision of the Nigerian Bar Association to invite social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, to speak at its annual conference.
Falana expressed his reservations during an interview with Channels Television on Thursday while discussing the backlash that followed VeryDarkMan’s participation in the NBA’s 66th Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt.
The activist had addressed attendees on insecurity in Nigeria, but his invitation attracted criticism from some members of the legal profession.
Falana argued that the NBA should select speakers based on their knowledge, professional background and direct experience of the issues they are invited to discuss. He maintained that the association’s conferences should primarily promote serious intellectual discussions among legal professionals rather than serve as entertainment platforms.
He said, “In those days, the NBA brought individuals who had paid their dues, who were coming to engage lawyers intellectually. We wanted to learn from them, and so the NBA was not… none of our conferences was a side show in the past.”
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According to Falana, discussions on specialised matters such as national security require speakers with a demonstrable understanding of the subject.
“So, if you are bringing an expert to discuss the security of the country, either from the private or public sector, such an individual must have contributed to the security architecture of the country,” he said.
He further argued that the inclusion of speakers who lack direct knowledge of the subject under discussion could defeat the purpose of the conference.
“But when you bring people who have nothing to do with the security of the country, there are problems. It’s like talking about media freedom, press freedom—you are going to bring practitioners in that field, whether in the academics or in the newsroom. But to just go and bring somebody from nowhere to come and entertain you, there are problems with that,” Falana said.
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His comments came after the interviewer cited the views of some lawyers, including Professor Chidi Odinkalu, who had defended VeryDarkMan’s participation on the grounds that the legal profession could benefit from hearing directly from members of the public who engage with the justice system.
Falana, however, distinguished between general public engagement and discussions requiring specialised knowledge.
“With profound respect to my very good friend Chidi Odinkalu, he was talking in the general sense. We’re talking of this particular case,” Falana said.
He said there would be value in allowing members of the public to share their experiences when the subject concerns the delivery of justice, but maintained that security-related discussions should involve people with relevant experience.
“If we are talking about justice delivery in the country, we now want to hear from members of the public, that will have been okay. But if you are talking about the security of the country, it does require that you bring people who are involved in maintaining the security of the country, or who are victims of abductions and the rest of them,” he said.
Falana also called for a return to what he described as the NBA’s former intellectual culture, when prominent legal figures delivered presentations that continued to generate discussions long after the conferences ended.
“In those days—in those days, the submissions of some of our lecturers, like the late Dr. Akinola Aguda when he addressed us in 1985, or the late Justice Oputa when he addressed our conference in 1987—for several days and weeks, their submissions became matters of public discourse,” he said.
“Editorial comments were written on them, lawyers debated them even after the conference, and we learned from them. And I think lawyers, as I said, we should go back to that era.”
The senior lawyer also raised concerns about the selection of political figures invited to address lawyers on issues such as democracy and the rule of law.
Falana said, “So if you’re going to have a former head of state to address lawyers to talk about democracy or rule of law, then you must bring someone who can say, ‘When I was in power, there was not a single court order that I disobeyed, I didn’t lock up people illegally, I didn’t harass the media,’ and so on and so forth.”
The debate surrounding VeryDarkMan’s appearance at the NBA conference has persisted, particularly over his comments about insecurity, kidnapping and the alleged conduct of security personnel in the country.
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