Erelu Tunwase Bombs Nigerian Bar, Says VDM Controversy Exposes Gulf Between Bar, Bench, Citizens

The controversy over social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, and his invitation to the Nigerian Bar Association’s 2026 Annual General Conference has taken an unexpected turn, after a former Mayor of the London Borough of Wandsworth argued the real scandal isn’t who the NBA invited, but why the Bar itself feels so distant from the people it exists to serve.

Erelu Tunwase Lola Ayonrinde, whose intervention has circulated widely since the conference, is not a party to any dispute with the NBA and made her remarks as commentary rather than as a formal complaint against the association or any individual within it.

A conference overtaken by its guest list

Findings by ValidViewNetwork show the 66th NBA Conference, held under the theme “Beyond Limits” in Port Harcourt, drew more than 24,000 registered participants, according to organisers, yet much of the public conversation around it settled instead on VDM’s appearance on a panel addressing insecurity and the experiences of communities affected by violence.

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His session grew more heated after he alleged that some police personnel manning checkpoints identify wealthy individuals and pass information about them to kidnappers, claims the Nigeria Police Force publicly rejected on 27 August, demanding evidence.

He also made comments critical of the military’s conduct, later apologising after a military representative at the conference pushed back on the unproven claims.

Where the criticism came from

Checks by ValidViewNetwork show Ayonrinde’s defence of VDM’s invitation put her at odds with prominent voices within the profession itself.

Senior Advocate of Nigeria Femi Falana, appearing on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, argued that NBA conferences exist for intellectual engagement among people with established expertise, not for personalities invited primarily for their entertainment value, a view echoed by other lawyers who questioned why someone without formal legal training was handed a platform at the Bar’s flagship event.

The case Ayonrinde makes instead

Ayonrinde’s central argument rests on a distinction she says VDM himself drew: he was not there to teach lawyers law, but to speak from lived experience of insecurity, a form of knowledge she insists is not automatically inferior to professional qualification.

She points to the fact that the NBA itself later presented VDM with an award for his participation, arguing this makes it harder to dismiss his presence as beneath the conference’s stature without first questioning the purpose of the session he was invited to.

She invoked a mirror metaphor, borrowed from lawyer and activist Dele Farotimi, to make her sharpest point: breaking a mirror that shows an ugly reflection does not change the face behind it. Applied to VDM, her argument is that his popularity and ability to mobilise public anger are symptoms of a deeper institutional failure, not the failure itself.

Rather than asking why VDM is so loud, she suggests the profession should be asking why so many Nigerians are listening to him in the first place.

A challenge aimed squarely at the profession

That challenge, as Ayonrinde frames it, cuts deep: if lawyers are meant to be justice’s traditional champions, she asks why ordinary Nigerians increasingly find activists, citizen journalists and online campaigners more trustworthy than the courts and institutions built specifically to protect their rights.

She is careful to note that popularity should not exempt anyone from scrutiny, VDM included, arguing that serious allegations, whoever makes them, must be tested against evidence.

But she insists that standard has to apply evenly, including to the institutions doing the questioning.

The bigger picture she wants the Bar to see

Ultimately, Ayonrinde’s argument treats VDM as almost incidental to the real story, which she frames as a broader crisis of public trust that has flourished wherever Nigerians feel bureaucratic institutions are slow, expensive or hard to reach.

Her closing challenge to the NBA is blunt: the legal profession does not belong to lawyers alone, and until it is willing to ask honestly why so many Nigerians now place their faith in unconventional voices instead of the justice system, attacking the messenger will change little.

As she put it, the mirror stays where it is, and the reflection remains, whether or not the Bar chooses to look.