A Very Dark Man and a Very Red Herring

A lot has been said about the 64 AD fire in Rome, which burnt down 70 per cent of the ancient city. Emperor Nero, under whose watch this disaster occurred, has for two millennia been receiving flak for playing the fiddle while Rome burnt, which, as a matter of fact, was a myth created to […]

A lot has been said about the 64 AD fire in Rome, which burnt down 70 per cent of the ancient city. Emperor Nero, under whose watch this disaster occurred, has for two millennia been receiving flak for playing the fiddle while Rome burnt, which, as a matter of fact, was a myth created to completely discredit poor Nero. The truth remains that Nero did not cover himself in glory either. When he heard the news of the fire, he rushed back to Rome, as he was away when the fire started, and helped in the relief efforts; he even opened his private gardens to accommodate the displaced persons. But then he went and built a massive palace on the land cleared by the fire and continued to wrongly blame Christians for starting it. That did not help his reputation, though.

What has that got to do with Nigeria, you ask? Well, Nero’s Rome and today’s Nigeria have something in common. They are both afflicted by the suicidal proclivity to chase rats while their houses are on fire. The cases of misplaced priority in both systems are so chronic that it would make whoever first thought up the proverb of chasing rats while houses burnt turn in his or her grave.

Our penchant for misplaced priorities is so internalised that both the government and the people enact these roles without even thinking about it. This week, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which was created to curtail financial crimes in the country, staged a sting operation outside a bank in Abuja. Their target was the social media influencer known to many Nigerians as Very Dark Man, or VDM for short. He was arrested, reportedly beaten, alongside his mother, and bundled away, not to be seen again, at least up to the time of this writing. For days, the EFCC refused to state that he was in their custody, leading angry Nigerians to harass the bank he had just visited before his arrest, accusing them of conniving to disappear him, until the bank released CCTV footage of the man leaving their building in one piece and of his own free will.

There are several problems with the Gestapo-styled operation of the EFCC. First, it was an unnecessary waste of energy and resources. VDM is a public-facing person and often broadcasts his whereabouts. They could have easily picked him up without all the theatrics of a special operation. Secondly, his detention without charge for days constitutes an illegality and a breach of fundamental human rights. Of course, the EFCC is arguing to the contrary, saying they have court documents to back their stance. If he had committed any crimes, he should have been presented before a court within the stipulated period. Thirdly, how do you “arrest” a man as if you are conducting an abduction and keep his arrest secret until protesters start making life uncomfortable for everyone else?

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In its belated release to confirm that they indeed “arrested” VDM and have him in detention for “sundry issues of alleged financial crimes,” the commission also took the pains to mention that it is aware of VDM’s “unguarded attacks” on the commission, which it says is not the reason for his arrest. How they expect that not to read as a deliberate attempt to stifle his right to free speech and to suppress his criticism of the commission is beyond me.

The bigger question for me here, though, is why is VDM a priority? To the best of my knowledge and the information that is available to the public, he is not accused of kidnapping anyone, carrying out any massacres, or conniving to execute one. He has not posed any security threat that would warrant this attempt to disappear him, and he certainly has not committed any financial crime that equates to the billions of public funds being looted right under the very watch of the EFCC, and sometimes, allegedly, by EFCC operatives themselves.

While a functional security agency should be commended, the truth is that there are bigger fish to fry in Nigeria. The Nigerian security operatives have not put in as much commitment to hounding the criminals that massacred dozens of Nigerians in Benue and Plateau recently, or the bandits that have terrorised the Northeast, or the ones that have made the Southeast a danger zone, as they have in their pursuit of VDM. The EFCC has not arrested anyone for financing any of these crimes, to the best of my knowledge.

Nigerians have since taken to the streets to protest his arrest and the manner in which it was conducted, and it is within their rights to do so. It is wonderful to see Nigerians standing up for the rights of other Nigerians, especially against the greater power of the state. But the truth is that the arrest of this social media influencer, and the protests that have followed, should not be our national priority at the moment. There are bigger fires Nigeria needs to deal with, and all this is a distraction.

This arrest and the attendant drama surrounding it is a red herring thrown in the face of Nigerians that distracts us from priorities like insecurity, the economy, the millions of out-of-school children, and the billions of public funds being looted that we should be protesting over. But we are here, venting on the arrest of one man for alleged offences that seem trivial, alongside inferences that suggest that his arrest might have something to do with his public critique of a public agency.

Since English journalist William Cobbett recounted the story of using a roasted, salted herring that turned red from the fire to distract a pack of hunting dogs from the scent of a hare in 1807, no country has mastered the art of throwing people off the scent of important things more than Nigeria.

While misplaced priority is not the exclusive preserve of Nigerians and our governments, we have embraced it as a national culture, always being thrown off the scent of real issues by the flavour-of-the-week incident.

In 1776, the American founding fathers were so concerned about misplaced priorities in government that they designed a system that prioritised protecting individual rights and limiting government power to prevent tyranny and corruption.

They believed the government’s main role was to secure “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” and that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. Our founding fathers and the many “baba”s we have chosen to lead us have never prioritised any of these things.

We have continued to prioritise regime protection instead of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That is why more than half of our paltry 300,000-400,000 is allocated to VIP protection while the rest of the country perishes in civil strife, terrorist attacks, ethnic militia raids, and the occasional state-executed cleansing of segments of the population. That is why the EFCC is vested in the arrest of critics like VDM instead of financiers of Boko Haram, ESN/IPOB, or tracking all the money being carted away by the bandits. Misplaced priorities.

What does the pursuit of happiness even mean to a Nigerian? It is a concept so alien to us that we have no understanding that the state should guarantee us that right; that is what the state owes us as citizens, not the red herrings that are thrown at Nigerians to allow them to vent and think they are impacting their society.

As long as the country burns, and the government and its agencies continue to build palaces and white elephant projects that do not serve the real needs of the people, the comparison to Nero and his misplaced priorities will always ring out louder every time.