In my previous article on popular crossdresser and transgender, Bobrisky, real name; Idris Okuneye, I suggested that if there is a way her antics have proved useful, it is how much they manage to reveal to us. Well, Bobrisky did it again when she became a topic at the National Assembly. Credit goes to her for showing the vapidity of our lawmakers. Not that we did not already know they are essentially overpaid harlequins, but watching the whole drama of their inviting a social media clout chaser—who shows up accompanied by another clown cosplaying “native doctor” to a purported investigative panel—confirmed the institution they represent as perhaps irretrievably degraded.
“What were the lawmakers expecting when they summoned someone who had merely released a taped conversation?” This character did not put any skin in the game; he did not embark on fact-finding to get the information. The expose was merely a dialogue between supposed friends that someone had passed him to blackmail Bobrisky to pay a debt. Already obsessed with Bobrisky, he decided to release the tape to the public even after the debt was cleared. That is the character lawmakers summoned to the “hallowed chamber.”
They did not stop there; they also invited Bobrisky, who had enough sense not to show up. What exactly were they trying to achieve by bringing those two together to face off? Is the National Assembly now Kókóró Aláte?
Look, I get it. They wanted to respond to the Bobrisky case considering the public interest the leaked tape elicited, but was that how to go about it? Their unserious approach shows how poorly they think of their constitutional powers and their moral duty.
If they are interested in reforming our carceral system, I am sure they will find serious research conducted by serious people at the libraries of either NIPSS in Kuru, Jos, or the various think tanks in the country. Why ignore all that to pursue a social media “influencer”?
“It is not as if anything that has been revealed so far is new information. We were all here in December last year when the National Correctional Service, the DSS, and the EFCC publicly fought over who should have custody of the former CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele. Why would three agencies be jostling over the detention of a rich inmate if not because they see him as an opportunity?”
In 2019, investigative journalist Fisayo Soyombo published his investigation into the rot that typifies the Nigerian prison system. This was someone who actually got himself incarcerated just to substantiate his allegations of corruption in the Nigerian prison system. If the National Assembly needed to summon a person who had experienced how degenerate the prison system had become, it should have been him.
“Why overlook those who have committed sincere efforts towards researching these issues to run after those whose interest in this matter is not even skin deep? These are people who have turned the internet into a job, and all of this is just another show to tickle an idle followership.”
To be clear, I am not against a diligent investigation into the issue. Yes, both the EFCC and the correctional service ought to be investigated with an eye toward reforms. I also think that the procedure for getting presidential pardons needs to be reviewed. The category of people who receive presidential pardons in Nigeria has always been suspicious anyway.
House of Representatives Grills EFCC, NCoS Officials Over Bobrisky Bribery Allegations
I See My Jail Term As A Vacation: Bobrisky Claims
As commonplace as the allegations that emanated from Bobrisky’s leaked tape are, they are still grievous enough to warrant a diligent investigation. What is entirely unacceptable is the frivolity of the lawmakers’ inviting social media figures—who are constantly at loggerheads—to confront each other.
“By also inviting a crowd of journalists and televising the encounter, they reduce a grave matter of institutional collapse to mere entertainment. Those kinds of issues are best resolved by confronting the liable institutions, not individuals whose roles are merely symptomatic of the larger systemic rot.”
For me, the matter is worth investigating given the role of the EFCC and the alleged N15m bribe. Their self-justification regarding why they dropped the money laundering charges against Bobrisky was more scandalizing because of what it revealed about them and their investigation process.
According to an EFCC prosecutor, Bilikisu Bala, who claimed the money laundering against Bobrisky was rightfully dropped, they had charged her based on her confessional statement that her firm, Bob Express, was not registered with SCUML and was not rendering returns to the organization.
“Now, that part piqued my interest. So, it was not like there was any report that warranted their arresting Bobrisky and charging her with money laundering in the first place.
