Idris Okuneye aka Bobrisky ,the guy who for some time now has disrupted societal norms has succeeded in dragging many people along with him in the descent towards the infamous side of life.
These is what you get when you climb on the ladder of society by deceit .Deceit carefully scripted to achieve fame, wealth and recognition in a society that is fast losing its core values.
Over the years, Bobrisky who incurred the wrath of his father and decent men who frowned at his Cross -Dressing done obviously to get noticed, has however chosen to drag many people along with him after serving his jail term.
It is not surprising that few months after completing his six months jail sentence, he has decided to bring down with him those who benefited formally and informally from his penchant for destroying societal norms and values.
Apart from six officials of the Nigeria Correctional Services and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) who are now on suspension for flouting prison rules, he has gone further to involve the famous Femi Falana family of lawyers in his downward journey to public ridicule.
It is important to note that while the Falana family as represented by Folarin Falana (Falz) got involved through Bobrisky’s appeal for a three million Naira loan to Influence his allocation of a choice place in prison.
Martins Vincent Otse, another social Media influencer, aka Very DarkMan, who got caught up in the reputation crisis has also dragged the Falana family into the controversy of Bobrisky’s travails especially his alleged compromise of prison officials.
It is unfortunate that characters like him now put the Falanas in the court of public opinion after decades of public practice.
Though, his grave allegations still remain in the realm of conjecture, the claims and counter claims have brought into the fore the rot in our societal system.
Also the coming into the ‘show’ by Folake Falana who took on VDM over the latter’s attack on her brother is an image crisis for the activist family.
While the job of defending clients defies morality so far as it is within the rights of defending an accused, the societal fame which the head of the Falana clan,Femi Falana has enjoyed is on trial.
Also on trial is the Prison system of the country which has by the Bobrisky scandal portrayed the rot within the organisation supposedly set up to correct the anti-social behaviour of convicts and return them to the society as better citizens.
The claims by Bobrisky about the activities of the six officials now facing a probe for asking him to cough out three million Naira for a choice accommodation, is a direct reflection of the inner workings of and activities of officials of our Correctional Organisation .
The counter claims and other grave allegations against the Falanas are also a product of fighting with a pig. The Falana family will need all the soap and cleaning up in River Jordan to stay clean of the injurious allegations.
That the House of Representatives can descend so low to discuss such mundane issues under the guise of oversight functions is ridiculous to say the least. The House should find a better job to do than giving undue attention to mundane issues.
From all indications, the Nigerian Correctional Facility is in need of a through clean-up if it must perform its role of reforming jailed citizens.
This is a big task for Tunji -Ojo, the Interior Minister who promised to get to the root of the Bobrisky scandal and punish officers who have compromised the system..
Bobrisky’s expose on the fraud in our Correctional Facility which was borne out of his desire to take with him as many people as possible in his downward journey to obscurity is not new.
What he has only succeeded in doing is to formally bring into public attention the rot in the system and the hopelessness of a corrective crusade for societal sanity.
It is Bobrisky today but yesterday and many years back, influential and supposedly ‘respected’ citizens have compromised the prison system as they did what Bobrisky did, maintaining a lavish lifestyle with their ill- gotten wealth inside the four walls of a prison system.
This without any gainsaying, has succeeded in producing more criminals among those saddled with the responsibility of reforming convicts.
Some years back, a retired Colonel in the army who served under the late General Sani Abacha and also as a Security Adviser under former President Jonathan, had a baby through his wife few months after his release from detention. It is all self- evident what is amiss in the system.
So many cases abound in the Prison system of convicts and detainees spending the weekend at home with their families with the active connivance of Prison Officials.
In Our Prisons ,where you sleep, what you eat and how you live is determined by how fat your pocket is and your ability to part with some of the stolen wealth.
It is only the poor convicts that suffer and in most cases become hardened after their release.
For the rich, while in prison, they learn new tricks of stealing without detection and how to beat the law and its enforcers.
The aforementioned military officer with royal blood running in his vein, was put in detention for years by the Muhammadu Buharis government.
The question is how did he impregnate his wife at home while under protective custody. Your guess is as good as mine.
The fact that even under protective custody, a detainee can have a ‘free’ life as a result of the compromise of the system and to a great extent the futility of the exercise because the prison officials will always find a way to compromise the system for filthy lucre.
What then is to be done to restore sanity in the society?
Honourable Minister Tunji –Ojo’s next task after he has succeeded in cleaning the Immigration system if passport delay and racketeering, is the re-organisation and restructuring of the Prison system such that both the rich and poor convicts can serve their terms behind bars in line with their sentence as pronounced by the jury if the society must be saved from the system.
Today, the focus is on the prison system, in years back illegal and corruption induced detention in Police facilities; conduct of examinations by bodies like the West African Examination Council, WAEC; recruitment into civil service; Police and other government agencies, are all a direct result of a faulty and decadent system.
The result is we as a people should not expect a better social system until compromise via official corruption is arrested and appropriate punitive action is enforced..
Unless this is done, sanity would be hard to enshrine in our body polity.