You have to be truly brazen and shameless to attempt a monopoly and money grab in a sector built on public trust. But then again, a man who made a career debasing himself on camera for money as a porn actor has clearly made his peace with shame
By Wilfred Babatunde
Nigerians are among the most charitable people on earth. According to the Charities Aid Foundation World Giving Report, Nigerians donate an average of 2.83% of their personal income to good causes, ranking them among the most generous nations on earth relative to income. As a result, the NGO sector annually attracts hundreds of billions from individual donors, corporate organisations and international development partners.
That is a lot of money flowing through a sector with very little regulation. VDM, having failed at pornography, apparently read those numbers and decided he had found his calling. He would corner the market and direct the traffic of funds to himself. But cornering a market has never been simple. There are two ways to do it. You either do the best work, or you destroy the competition. VDM, being VDM, chose the latter.
The ambition is straightforward. One NGO to rule the space and claim all available funds, and that NGO should belong to Martins Vincent Otse. Anyone else raising money or attracting donors has become a competitor to be dealt with.
This explains why he has devoted his time and energy to attacking the credibility of anyone doing visible good work in Nigeria. King Mitchy is only the latest. Before her there were others and the accusation is always the same. It all boils down to this: don’t give them money, give me instead.
VDM has cast himself as the NGO vigilante, the one honest man in a sector full of thieves. The role might have meant something if he were not guilty of the very thing he accuses others of. His own NGO, apparently established to improve public school education, raised over two hundred million naira that we can count. Don Jazzy contributed a hundred million, not minding VDM’s previous attempt to shake him down through cheap blackmail.
Shortly after the funds arrived, VDM announced that one hundred and eighty million had been stolen by hackers and that he was travelling to Jos to recover it. He later said it was a prank. A social experiment, with two hundred million naira of other people’s money.
Months after this social experiment, we are yet to see any actual NGO work from VDM. The funds remain unaccounted for. The prank, in hindsight, looks less like a joke and more like a rehearsal, a way of conditioning the public to accept the story of stolen funds before the actual disappearance made it necessary. Life imitates art. Perhaps the answer to what became of the money lies in VDM’s upgraded lifestyle. He is now a big boy, a long way from the pure water guzzling figure of his recent past.
This checkered record notwithstanding, VDM continues to hold himself up as the standard. Everyone else is suspect. Everyone else has something to hide. Everyone else is being funded by a politician with improper motives. Only VDM is pure, even when the money goes missing, because at least he told you it went missing, and apparently that counts for something.
You have to be truly brazen and shameless to attempt a monopoly and money grab in a sector built on public trust. But then again, a man who made a career debasing himself on camera for money as a porn actor has clearly made his peace with shame.
•Babatunde, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja.
•Opinions, positions or thoughts expressed here are personal and strictly of the writer/author and do not represent the views of The Daily Crucible.
