Bobrisky and our other S/He offsprings. By Suyi Ayodele

Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, the first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.

Suyi Ayodele, a columnist for the Nigerian Tribune, is a contributor to USAfricaonline.com

Nigeria’s most celebrated social deviant, Idris Olanrewaju Okunneye, also known as Bobrisky, has been in the news in the last two weeks. Apart from the controversial contest the 33-year-old man from Ogun State, won recently, when he was adjudged as the “Best Dressed Female”, he had a date with the law last week. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had picked him up in his Lagos home and arraigned him on charges bordering on abuse of the Naira and others. EFCC, in its testimony before Justice Abimbola Awogboro of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, accused the cross-dresser of “spraying” various sums of money ranging fromN400,000 to N50,000 at various social events within Lagos. The Commission’s witness, one ASE Bolaji Temitope Aje, told the court how the Commission “Based on the intelligence, the EFCC set up the Special Operations Team to observe and monitor activities of individuals, who are involved in the habit of mutilating the Naira.” The team, Aje added, came across videos of where Bobrisky was “spraying” money and was arrested. He added that the cross-dresser, when confronted with the videos, admitted that he was the one in them. Bobrisky did not deny the charges and was summarily convicted by the court and remanded in EFCC custody pending his sentencing today, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. Unfortunately for him, today is a public holiday!

In pleading for leniency, Bobrisky asked the court to show him mercy and give him a second chance. “I am a social media influencer, with five million followers; and in all honesty, I was not aware of the law. I wish I can be given a second chance to use my platform to educate my followers against the abuse of the Naira. I will do a video on my page and educate people on that. I will not repeat the offence again. I regret my action.” He pleaded. Ever since his conviction, a lot of people have reacted to the Bobrisky-EFCC drama. Many believed that the cross-dresser is being punished more for his deviant behaviour than the crime of Naira abuse for which he was convicted. A prominent Nigerian, Dr. Chidi Odinkalu, former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, hit the EFCC hard by describing the Commission’s evidence against Bobrisky as “idleness or an abuse of power.” The EFCC fired back at Odinkalu and asked him to exercise “decorum and responsibility”, as it warned that: “The Commission would not hesitate to take appropriate legal actions against such uncouth commentaries against its lawful mandate by anyone. Odinkalu is warned and advised to ventilate his rascally opinions more responsibly in future situations.”

I find the EFCC outburst against Dr. Odinkalu as most unnecessary because I believe in his assertion that the EFCC’s evidence against Bobrisky is not just borne out of “idleness and abuse of power”, it is equally lazy and most discriminatory. I have no doubt about the provision of Section 21(1) of Central Bank Act, 2007, and the penalties spelt out therein. The question to ask the EFCC in this matter is: did Bobrisky commit the crime of naira abuse alone? In the various videos the Commission said it showed to the cross-dresser and to which he admitted, was he alone? Did Bobrisky, in “spraying” the naira notes not have an accomplice? Was he not “spraying” the notes on someone, the musician? Should the one who received the ‘abused naira’ be spared while only the one who ‘abused’ it is made to face the music? Leaving that aside, can we ask where the EFCC was when the Olu of Owode-Egba in Ogun State, Oba Kolawole Sowemimo, abused the same naira early this year. While Bobrisky in the EFCC videos was caught “spraying” the naira, Oba Sowemimo sewed the naira notes and was decorating a Fuji musician, Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, who is also called KWAM 1, with the currency notes. Is the EFCC saying that it did not see the video, or are the two traditional rulers involved, KWAM 1 himself being the head of princes of Ijebuland, too big to be arrested and arraigned? So, what is the crime of Odinkalu in calling EFCC idle? If the Commission can close its eyes against a similar action by the two Ogun State traditional title holders, is it not an “abuse of power” if the Commission chose to go after Bobrisky alone? Isn’t that discriminatory and selective?

This takes us back to the argument that in arraigning and getting Bobrisky convicted, with a possibility of a jail term, the cross-dresser is being punished more for his deviant behaviour than the crime of abuse of the naira. For me, this argument is valid. I also hold that it is morally on the negative side. But funny enough, I don’t find it offensive. I think I love it; it is a welcome development! My argument. The Bobrisky menace is an epidemic that anything done to arrest it is good enough for me. The boy told the court that as “a social media influencer”, he had “five million followers.” That is a huge number if you ask me. How many of the number are children whose sexual orientations have changed as a result of Bobrisky’s influence? Our statutes do not recognise such deviant behaviour. This is why I feel very strongly that the government and the law enforcement agencies should come in and arrest this drift. Many parents are in pain today as a result of Bobrisky’s activities. And true to his appellation, his conducts are “risky’ to proper upbringing of our children. I have seen parents whose children are sexually deviant, agonising that they would have been more at home if those beautiful children of theirs are sexually promiscuous than going for the same sex partners! When a parent is on such an extreme edge, we ought to ask the laws to go after the Bobriskys of our era.

Incidentally, Bobrisky did not start this culturally ‘risky’ behaviour. Before him was Uzoma Odimira, alias Area Scatter, who reigned in the early 70s, shortly after the civil war. Area Scatter, who dominated the entertainment scene in the Imo area of the South-East, was noted for his braided hair, heavy makeup and high-heeled shoes. His argument then was that being a cross-dresser, he wanted “to create awareness and promote tolerance for gender diversity.” Before he finally disappeared, Odimira was seen as a ‘complete woman’ on the claims that the gods gave him supernatural powers. The Nigerian nation tolerated him and he had quite a huge number of ‘followers’. In the Bobrisky’s era, we have the likes of Jay Boogie, who was born Daniel Anthony Nsikan; Fola Francis; WF James Brown, whose baptismal name is James Chukwueze Obialor, Miss Sahhara who was raised in the north and Noni Salma; and many others. We are moving gradually to a point that parents would be watching the evening news in their sitting rooms and their children would come in with persons of the same sex to be introduced to them as their fiancés or fiancées. And before we say the religious cliché, “God forbid”, we need to first forbid it as Bobrisky’s father did in June 2020, when he forbade the deviant from attending his (father’s) birthday party dressed as a woman. Guess what: the boy complied!

I have heard arguments that Bobrisky and his gang of socially disoriented children have the right to be who they want to be. I asked one of the advocates of Bobrisky fundamental human rights if he would allow Bobrisky to enter the same female toilet with his wife because Bobrisky dresses like a woman and has female features. His answer was an emphatic no! This is where we should start from. Let our women; our wives raise the alarm anytime a Bobrisky wants to enter the female convenience with them at our airports and other public places. If Bobrisky attempts to answer the call of nature using the gents, let the men around resist him because they cannot afford a woman to look at their genitals while doing the big or the small. I am not against her fundamental human rights. But his rights should not infringe on other people’s rights to decency and secrecy of their genitals. The EFCC was in a dilemma while deciding the facility to detain this ‘risky’ element. The Commission could neither lock him up in a female or male cell; Bobrisky was locked up in a ‘lone cell’. Of course, the Commission doesn’t have a gender-neutral cell. If Bobrisky is locked up in a female cell because s/he is a woman, there are associated risks for the genuine female inmates of the cell. If s/he is locked up in a male cell, the EFCC will be violating his/her fundamental human rights. And if the Commission decides to keep him in the open, it will be standing in contempt of the court order. Whichever way, it is confusing just as the cross-dresser has a confused sexual personality.

The Black man’s sexual orientation is in two folds. A child is either a male or a female; boy or girl and man or woman. There is no issue of cross-gender or gender neutrality. And the Black race is a civilised race. Our current challenges are as a result of how we abandoned everything that makes us unique as a people and go after practices that are alien to our enviable values. When a woman gives birth in Yorubaland, we congratulate her for surviving the dangers of childbirth. Thereafter, the question we ask next is: Ako abi Abo (is it a male or a female child)? I believe this is so with other tribes in Nigeria. I cannot say I am old enough, but in the few years I have spent on Mother Earth, I am yet to come across where a child is born and the people rejoice because it is of mixed sex – half male, or half female. I don’t dispute that there are some medical conditions that can result in a child having two sexual organs. I was only taught the concept of hermaphroditism in my Biology classes in secondary school. We were told then that it is a medical abnormality. I have not seen one, though. And when such a rare case occurs, I take a bet that the parents would be dead worried. I am talking about real African parents and not the ‘civilised’ parents of the Western world. The Holy Books (Bible and Quran) approve only male and female sexes. Genesis 1:27 says: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” The Quran recognises Adam and Hawwa. The Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) explicitly condemned imitating the appearance of the opposite gender. How those who brought ‘civilisation’ to us now recognise lesbians, gays, transgenders and bisexuals as normal beats my imagination. How they took polygamy from us and replaced it with homosexuality and bestiality remains a mystery! That is not our culture; and more importantly, that is not how God ordained it. Unless we frontally confront the menace of Bobriskyism, we stand the chance of having many H/She offsprings. God forbid!