Idris, the scapegoat

“The ubiquity of technology, especially information and communication technology in the twenty-first century, has made the cat and rat race between law enforcement and criminals more interesting than times before. In a time where popularity is easily monetised, criminals sometimes short circuit the self-preservation part of their brains all for the high that only likes and views can give.”

The story of Idris Okuneye, aka Bobrisky, is one for the movies. Bobrisky is a queer cross-dresser who is a popular social media influencer in Nigeria — a country known to be staunchly homophobic. For context, under Nigerian law, you can receive a fourteen-year sentence for “engaging in associations that promote homosexuality and attempting to marry a person of the same sex.”

Nevertheless, Bobrisky isn’t on trial for being gay…not in court anyway; he’s on trial for abusing the country’s currency, the naira. According to the EFCC — the government agency tasked with fighting economic and financial crimes in Nigeria, Bobrisky committed a crime when he sprayed the naira — an act which has assumed cultural relevance in the country — in a movie premiere, amongst other settings.

But, it would be Idris who would aid the investigators in building a case against him as his career as a social media influencer means recording every other minute of his life, especially the glamorous, like maybe spraying money in a show of affluence.

In Nigeria, it is commonplace for money to be sprayed at weddings, burials, birthdays, and, of course, clubs. It’s a cultural phenomenon that, in my opinion, is dirty and in need of review. Moreover, Nigerian law prohibits the misuse of the naira in such a manner. According to Section 21 of the CBN Act, the relevant law on the issue, the “spraying of, dancing or matching on the naira…during social occasions or otherwise” by a person could land them a six-month prison sentence or fifty thousand naira (48 US dollars) in fine, or both, if you are that unlucky.

Poor Idris, on the 13th of April, was sentenced to six months in prison without the option of a fine for doing what many Nigerians, especially the rich and powerful, do — spray money, ego, owo, kudi. His/Her case is the most high-profile money mutilation matter in recent memory. But, as they say in the social media influencer industry that Idris is part of, “any publicity is good publicity.”

Another Controversy?

Bobrisky is not new to controversies. For a staunchly homophobic country like Nigeria, it is wild being an openly queer cross-dressing social media influencer. Nevertheless, Bobrisky’s case has got the public chitchatting for yet another reason — it could have easily been anyone’s case as the issue of spraying the naira, a crime, is rampant in Nigeria. In short, the act has cultural significance across several ethnic groups in Nigeria — most see it as a mark of affluence. Shallow.

No one can say for certain when this culture of spraying naira notes at social occasions started, but, logically, it can be traced to the late pre-colonial and colonial periods of Nigeria’s history where ethnic groups native to Nigeria came across the concept of paper money through their interactions with Europeans. It’s most unlikely that before then, the various ethnicities that currently make Nigeria threw cowries or whatever they called money on each other to show material wealth. Even if they did toss cowries on each other’s heads, times have changed.

“The culture of spraying money at social occasions is a relatively recent development.”

For emphasis sake, the controversy that Bobrisky’s case has revealed is the friction between the law and people’s culture. The law criminalises what is a cultural phenomenon in many parts of Nigeria.

However, to have a balanced view on the issue, one must understand the intention behind the law. The naira, Nigeria’s official legal tender, takes state resources to print, distribute, and manage. As such, any mutilation or misuse is akin to destroying public property. It is upon this rationale that there exist laws criminalising acts like the spraying of the naira, which the subject of this piece, Bobrisky, was found guilty of.

Then, the burning question that surfaces with Bobrisky’s naira saga is: “How can this conflict between law and culture be resolved?” A short answer to this is cultural reform. Culture is dynamic; it’s pliable and open to change. For cultures in Nigeria where the spraying of the naira is the norm, there needs to be an assessment of the impact of such behaviour. First, it’s not in any way sanitary spraying on someone or the floor money that has potentially passed hands and would most likely pass more hands. Second, the naira as public property is destroyed each time it’s misused.

More on the writer’s thoughts…

This writer thinks it’s ironic that someone who was accused of mutilating a couple of naira notes got such a heavy-handed reprehension as a six-month prison sentence. At the same time, the ones in charge of Nigeria’s monetary and fiscal policies barely receive any accountability for reckless experiments that have far-reaching effects on 200 million fellow countrymen.

Whispers…

Rumour has it that Bobrisky was used as a scapegoat by a government that hasn’t been shy to use the full wrath of the law on those it considers worthy. Bobrisky did something many affluent Nigerians do repetitively, but why was he used as the scapegoat? Could it be that he’s a victim of his own success? Some speculate that the EFCC wanted to make an example out of Idris for his large social media audience to learn not to spray the naira or commit other acts that ”mutilate the naira.”

In all its benevolence, how does the EFCC justify its own failed existence and ineffectiveness? The EFCC would ordinarily be a department in the police of some countries. But even if we were to buy the argument that Nigeria needed a specialised economic and financial crimes unit, the EFCC has mostly failed at its mandate in Nigeria. If not, how does the institution justify the fact that Nigeria is ranked fifth globally on the cybercrime index? For context, cybercrime in Nigeria is mostly internet financial fraud, aka “Yahoo Yahoo” — which is under the mandate of the EFCC.

To be known as “the country of internet scammers” is certainly not a way to attract foreign investors to your country. But why has the EFCC not sprung to action to defend Nigeria’s reputation? It would seem that the priorities are not straight at the EFCC. Ever since its creation, it has been used administration after administration as a tool of suppression used in bullying political opponents.

If the Commission had not lost its priorities, how do you explain them expending scarce resources that would have been channelled into curbing the internet scam epidemic ravaging the youth population of Nigeria on building a money mutilation case against Bobrisky, an endeavour that the Nigerian police is perfectly equipped to undertake? The Nigerian Police, albeit underfunded, can watch and copy some social media videos of Bobrisky spraying money on social media and could have easily had a field day at a social gathering stalking Bobrisky all in the name of “intelligence gathering.”

In conclusion, Nigeria owes it to its future generations to do better, but this is one conversation we aren’t yet ready for as a society.