Days after Idris Bobrisky Okuneye was sentenced to six months in jail for “spraying the Naira”, an undated video where the governor of Niger State, Mohammed Umar Bago was throwing money into a delirious crowd while sitting on the roof of a moving vehicle circulated on the social media. Any person who watched that video would observe that what Mago was spraying was the new N1,000 notes, which means that the video was recorded quite recently.
Yes, we understand that the governor is under the protective custody of immunity from prosecution, which unfortunately does not cover the audacious, if not impudent, Nigerian transvestite, but people expected that given the high crime for which Bobrisky was docked and jailed, the appropriate agencies of government should have voiced some words of reprimand to the governor for his bad example.
Luckily, I watched the video where Bobrisky was doing his spraying, and compared to what Bago did, the cross-dresser gave the naira a great deal of respect: Bobrisky, with his long talons, was merely dripping his bales of currency, one note at a time while sashaying to good music, but our 50-year-old governor was flinging wraps of the sacred notes with the energy of a desperate and cornered Robinhood hauling stones at his enemies. With the manner he catapulted the wraps into the sky, the fate of the fluttering notes was long determined before they even hit the ground where the stampeding feet of his hungry and desperate “admirers would crush life out of whatever remained of the hitherto crisp notes.
Bago is the clearest metaphor for selective justice that has made Nigeria look like a banana republic you can only be right when you have the might.
Let me make this clear: I do not like what this chap, Bobrisky does. He progressively became the bad example that no society with modicum morals should brook, no matter how permissive. I am aware that the world has “progressed” to the point where science and the quest for absolute liberty have conspired to make gender a function of choice, but Bobrisky who has professed femininity on several occasions even while retaining his male organs should be considered to have lived a life of gender fraud. I am aware that he has claimed to be the “Mummy of Lagos.” But the government and security agencies chose to ignore him. He was also famous for his social media posts in which he talked about his “husband”. Given that there is a law against same-sex relationships in Nigeria, it is a wonder that the security agencies also did not move against him on this score.
Could it be it was because he was not “caught”? Well, Bobrisky was always making social media posts alluding to some form of relationship with men, and just as the video where he was spraying the naira was used as evidence against him, the troves of videos where he alluded to those other things about his sexual orientation should have been harvested to bring him before a judge.
It may be that the Nigerian state was enjoying what could be the comic value associated with his serial violation of the laws against same-sex relationships; it may also be that he was perceived to be providing entertainment, even if such was a queer one. It may also be that the state did not wish to send him away for a long time; if he had been convicted for the other more serious crime, the sentence could have been 14 years in jail, meaning the six months he got from offending the naira was, as the judge said, to serve as a deterrent.
Whatever it was, it is not in doubt that the state merely found a convenient route to keep poor Bobrisky away from the public in the absence of intention to make him pay for his real crimes, and this brings us to the case of Alphonse Gabriel Capone, the criminal that the government of the United States conveniently sent to prison for not rendering his income tax returns, even when he is much more reputed for other more serious crimes.
For those who do not know the story of the man, whose criminal activities were the subject of many books and movies, such as The Godfather and Scarface, a bit of background would help.
Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1899 to Italian immigrants. He was expelled from school at 14, joined a gang, and earned his nickname “Scarface” after being sliced across the cheek during a fight. By 1920, Capone had moved to Chicago, where he was soon helping to run crime boss Johnny Torrio’s illegal enterprises, which included alcohol smuggling, gambling and prostitution. Torrio retired in 1925 after an attempt on his life and Capone, known for his cunning and brutality, was put in charge of the organization.
Al Capone’s reign coincided with the period of “Prohibition,” which outlawed the brewing and distribution of alcohol in the United States, and lasted from 1920 to 1933. This period proved extremely lucrative for bootleggers and gangsters like Capone, who raked in millions from his underworld activities. Capone was at the top of the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list by 1930, but he avoided long stints by bribing city officials, intimidating witnesses, and maintaining various hideouts. He became Chicago’s crime kingpin by killing off his competitors through a series of gangland battles and slayings, including the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929, when Capone’s men gunned down seven rivals. This event helped raise Capone’s notoriety to a national level.
Among Capone’s enemies was federal agent Elliot Ness, who led a team of officers known as “The Untouchables” because they couldn’t be corrupted. Ness and his men routinely broke up Capone’s bootlegging businesses, but could not find any means to bring him to justice because officials had either been silenced by bribery or they were too scared to come forward with evidence.
Left with no other choice, the state began investigating Al Capone’s income and saw gaps in his income tax returns. It was therefore based on tax-evasion charges that he was arrested and sent to prison in 1931 for only 11 years plus a fine of $50,000.
This appears to have been the route the Nigerian state has taken to relieve the country of the embarrassments which Bobrisky has constituted himself, the latest of which was the scandalous award he received as the Best Dressed Female at a movie premiere. It was certainly this act, a Public Relations disaster that earned the producer of the movie public angst and a diss track by irreverent singer, Portable.
The mutilation of the naira has grown from acts generosity shown by people to their friends and loved ones celebrating a milestone or some other momentous events, to displays of contempt for the essence and value of money. People spray money at parties, not because they love the celebrants, but to demonstrate that they have become so rich that money means nothing to them anymore. This culture of disdain for the naira grew as the value of the currency eroded and people competed to show how meaningless the money had become.
Spaying the currency has also been a feature of our social journeys. We have seen situations where people who want the attention of certain people in certain social and political circles bribe to be invited to events, where spraying of the naira would be the neon that draws attention to their persons. I have been at burial ceremonies where the children and relatives of the deceased threw bundles of the naira into the casket and the grave never to be used again. We have even added this to the basket of our culture export intangibles, with Nigerian weddings abroad triggering the spraying of money to the amusement of foreigners who, from what I have seen, joined in the obnoxious display.
But I guess the solution to the annoying disrespect that Nigerians have for their currency should not begin and end with the scapegoating of Bobrisky. First, our leaders should remove the log in their eyes. The example shown by the Governor of Niger State escalates, rather than solves the problem.
Again, the route through which those who unraveled the evidence with which Bobrisky was nailed should be explored further. Every weekend, a slew of videos where people thrown money at parties and other ceremonies are uploaded on the social media. The EFCC or whichever body is naira’s guardian angel, should conduct routine searches and arrest those found to be in breach, and it has to be both the big and the small, the Bobriskys and the Bagos.
This has to be the only way to demonstrate a sincerity of purpose by the government. Otherwise, many of us will continue to believe Bobrisky was not jailed because he dishonoured the Naira, and that like it was in the case of Al Capone, he was merely sent away to save the society from his other more serious transgressions for which the government may not be prepared to delve into.
