Prof. Wole Soyinka, our own WS, in his Jero plays, “spoke” of The Trials of Brother Jero and Jero’s Metamorphosis.
In Nigeria’s distracted polity — with its penchant to focus on the utterly irrelevant — we just witnessed the trial (more of judicial inquisition, really) of the deviant cross-dresser that calls herself Bobrisky, even if he was born male: Idris Olanrewaju Okuneye.
But like Jero, a likable rogue of an Aladura (white-garment) priest, gaming the naive on the Lagos Bar Beach of the late 1960s and early 1970s, will Bobrisky, post-jail, morph into even a worse cultural rebuke, as sure-footed Jero metamorphosed into a more sophisticated scam?
That’s the risk of the iron-fisted verdict on Bobrisky!
Meanwhile though, the finger-pointing moral police are busy celebrating their grand trophy.
Bobrisky just got thrown into the can for six months, without options of fine, for abusing and mutilating the Naira — at least that read the charge sheet of the prosecuting Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
But EFCC and the entire panoply of judicial prosecution can tell that to the marines!
Everyone — at least anyone that can read between the lines — knows Bobrisky’s real “sin” is her flamboyant cross-dressing, which jars on the prudish nerves of rabbis, mullahs and sundry judgmental ensemble: puritanical folks that just can’t deal with Bobrisky’s culture-jarring audacity.
The EFCC and its swift docking and conviction of Bobrisky echo that Chinua Achebe quip: when a bully sights anyone he can maul, be becomes hungry for a fight!
EFCC knows — don’t we all? — that many among the well-heeled had committed more brazen abuse of the Naira. What’s that Christ’s quip again: he without sin, let them throw the first stone?
Yet, hardly anyone in that rank — untouchables? — had been rushed post-haste to court and sensationally sentenced, though it’s fair too to add even that can’t justify Bobrisky’s own recklessness.
Yes, Bobrisky is well and fairly convicted for mutilating the Naira, in an open court. The accused pleaded guilty and begged for mercy.
As allocutus, Bobrisky even offered, as a social media influencer, to start an anti-Naira mutilation campaign on her social media platforms, to which no less than five million doting souls are reportedly captive.
The judge, on her own part, was blameless for exercising her discretion under the law: she not only opted for the lowest sentence by the law (six months, when she could have pronounced the maximum of five years); she also decided against giving her the fine option, to serve as warning to others.
Still, why does the judge’s act, with all due respect, taste more like the benevolence of Pontius Pilate, who though cleared the Christ Jesus of any crime, nevertheless threw him to the Jewish mob baying for blood, though he washed his hands clean of whatever crime that mob might commit after?
Besides, what is it with a first offender, with no previous criminal record, that jail without option of fine would be the wisest remedy, even while (s)he was all remorse and cooperation, promptly pleading guilty; and neither wasted the time of the court nor public resources on a lengthy prosecution?
The answer, of course, might be the clear elephant in the room: it just might be more about Bobrisky’s cross-dressing; and her penchant to show off as a woman, when indeed he is a man; and less about Bobrisky’s Naira mutilation.
For starters, EFCC’s “elimination by substitution” was quite intriguing. Bobrisky was hauled into the dock for money laundering, aside from Naira abuse. But the more serious money laundering charge was dropped without much ado.
That, by the way, is laudable — the judiciary promptly dismissing any charge not sustained by proven facts.
Still, might the EFCC have been stacking its cards, using “money laundering” as a mere decoy, knowing even Naira abuse might be good enough to put Bobrisky away for her cross-dressing — a moral rebuke that is nevertheless no offence under the law?
That might sound like some conspiracy theory. But given the peculiar circumstances, it would appear a legitimate poser, under the guise of a citizen’s legitimate choices, which though might assault other citizens’ moral — or even cultural — sensibilities, are no crimes under the law.
Besides, what was all that over Bobrisky’s gender in the open court? Okay, the court could argue — and logically so — that were it to sentence the accused, it had to be clear, since the person in question is rather ambivalent about his — her? — gender.
The court got the answer — Bobrisky’s admission (s)he is a man, instead of the woman he makes out to be. The prison authorities, flush — with triumph? — pronto announced they’d keep Bobrisky in a male cell, and protect her from sexual predators. Bravo!
Still, might citizen humiliation be now part of our legal system? Under desperation to escape jail, Bobrisky — self-named Mama of Lagos — recanted. Yet, all her recant could gross him was a six-month jail term!
Humiliation complete! Mission accomplished!
Still, nothing from this piece should be construed as endorsing Bobrisky’s gender deviancy. Even, readers could testify to this piece’s uneasy interchange of pronouns, between Idris the man and Bobrisky the woman. It’s not pretty — lexical and cultural.
Still, deviancy is no offence, except it results in clear crime; though society that pushes acceptable mores and thresholds would scoff at it. But deviancy could just mean harmless non-conformity, or just youth irreverence, or serious mental health.
Society should learn to manage such without necessarily criminalizing the deviant. Yes, the legalistic ensemble would howl in protest: absolutely no evidence Bobrisky was jailed for her cross-dressing! They are entitled to their democratic delusions.
Read Also: Bobrisky: Beneath the surface
Still, why would Idris Olanrewaju Okuneye, a product of the high-brow King’s College, Lagos and graduate of University of Lagos — both among Nigeria’s local “Ivy League” schools — just abandon an otherwise assured life, for the now clearly risky world as Bobrisky, transgender and cross-dresser?
Shouldn’t a caring society be more concerned with his mental health, instead of sating rabid rabbis and mullahs’ appetite to toss him into jail? That’s a fair question to ponder!
Meanwhile, Bobrisky’s scapegoating should make the rich and the spoilt, plus market folks that squeeze the Naira anyhow as routine, to think twice. That’s good.
But honestly, Nigeria has graver challenges than going after cross-dressers, drawing to them needless sympathy, thus exposing a dirty underbelly of stinking hypocrisy.
Perhaps the government could help with a half-pardon that sets free Bobrisky, yet, as community service, condemns her to using her social media platforms to push for sane Naira handling, as entry point into a mental health therapy that could wean her from the willy-nilly fixation with being a woman?
