Abuja-based controversial self-aclaimed social media personality Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as Very Dark Man, VDM, has drawn backlash after a viral video where he claimed Hausa-speaking people in Northern Nigeria were deliberately structured by politicians to “live and die in abject poverty.”
In the video, VDM said: “The Hausa-speaking tribes, who are mostly Muslims, were conditioned by the political classโthe people in powerโto live and die in abject poverty.”
He alleged the structure was political: “They did this thing because they want to continue having control over political power. And what is political power? Political power is numbers.”
Asking, “Please tell me today, what is an Hausa man good for in Nigeria?” he claimed that “about 60 to 70 percent of them go into learning how to become beggars as children.” He added: “It’s not like that in the West, it’s not like that in the South, it’s not like that in the East.”
VDM contrasted regions, saying children elsewhere are asked, “What do you want to be in the future?” and answer “pilot,” “engineer,” while “the children in the North don’t have this luxury of even deciding what they want to be. They become beggars.”
On jobs, he said: “What is an Hausa man good for in Nigeria? Megadi (gateman). That’s what they are good for.” He also listed “shoemaker,” “Obioma (mobile tailor),” “Meshai (tea seller),” and “Mesuya (suya meat seller).”
He further claimed: “Even in the Eastern region, in the Western region, they go and, they say ‘who is the best for gateman?’ They say ‘ah, all those Hausa people they are very honest.’ They bring them.”
VDM alleged that beggar children “don’t beg for themselves to eat,” but “when they gather that money, they take it to their Mallam (master/teacher). Then the Mallam, he return, give them something from what they begged from, for them to survive on.”
He linked the region’s insecurity to politics: “Most of the terrorists in Nigeria are from the Hausa-speaking tribes. Most of the kidnappers in Nigeria are from the Hausa-speaking tribes. The bandits are from the Hausa-speaking tribes.” He added: “This is a political structure that is meant to keep them like that for life.”
On education and survival, he said: “They donโt have access to education at an early ageโฆ But there is something that they have access to: they have access to guns. They have access to grenades.” He claimed “politicians supply them all these things to terrorize the country. But they will never supply them anything that will make their life better.”
VDM ended with a call to action: “The North needs help. Until the North is liberated, Nigeria will never grow.” He urged Arewa influencers to “start preaching to these people that this is the condition that has been structured for them,” adding, “If today we say make Nigeria divideโฆ the West is going to survive. The East? Oh, the East will survive times one billion times. The South South region will survive. But you see the North? North Central? They will not survive. Na only Abuja go survive.”
