Ohia Chiamaka

Lawyer-Consultancy, corporate practice (CAC accredited agent). Writer. Daydreamer. Call me for enjoyment.

[Ohia Chiamaka @_smooth_potato]

My 2023 will be my best year yet. My Isaiah 61:7 year! My failures will not define me. I will move strategically and succeed. From my mouth to God’s ear.

[Ohia Chiamaka @_smooth_potato]

@benedictnomsu Thank you

[SEUN Durojaiye 🇳🇬 @DurojaiyeSegun]

My three friends, Bola, Biola, and Lola, and I were proactive about the protest, as we stationed ourselves at the Alausa, Ikeja barricade. They said we should join them at the Lekki Toll Gate on 20-10-20. We got into our cars, but when we arrived in Gbagada, my car broke down near Gbagada General Hospital.

They waited while my mechanic worked on the car. The hours passed, and before we knew it, it was approaching 6 p.m. I told them to go ahead without me and promised to join them later that night.

After my car was finally fixed at exactly 7:35 p.m., I started the engine and was about to accelerate when my mother's call came in.

"Seun, if you have been at the protest ground, you have tried your best, and it is time for you to go home."

This was after Sanwo-Olu had issued a stern warning to everyone. My mum did not just advise me to go home; she pleaded with me to leave.

I called my friends and asked them to return to the mainland. They refused. They were adamant that they wanted to fight for the country. They said they were tired of the state of the nation and that it was either now or never.

At 8 p.m., I went on my socials and saw DJ Switch's Instagram Live broadcast. The Nigerian Army was already firing sporadically, initially shooting into the air to scare the protesters away. But the protesters insisted they were not cowards and stood their ground.

By 8:25 p.m., the soldiers had started firing live ammunition at the protesters.

Bola was not so lucky. He was hit by a bullet, and we lost him.

Following his death, his mother, who was barely 52 years old, died the following year. Despite his eldest brother relocating her to the UK in the hope that a change of environment would help her cope with Bola's death, all efforts proved futile.

We lost Bola on 20-10-2020.
We lost Bola's mum on 15-09-2021.

Rest on, Abimbola. 🕊️

[Ohia Chiamaka @_smooth_potato]

There was a country sha. I don’t even think we can get the unity we had in endsars again. We are so divided that even a protest will be taken as a fight against one tribe

[Bop Daddy @falzthebahdguy]

6 years on 🕊️

We will never ever forget our true heroes.
Your immeasurable sacrifice remains a landmark moment in our story.

Before the guns went off, we witnessed real selflessness and patriotism in moments when we abandoned our personal differences for one common goal.

I hope that we can find our way back there someday. 🙏🏽

[Ohia Chiamaka @_smooth_potato]

@AdenikeNIMA It is ethically prohibited. Granted this was something he was attempting to resolve offline but it still needed the cooperation of the woman.

[Ohia Chiamaka @_smooth_potato]

@AdenikeNIMA @ChibogwuM @adaezennaji_ @Ibukun_olu Promising as a lawyer is a red flag.

[Bayomi @SemudaraAbayomi]

Low quality problems everyday. If it’s not light, it’s network

[Ohia Chiamaka @_smooth_potato]

@_LOHI_ They used to hike, almost joined. Now I don’t even know

[The Nostalgia Merchant @_LOHI_]

Delighted to have hosted a screening of Muna Moto (1975) and the Many Moods of Muna Moto (2022) as a guest curator for my good friends at @afrocinclassics . Fully committed to continue growing these spaces where we continue to discuss African film

[gst @wearegst]

Fake: "What you don't know will kill you."
Real: What they get away with hiding will kill you.

High sugar, high sodium, EU-banned additives, bromate, and industrial transfats. Nigeria’s food system is completely broken and NAFDAC is looking away.

Help us keep fighting. Fund gst. https://t.co/F3Vj94WOYx

[Alexander Ehanire @HrhKingAlex]

FAAN, respectfully, you created a problem that did not exist and then designed a system to solve what nobody knows.

That is the real issue here.

Uber, Bolt & Others already show me the driver, the car, plate number, price, route, location, rating and receipt. Fam the entire trip is digitally traceable and i’m happy.

What additional ‘visibility’ are we looking for ?

Your airport domiciled taxis are the only ones that are lacking behind with their laminated armed robber priced trips for Toyota big daddy.

What are you doing about that ?

Instead, you somehow found a way to insert itself into the part of the market that was already working.

This habit has to stop.

Every successful private sector innovation cannot become an invitation for government to create another platform, concession or collection point.

Your job is to regulate the airport. FAAN does not need to become Uber’s Uber or Bolt’s Bolt.

[Tunde Salami @Tundesalamii]

Nonso,

If KC Luxury retained me to defend him, I would represent him without apology. I render legal services. I represent, advise and defend. But does my retainer suddenly make KC Luxury qualified to keynote the next NBA conference? That is the point you’re missing and one that is being lost in this conversation about VDM.

The yardstick for selecting a SPEAKER at a national conference of lawyers is not POPULARITY. It is not CONFRONTATIONAL ENERGY. It is not the NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS one commands. It is CALIBRE. It is EXPERTISE. It is the quality of what that person can contribute to the intellectual and professional advancement of the legal profession.

The best graduating student in professional ethics recently had her award withdrawn. Not because she committed a crime. Not because she insulted anyone but because of how she dressed in a photograph on social media. That is the standard the profession publicly enforces. Strict, Disciplined, Uncompromising. Image conscious to the last detail. And then the same profession turns around and invites VDM to speak at its national conference.

VDM is not a symbol of professionalism. He is by his own design and by public acknowledgment a SYMBOL OF REBELLION. And that rebellion has thrived not because of VDM's genius but because our institutions are weak, broken, corrupt and the common man is frustrated. Weak institutions create the vacuum that confrontational figures like VDM fills. VDM exists at the intersection of institutional decay and public frustration. He is a symptom not a solution.

His public relevance thrives only because our institutions are weak enough to allow someone who weaponises defamation, harassment, and cyber‑bullying to masquerade as a civic advocate.This is not about one good act or his isolated acts of public service but about his sustained pattern of operating outside the confines of the law, a pattern that would collapse instantly if our institutions were functioning as they should. Many admire him for it. Many find it entertaining. But admiration and entertainment are not qualifications.

At a national conference of lawyers, the expectation is that speakers should be individuals capable of diagnosing institutional decay and articulating credible, lawful solutions. VDM cannot do that. He is not a security expert, not a policy thinker, and certainly not a model of lawful civic engagement.

Now look at the topic itself. Known Gunmen. What exactly is VDM's expertise on this subject? Is he a security analyst? A conflict resolution expert? A policy architect? Is he there to offer strategic legal or institutional frameworks for addressing the problem? Or is he there to dramatically retell what he personally witnessed and narrated to us already on social media? Because if it is the latter, that is a performance, not a contribution.

The NBA has in the past hosted sitting presidents, heads of state and genuine subject matter experts at its conferences. People who brought intellectual weight to the room. People who advanced the conversation. What is being offered now is a parade of politicians and social media personalities, a substitution of spectacle for substance.

This is not a small thing ooo. It is a reflection of where the institution sees itself and what it believes its members deserve. It is a new low. And we should call it exactly that.@MrsBBold @NigBarAssoc @afamosigwe

[IzzyOAP @isreal_izzyH]

Don't get me started.

I had an international flight to catch, then flew from Abuja to Lagos airport's local flight terminal. I needed to print a few documents before heading to the international airport, and after I finished, I decided to take a taxi there. They refused to tell me the fare, and I didn't ask since I thought it would be around 5k at most.

When we got to the international airport terminal, this taxi driver told me my fare was 25k 😳 from the local to international section. I thought he was joking, only for him to whip out their printed price list.

Worst 25k I have ever paid in my life. I was so pissed that when he asked me for a tip, I nearly fought him.

That day, I swore I would never use airport services again.

So if I ever come into Nigeria, especially Lagos, I would rather put all my baggage on my head and walk to where I can get Bolt or InDrive, or call my friend to pick me up than use that airport taxi or the app they're developing.

Rubbish scammers.

[Tosin.X @Dontee___]

Good morning @faan_md Why do we have this exploitation in place? Why would you impose a single ride hailing system on citizens of this nation without giving room to competition thereby increasing our hardship? @fccpcnigeria please look into this urgently!

[Alexander Ehanire @HrhKingAlex]

This is exactly the kind of thing that keeps Nigeria poor.

Someone solves a problem by making transport cheaper, safer and more transparent.

Then the vultures arrive.

With no creativity or capacity. Just to kill the healthy thing and eat the corpse because apparently we don’t know how to make money without destroying value.

Instead of government asking ‘how do we make this even more safe and better’ somebody somewhere is asking, ‘how do we enter inside this thing and collect?’

That is the problem. Everything cannot become an opportunity for rent seeking and extortion.

There are too many creative ways to make money for leaders to remain this dull and backward.

Nigeria already has enough problems.

Government needs to stop this bad behaviour.

Shame on FAAN.

[Ohia Chiamaka @_smooth_potato]

@Burnaboyoflaw Neither did George. One of the biggest gathering of lawyers should have people with expertise and are fit and proper, addressing us. Not a content creator with opinions and visits to communities under attack.

[Ohia Chiamaka @_smooth_potato]

@Burnaboyoflaw They are still on that particular embarrassment. There is also the one about food. The conference that is for continuous improvement has become a reason of mockery for lawyers. Trying to get a gotcha moment is not the way forward. That man had to business attending NBA AGC.

[Ohia Chiamaka @_smooth_potato]

@Burnaboyoflaw Nobody not in attendance heard of a George Weah or know of his atrocities. The conference has been embarrassing on many fronts it cannot all be discussed. Femi Falana has done what needs to be done.

[victoria|| political saviour (una) @thekintann]

The thing with VDM and the NBA thing is because we think all kind of activism can and should be platformed.

And he’s not even an activist, he’s just a noisemaker and content creator. 👍🏾

[Babatunde @KrypticKareem]

This is where the argument becomes shallow. The question isn't whether VDM has experienced the realities of insecurity or whether he has the right to talk about them. Of course he does.

The question is whether he is the appropriate person to invite into a formal setting involving the legal profession, especially when his own integrity and accountability are currently being questioned over his handling of NGO funds.

You cannot reduce the standard for such a setting to “how many SANs have faced Fulani herdsmen with guns?” That's completely beside the point. A person doesn't become the appropriate voice for a professional or institutional discussion simply because he has street experience or is willing to confront dangerous people.

There are people with deep expertise and impeccable professional records who can speak on insecurity, judicial kidnapping, terrorism, criminal justice and the realities facing Nigerians.

VDM can make his commentary online. He can raise awareness. He can share his experiences. But inviting someone into a formal professional setting is a different question. Credibility, expertise, integrity and suitability for the platform matter.

And when a person's integrity is already being publicly questioned, it is perfectly legitimate to ask whether he is the right representative or resource person for that particular setting.

This isn't about silencing VDM. It's about understanding that having something to say does not automatically make someone the appropriate person to say it in every room.