VDM And The Ratel Revolution By Austin Isikhuemen
Austin Isikhuemen | Contributor on politics and business-related topics
A quiet, peaceful, impressive, innovative revolution is taking place. The youth of Nigeria is being mobilized for public good. It did not start yesterday. But yesterday, 29th November 2025, marked a watershed in the life of this movement and the time has come for the world to take notice. Strangely enough, this movement is non-political.
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The RATEL MOVEMENT, led by Vincent Otse, a young man popularly known as Very Dark Man, VDM for short, appears set to revolutionise youth engagement and voluntary participation in civic causes. Named after the honey badger or ratel, a small mammal that takes on the most venomous snakes and chews their heads for lunch, this movement appears set to confront the unhelpful habits that have held Nigeria back.
They appear to say that the behemoths of tribalism, lack of integrity, corruption, the laxity of the ruling class and disempowerment of the youth are surmountable. They believe the youth can make the difference and they are organising to drive positive change in the behaviour of the youth, leading by example.
They are saying that patriotism should not be a mere verbal pronouncement but should be demonstrated by how we do what we do in the interest of the nation.
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The massive cleaning by Ratels across many states of Nigeria yesterday has significance beyond mere environmental sanitation. But first, how did it happen? How did a simple call by VDM for Ratels across the nation to come out and confront the shameful refuse menace across our cities achieve such success?
VDM has no official government designation and no force of official authority behind him. He is from a minor minority in Nigeria’s ethnic calculus. He did not promise money and paid none. Yet, the youth of Nigeria across the states answered his call to clean up Nigeria.
They mobilised themselves. They came out in their numbers in Lagos, Abuja, Calabar, Benin City, Warri, Uromi, Kaduna, Jos, Ibadan, Akure, Port Harcourt, Yenagoa, Auchi, Taraba, Awka, Asaba and several other cities and states. In many of these cities, there were groups in different areas attacking the refuse piles left unattended by the municipal authorities.
People voluntarily printed banners, produced reflective jackets, brought out cleaning tools, boots, hand gloves, nose masks and gave their time to clean up the dirtiest of the dirty places in our nation.
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In most of the places, I saw a mixed crowd from different backgrounds and ethnic groups. Those who made reflective jackets emblazoned with the Ratel word and logo, or coat of arms if you like, shared them freely to participants. Those who did not get worked as hard.
That those young men and women laid their hands and put their feet into the smelly refuse left by the high and mighty of Gwarimpa is symptomatic of their readiness to give patriotic service and clear the ordure to shame those that left them there!
It was impressive to see that a few municipal authority leaders assisted with tipper lorries in some places to move the massive refuse to dump sites. But they need to be reminded that the job was theirs originally and it was their failure that was made glaring for all to see.
The challenge to them, the Local Government Councils, is to ensure the places cleared by the Ratels never get clogged again. It would be a big shame indeed otherwise.
I saw, via social media, Ratels cooking jollof rice and serving fellow volunteers at the end of the exercise. While some mobilized, some did the dirty job, some cooked, some ensured social media coverage, others loaded into bags and baskets and buckets while others loaded lorries, tricycles and refuse dumpster trucks.
Some did inspections across different scheduled spots. Yet, others participated in all the activities. In Benin City, I saw policewomen in uniform, led by an Assistant Commissioner, who joined the Ratels in the clean-up around Oba Market!
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If you think the Ratel Movement is limited to Nigeria, yesterday’s events have put the lie to that thinking. I saw a UK group wearing Ratel reflective jackets and cleaning their neighbourhood. It was made up of women and men from Nigeria, India, Pakistan, England, Bangladesh, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius, Ghana, etc. I have also seen comments from Ratels from Zambia, Rwanda commenting on Facebook. We are therefore seeing a global movement in its infancy.
Why is VDM able to mobilise so many youth across Nigeria, Africa and globally? So many factors play in his favour in spite of attempts by detractors to pull him down. His integrity and credibility are unsurpassed. I had written an article titled “VDM IS NOT THE VILLAIN” on facebook in response to an attack by a blogger who tried to call his integrity to question. Needless to recount the full details here.
He has demonstrated love for the downtrodden in so many ways, taken risks to save lives, managed prudently an NGO whose financial records are available for all to check real-time on the internet. VDM has provided boreholes to many poor forgotten communities in Nigeria and rural Ghana massively impacting the health of the inhabitants.
He has made a huge difference to the lives of accident victims and helped many victims to recover stolen funds from those who duped them. He has renovated schools in rural communities. He speaks out on issues that many dare not speak about.
This, here, is a positive revolution of the youth, and the young at heart, that needs to be supported. It must not be hijacked for political motives. That will harm the movement. Civic mobilization to engender patriotism should remain the goal.
VDM and The Ratel Movement look set to deliver this objective. Yesterday’s community cleaning is sure proof that they can. Let detractors and fifth columnists keep off.
30th November 2025.
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