Tag: Tuface

WHETHER he is better known as Tuface or 2face, or even as Tubaba or 2Baba, Innocent Idibia is the popular and award-winning Nigeria musician who attempted last Monday to stage the ‘One Voice’ protest march in Lagos and Abuja to draw attention to the need for good and responsive governance, especially the mitigation of the economic hardship faced by Nigerians. Days before the planned protest, Tuface was embroiled in controversies with both the police and the Department of State Service (DSS) over the legality, timing and wisdom of the march. Both law enforcement agencies’ paranoid insistence that the protest could be hijacked by nefarious elements taking advantage of the state of insecurity in the country eventually led to the popular musician developing cold feet over the protest. Perhaps the security agencies leaned on him much more severely than they let out to the public.

Even when the presidency announced that they would not oppose the protest, admitting that citizens had the constitutional right to organise protests, the police in Abuja continued to insist that the protest was both unlawful and inadvisable. But after initially waging a campaign against the protest and suggesting that Tuface did not have the capacity to prevent miscreants from hijacking it, the Lagos State police establishment backed down in the face of relevant constitutional provisions and interpretation of the law. In the end, though the protest was less than successful, it went very well and peacefully too. In fact, the following Thursday’s Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) protest also went well, of course without the initial confusion and controversy that followed Tuface’s planned protest.

The details of the interaction between the security agencies and the 2Baba Foundation, which planned the Monday ‘One Voice’ protest, give a depressing view of the state of Nigerian democracy. First, both the Lagos and Federal Capital City (FCT) police commissioners announced their opposition to the rally without giving the matter any considerable thought. Then they began to quibble when they encountered vociferous and relentless public opposition. The Lagos police commissioner, Fatai Owoseni, came out to clarify that his reluctance to acquiesce to the protest was not really oppositional but merely a cautionary advice to the rally organisers to respect other people’s rights. No rights were absolute, Mr Owoseni had said. The FCT police command, which had tolerated and protected a few pro-government rallies by busybody civil society groups and rent-a-crowd coalitions, was even more forthright in opposing the rally. Finally, and as a face-saving measure, a presidential spokesman working in the vice president’s office sought to downplay the controversy by suggesting that the government had no reason to oppose any rally, including that of Tuface. In fact, they publicly and reassuringly received the NLC protesters last Thursday.

Speaking earlier on television, however, Femi Adesina, one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesmen, seemed to think that political opponents still smarting from the 2015 defeat, and other antagonists, haters and malicious professional grumblers, were behind the rally. It was even more incredible to hear him talk of the motives of the rally organisers. “Genuinely concerned people have ways to protest. There are millions of people who are with the president, and I believe that the people who are with the president are more than those who are not…If their concerns were genuine, once those who speak with the president say all is well, they (protesters) have to go and rest…” What this shows, not to talk of the antagonistic approach adopted by the police to deny citizens their constitutional rights, is that in terms of the attitude to democracy, very little has really changed from the authoritarian regimes of the military era. The search for true democratic leaders must therefore still continue.

But perhaps more poignantly, the holding of the protest march in both Abuja and Lagos, despite Tuface’s last-minute cancellation, is a study in courage and cowardice. Said Tuface: “On behalf of Innocent ‘2Baba’ Idibia, we would like to apologise to the fans, colleagues and everyday Nigerians who feel let down by the cancellation of this protest. 2Baba’s aim was to lend his voice to make the government aware of the growing discontent due to the wildly escalating cost of living for Nigerians in Nigeria among other issues. In line with the commitment of ‘One Voice’ Nigeria to ensure a peaceful and impactful protest, the 2face Foundation and partners engaged with the security agencies to resolve all major security concerns, but treacherous gaps remain that we are unwilling to ignore. The risk of hijack by various political and sundry interests’ intent on using the platform to drive agendas that we as the 2Face Foundation are not aligned with and therefore exposing protesters to high levels of danger is the main reason 2baba regretfully had to withdraw himself from the march. He has refused to inadvertently present a platform for mischief makers to exploit. 2baba would like to express his great regret over these circumstances to everyone who feels disappointed. However, he hopes they will agree that as he said in the video announcing the development; ‘no protest is worth the blood of any Nigerian.”

Tuface has stridently defended himself from accusation of cowardice. Many artistes and supporters have weighed in and also defended him, insisting that by bringing salient national issues to the limelight and inspiring whatever little protests the country saw on Monday and Thursday, his interventions were not totally invaluable. But, more significantly, the protests held without him, and they were peaceful and orderly. It was clear he underestimated the cost of political fame. Had he gone ahead, despite the law enforcement agencies’ intimidatory tactics and scaremongering, the march would have been more successful and the satisfaction he would have derived infinitely more immense. It is disingenuous of him to claim any credit whatever in the protests despite failing to finish what he started.