2face's unexpected decision to withdraw his
earlier proposed peaceful protest against the Buhari-led administration has
bombarded the internet with so many denigrating comments from angry Nigerians.
In the literary scene, it is currently serving as a drum with seductive beats,
causing the pens of gifted writers to dance accordingly.
Read the piece below:
Tuface’s decision to lead a protest to register the
dissatisfaction of Nigerians with the performance of the incumbent
administration and to reiterate the value of government’s responsibility to the
people was his finest moment as a citizen and artiste. But it is also now, with
his Jammeh-like volte-face, his worst moment.
His transformation into a champion of democratic values and voice
of the masses brought him added stardom and value. His retreat has turned him
into a revolutionary manqué. He deserves our understanding and sympathy.
When on 24th January Tuface (Innocent Dibia) announced that he was
going to lead, under the umbrella of the Tuface Foundation, a mass protest
against the economic policies of the Buhari government, he immediately
attracted public interest. A multiple award-winning musician, a naturally
talented stage performer and author of at least two evergreen songs: “My
African Queen” and “If Love is a Crime”, TuBaba, as he is also known, sounded
like he was moving from art to politics, and seemed ready to answer to the true
calling of the artist as the conscience of the people.
Artists and creative persons have always led protests and lent
their voices to progressive causes. That much is the case in the United States
at the moment, where artistes have raised their voices and joined protests to
remind the “insurgent in the White House” that America is a land of freedom,
democracy and justice and not bigotry and tyranny. Here at home, Fela, and his
cousin, the Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and others as well, have
shown the power of creativity and stardom as a veritable vehicle for social
change and justice. Artists and their art, and their movement from stage, or
the printed page, to the public arena of action have always saved humanity, by
humanizing man. This has been the case from Sophocles, all through time and
history to Olanrewaju Adepoju, Beyonce and Kanye West.
But activism comes with a price. Tuface obviously didn’t bargain
for that. He received enormous support. His announcement of the February 5,
later February 6 protest energized the angry, frustrated Nigerian base, and
drew our unrelenting “children of anger” back into an overdrive on social
media. The international community also became interested, waiting to see the
effect of a protest driven by star-power in Nigeria. It was coincidentally a
season of protests across the world: in the Gambia, there had been protests
against Yahyah Jammeh with a positive outcome, in the US, the UK and elsewhere,
Donald Trump’s travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries and his misogyny
led to protests on both counts, and in the case of the former, a Federal judge
has given a ruling that has resulted in the suspension of the ban. In Cameroon,
concerned citizens are protesting over discrimination against English-speaking
Cameroonians. In Romania, a sea of protesting citizens has just had its way.
There is all around the world, right now, a resurgence and affirmation of people
power, be it Brexit or left-wing activism in Europe. Individuals and groups
lead such moments in history- what makes them different is the fire in their
bellies and their readiness to command the revolution, at great personal risk.
It looked initially as if Tuface had that burning fire in his
belly, but he couldn’t make that leap between self-preservation and the risks
of rebellion. He had appeared on television. He spoke confidently about the
need for real change in Nigeria. He encouraged Nigerians to come out en masse
to support the movement. He even announced the colour and dress code of the
protest. His wife stood by him and she, too, talked about her husband’s
convictions about national progress and good governance. Each time Tuface
appeared in the media, during those five minutes in the sun, he looked bright
and determined. But everything changed late Saturday evening. The recorded
video of Tuface’s volte-face, announcing the cancellation of the Feb. 6 protest
showed him looking dispirited, broken, ashen, as if he had been shaken up and
chastised. He looked unsettled with his scraggy, uncombed beard. It is not
difficult to know when a man’s balls have been squeezed.
Tuface actually deserves our sympathy. He must have gone through a
lot of pressures that broke his spirit. His capitulation makes us appreciate
even better the heroism of those who always stood up to dictatorships. His
example is indeed a great lesson…And I mean that positively for the fact
that…Despite the massive support that he received, he also received a lot of
discouragement. An old ally of his, some guy appropriately called Blackface was
one of the first persons to blacken the idea of the protest. Some Nollywood,
belle-forever-face-front-chop-money-money-finish-carry-go characters also
opposed Tuface. Some musicians too, although in the long run, Tuface was able
to mobilise the support of every section of the Nigerian community at home and
in diaspora. By Saturday when he poured cold ice on the whole thing, the
protest had even grown beyond him, much larger, with others seizing the
initiative and turning what he had thought would be a small show into a
nationwide and diaspora event. At that point, Tuface was no longer the
singer of sultry songs, but the symbol of a rebellion. The enormity of that
potential must have frightened him. He didn’t have the courage to see it
through. Leadership is about courage. A coward can never lead a rebellion.
But we should struggle to understand his situation. He was accused
of having seven children from three women, which is an absolutely stupid point.
An artist does not have to be a saint. We relate to their art and their
engagements with society on the basis of the positive value that they bring
forth. It is also possible that Tuface received pressures from his
multiple in-laws, and even the Baby Mamas defending their stakes in his
life. The official wife must have been accused of trying to encourage him
to get into trouble so he could get killed and she alone can sit on his
estate. The Baby Mamas and all the in-laws must have called to remind him
that his children are still very young and he needs to be alive to be their
father and so he should think twice before going to use his chest to stop
Nigeria Police bullets. Family members, to whom he is obviously a breadwinner,
must have advised him to stay with his singing and dancing and not get involved
in politics. They would remind him how Fela’s mum got killed and how Fela’s
house was razed down, and how every artist who dared the Nigerian government
ended up in exile or in prison or with a strange motor accident.
The Nigerian government was of course unhappy with the planned
protest, and the idea of it created enormous confusion in Abuja and Aso Rock.
While the office of the Acting President spoke about the right to protest and
the government not having anything against the expression of fundamental human
rights, the Office of the President on vacation made it very clear that the
would-be protesters are enemies of the government of the day and sore losers.
Those two seemingly contradictory impressions from Aso Rock can only point to
one thing: high-level intrigue within. That is probably why the Nigeria Police
kept shuffling: we don’t approve of the protest, we do, we don’t, we beg.
The timing says it all also. With the President out of the country, and the
plan of the protesters to welcome him with a Trump-like protest from Abuja, to
Lagos, Port Harcourt, Uyo and Akure, and in parts of the Western world, the
damage would have been incalculable. And Tuface would have been held
responsible for leading the sabotage. No Nigerian government since 1999
has benefitted from any mass protest. The anti-third term protest hobbled the
Obasanjo government. The Jonathan government never recovered from the pro-fuel
subsidy protests of January 2012. Tuface and his planned protest had set the
stage for a similar prospect for the Buhari government.
What Tuface imagined was a clean-hearted civil action would have
resulted in absolute panic, with some informal voices in and around government
doing dangerous analysis on ethnic and religious grounds. Reckless
hypotheses such as the following: (a) “so, as Baba hand over this thing to Osinbajo
so, the only thing his Christian brothers think they should do is to organize a
protest in Baba’s absence?” (b) “You don hear say Osinbajo’s office say people
have right to protest? So, Baba cannot even travel on vacation again. Walahi,
these Yoruba people cannot be trusted.” (c) What are these security
people doing? If they are loyal to Baba, by now they should have invited that
Tuface, and ask him about the two SUVs that Akpabio gave him and his wife when
they got married. They should show him strong evidence that the SUVs were
bought with Akwa Ibom state government money and he should pay back the money
or get ready to be sued for being an accomplice in a case of diversion of
public funds. (d) Or you could have some people affirming the narrative
that was put out by the APC and friends of the government of the day viz:
“this is the PDP at work. Tuface must be an agent of PDP. Why are our own APC
people sleeping? Baba no dey around, they want to pull down the country. So,
Tuface is now working with Ayo Fayose of Ekiti, to embarrass Baba? This
Osinbajo, can we trust him?”
By pulling the trigger at this time, Tuface simply put a lot of
people under pressure and placed their jobs and loyalty at risk -no doubt about
it, they must have come after him with a sledgehammer to stop and discourage
him. Clear evidence: a counter-revolutionary #IstandwithBuhari protest has
already been announced to last for two days. The Tuface revolution that has
been abandoned by its main motivator teaches us more lessons about the dynamics
of power in Nigeria and the temperament of the resident power elite. Will the
protest now take place on February 6, without Tuface? Or will everyone hold
fire and down their tools of anger? What is certain, however, is that Tuface is
likely to sit at home tomorrow with Anne, his temptingly pretty wife by his
side, watching the latest episode of Big Brother Naija on TV, with chicken and
salad before him, and a bottle of wine, and one of his hands, innocently
setting the stage for the amorous prelude for child number eight. With his wife
telling him: “don’t worry yourself dear, Nigeria is not worth dying for. Who
wan die make e go die. You have tried your best, my darling husband!”.
That is how many would-be heroes become anti-heroes, and their
dreams die a-borning. If the protests go ahead on February 6 as many are
threatening, nonetheless, Tuface would lose a lot. If it doesn’t go ahead, he
would still lose. The torch of protest that he has lit may not burn on the
streets of Nigeria; it is burning already in the minds of the people. He may
have chickened out, but he has already achieved the goal of his initial plan.
He has by lending his star power to an anti-Buhari protest, expanded the
population of angry Nigerians. He has given voice to their anger and fears. His
withdrawal from action will not excuse him. Whatever anyone tells him, in the
long run, he would still be punished for his bravery and cowardice on both
counts. He should not be surprised if for the next few months, he doesn’t get
invited to any concert, or performance contract, or if he gets to perform
anywhere, he could be booed off the stage. He should not be surprised if his
phones stop ringing, or if it rings at all, he could be told: “call me on
what’s app I beg, I don’t know if they are monitoring your calls.”
Let no one blame Tuface. His stage name Tuface is the name of
Janus: the two-face Greek god, who looks in two directions. When it mattered
most in his career, Tuface Idibia answered the call of his name!
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