Once Upon A Tuface!
By SOC Okenwa… Perhaps it is not irrelevant to begin this essay by making a confession: I had a little problem deciding on the title of this article. Many captions were competing for attention for days on end until I settled for the one above. Captions like: Tuface: How Not To Be A Hero; Tuface: From Hero To Zero; Tuface And The Rest Of Us; Tuface: Between Heroism And Self-Preservation; Tuface And The Dashed Moment Of Glory; Tuface: The Face Of A Coward; Idibia: The ‘Innocent’ Of A Coward!; Tuface Unplugged And Demystified!; The ‘Tufaced’ Volte-Face. Sometimes such situation of indecision arises only for it to give way for a better idea. It goes to show how competitive one’s faculty could be subjected to in order to produce the best.
Innocent Idibia (popularly called Tuface by his fans) is a talented merry-go-round musician in Nigeria. His hit song My African Queen catapulted him to global scene as a singing superstar winning awards and accolades in Nigeria, Africa and beyond. Tuface has hit stardom making money and name for himself through his melodious talent. He is popular at home and abroad! But as is the case with many stars that have achieved fame and success in life Tuface has abused stardom on more than one instance. He is not known to be doing drugs or drinking himself to stupor, but his relationship with ladies marks him out as a philanderer who finds bliss in the company of damsels– some Jezebels!
The penultimate week the I-stand-With-Nigeria hashtag was trending globally online. Before then Tuface had initiated a social activism program aimed at demonstrating publicly against the prevailing economic situation and prevalence of corruption in the system in our country. A date was fixed for the national protest march whose major objective was reminding the government of their responsibility to the people and the need for them to improve the Nigerian condition. A good idea indeed saluted by many Nigerians (at home and abroad). But something happened along the way that poured cold water onto the whole project: Tuface backed out!
Nigerians were ready for the street protest in many cities and towns. And suddenly days before the announced D-day for the social crusade, the initiator (Tuface) renounced his participation even single-handedly calling off the event! He told a flabbergasted populace that security could not be guaranteed if the event went on as planned fearing loss of lives and destruction of property by street urchins who could capitalize to unleash havoc on the streets. Was Tuface intimidated by the authorities or he just decided to save his skin against any possible repercussions from the mass action against poverty and misgovernance? Prior to his volte-face the Lagos State Police Commissioner, the notorious Fatai Owoseni had sought to cancel the march citing the fear of a hijack by hoodlums to cause mayhem.
But after the presidency issued a statement saying citizens had the right to protest by the constitution and interventions from the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, and other high-profile Nigerians the police approved the march promising to provide adequate security for same. A pro-government march was equally scheduled to coincide with the anti-government one to be led by Tuface. The police, as always, are ever combat-ready to protect those demonstrating their support for the government, but anything otherwise is disallowed or outlawed! This police partisan nonsense ought to be challenged in the law courts by human rights advocates.
As he signed out shamefully however, the other organizers of the event declared their intention to hold the rally without Tuface. Indeed, the nation-wide demonstration took place in various cities including Lagos, Abuja, Benin City and Port Harcourt. In Lagos, the radical Publisher of New York-based SaharaReporters, Comrade Omoyele Sowore, (the area-reporter turned 46 recently; this is wishing him many more years of positive combat for the nation) Charly Boy Oputa, the Area-fada and other activists led the march. The turn-out was encouraging as speeches denouncing corruption and maladministration were read out. No area boy or hoodlum hijacked anything, and no disorder was ever recorded anywhere! So Tuface and Owoseni were proven wrong in their security assessments.
Innocent Idibia (popularly called Tuface by his fans) is a talented merry-go-round musician in Nigeria. His hit song My African Queen catapulted him to global scene as a singing superstar winning awards and accolades in Nigeria, Africa and beyond. Tuface has hit stardom making money and name for himself through his melodious talent. He is popular at home and abroad! But as is the case with many stars that have achieved fame and success in life Tuface has abused stardom on more than one instance. He is not known to be doing drugs or drinking himself to stupor, but his relationship with ladies marks him out as a philanderer who finds bliss in the company of damsels– some Jezebels!
The penultimate week the I-stand-With-Nigeria hashtag was trending globally online. Before then Tuface had initiated a social activism program aimed at demonstrating publicly against the prevailing economic situation and prevalence of corruption in the system in our country. A date was fixed for the national protest march whose major objective was reminding the government of their responsibility to the people and the need for them to improve the Nigerian condition. A good idea indeed saluted by many Nigerians (at home and abroad). But something happened along the way that poured cold water onto the whole project: Tuface backed out!
Nigerians were ready for the street protest in many cities and towns. And suddenly days before the announced D-day for the social crusade, the initiator (Tuface) renounced his participation even single-handedly calling off the event! He told a flabbergasted populace that security could not be guaranteed if the event went on as planned fearing loss of lives and destruction of property by street urchins who could capitalize to unleash havoc on the streets. Was Tuface intimidated by the authorities or he just decided to save his skin against any possible repercussions from the mass action against poverty and misgovernance? Prior to his volte-face the Lagos State Police Commissioner, the notorious Fatai Owoseni had sought to cancel the march citing the fear of a hijack by hoodlums to cause mayhem.
But after the presidency issued a statement saying citizens had the right to protest by the constitution and interventions from the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, and other high-profile Nigerians the police approved the march promising to provide adequate security for same. A pro-government march was equally scheduled to coincide with the anti-government one to be led by Tuface. The police, as always, are ever combat-ready to protect those demonstrating their support for the government, but anything otherwise is disallowed or outlawed! This police partisan nonsense ought to be challenged in the law courts by human rights advocates.
As he signed out shamefully however, the other organizers of the event declared their intention to hold the rally without Tuface. Indeed, the nation-wide demonstration took place in various cities including Lagos, Abuja, Benin City and Port Harcourt. In Lagos, the radical Publisher of New York-based SaharaReporters, Comrade Omoyele Sowore, (the area-reporter turned 46 recently; this is wishing him many more years of positive combat for the nation) Charly Boy Oputa, the Area-fada and other activists led the march. The turn-out was encouraging as speeches denouncing corruption and maladministration were read out. No area boy or hoodlum hijacked anything, and no disorder was ever recorded anywhere! So Tuface and Owoseni were proven wrong in their security assessments.
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