Of Tuface and security issues in Nigeria

Following his cancellation of the proposed nationwide protest on Sunday, February 5, the music icon, Innocent Idibia, popularly known  as Tuface, has met with criticisms from fans and social media users for what they called ‘a cowardly act.’

Tuface, who had earlier announced his plan for a nationwide protest against bad governance and the economic meltdown in the country, took to his Instagram account to call off the planned protest which was slated to hold in two cities—Lagos and Abuja on Monday, February 6, over ‘security concerns and public safety considerations.’

According to the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP JimohMoshood, ‘the police has credible intelligence reports that other interest groups are equally planning to hold a counter protest on the same days at the same places/cities as the Tuface group and if these planned protests/demonstrations are held as scheduled, there may be breakdown of law and order, with attendant loss of lives and property.”

Isn’t it true that when the security of the body is threatened, the heart wavers?

Security has been a major discourse in the media. There are always reports of security situations across the country. Insecurity has bedevilled this country from time immemorial, but has now reached a frightening stage where every effort of the security agencies to curb the menace seems abortive.   Will we ever be free from the claws of insecurity?

There is the dreaded Boko Haram sect in the North-East; the ethno-religious killings in the Southern Kaduna; militancy in the Niger Delta, alarming rate of kidnapping in the South-West and the Fulani herdsmen’s terrorism across the country.

Every part of the country is engulfed in the fog of instability! This, of course, has cost us more harm than we could have ever imagined. Foreign investors are afraid to invest in a country where there is no safety for human life and this has given our economy a big blow. We now wallow in economic quagmire, and some people still dare to badmouth the one voice who has tried to echo the silent millions of Nigeria that have decided to keep mute, what Fela would regards as “suffering and smiling.”

While I commend those who still went ahead with the protest, I’m not in any position to condemn Tuface’s action. At least, he raised his voice! It was Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American essayist, who said that nothing pays more than the integrity of the mind. Nothing pays more than what one believes in. It’s time we faced the reality!