Article:- The Rise And Fall Of The 2face Idibia Protest March

At the beginning of the year I begged Nigerian musicians to help us – the masses – in the struggle against the reality of Buhari’s elusive economic boom. (Read
here) I asked them to lend their powerful voices and their platforms to the struggle for the end of suffering and poverty under this government. I even yabbed them, to get them to do something, anything.
And 2Face Idibia responded. He called for a nationwide protest march.
I laughed out loud when I read reports of the announcement. I was as happy as a weak fool who heard the worst class bully was being transferred to another school, to repeat a class. I wasn’t alone. A jolt went through the entire nation at the grassroots, a positive jolt. This is what, it seemed, everybody has been waiting for: a spark to ignite the inferno. Yes! At last!

The momentum picked up so fast and was so total that when Blackface, 2Face’s estranged band mate, re-shared, on social media, some foolish article saying in part that 2face was an illiterate that should not be trusted with a nationwide protest, the Nigerian social media sphere swept up and chewed Blackface a brand new and second asshole. Nobody could say anything, no matter how rational, against the protest march. In the article and various others dissenters pointed out that 2face ate and dallied with politicians and bear no moral right to protest against them. Nobody cared. The consolidation and escalation of the 2face brand as it connected with the planned protest was just too strong for any negative effect. If you did not like the protest keep it to your sorry self was the opinion of the masses. Other artistes, like Burna Boy, that declared for the protest, instantly gained new fans.
People started making plans for the march, organising their movements and picking what they would wear. There was a sigh of relief when blog reports came out that TUC, NLC and others have declared for the protest. The sense of magnitude of the march soared, with expectations. Nobody knew if the news was fact or fiction, but who cared. It was good news. Nothing was more important than good news if you were going to be part of a protest march and protest songs.
Then things started happening.
And they were happening fast, by Nigerian standards. First we heard opposition PDP’s fireball Governor Fayose of Ekiti State has declared to join the protest. This was a politicizing of a popular apolitical movement. Both the poor that supported APC and the poor that supported PDP were buying a
jerica of garri for N750 and N800 that neither of them could well afford. This protest is beyond APC or PDP. It is thieving and clueless politicians against the rest of us. Thank you Governor Fayose, but you are simply not among the rest of us.
Then Femi Kuti came out to say that nobody informed him before rushing to town that the protest was going to start at his New Africa Shrine. He was sounding an alarm and for good cause. We all know the history between both old and New Africa Shrine and law enforcement. Some crazy olopa, following orders from ‘ oga at the top’, could burn down the place again.
There seemed to be some kind of subtle miscommunication and confusion online about venues and time table of the march. There appeared to be multiple sources of conflicting information.
People tribalized the protest, like Governor Fayose and co politicized it, saying inflammatory and really stupid stuff about tribal connections of the organisers of the protest, including 2Face himself. One facebook friend was so disgusted with me. According to him, instead of joining the real struggle, the struggle for Biafra, here am I online, prancing about like an idiot, shouting for a failed zoo country called Nigeria. But before Biafra we have to live somewhere first, abi ?
Then we heard rumours that 2Face himself has chickened out of the protest, after having his balls squeezed overnight inside a detention cell of the new ‘terror’ machine named DSS. And ‘true true’, as they say here, (as a matter of fact) a video surfaced barely two days before the match of 2Baba, tearful and sorrowful, saying he had to cancel the protest, to save the lives of innocent citizens whom the police had refused to protect during the protest – and expressing fear that the protest has been hijacked, probably by folks like Gov Fayose who just would not see the distinction between where he stands and where we, the masses, stand.
Nobody I know knows what really happened but it was a different 2Face we saw in the cancellation video from the one that announced the protest march. The contrast was so bizarre and so dramatic that I became seriously worried about 2face’s welfare and wellbeing. The guy looked as if someone was pointing a gun at him from behind the camera – and they were ready to shoot.
And that was it, the mother of all protests in our country’s history washed down the drain with a whimper.
There could be so much reasons 2Face changed his mind so dramatically. For me it is simple. Either he was threatened or he couldn’t face the final realization that someone could actually DIE because of his protest. The 2Face we know is no bloodhound, all he wanted was a peaceful protest march. He is one of the most sincere and natural human beings I ever met, in the short period of time I encountered him during his OJB Jezreel days. He is kind and gentle, accepts responsibility for his faults and shortcomings and takes care of them. He is not a deceiver and certainly is no coward. He makes no excuses. Like Chinua Achebe once recorded of the Ibo proverb, something bigger than nte the insect has entered nte’s hole. 2face reacted more according to his kindly nature. Or he quarrelled with his co-organisers, Enough is Enough, on process and protocol because those ones went ahead with the protest anyway. But without 2Face it wasn’t what it was expected to be.
I understand his position even if I am still disappointed.
For those who have harsh words about 2Face’s about face over the protest, remember. He did not have to do anything and he did. Most importantly, he is a self-made multimillionaire. He did not have to call for any protest. Even if Buhari and his forty thieves national assembly exchanged the dollar for N1000 2face will be ok. Even I did not hope for a national protest march against the government from the musicians. I just wanted them to do more protest songs, like Fela did, so we can sing on the streets and flip the useless gobmint off with. You know, point it in Aso Rock’s direction. Take that, you Dino and Fashola both.
The bitter disappointment of the protest’s fall will linger for a long time to come. Again, those who curse and deride 2face I beg you to stop. He did what he could. Let us kindly repay him by remembering him in our prayers, that whatever threatened him (or not) should permanently stay away from he and his family. He wasn’t going to run for political office or displace anybody in Abuja. He just lent his voice to the masses. Let whoever it is, or whoever they are, realize they cannot kill us all so they have to live with our frustration, till they make things better for everybody not just themselves.
Thank you, 2Face, at least for changing the tone of the rather comatose communication between government and people. We are bitter but we appreciate. God bless you, may yours increase.
Some people said they must march, 2Face or no 2Face. They did in Lagos and Abuja. My friend Nadine has vowed to protest in Enugu. She had plans already too sensitive to cancel. If none of her friends comes out, she will take a selfie of her self’s march and go home. That is the spirit we need now everywhere.
There are, of course, people that can pick it up where 2face dropped it. People like Charly Boy, Area Father. We wait for them to call us. We wait for them because we cannot do it on our own. That is why we are called followers, to start with. We need a leader.
We cannot abandon our hope – the only thing we have left – because 2Face dropped one protest. So we wait. Call us today or tomorrow. Just call us – before we die.
odega shawa
IG: @shawa_kalakutabooks
twitter: @shawa2008

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