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2BABA LOUD ON POLITICS

Real reasons Nigeria is where it’s today —2baba
*Blames wishy-washy songs flooding the market on the gatekeepers
By Benjamin Njoku
Innocent Idibia popularly known as 2baba represents three things: Music talent, humility, joviality. And now, you may add his outspokenness that has come with maturity and age. These attributes played out Tuesday evening, when the legendary musician strolled leisurely into Vanguard Media head office, in Apapa, Lagos.
The singer was on a visit to familiarize himself with the organization’s staff and perhaps, to set the stage for his headlining performance at Vanguard Personality of the Year awards ceremony, which held yesterday, at the prestigious Eko Hotel and Suites , Victoria Island, Lagos.
Tuface lived up to his billing, delivering an electrifying performance that reconfirmed his enviable place as the king of Afro pop music. Being in his best element, the hip hop star had promised a night of crazy entertainment panache at the event, and he did not disappoint. While the glamorous event lasted, Tuface left the audience yearning for more.
www.vanguardngr.com/2019/01/2baba-adekunle-gold-bovi-laolu-gbenjo-band-thrill-vanguards-guests-today/


2baba
The ‘African Queen’ singer while in Vanguard did not fail to x-ray some challenging issues in contemporary Nigerian society. In fact, one would think that the only language the pop star understood properly was music. But far from it, he also understands the language of politics.
In a chat with the Vanguard Entertainment team, the Idoma, Benue State-born singer proved the stuff he’s made of when it comes to diagnosing the problems of the country. He took a swipe at the state of the country, lamenting that the nation’s value system has changed drastically. “We have started celebrating mediocrity,criminality, in place of credibility,’ the singer lamented.
Tuface also said that he doesn’t understand what’s happening in the country at the moment. According to him, one thing he made out from last year was that for the past recent years, the country has been in the threshold of decay. Asked how he fared last year, Tuface described 2018 as a ‘cool year’, adding that just as every year has its own high and low points, he also had his high and low points last year.
“I will describe my 2018 as life. Every year has its ups and downs, every year has its high and low points. I definitely had my low and high points. But in all, majority of what we set out to achieve, we achieved them last year. All the mistakes we made last year, we have learnt from them as well. In fact, last year was cool,” he continued.
“But for Nigeria, I don’t know whether last year was good or bad. Honestly, I don’t understand what’s happening in Nigeria . I see the news from different directions. But one thing I made out from last year was that for the past three years, we haven’t really known what’s going on in the country. That’s my standpoint. I don’t know whether the government is working or not. I don’t just know and I’m also sure that many Nigerians share that sentiment. One thing we share in common is the increasing rate of hardship in the land. For me, we faced a lot of hardships last year.”
Tuface did not stop at that. He went ahead to talk about the state of the nation. When asked what he has in common with politics, Tuface who’s often described as “a musical genius” that has constantly reinvented himself to remain relevant 18 years after he first popped up on the scene with the Plantashun Boiz group album, ‘Body and Soul’ in 2000, and 14 years after his debut solo effort, ‘Face 2 Face’ , said in as much as he can’t be partisan, he can’t as well stop expressing his views about the happenings in the country. He said that his position as a social crusader does not permit him to be partisan. But it does not mean that he cannot express his feelings about the state of the nation.
In his views, “Nigeria is where it is today because from government to the people, they have failed to coordinate themselves.” Sounding like an activist, Tuface said “We have also not been able to psyche ourselves up, stand up and use the actual potential we have to the benefit of the country. We have not been able to do that, and I always talk about it. It boils down to the fact that we have a political system that has more criminals than those that have the interest of the country at heart. And that’s the reason we are where we are today.”
“We have more criminally minded people in the system than we have people who actually have the interest of the country at heart. I think it is time for well meaning Nigerians , reputable Nigerians to start getting involved in politics and standing up for the country. This is because its becoming so crazy and our value system has changed drastically.
I will continue talking about it, and that’s why I’m always talking about politics because it affects me and everything that I do. Every now and then, I see people pirating my works and that’s simply because people who are responsible for protecting my works are not doing their jobs. Many of them don’t even understand the laws of intellectual property protection. It affects me in so many ways and that’s why I’m always talking about it. It will surprise you to note that we celebrate criminals more than we celebrate the credible people. That’s the sad truth,” he added.
Talking about his ongoing campaign, ‘Vote not fight’ campaign, which he’s coordinating in partnership with such organizations as the National Democratic Institute, NDI, Young Stars Foundation, USAID including INEC among others, Tuface said that his position as a social crusader makes him to be neutral and non-partisan.
On whether he’s disappointed with the way politics is being played in the country, the legendary singer answered in the affirmative. According to him, the things that are important in Nigeria these days are regarded as nothing. “Nigerians now worship material things more than anything else. It has become part of our system. In America and Europe, what the people there celebrate are authentic things.
We also blame them for our woes because of how they portray us , and the kind of narrative they put out there about us. But before they turned our brothers and sisters to slaves, we were the kings and queens of this world- Africans.”
“We were genuine and hospitable people, but the white people came into our land and robbed us of our pride, killed us and committed so many atrocities against the blacks.
They called us the primitive people, and it’s left for us now to accept what they said we are or prove them wrong. We need to re-orient ourselves and put our educational system back on track. Importantly, we need a working government to be able to hit the mark. When we have a working government all these things will fall in place. Individually, we have to search our minds and start teaching the young ones our values,” he said
Taking on the wishy-washy songs that today’s musicians are steadily pushing into the market, Tuface blamed the ugly trend on the gatekeepers, including the National Broadcasting Commission,NBC, the producers, Djs, radio and television houses for their inability to regulate the industry.
According to him, entertainment in Nigeria has always been versatile. “Entertainment has always been whatever works for you , you go for it. But there must be a standard. There’s also a conscious effort to try to do stuff that will inspire the young people positively. We have always those kind of musicians around, but like I said, entertainment is versatile.”
“Blue films have been there for ages, but they kept them where they supposed to be. The gatekeepers always have to be conscious. They should also be able to create a system whereby everything should belong to where it should belong to. It should not be in the space of where another thing is.
There are so many music these days that are in the space of this general music. If you come across music that is loaded with meaning, such music hardly enjoy airplay. There are people that joined the music industry with little or no regard for quality. They just want to become famous at all cost and the marketers will join forces with them, thereby flooding the market with meaningless songs.”

“Entertainment is versatile and nobody should stop you from doing whatever you want to do. But the gatekeepers should be able to maintain a standard. When it comes to awards ceremonies, airplay, videos, the gatekeepers should be able to regulate what goes out there. We should have a standard.
I do music, but right from day one I have always cut across every aspect of music. I do serious music, and at the same time, I do entertaining music. But no matter how I do entertaining music, I still ensure that you take something out of it. In Nigeria, our value system has changed,” Tuface noted.
Source:
www.vanguardngr.com/2019/01/2baba-loud-on-politics/