BY FOLASHADE KEHINDE
SEUN Kuti, son of the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti, on Friday, said, though some other groups like RevolutionNow, said it was cowardly to stay away from the Afrika Shrine, when the Nigerian Police Force gave a warning against a gathering there, he decided to stay away so that he could still pass his message across to Nigerians.
The Afrobeat singer said it would not have been tactical to still go to the venue because at the end of the day, a confrontation with the Police could lead to violence, which would prevent his movement from achieving its objective.
Seun Kuti, however, pointed out that it was a pity that Nigeria had returned to the autocratic days of the late General Sanni Abacha, alleging that the tyrannical structure of this administration had been taken to “another level”.
“Government banning the meeting, for me, is taking this whole tyrannical structure to another level. We’re back basically to the Abacha days now, where people cannot even associate or gather and not expect any kind of oppression from the Government,” he argued.
He said this in an interview on Arise TV, monitored by The Point’s correspondent.
The singer said, “The Nigerian security forces in general often use bullying tactics when it comes to anything that has to do with opposition to the incumbent administration.
“The NPF called my mom, she is like my mom now, my eldest sister, Sister Yeni, and told her that we couldn’t have the event because it had the #EndSARS on it.
“But it is important to note that this was a meeting, not a protest. It was a meeting to discuss #EndSARS, lessons and tasks. But we wanted to do the meeting with the Nigerian people present too, so we could hear from the people of this country because their voice matters as well.
“But because our own governments, right from time, do not take the ideas; voice of the Nigerian people to mean anything significant in the decision making process, they did not see reason why anything with people is not protest…
“So, I said to my people that if the Government was not going to allow us enter the shrine, we had to create a Plan B, where the message we wanted to pass to the people of Nigeria would still happen.
“Many of the Revolution Now people were saying it was cowardly, if we didn’t go to the venue. But for me, it was not tactical at all. If we go to the venue and start interacting with the Police, with the altercations and all that, we will never pass our message across. We would spend the whole day on the streets, running up and down.
“Passing the message, for me, was what was paramount at that time. We were able to go under space, let the press know. And everybody came around and we were able to pass our message to the people of this country.
“The irony was that while the security people were saying they wanted peace in Lagos, which was why we couldn’t hold our event, these same people were going to Amuwo Odofin Local Government, Oshodi, even up to Ikeja Along, harassing Okada men, destroying the whole town all over again, seizing people’s Okada.”
Operatives of the Nigerian Police had, on Tuesday, laid siege to the popular Afrika Shrine.
The development followed an announcement by Seun Kuti, son of the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti, of plans to launch a group called ‘The Movement of the People’.
The Afrobeat singer had earlier raised the alarm that the Police and the Government had threatened to shut the popular entertainment center over his meeting with people on his planned programme.
