Nfana Ibaga with the protest, but I won’t march with @official2baba.

Bare things have happened in Nigerian marches in the past that oughta make me mad suspicious of new ones, to be honest, for example — man like Dino Melaye was a freedom activist who knows how to make the right noise might just hop on stage as he did during occupy — I didn’t even know then that dude was as dodgy as he is. Or when the then APC aligned itself with the BBOG, only to give them short shrift once in power.

Protests are dope, sexy AF, all that energy (I can’t lie, I cried when I saw photos of Occupy Nigeria. I am sucker for the country and I foolishly believed we were being propelled by a force that’ll make things so much better.)

Anyways, on to 2face’s march. I don’t support man as the convener. It’s simple, when the time came to show and prove, he was found wanting. The state ferried people to his wedding, paid for a 4x4, the governor promised to fix a road only because man was going to have a baby, etc. Akwa Ibom had pressing needs that could have used the funds that were used to burnish the wedding jamboree, he should have said no.

I FW the dude, he’s a musical genius or close to it, he has at least three classics, and he seems like an all around nice guy. You’ve gotta stand even when you lose what would have been an easy personal gain, I don’t trust that he can.

You can’t be a beneficiary of the patronage and perennial inefficiency that plagues Naija and preach against the system. Come on bruh. There’s that and the opacity behind the march itself, who are the partners? How are they funded? What’s their long term aim?

But there is my own standard. It doesn’t matter to most and I understand that. People don’t remember the brouhaha, nor do they care that man might he short in whatever area, they’ll march and they should. Civil society has railed on the pages of newspapers, has shouted on TV and the average Bilikisu or Emeka could GAF. They know 2Baba though, they believe man’s one who feels them — which is why my disappointment with dude was acute back then.

Now, this march, I support it BECAUSE Nigerians need an avenue to express their pent up anger at this government. It is entirely necessary we articulate points we can hold the government to. So that the march isn’t disbanded with the usual ‘government has heard’ you line. We need deliverables; we need to understand the issues we’re angry about out.

There are some points in his Facebook post that I was pleased to see though, the average Nigerian needs to KNOW these things

· How government subsidises kerosene yet no Nigerian has bought it at the subsidised rate in ages.

· How govt officials benefit from the haphazard nature of our exchange rate,

· The general insecurity that ails the country.

· How people have gotten less able owing to the Naira’s precipitous decline.

There are mad issues to be upset about, and I’d march in anger too. My brother in-law’s second hand car business has more or less crumbled under this crazy FX regime, for example, he’ll march too, I’m sure.

I am not much concerned if the march is ‘sponsored’ – did you see the recent women’s march? Did you see all those pink hats? Some corporation or individual paid for that, someone paid for the workers who set up the stage, the signs, etc.

I can’t shake my discomfort with dude now, and I stand by it. But, I’m lowkey excited at the idea of the march spurring something, back to being romantic again but I can’t help it. Something must give, the status quo is killing us and our silence will be interpreted as consent.

I won’t march with him but I hope it bangs though.