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By Damiete Braide
Award-winning singer and Ambassador for United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Tuface Idibia aka Tubaba, has opened up on his experience interacting with victims of insurgency in the northern part of the country.
Speaking with Saturday Sun over breakfast on Monday at Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, the Afrobeats icon also revealed why he donated a state-of-the-art digital studio to the Department of Music, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
He touched on some other issues bordering on his advocacy works. Here are excerpts of the interview:
In 2013, the World Health Organisation (WHO) certified Nigeria Guinea worm free. Due to time and efforts put in by you and other individuals and organisations, how do you feel to be part of that change?
It feels great to be part of a winning team. For me, it is a win and definitely every other person wants to be part of a winning team.
Why did you work with NAFDAC in your advocacy work?
Nigeria is very blessed in so many ways but there are substandard foods and drugs that constitute major challenges in the society. For me, it was a better way to be a part of the advocacy that enlightened Nigerians on the dangers of substandard drugs and foods, and how they take measures against it.
You’ve done several donations to various Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the country, what was your experience interacting with victims of insurgency in the north?
That experience got me looking into the eyes of these young children, you will see the terror, pain through their eyes; their parents are not there with them. I just had to do the little I can for them. A lot of the children were displaced and their situation was pathetic, but we cannot do enough for them, nothing is too small or big. So many young people were displaced and the danger is if we had neglected them, they might turn out to become the kind of people that nobody wants to associate with, and which is no fault of theirs. For me, it’s just the love for them, and the little that I can do, I will do for them. I implore people once in a while to donate something for them. It is terrible and people don’t want to see themselves in that situation.
What prompted your decision to launch your NGO?
What pushed me into doing it was that once I became aware of how politics affect everything that we do, it became apparent that most times young people go into violence and cult, and they are not in the position to take major decisions on the own. It’s amazing how some young people are hungry and these people give them peanuts in order to perpetrate violence. This made me go into the advocacy. For me, every election in the country is not war, and that is why I started the sensitization to open their minds on youth empowerment, on how they can live meaningful lives. We have had positive impacts on the youths. We will keep preaching the message of non-violence during elections.
What is peace building to you?
Peace thrives in the society; when there is no peace, there will be chaos. I feel very great and honoured to be part of these peace processes, just like the way other notable Nigerians are doing. This message is forever, I won’t stop people from saying ‘let there be peace’. Every opportunity that I have, I will always say it. Everybody has his or her strengths and weaknesses; people should know how to combine them. All I have to say is: let there be peace everywhere.
Why did you donate a state-of-the-art digital studio for the Music Department of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife?
I was given an honorary degree by the Department of Music, Obafemi Awolowo University and that’s huge for me. Also, I am a Fellow of the School of Music, which also was huge for me. I hope that many generations to come will come to that studio to record their albums. My next album will be done in that studio.
