By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Many Nigerians say popular singer, Naira Marley, is a coward for calling a protest against the brutality of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) and canceling it the same day the protest was supposed to hold.
The build up to the protest started a few days ago on the social media when many young Nigerians clamoured for the scrapping of SARS with the hashtag #EndSARS.
Many accused SARS operatives of committing wide scale atrocities against the youths, including extortion, robbery and kidnapping. It was at this point Naira Marley got involved in the debate when he mocked the youths for protesting on the social media rather than the streets.
This was the Naira Marley’s tweet mocking Nigerians. “In this country, we love protesting on twitter. That’s the problem.”
Pressures were then mounted on him to lead the protest, which he reluctantly agreed. The protest was therefore fixed for October 6 at 9AM.
But a day before the protest, there were indications that the protest might not even hold especially because Naira Marley suddenly started defending SARS, and claiming that the operatives would even be part of the protest.
Then came the announcement from Naira Marley that the protest has been canceled. Instead, he would be having an Instagram Live interview with the police spokesman, Frank Mba, to discuss the issues.
The official police twitter handle also advertised the chat.
But that announcement suddenly made Naira Marley who has more than two million followers on Twitter and four million followers on Instagram, the butt of jokes.
Dr Dipo Awojide, tweeting @OgbeniDipo said: “Naira Marley was here saying young Nigerians like online chit chat and protest. He organised something. Then, on the morning, cancel it and says he’s having a chat with the Nigeria Police Force on Instagram. Ok”
@Bisi96 tweeted: “Naira Marley don carry protest go Instagram live, nice one. I’m surprised it took him this long to cancel it self. At least we won’t hear about how we only protest on Twitter alone anymore. Him coward, me coward all of us together coward.”
@one_dosh uses Naira Marley’s tweet to mock him. “In this country Naira marley loves protesting on instagram. That’s the problem,” he tweeted.
@AsiwajuLerry said: “They (Police) called Naira Marley a bad influence, locked him up and called him a menace to the society yet he’s the one they went to do an Instagram Live with to stop a protest? 2020 is such an interesting year.”
@gimbakakanda also tweeted: “Naira Marley is a Nigerian citizen, and entitled to organize and lead protests against bad policies and practices. The problem here is the implication of @PoliceNG honoring a citizen under investigation for fraud as ambassador of the public while cracking down on model citizens.”
