Tu-Face: Where is His Mother?

Comfort Obi

Will the mother of Hip-hop artist, Innocent Idibia, popular as Tu-Face, please step out? On stepping out, she is not about to get an award for giving birth to the multiple award-winning artist. It is to ask if she is comfortable with the life-style of her son with women. It is to ask her if she approves of the behaviour of her son whose ambition, it seems, is to make as many women as possible pregnant. Doesn’t she care how she acquires grand-children? This is the story of Tu-Face, a young, good looking, talented artist who is doing everything to destroy himself. This is the story of a guy who every responsible mother should warn her daughter to keep away from. This is the story of a guy whose libido is so hot that every girl he touches, he makes pregnant.
If I am passionate and/or emotional here about Tu-Face and his lifestyle with women, it is because we are all involved. I have never met him before, yet it is like I have known him for years. In my house, he is a big star. I have teenagers who think Tu-Face is hip! His songs are the ring tones in their GSM phones. They play his songs all day. They think he is a role model – a situation I have taken up as a duty to tell them that he is not a good role model.
I never took notice of this guy until one of his songs, African Queen. It is a compelling piece of work. I bought both the cassette, and the DVD, and quickly became his fan. Now, Tu-Face has lost a fan in me. In me, too, he has acquired a woman who is bent on telling every youth who thinks he is a role model that he is not. Incidentally, I find out I am not the only woman outraged by the guy. How did Tu-Face become this disgusting to people. It began when it gradually became obvious that he seems incapable of controlling himself when it comes to sexual relationships with girls. When the story of his several women started becoming public, I dismissed it as untrue. I was like, that is how it usually is when one is becoming a success. I said that is the price every successful person pays. All kinds of stories – true and untrue – are woven around one. And I do realise that there are people, whose only job is to sit down and destroy others. But then the stories persisted, with neither Tu-Face nor the girls denying them.
The first confirmation which made me wonder was his photograph and that of one of his numerous girls, Pedro Adeniyi, taken during a party to celebrate one of his awards. At that time, the rumour was strong that Adeniyi, a divorced mother of two(?) was pregnant for him. Not many people believed it until the two used the opportunity of the party to confirm it. There, Tu-Face was with her, publicly clutching his manhood, and laughing foolishly. And there an obviously happy Adeniyi was, wearing a see-through blouse, obviously to flaunt her pregnancy for doubting Thomases. There is nothing wrong in a divorcee getting pregnant for Tu-Face, or the two of them getting married. But it turns out that Adeniyi would be the first of his harem to get pregnant.
Soon after she gave birth to a baby girl for Tu-Face, another lady, Sumbo, came into the arena, also carrying Tu-Face's baby. Soon, Sumbo gave birth to a boy. And Tu-Face organised a lavish naming ceremony for his second baby, the same way he organised for Adeniyi’s baby. Not long after, another young lady called Anne Macauley, a student / actress, who has been having an off and on relationship with Tu-Face surfaced again. I remember reading an interview granted by the young girl where she said her relationship with Tu-Face had become history. That was after both Adeniyi and Sumbo had had their babies. I was happy that Anne would then, at least, concentrate on her acting career, if not her education. But no. Like Adeniyi and Sumbo, she wanted a piece of the action. She wanted Tu-Face’s baby. And Tu-Face, the baby machine, did not disappoint.
Soon after, the press was awash with the story that three of Tu-Face’s girls – Adeniyi, Sumbo, and Anne – had become pregnant at the same time. Meaning that he was expecting three babies from three different women, to be delivered within a space of six months. They are happy. Adeniyi is carrying twin babies. Sumbo, another baby boy, it is rumoured. Anne was unfortunate. A couple of weeks ago, she was a victim of armed robbers along the road in the night. The trauma was too much for her. She had a mis-carriage, and lost a five-month-old pregnancy. That was soon after she was quoted as reportedly asking that all Tu Face’s children go for a DNA test!. And wait for this! Another girl, identified as Bimbo, 24 years, is also now pregnant for Tu-Face. Four girls, pregnant at a go!!
The questions one is eager to ask are: What sort of girls are Tu-Face’s girls? What sort of homes are they from? Is that the kind of life they want to live? He is not marrying them, yet they fall over themselves to get pregnant for him. Why? Each and every one of them knows that he has a string of other girls, still they stupidly offer themselves to him. Why are they proud to have his kids? Are they star-struck, or something? Truth is, Tu-Face has no respect for them, or for women generally. He is using them as play things.
Yet, most of the blame goes to Tu- Face because he is seen by youths as a role model. A couple of brands use him as their model, their ambassador. What he owes the youths, and those brands, is to be of good behviour. He has failed to do that. In more civilised countries, no brand will touch him.
What will he tell youths, who look up to him, about AIDS/HIV? What will he tell them about other Sexually Transmitted Diseases? Hasn’t Tu-Face heard of condoms before? Is he the only guy doing well as a musician? How much has he? There are, at least, six of them now, all doing Nigeria proud. How much money has he? On about four ocassions, he had been a victim of armed robbery attacks. Time has come for him to ask himself why he is always a victim.
But a word for his mother. No matter how big a star your son is, he is still your son. If his father cannot call him, and talk to him man to man, the time has come for you to give him a spanking, and tell him to put his libido in check! He has become an embarrassment.