Tems looked back on one of the more frightening moments in her career when she was arrested in Uganda and placed in prison.
The Nigerian singer appeared on Angie Martinez’s show to discuss the incident, which took place in December 2020. Tems had a show in Uganda during the COVID-19 pandemic, after the country was no longer in lockdown. While the concert organizer assured her that they had all the necessary permits for her performance, it seems that they had still broken COVID social distancing regulations.
“We didn’t break the rules but it was basically like set up,” she told Martinez. “After the show, the police came, they weren’t in uniforms. They just knocked on my hotel door—we were eating lunch or dinner, my manager and I. And they just came and said we should follow them … so [my manager] went with them, but they came back upstairs to pick me up.”
Tems continued, “That was so scary. I spent two nights in jail. … I thought I wasn’t gonna come out. I thought … I was seeing this for a reason. Maybe this is for me to help these people in this prison. It was crazy, I’m not gonna lie.” She shared that she started to cry when she walked in and they gave her a uniform and that there are no beds, so you sleep on the floor.
She said that the experience, “made me stop caring about so many things," and added that "ll the women in there, they were there for nothing."
Tems explained that she didn’t know when she would get out. “I didn’t have any ears on the ground, nobody told me anything," she said. "Outside people were like, ‘Free Tems, free Omah Lay’ but inside I was just hopeful, waiting. There’s no calls, you can’t make a phone call.”
Tems addressed the incident on X, tweeting on Dec. 13, 2021, “This very day Last Year, I was sitting in prison in Uganda bonding with women and kids. I almost can’t believe the things I’ve seen so far. All I can say is God is too awesome and He will always have the last and final laugh.”
