The query introduced renewed consideration to an expertise Tems has beforehand described as traumatic. In 2023, the Nigerian star mirrored on being arrested in Uganda and held for 2 nights, calling the scenario “so scary.” The incident stemmed from a December 2020 present she carried out within the nation. Although the live performance organizers insisted that every one permits had been secured and well being pointers had been adopted, native authorities claimed that COVID-19 social distancing guidelines had been violated.

Tems has stated she believed the scenario was orchestrated. “We didn’t break the rules but it was basically like set up,” she recalled. After the efficiency, she and her supervisor had been of their resort room when a number of males arrived unexpectedly. “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.”

Her worry grew as soon as she realized she was being detained. “That was so scary. I spent two nights in jail. … I thought I wasn’t gonna come out,” she defined. She described attempting to make sense of the second, saying, “Maybe this is for me to help these people in this prison. It was crazy, I’m not gonna lie.”

Tems later mirrored on the ordeal in a Dec. 13, 2021 post on X: “This very day Last Year, I was sitting in prison in Uganda bonding with women and kids… All I can say is God is too awesome and He will always have the last and final laugh.”