The Nation Newspaper

Category: Life – The Midweek Magazine

  • Voice of the mortalised patriots (Dedicated To Benedict Odiase)

    There was a country

    Exited gallants came and conquered and appreciated

    But, a popular music patriot was humiliated

     

    There was a country

    Account sank and serpent swords were appreciated

    While a pen pusher and patriots were humiliated

     

    There was a country

    Philanthropist, moguls and Aristocrats were appreciated

    But ex-service compatriot was humiliated

    Still unity we all acclaimed

    Though I was laid to rest

    The earth stands to chant my tone daily

    As the nation calls to obey

     

    There was a country

    Accolades for geese divide the ganders

    Oh! Inhabitants of south-south

    Why did you hide your pride?

    Oh!! Comrades of Edolites where is your Diamond?

    Western world Aristocrats treated silent

    But athletes and lads shoulder high and glorified

    I am for peace, let my soul thread for immortality

  • Greenwood House School wins APEN competition

    Greenwood House School in Ikoyi, Lagos has emerged winner in the Association of Private Educators in Nigeria (APEN)/Grace Schools Senior Primary Spelling Bee Competition. The competition tagged “Super Spellers” had 51 participants from several schools in Lagos and it held at Grace Schools, Gbagada, Lagos.

    A 10-year-old Primary 5 pupil, Fitrah Adegbite, who represented Greenwood House School, defined his achievement as a result of the intense support and training given to him by his teachers at Greenwood House School. He was very happy that his hard work and commitment paid off.

    Commenting on the pupil’s performance in the spelling bee competition, Greenwood House School Co-founder and Administrator, Dr Titilola Ekua Abudu, explained that the school is always committed to giving its pupils the best education. “In view of this, the teachers spend quality time preparing the pupils for competitions like this and the management is highly impressed about the success of the spelling bee,” she said.

    On how the pupils were prepared for spelling competitions, Dr. Abudu said: “Learning at the Greenwood House School is a journey. The pupils practice regularly and for the finals at least, three times daily. A teacher is primarily assigned to each pupil with other teachers to support. Sometimes they spare time after school to train. We applaud competitions like this as they play a role in motivating students to work hard and we are extremely grateful for the opportunity extended to us to partake.

    “Learning in a safe and secure environment, the Greenwood House School pupils grow into well-rounded, cultured individuals, who are fully equipped for life’s journey. The school runs a British curriculum in particular the Cambridge primary syllabus, which is an enabling approach to learning for the pupils and provides wider academic enrichment. Greenwood House School provides an ultimate learning environment to nurture each pupil to discovering their talents, developing mental strength and self-confidence as well as developing the ability to live and work well with others.”

    Greenwood House School has been awarded membership status by the Council of British International Schools (COBIS). COBIS is an organisation in service of British International Schools around the globe. This membership indicates total quality assurance and reiterates Greenwood House School’s commitment to excellent all round quality education for pupils and its dedication to teacher training.

    Greenwood House School Principal, Mr. Ronald Cilliers, expressed delight at the COBIS membership, adding: “This membership status simply attests to the quality of education that we provide for our students and the opportunities we create for our teachers to excel. We will continue to put our best foot forward in educating our students and providing a solid educational foundation for them.”

  • ‘June 12 not for jamboree’

    The solo performance by Ade ‘Guitar’ was in sync with the mood of the select audience, who gathered at the launch of Do not die in their war, written by Dele Farotimi, a lawyer, activist and author. Although, Ade’s renditions were a mixed grill of oldies and pop music, they were an elixir rather than mere entertainment. The book, a treatise on Nigeria’s contemporary political trajectories, was presented at Kongi’s Harvest Art Gallery, Freedom Park, Lagos. The guests were mainly activists, writers, producers, arts enthusiasts, friends and relatives of the author, Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME reports.

    TO lagos lawyer, activist and author of “Do not die in their war”, Mr. Dele Farotimi, declaring June 12 as Democracy Day may have silenced some non-progressives. However, according to him, it should not be seen as a holiday per se. June 12, he noted, is about the birth of a nation out of the hotchpotch of the people held bound by the Nigerian state. He added: “We remain in limbo because we continue to deny the truth of our reality.”

    The annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election remains one of Nigeria’s national calamities, which regrettably, successive administrations refused to learn from. According to him, the two decades of democratic governance in Nigeria have proven that all hopes were badly misplaced.

    Farotimi, who read his book at the presentation, said the declaration of June 12 as the authentic Democracy Day has rightly silenced the “liar of Owu”, and the “devil of Minna”, noting that it was designed to do exactly that.

    Reading from the prologue of his book, Farotimi said: “Silence is no longer the option, considering the increasing spate of violence, kidnapping and other vices across the nation.” He added that he was sounding the alarm in the hope that “we have not travelled too far down this road towards national destruction”.

    “Nigeria was better than this, and can be much better than it has become…Today, the goal of government appears to be aimed at the segregation of citizens along class lines, and opportunities for class mobility have been strangulated. Nigeria has become a feudalistic entity where the circumstances of a man’s birth determine his future.”

    To him, the younger generation is defined by cowardice, whereas, the likes of the late Beko Kuti, Gani Fawehinmi and Tai Solarin were men who spoke for the voiceless and did not do so for personal gains, adding that many of them did it at the cost of personal liberty and lost economic benefits because of their commitment to the betterment of the society.

    He read on: “Many were jailed, assaulted several times, physically and emotionally, and their means of livelihood were destroyed. They spoke truth to power in the ages of the ‘unknown soldiers’, and were physically brutalised with impunity…Is it accidental that nobody in my generation has acquired the capacity to speak as the men in my hero’s generation? I think not. I believe that we are all products of the environment that nurtures us, and Prof Wole Soyinka’s generation was imbued with a sense of purpose that seems completely obliterated in my own generation.”

    Noting that his generation has no vision of the Nigeria state, Farotimi observed that the younger generation had no high ideals to live up to, no windmills to charge, and idealistic dreams died quickly in the economic maelstrom that witnessed the youthful years. He warned that Nigeria is raising children who cannot survive in the country being bequeathed to them, if things are not quickly reversed. “It is this harsh reality that has now loosened my tongue and woken me from inertia,” he added.

    Speaking on a chapter in his book: “June 12 and the aborted nationhood”, he said some Nigerians stood for June 12.  “Nigeria is a state that has denied citizenship to her inmates, a denial predicated on a refusal to be just and equitable to all, regardless of ethnicity and or religious affiliations. This is why snakes may dance in Igboland, but the same state will tolerate the pogrom and genocide in Benue trough and Southern Kaduna. All animals are equal, but some are more equal than the others,” he said.

    On The power of memorial, Farotimi said he still believed President Muhamadu Buhari is playing politics, and he cannot be happier at the politics that has provided the opportunity to remember because ‘we lose everything that should be gained when we forget, as they had planned that we should.’

    According to him, selective amnesia has become a national affliction and the government has been the chief culprit in the enforcement of this national malaise.

    “We forget the dead, we forget their sacrifices, we obfuscate their purposes, we denigrate their memories; the living in their refusal to remember, jettison the lessons that should guide the future. How many remember the thousands killed in the never-ending terrorist attacks? Why have we no memorials for the innocents bombed to death and handicapped by the Nigerian Airforce in Bama? Who remembers the several victims of Nyaya bombings?

    “Why do we always seem in a hurry to forget?  We have become a people that remember nothing, but we also forget nothing. The Igbo who were not born until years after the war will regal you with legends of Yoruba betrayal of their forbearers; the Yoruba will tell tales of Northern oppression and the beat goes on inexorably,” he says.

    Farotimi noted that Buhari would love that we remember June 12 for Obasanjo’s egocentric refusal to remember and for Babangida’s loss of any credibility to speak as a statesman. He, however, urged Nigerians to remember the day and the struggle for reasons that the powers-that-be would prefer that we forget.

    Responding to questions, he urged that the Nigerian system can neither be tackled nor retrieved because the system is unfit for any useful purpose that is beyond exploitation. “The first thing you mute about the Nigeria state is the multiple layers of citizenship. The multiplicity of citizenship is a function of inequity that contravenes the Nigeria system.

    “When you talk about quota system, you are talking about the reservation of advantages. But, you must never forget that, in the reservation of any advantages, there is a guarantee of disadvantages to somebody else. So, while the advantages are good to someone, the advantages are also equally an act for another,” he noted.

    In his remark, Movie Producer Mr. Femi Odugbemi said that more than ever before, Nigeria is in dire need of credible voices to carry a torch for equity, justice, compassion, and empathy for the common man.  “This is a book that can trigger transformation. It is peppered with lots of anecdotes and history of Nigeria. It is not a novel rather it is a serious book for someone who wants to exercise the intellect. It is a book for progressives and it is extremely intense. Dele is a pen warrior,” Odugbemi said.

  • Foundation marks one year of helping children 

    Hope Rising Homes Foundation has celebrated the first anniversary of its Orphanage. The ceremony was held at the Foundation’s office in Ikola, Ipaja, Lagos State, OLATUNDE ODEBIYI reports

    Orphans and vulnerable children were celebrated on May 27 in Lagos State at the first year anniversary of Hope Rising Homes Foundation Orphanage, a nongovernmental organisation saddled with the responsibility of giving orphans, vulnerable and at-risk children a better life.

    It was a gathering of not just the children of the orphanage and members of staff, as families, friends and well-wishers also came to celebrate the children.

    The event featured donation of several items including food stuffs, drinks and toiletries to the children.  A sewing machine was donated to a senior secondary school 2 pupil, Faith Abass. There were also side attractions, including singing, dancing, eating and drinking.

    According to the Founder, Mrs Titilayo Lawal, who was represented by the Head, Social Worker, Obiasor Uche, the Foundation was set up to provide children with hope for a brighter future and vision of life beyond their present vulnerable situations.

    She said establishing the Foundation was borne out of the passion, drive and love for vulnerable children and to be a voice for them.

    “We  had seven children; three have been given out for adoption. They are between 10 months and seven years.”

    “This anniversary is to celebrate the children to have a sense of love and belonging. The Foundation strives to provide food, housing, education, and health care services as well as rehabilitation, and clinical and faith-based counseling services to the children. We also provide opportunities for them to pursue either educational and/or job training, and other skill enhancements needed to become productive citizens.

    “We hope to offer positive role models to guide and mentor these children, because we believe the children will overcome their negative pasts, and move on to bright and prosperous futures. We also believe that with the proper intervention, the children will thrive, develop to their full potential, and positively influence and contribute to their immediate communities and to the society at large,” she said.

    She decried the act of mothers dumping babies, saying the babies in the Foundation, picked from the streets are healthy and doing fine.

    “Parents, especially mothers should celebrate their children, because many people are out there who do not have children. So, do not abandon your children for any reason,” she warned.

    She thanked the Foundation for the machine donated to her, saying it will be useful to fend for her family and contribute meaningfully to the society.

  • ‘Now, I am ready to meet with General Paul Tarfa’

    As a young man, veteran journalist, Oloye ‘Lekan Alabi, escaped being flogged by Gen. Paul Tarfa (retired), then a Nigerian Army Colonel and Military Administrator of Old Oyo State. In this writeup, Alabi recounts the experience and more.

    In 1978, an officer and gentleman of the Nigerian Army, Colonel Paul Tarfa, was posted to the old Oyo State as the Military Administrator, taking over the mantle of leadership from the then Colonel David Medaiyese Jemibewon (now a retired Major-General), who was the Military Governor of Western State, until the state was split in 1976 into three: Oyo, Ogun and Ondo states.

    Col. Tarfa, before his posting to Oyo State, had acquired the unenviable nickname of “Colonel Koboko”, in Lagos, given to him by motorists, particularly the lawless class of traffic violators – largely commercial bus (Molue) drivers and their ‘cousins’,  some private vehicles owners/drivers, derisively called, I go drive myself.

    By the time Col. Tarfa was posted to Oyo State, my dear state of origin and its capital city, Ibadan, my beloved  home town, I was a student at the famous College of Journalism, Fleet Street, London, United Kingdom.

    On returning home in 1978, not only had I heard of the ‘upbeat’ reputation of the Oyo State Military Administrator, Col. Paul Tarfa, but as a reporter, first with the Sketch Publishing Company Limited, Ibadan and later with the Nigeria, Television Authority(NTA) Ibadan, the offshoot of Africa’s first television station, the Western Nigeria Television (WNTV, Ibadan 1959), I also heard first hand information from Col .Tarfa’s direct victims or those close to them. He was said to be unsparing with the “Koboko”(horsewhip) on erring motorists and any other lawless road user, be they motorcyclists, bicycle riders or pedestrians. The fear of Col. Tarfa was said to be the beginning of road wisdom.

    I had covered assignments for the Sketch newspapers and NTA Ibadan, involving the Oyo State Military Administrator, Col. Tarfa and the state officials, but never had a personal interaction with any of them.

    I never knew that my special report on the record-breaking Opa Water Dam of the then University of Ile-Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), in the present Osun State), would draw me the ire, as it were, of Col Tarfa. This is the story.

    I had embarked on the special assignment on Unife’s Opa Dam, considered a special assignment, because the university had constructed a private dam within its campus that could supply treated/potable water for its use, and that of the surrounding community. Thus taking its staff and students out of the burden of a poor/insufficient public water supply.

    I visited the university with my crew, interviewed the Vice-Chancellor, the engineers, who performed the feat, some students, community elders before capping these with a royal interview with His Imperial Majesty, the then  Ooni of Ife, the late Oba Adesoji Aderemi.

    My job done within a reasonable time,we headed for the station in Ibadan, where I would do a live presentation on the 7.30pm “Views and Reports”.

    On approaching the entrance gate of Unife, we saw a blaring convoy ahead of us from the opposite lane. I told our driver to slow down, alerting my camera man to prepare his camera ready for action, as we would follow the convoy, since discovered it to be that of the state Military Administrator, Col. Tarfa, if it turned into the university campus.

    True to my expectation/prediction, Col Tarfa’s convoy turned into the campus. Pronto, our driver made a u-turn, and we followed the convoy into the hall where the Military Administrator was going to declare an international workshop open.

    Although the assignment was not on my schedule, I used my initiative to cover the opening speech of Col. Tarfa, packed our gadgets and departed the venue, as I had a live presentation to make in Ibadan.

    It was the old shaggy, winding Ibadan-Ife Road, notorious for fatal motor accidents. Thank God, we made Television House, Agodi, Ibadan, in the nick of time.

    My colleague, Folu Ogundimu, the editor on duty, now a professor teaching journalism in the United States of America, was fuming as I rushed into the studio to make my live presentation! It was the nearest thing to a job failure, as the greatest boxer in history, The late Muhammad Ali, said his second world boxing heavy weight title fight with the late Joe Frazier was “the closest to death”.

    After a well-presented report of the Unife Water Dam project, I bounced home a happy reporter, who apart from meeting his deadline, also had a bonus report in the can, as it is technically called in broadcast media parlance, for use the following day.

    Never did I imagine that I would be sent for by the Military Administrator the next morning for an undeserved military drill!

    We, as was the editorial norm, were reviewing the previous day assignments and preparing for the day’s schedule, when, suddenly, the Editorial Department door was kicked open. Two military policemen, followed by the Press Secretary to the Military Administrator, the late Mr M.A Babalola, and one other official burst in.

    All of us froze at the sight of guns, and when the Senior Editor (Reportorial) Femi Idowu, found his voice to ask for their mission, Mr Babalola, pointing at me, said: “That’s him, ‘Lekan Alabi.”

    Pronto, the two military policemen rushed at me, guns cocked, ordered me to follow them out. By then, all my colleagues had recovered from their shock and encircled me, warning the soldiers to back off and daring them to shoot us all.

    The resultant commotion had attracted our colleagues in the Newsroom and adjoining offices, who went to report to the General Manager, Mr (now Dr)Yemi Farounbi and the Manager News and Current Affairs, Fabio Lanipekun.

    They both invited our unexpected visitors to Dr Farounbi’s Office, as my dishelved colleagues kept asking me the reason for the invasion. As I had no clue, I kept telling them that it was a surprise to me, as it was to them.

    Fabio, our ever-cool boss, came for me, and took me into his Office. He told me to calm down and asked me if I had had issue(s) with the Military Administrator or any state government officials. I replied in the negative.

    He left me in his office to join the General Manager, who was waiting with the invading team in his office.

    Despite the invading team’s insistence that I be produced to follow them to their boss, Col. Tarfa, who, was waiting for me in Government House, Agodi, the GM and the MNCA declined to produce me.

    After some hours, the GM and the MNCA returned from the Government House. They summoned us, Editorial Department staff, to the Station’s Boardroom, and recounted their encounter with the Military Administrator and some state government officials at the Government House.

    The GM, Mr Farounbi, said on getting before the fuming Military Administrator, Col. Tarfa, he asked who between him and the MNCA, was “the foolish ‘Lekan Alabi, who had the audacity to order the NTA Ibadan news crew out of the Unife Hall yesterday” before him, His Excellency the Military Administrator exited the venue?

    The GM said the government officials present, particularly the Press Secretary, Mr Babalola, shouted him down, when he (Mr Farounbi) introduced himself as ‘Lekan Alabi to Col. Tarfa. He said the Military Administrator got angrier that the wanted reporter he saw the previous day at Unife was not as heavily-bearded like him. And, he would not grant them audience until I was brought before him.

    When the GM  asked for my offence, he  said the Press Secretary replied that I abandoned the M.A at the venue and after all failed to feature the Unife workshop news in the station’s evening news.

    The MNCA was said to have then asked the Press Secretary if he sent an official invitation of the Unife assignment to the station or any of its staff. Mr Babalola admitted his mistake. It was then the GM told Col. Tarfa that I had covered the Unife workshop assignment on my professional initiative. They promised the M.A a “judicious use of the news tonight”. Everybody was said to have smiled, after the GM’s promise to use the M A’s material that evening was made. I was thus ‘saved’ from the wrath of “Colonel Koboko”.

    Wonders will never end. Five years after the Col. Tarfa episode, exactly in February 1984, I took over from Mr Babalola, as the Press Secretary to the then Military Governor of the old Oyo State (present  Oyo and Osun states), Lieutenant -Colonel Oladayo Popoola, now a retired Major-General.

    On Wednesday, May 15, this year, I saw General  Paul Tarfa (rtd) on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Network News, talking about his new Federal Agency Board Chair appointment. I silently congratulated him and made this wish of my readiness to meet with him now – forty years after escaping from his ‘koboko’ lashes!

    But, Dr Yemi Farounbi, a former Nigeria Ambassador to the Philippines must be present.

     

    • Oloye Alabi is Agba Akin Olubadan of Ibadan land and a former Press Secretary to four former Governors of old Oyo State.

  • Unbreakable, recipe for mental illness, premieres

    With the increasing spate of mental illness among the youths in the country, one of Nigeria’s film producers, Bukky Campbell, is offering a 90-minute movie entitled: Unbreakable, as a guide to assist the society in dealing with such challenges. The movie, which will be premiered at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, is a story about mental health, love, husband and wife who just got married.

    Unbroken Partnership Ltd, producers of Unbreakable, in partnership with The Institute of Arts and Culture, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, will screen the new movie on September 21 at the CRAB, Uniport. Unbreakable is written by renowned arts writer, Sola Osofisan and directed by Ben Chiadika.  Filmed on locations in and around Lagos, it features movie stars and frontline actors such as OC Ukeje, A’rese Emokpae, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Ebele Okaro-Onyiuke, Bimbo Manuel, Wendsy Lawal, John Dumelo and Uche Mac-Auley.

    The producers of the movie hope to highlight the ongoing conversation on the state of mental healthcare in Nigeria and the sub-continent. Unbreakable tells how the couple, who were returning from honeymoon, was faced with challenges of mental illness and how the husband sought treatment.

    Speaking during a preview session of the movie in Lagos, Campbell disclosed that the production team adopted the unusual method in producing the movie.

    “We had to stay away completely from glitz and glamour, which are what people are used to in the industry. At different points, we still had questions about no makeup, why is she looking like this? But, the truth is mental health is not glamorous. It is not pretty. It is not beautiful. At some points in time, if you want to show the rawness of what it is, then, you will need to be true to the story. We were in a frame, and we decided not to astray from that frame, because, in order to potentially tell the story, we had to forget every other thing that did not relate with the story. That includes lifestyles that most Nigerians want to see in movies,” she said.

    On how the movie can serve as therapy to target audience, she said for mental illness, what works for one doesn’t work for others, adding that there is a peculiarity to seeking help to mental health because there is no one side to it all. “What works in this situation might not work in other situations. But, the most important thing is conversation. And once the conversation starts, we are hoping to start it and take it from one place to another,” she added.

  • Nike Okundaye extends love to less-privileged

    Renowned artist and curator, Chief Nike Okundaye, recently  marked her birthday by having fun with the less-privileged in the society. Although May 23 was her birthday, instead of celebrating it elaborately, her foundation, Nike Art Foundation, in collaboration with Ford Foundation, organised a one-week workshop targeted at extending love to humanity and change the life of  the less-privileged  in the society. The workshop, with the theme: “Reviving Indigo, Adire Textile Processing Culture”, attracted over 180 participants, comprising women, less-privileged ones and youths, who were taught on modelling and simple marketing techniques, among others. It held in Kogi State.

    During the event, participants were encouraged to design different “adire” patterns, using natural vegetable indigo for dyeing different fabrics, and they were exposed to the use of natural alkaline in preparing  ashes of cocoa pods. They were also taught  to prepare cassava paste, which is the main medium of designing Adire patterns, using chicken feathers, among others.

    Speaking at the workshop, Okundaye said each participant would have earned some money realised from sale of the end product, adding that since they have been taught  how to set up their own adire workshops, it will be easy for them to do so.

    She also said: “With that, they can produce the fabric for sale and earn multiple streams of income from what they do. We are thereby economically empowering our rural people in the targeted communities, creating more jobs for the youths in the society, while taking their minds off white collar jobs.”

    The curator expressed appreciation to supporters of this year’s edition, such as Global Travel Learning Fund Organisation and other artistes. She used the occasion to thank all those involved in making the workshop in Kogi State a success. She, however, promised to extend the training workshop to other states.

    Okundaye, who appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to support her initiative, advised government to give creative industry utmost priority, adding that there is so much Nigeria can do through creative industry if only  government can put more efforts in developing the industry.

    “We are also running recycling programmes for the unemployed boys. We have more than three different programmes for the boys this year. My fifty years’ experience in business has been a great journey and it can only be possible by God. This year’s Ogidi festival would give opportunity for the people to showcase their works. We will exclusively focus on showcasing the workshop attendants’ works; thereafter, the people will come to Lagos for the same purpose,” Okundaye said

     

  • US-based photographer celebrates Nollywood stars

    It was a gathering of arts connoisseurs, Nollywood stars and corporate gurus when Alliance Française, Mike Adenuga Centre, on Osborne Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, hosted an exclusive preview of   Nollywood Portraits: A Radical Beauty, a solo photography exhibition by a New York-based Nigerian photographer, Iké Udé. The exhibition, which will run till Sunday, June 16 , was attended by guests such as Executive Director Globacom Mrs. Bella Adenuga Disu; Curator SMO, Mrs  Sandra Mbanefo-Obiago; Project Manager Nollywood Portraits, Osahon Akpata; actors Sadiq Daba, Ozzy Agu, Uti Nwachukwu and Eku Edewor, among others. There were also several filmmakers in attendance. They included Mahmood Ali-Balogun, Tope Oshin Ogun and Charles Novia.

    The exhibition, which was curated by African Artists Foundation (AAF), and sponsored by Ford Foundation, is showcasing 64 enthralling portraits of members of Nigeria’s vibrant movie scene, Nollywood. In the portraits, which are full length and captured in uniquely elegantly style, Ude’ orchestrated a histrionic filmic atmosphere of light and colour, whereby the industry’s illustrious veterans, in company with the next generation of emerging talent, pose in classically staged shots. Pictographic depiction include a cross-section of industry personalities, such veterans as Olu Jacobs, Sadiq Daba, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Genevieve Nnaji, Stephanie Okereke Linus, as well as Kunle Afolayan and rising stars such as Alexx Ekubo, Enyinna Nwigwe, Linda Ejiofor, Kehinde Bankole and several others.

    Explaining the distinctiveness of his style, Ude said it came from his background as a painter. “I was formerly a painter; hence, my photographs employ a painterly language and longer-time process in the making of the pictures.” The “making-ness” of the picture is the definitive word because the portraits that emerge are no longer just pictures showing a moment of time captured by exposed film; they become works of art realised over periods of time.

    “The whole exhibition is in colour. There are 64 individual portraits and one grand group portrait of all the subjects which I named: “The School of Nollywood” a reference to and departure from Rafael’s 1509 fresco, The School of Athens, which can be seen at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The painting is of a grandiose architectural framework, depicting prominent philosophers of Greek antiquity, posed in a manner whereby they dominate, but do not crowd their environment,” he said.

    Read Also: My life as Ambode’s photographer

    Ude described Nollywood as the Nigerian and African mirror par excellence while revealing his immeasurable admiration for members of the industry because of their industriousness, tenacity, can-do-attitude, cleverness, confidence, swag, etc.

    With these portraitures, Udé seeks to complement the discourse on the representation of Africans in cinema, from colonial domination and inferior stereotypes to one of intellect and creative agency in telling our own stories.

    Speaking of what makes a photograph memorable, Ude said: “The style, the how (composition, form, lighting, colour) and other precious, unquantifiable intangible poetics. I think that emphasis on political or socio-political content of a picture becomes irrelevant once the topical issues of the picture fades or are forgotten with the passage of time. But an exquisitely and imaginatively, well composed picture is invariably timeless in its appeal, regardless of when or where it was made”.

    Udé is an aesthete, dandy, writer and founder of the seminal art fashion print magazine aRUDE, 1995-2009. In addition to the accompanying coffee table book, Nollywood Portraits: A Radical Beauty published by Skira in 2016, he is also the author of Style Files: The World’s Most Elegantly Dressed, published by Harper Collins in 2008 and Beyond Decorum published by M.I.T Press in 2000. Vanity Fair included him in the magazine’s International Best Dressed List in 20092012 and 2015.

    He has been described as a master portraitist along with Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt van Rijn and Andy Warhol and has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions and has been reviewed in a number of publications including Art in America, The New Yorker, Art Daily, L’UOMO Vogue, Flash Art, and The New York Times. His articles on fashion and art have been published in magazines and newspapers worldwide.

    Throughout his innovative career, Udé’s works have been exhibited at Leila Heller Gallery, New York (2013), the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence (2013), the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis (2014), the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam (2014), the Palm Springs Museum of Art, Palm Springs (2015), and the National Academy Museum and School, New York (2015), amongst others. Udé’s work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian National Museum, Washington D.C., The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Museum of Art and Design (MAD), New York, the New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT, the Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum, Providence, RI. He currently lives and works in New York

     

  • Promasidor donates to orphanages

    Promasidor Nigeria Limited has donated products of high nutritional value to less-privileged children in orphanages in Lagos as its contribution to their upkeep. The gesture was to commemorate the annual World Milk Day, which held on June 1.

    The company is a leading player in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector, and the makers of Cowbell Milk, Loya Milk, Miksi Milk and other quality brands such as Sunvita, Top Tea, and Onga Seasoning.

    The World Milk Day is set aside by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations to recognise the importance of milk as a global food item.

    To mark the day, Promasidor donated Cowbell Milk, Miksi Chocolate drink, Cowbell Strawberry and Sunvita, all rich in vitamins and minerals, to So-Said Charity Home in Okota; Tower of Refuge Orphanage, Surulere; Bab-Es-Salam Home, Ikeja and Little Saints Orphanage in Egbeda, all in Lagos State.

    Category Manager, Dairy and Beverages, Promasidor Nigeria Limited, Vincent Olayinka, said the company through its flagship brand, ‘Cowbell, Our milk’, embarked on the initiative as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) to celebrate children and enhance their nutritional intake.

    He emphasised that Cowbell, Our Milk, contains special blend of vitamins and minerals known as Vitarich, and it especially, contains Vitamin B9 for cognitive development of children. He further explained that the donation was part of the brand’s mission to celebrate World Milk Day with the children of these homes.

    According to Olayinka, the initiative is an annual event, as the company did same to five orphanages last year to mark the event.

    So-Said Charity Home Administrator, Roseline Banks, while receiving the products, commended Promasidor for the gifts, saying it is worth emulating as they would help keep the children healthy with all the nutritional values attached.

    At Towers of Refuge Orphanage, its Administrator Mercy Arinze  applauded Promasidor for alleviating the plight of the less privileged. “When l was called that my orphanage would be visited, I was elated and thanked them for the goodwill. I am delighted as a beneficiary and will ensure the gifts are well utilised,” she said.

    There were also smiles on the face of Hassan Tahir, Head of Bab-Es-Salam Home, who received the products. He said the orphanage has been existing for the past 28 years and that some of the children have grown up to be students in tertiary institutions across the country, while some others have worked in various organisations in Lagos. “It is a pleasure for Promasidor to remember us at this time of World Milk Day.  I urge other organisations to emulate what the company has done in order to reduce difficulties in orphanages,” Tahir stated.

    Appreciation was also shown at Little Saints Orphanage. George Mathew, who is a Pastor of Christian Youth Fellowship attached to the orphanage, extolled Promasidor and its team for extending their kindness to the children.

    Promasidor has been at the forefront of promoting children’s wellbeing. For over 20 years, Cowbell has encouraged secondary school pupils to develop interest in mathematics through Cowbellpedia Secondary School TV Quiz Show.

    The company’s Loya Milk brand has nurtured swimming talent among pupils through the Loya Swim Meet competition, which has been held in various cities across the nation.

    Also, Promasidor, through its career guidance workshop christened Promasidor Harness Your Dream, has helped pupils to make proper career choices that relate to their talents, attitude and dreams in their educational pursuits.

     

     

     

  • Rivers community gets free medicare

    It was a week of joy when 3,853 residents of Bakana community in Rivers State received free medical services at a five-day medical mission conducted by the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation.

    The outreach, the 32nd by the Foundation,  tackled  health challenges in rural and semi-urban areas across the Niger Delta by giving access to quality medical services.

    Clinics included pediatrics, optometry/ophthalmology, dental, physiotherapy and surgery. Treatments included 156 Dental, 165 Physiotherapy, 113 surgeries, of which 56 were herniorrhaphy and 43 eye surgeries.

    1. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation Chairman, Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs, recalled that High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, who the Foundation was named after, believed in abundant life.

    She said: “In 2014, during the inauguration of one of the many health facilities, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs supported in his lifetime, he stated: ‘Even if it is just one life we can save, or one person’s pain we can alleviate, it is a good beginning. And the more people and organisations that can provide similar services, the more people we can help collectively’.

    “Working in partnership with other organsations in the government, non-government, private sector, and academic sectors is one of the secrets to our success. The power of strategic collective engagement on common issues, as espoused by Dr. O. B. Lulu-Briggs, is demonstrated and affirmed by the cooperation which has made this medical mission possible. We would like to use this opportunity to invite you all to join forces with us on this or any of our other initiatives.”

    Mrs. Lulu-Briggs was represented at the mission by the Foundation’s Director of Programmes, Mrs. Ineba Ideriah Tongkam. The Bakana Medical Missions Team comprises 150 medical and 20 non-medical volunteers, including a team lead by Dr. Sobomabo Lawson from the Kalabari National Association Inc, United States, who partnered the Foundation on the mission.

    Lawson said: “The Kalabari National Association is grateful to the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation and other supporting bodies for bringing succour to the people of Bakana town.”

    Prof Victor Dappa thanked the Foundation for its continuous support to the community and others across the Niger Delta.

    Michael Braide, one of the patients, appreciated the Foundation for helping the needy.

    In addition to its medical missions, the Foundation has, among others, donated a N50 million Health Centre to the University of Port Harcourt. It also funded research on Parkinson’s Disease to the Rochester Research Institute in New York and to the Virginia Keiley Benefaction of the University College Hospital London.

    In partnership with specialists, the Foundation also carried out campaigns on the following non-communicable diseases: Parkinson’s disease (2010), Prostate Cancer (2016), Kidney Disease and Diabetes (2018).