The Nation Newspaper

Category: Life – The Midweek Magazine

  • Policing Nigeria

    Policing Nigeria

    My brief is to introduce you to this compendium of 21 well researched book by scholars and experts from a wide range of discipline- law, criminology, security, history, law enforcement, counseling and general administration. These experts have, in concise manner, presented in 21 chapters different issues that reflect as well as capture the title of the book: Policing and Crime Preservation in Nigeria.

    Today in Nigeria, few issues are as topical as those dealing with crime preservation and control. In fact, never a time in the history of this country, have we had the present level of insecurity kidnapping, insurgency, ethnic conflicts and robberies, among many others. With these myriads of security challenges, we are compelled to find solutions with the sole aim of solving them.  Among these solutions, one can identify the need for effective and efficient policing. This, the book describes as the bedrock of productive law enforcement. This book is therefore a modest contribution by the authors towards this effort.

    On the basis of the foregoing, the authors have endeavoured to explore the subject by hinging the work on three critical assumptions:

    First, policing is a necessary and inevitable aspect of modest society. The second assumption rests on the question of whether it is possible to have a police service that is modern, proactive and impactful in law enforcement. On the last and final assumption, the book has attempted to make suggestions which the authors strongly believe will help policing and crime prevention. In dealing with these issues, seriatim, I choose to address them under the following relevant aspects.

    On the issue of inevitability of policing modern society, the authors have argued that no modern society can exist without an efficient policing system. Policing is seen as a sine qua non for peace and the authors discussed the need to redirect the role and structure of the police, in particular the Nigeria Police Force, along the lines of modern professional policing paradigm for more impactful law enforcement. In the word of the lead editor:

    Whichever way we look at it, policing is important but telling career, full of toils and thanklessness. People find it so easy to derogate the police. This has been so even from the earliest times. The extent of police derogation is often expressed in all manner of nicknames given them by members of the public across the world. While some refer to them as vultures, olopa, flatfoots, yansanda, Babylon, bastards and lawdogs, the more nasty persons call them dicks, titheads, khaki, men in black, bloodgang, old bills, blue locust and drones, etc. Most of these appellations express dislike. But can we, for one second, imagine what our society will be like without the police. Of course there would be monumental anarchy.

    There is no doubt that most of these appellations express dislike, but despite this, the million dollar question pops up: “can we, for one second, imagine what our society will be like without the police. Of course there would be monumental chaos”, stated Bassey the lead editor.

    To the second assumption: it is possible to have a police service that is modern, proactive and impactful in law enforcement. In addressing the issue of the kind of policing we need, the need to redirect the role and structure of the police as discussed, in particular the Nigeria Police Force, along the line of modern, proactive and technologically driven. It argues strongly that the police must imbibe the culture of accountability and transparency, and more importantly in the case of Nigeria with more than 250 ethnic groups, effective policing system must recognise and take into account our straddled ethnic mores and peculiarities. The community, the book insists, must be made to buy into it.

    On the last and final assumption: the book has attempted to make suggestions which are strongly believed will help improve policing and crime prevention. These suggestions include:

    i. The need to put enlightenment programmes in place to educate the people or populace about ethics underling policing principle and practice.

    ii.The need for NPF to improve its management style, equipment and funding packages.

    iii. The need to bolster the morale of personnel of the force through the introduction of life insurance covers for police personnel.

    iv. Need for enhanced income, operational incentives disability benefits and recruitment entitlement.

    v. To check the level of police performance, an independent statistical evaluation of the NPF in crime prevention through crime survey needs to be introduced. This survey will provide an objective change to judge the police/law enforcement performance and change public perspective.

    This work certainly evidence ingenuity, organisational ability and a simple to read approach. Aside from the language and style of writing which is quite lucid, I am impressed with the thematic approach the editors have adopted in the treatment or discussion of the issues in focus. Right from the first to the fifth chapters, attempts were made to give us an insight into the origin, development and theoretical basis of the subject matter. Indeed, the evolution of the police force in Nigeria as well as the emergence of new crimes have been elaborately dealt with in these chapters.

    The next thematic approach is that which deals with uses of internal security concerns. In chaptersseven to nine, the entire fields of militancy, amnesty and peace in the Niger Delta as well as general issues of internal insurgency and national security have been handled with such panache and competence by the various contributors. Interestingly, specific attention is also paid to matters of policing internal conflicts.

    Another issue that has adequately been dealt with by the contributors is policing within the socio-economic relationship/human rights. –Chapters 10-17 cover issues of Peace, Youth, Spousal Violence against Women in Nigeria, Economic and Financial Crimes and Asset Tracing.

    Finally, there is the international dimension of policing that is treated under the topic ‘The police and peace-keeping operation’ by Dr. Okom in chapter 18 of the book. The last three chapters of the book, to wit: chapter 19, 20 and 21 deal with such key issues, Socio-situational Crime Prevention, Crime Information Management and Police and the Reintegration of Offenders in Society.

    Need I say more? The articles in this work are scholarly, characterised by intellectual depth and mind-stirring analysis and evocative arguments. Therefore, buying this book or keeping a copy will give you more than your money’s worth. The prints are good and readable. It is also in soft and hard cover. However, It is my considered view, indeed my suggestion, that the editors should make available to the reading public an e-version of this book. Furthermore, it is my hope and wish that at the next lunch of the revised edition of this book, the issue of state police should come up for discussion.

    I am honoured to recommend this book to you for your general reading and intellectual growth. For the lovers of Nigeria, this book is a must read.

  • Girl with hole in the heart needs N2.6m for surgery

    Girl with hole in the heart needs N2.6m for surgery

    human

    Stella Doherty, a 16-year-old SS3 pupil diagnosed with a hole in the heart is in urgent need of N2.6 million  for a hole in the heart  surgery  in India.

    The young Doherty, who is writing her last paper in the Senior Secondary School exams, started experiencing difficulty with her health in February when she came down with a mild headache which resulted into fainting fits.

    Upon a closer medical examination, an ECG test carried out at the State Hospital, Ijebu-ode, revealed that the problem was worse than originally believed. She was later transferred to the Ogun State University Teaching Hospital, Shagamu, where it that she has a hole in the heart.

    Speaking with The Nation, Stella’s mother,  Mrs Bukola Ogunade, said her family has struggled to raise the sum of N2.6 million to enable her daughter go for a operation in India.

    “Stella is a very brilliant girl. She told me that she wanted to study law and open her own chamber. But this sickness is threatening to kill that dream.”

    As part of several efforts to raise the money for the surgery, the mother said she had sold several of her properties  but the effort appears to be a drop in the ocean.

    “Since early February when she was diagnosed with this problem, I have been running around to seek help from people. I have even had to sell my jewelry and other things, but it is nothing near what we are looking for. I have had to borrow from friends and family members, but it is the same result. The doctor said the hole is still small, and that we should endeavour to raise the money for the surgery before it gets worse.”

    Part of her efforts, she said had taken her to the Kanu Heart Foundation. “I went to Kanu Heart Foundation, but the people on the waiting list are so many.  She needs treatment urgently,” she said amidst sobs.

    The first of three children, Stella has the dream of becoming a successful lawyer in the future but this  dream may die just as it is beginning to take form.

    The mother is appealing to Nigerians to help save her daughter from the clutches of death. “I want to appeal to Nigerians to please help me to save my daughter. We need the sum of N2.6 million for the surgery, and the doctors have said it must be done urgently.”

     

  • Anatsui gets Venice Biennale award

    Anatsui gets Venice Biennale award

    biography

    l Anatsui. An alumnus of the College of Art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, El Anatsui (b. 1944) is one of the most exciting international contemporary artists of our time. Throughout a distinguished forty-year career as both sculptor and teacher – he was Professor of Sculpture and Departmental Head at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka – El Anatsui has addressed a vast range of social, political and historical concerns, and embraced an equally diverse range of media and processes. His sculptures have been collected by major international museums, from the British Museum, London to the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the de Young Museum, San Francisco, USA; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York;  Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi; Osaka Foundation of Culture, Osaka; Museum of Modern Art, New York and many other prestigious institutions besides.
    His installations have provoked wide international attention in recent years, with institutions and audiences fascinated by these sumptuous, mesmerising works made from thousands of aluminium bottle tops. During the Venice Biennale, in 2007, he transformed the facade of the Palazzo Fortuny by draping it in a shimmering wall sculpture. In 2010, two major touring shows of his work opened on opposite sides of the world: El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You About Africa at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada (organised by the Museum for African Art, New York) and A Fateful Journey: Africa in the Works of El Anatsui at the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan. As part of the 2012 Paris Triennale, he transformed the entire facade of Le Palais Galleria, Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris with his striking work, Broken Bridge. In 2013, the Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA, exhibited the touring solo exhibition, Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, presented the artist with the prestigious Charles Wollaston Award for his work, TSIATSIA – searching for connection, 2013, which covered the entire facade of the RA building. In 2014, he was made an Honorary Royal Academician as well as elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

    Former art teacher at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) Prof El Anatsui was among top scholars honoured last Saturday at the awards and inauguration of the 56th international art exhibition at Ca’ Giustinian, the historic headquarters of la Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale).

    Anatsui received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

    The international art exhibition, which is being curated by Nigerian art scholar, Okwui Enwezor, has as theme, All the World’s Futures. Anatsui, a Ghanaian artist, was until recently, one of the most influential art scholars at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, where he lectured since 1975.

    Other awards presented by the jury were Special Golden Lion for Services to the Arts to Susanne Ghez (USA), Golden Lion for Best Artist to Adrian Piper (USA), Golden Lion for Best national participation went to the Republic of Armenia Armenity / Haiyutioun. Contemporary artists from the Armenian Diaspora, Golden Lion for the Best Artist in the International Exhibition All the World’s Futures went to Adrian Piper (The Probable Trust Registry: The Rules of the Game #1–3 (United States, 1948; Arsenale, Corderie), Silver Lion for a promising young artist in the International Exhibition All the World’s Futures went to Im Heung-Soon Factory Complex (South Korea, 1969; Arsenale, Artiglierie).

    The Jury also assigned three special mentions to artists of the International Exhibition All the World’s Futures. They are:  Harun Farocki (Germany 1944 – d. 2014; Corderie, Arsenale)

    Abounaddara collective (founded 2010 Syria, based in Syria; Giardino delle Vergini, Arsenale) and Massinissa Selmani (Algeria 1980; Corderie, Arsenale). The Jury honoured with a special mention the United States of America for their presentation of Joan Jonas, an artist of significant oeuvre and influence: Joan Jonas: They Come to Us Without a Word.

    According to Enwezor, the award is an important honour to an artist who has contributed immensely to the recognition of contemporary African artists in the global arena. “It is also a worthy recognition of the originality of Anatsui’s artistic vision, his long-term commitment to formal innovation, and his assertion through his work of the place of Africa’s artistic and cultural traditions in international contemporary art.  The Golden Lion Award acknowledges not just his recent successes internationally, but also his artistic influence amongst two generations of artists working in West Africa. It is also an acknowledgment of the sustained, crucial work he has done as an artist, mentor and teacher for the past forty-five years,” he said.

    The decision was made by the Board of Directors of la Biennale chaired by Paolo Baratta,upon recommendation of the Curator of the 56th International Art Exhibition Okwui Enwezor, acknowledging that with the following motivations:

    Born in 1944 in Anyako, Ghana, and based at the university town Nsukka in Nigeria since 1975, Anatsui is perhaps the most significant living African artist working on the continent today. The award for which I am recommending him is an important honor to an artist who has contributed immensely to the recognition of contemporary African artists in the global arena. It is also a worthy recognition of the originality of Anatsui’s artistic vision, his long-term commitment to formal innovation, and his assertion through his work of the place of Africa’s artistic and cultural traditions in international contemporary art.  The Golden Lion Award acknowledges not just his recent successes internationally, but also his artistic influence amongst two generations of artists working in West Africa. It is also an acknowledgment of the sustained, crucial work he has done as an artist, mentor and teacher for the past 45 years.

    A graduate of the sculpture programme of the acclaimed Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Anatsui’s career direction was determined not so much by the still neo-colonial 1960s curriculum of the art school as by his identification with the progressive cultural politics championed by Ghanaian and African cultural nationalists of the independence era. Working with everyday objects on which he imbued philosophical and idiomatic signs, Anatsui’s earliest work consisted of round wood reliefs inspired by trays used by Kumasi traders for displaying their wares.

    On these trays he carved adinkra motifs and other designs and in the process was attracted to the dynamic relationship between the rich symbolism and graphic power of adinkra signs. Once aware of this possibility of simultaneous evocation of significant form and idea in adinkra, Anatsui, who in 1975 joined the faculty of the Fine and Applied Arts Department at the University of Nigeria, expanded his field of artistic resources to other West African design and sign systems, and syllabaries, including Igbo Uli, Efik Nsibidi, Bamun and Vai scripts. In time, he became a leading member of the famed Nsukka School presented at the important art exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in 1997.

    Today, Anatsui remains committed to the development of new artistic forms from African sources as well as from materials available in his local environment.”

    But the Jury comprised Naomi Beckwith (USA), Sabine Breitwieser (Austria), Mario Codognato (Italy), Ranjit Hoskote (India), and Yongwoo Lee (South Korea), acknowledged an outstanding Biennale Arte 2015 with an increased number of national participations and a particular sensitivity to current geopolitical urgencies. It also marked the first International Art Exhibition with a dedicated space which emphasises the performative and discursive as an integral element in today’s art practice.

     

  • Picasso’s painting sells for $179.4m

    Picasso’s painting sells for $179.4m

    auction

    At Christie’s New York last week Monday night, a painting by Picasso became the most expensive work of art ever sold at an auction when it was picked up for $179.4 million; a Giacometti, purchased for $141.7 million, became the priciest sculpture bought at auction. In a mere 90 minutes, Christie’s sale of Impressionist to contemporary art, Looking Forward to the Past, tallied $705.9 million, well above a pre-sale estimate of $500 million. Every work but one found a buyer. The new owners are unknown, mostly winning their prizes anonymously via phone. It was the third-highest total on any sale in the house’s history, especially striking since there were just 35 items on offer, far fewer than in its previous record-breaking sales.

    “Recognizable assets are very much in demand,” New York dealer Daniella Luxembourg told Artnet News on her way out of the sale room. An amazing success, amazing,” said New York dealer Christophe van de Weghe.   The new highs were partly due to new collectors entering the art market.

    “Every one of the works in the top 10 tonight was bid on by very new clients,” auctioneer Jussi Pylkkanen said at a post-sale press conference. “Competing at the highest level were people who have been in the market only five or six years.” Bidders hailed from 35 countries.

    Showing partly nude women in a harem, Picasso’s Les Femme d’Algers (Version “O”), 1955, inspired an 11-minute bidding war, mostly between Christie’s postwar and contemporary art specialist Loic Gouzer, who spearheaded the sale, and Brett Gorvy, head of postwar and contemporary art, who were the sole bidders beyond $150 million. Each was accepting bids via phone from unknown bidders. When the hammer came down, applause broke out, and New York dealer Tony Shafrazi (who once vandalized Picasso’s Guernica, ironically) shouted out congratulations to the two of them from the sales floor.

    “They worked hard for a Monday night,” Shafrazi told Artnet News after the sale.

    The Picasso was based on Eugene Delacroix’s canvas of the same name and is the last of 15 of the series. Delacroix’s painting, which hangs in the Louvre, was based on a visit to a harem in Algiers, then newly a French colony. Christie’s had a direct financial interest in the painting, which was the subject of an 85-page catalogue the house published to promote it. The painting, just under five feet wide, brought $31.9 million at Christie’s in 1997 on an estimate of $10—12 million.

    Picasso’s canvas beat out Francis Bacon’s $142.4-million triptych Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which sold at Christie’s New York in November 2013, becoming the most expensive auction trophy.

    Coming in at second for the night and setting a new record for the priciest sculpture at auction, at $141.7 million, was Alberto Giacometti’s Pointing Man (1947), which surpassed the previous high for a sculpture, $104 million, achieved at Sotheby’s London in 2010 with a work by the same artist. His Chariot went for just over $100 million at Sotheby’s New York in November 2014 (see $101 Million Giacometti Leads Sotheby’s $422 Million Imp Mod Evening Sale). The only one of six versions hand-painted by the artist and one of two not in museums, the nearly-six-foot-tall work had remained in private hands since 1970. The Giacometti was one of the only top lots in the sale that was not guaranteed to sell ahead of time.

    “They were flying without a net on that one,” New York dealer Larry Gagosian told artnet News.

    “We offered the seller a guarantee,” Gorvy told Artnet News, “but he said ‘No, if it doesn’t sell, I take the work back.’ He might be a little upset that he actually sold it.”

    The hyperactive sale marked the start of an uncommonly busy week of auctions, with major sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips to follow later this week (see Will Twombly, Freud, and Rothko Lead Christie’s to A Billion-Dollar Night?, See Highlights of Sotheby’s and Phillips Spring Contemporary Sales, and Is Christie’s Abandoning the Impressionism and Modern Art Market?). It followed Sotheby’s lively Impressionist and modern art sale last week, the house’s second-highest in any category (see Mysterious Asian Buyer Causes Sensation at Sotheby’s $368 Million Impressionist Sale).

    Mixing historical and contemporary works “from Monet to Kippenberger,” the auction was masterminded by Gouzer, who also oversaw the headline-grabbing May 2014 contemporary art auction “If I Live I’ll See You Tuesday,” which exceeded its high estimate and set auction records for a dozen artists, from Joe Bradley to R.H. Quaytman (see Christie’s New Contemporary Sale a $135 Million Thumping Success). In 2013, he organized a record-breaking charity auction with Leonardo DiCaprio. “Looking Forward” was named for artists’ tendency to look to art history, as well as the house’s hope to sell historical work to collectors who have focused on contemporary art.

    The sale was heavily guaranteed, with the house, or a third party, agreeing before the sale to pay a certain (undisclosed) price for more than half the lots on offer. First pioneered at Sotheby’s in order to coax reluctant sellers, these guarantees have become a way to insure record prices.

    The third-highest sale of the night was Picasso’s Buste de femme (Femme à la résille) (1938), which brought $67.4 million, well above its $55-million estimate. It was also guaranteed to sell by the house and shows a bust of the artist Dora Maar against a bright red background.

    Estimated at $30–50 million, Mark Rothko’s No. 36 (Black Stripe) (1958), fetched $40.5 million to come in fourth. It had been off the market since 1984, when the seller bought it from Zurich dealer Thomas Ammann. The painting shows three of Rothko’s trademark floating rectangles, black, red, and orange, floating before a pale red ground.

     

     

  • Performing self causes stir

    academy

    A University of California, San Diego Professor has caused   a stir with his class syllabus with a final exam that students take in the nude.

    The final exam for the upper lever class, titled: Performing the Self, involves 20 students, plus the instructor, nude in a candle-lit room.

    Unsurprisingly, the final exam has at least one mother up in arms. An anonymous parent told KGTV-TV that this assignment is “just wrong,” and shows Dominguez’s “perversity.”

    She added: “To blanketly say, ‘You must be naked in order to pass my class’—it makes me sick to my stomach.”

    “It is very all controlled,” Professor Ricardo Dominguez told a local ABC News affiliate, KGTV 10 News. He said he’s actually been handing out the provocative assignment for 11 years, and that this is the first time anyone has complained. “It’s a standard canvas for performance art and body art,” he told KGTV. “If they are uncomfortable with this gesture, they should not take the course.”

    Art students, if recent headlines are any example, generally don’t mind getting nude for a good cause (see Naked Youths Take to Mexican Streets to Protest Student Killings Documented by Édgar Olguín and Texas Student’s Nude Performance Art Project Goes Viral).

    According to the the class description on the Department of Visual Arts website at UC-San Diego, students in the course “[Use] autobiography, dream, confession, fantasy, or other means to invent one’s self in a new way, or to evoke the variety of selves in our imagination” in order to explore “the rich possibilities available to the contemporary artist in his or her own persona.”

    The final assignment is to “create a gesture that traces the outlines or speaks about your ‘erotic self(s).” Parents and shy students might want to take note that “figurative nudity” is also acceptable.

    “We had a choice between being nude or doing something emotionally ‘naked’ and every student but one chose to do the nude performance,” one former student wrote on KGTV’s Facebook page. “It was uncomfortable for some of us but we were adults and knew what we were getting ourselves into from day one of the class.”

  • Alexis hosts The Other World

    Exhibition

    A solo art exhibition titled The Other World byChika Iduwill open at Alexis Galleries, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Saturday,  May 23 from 5am to 9 pm.

    The show will run until May 30 from 10:00am to 6 pm .

    According to the gallery, it is the show ‘we have been preparing for some time now, with more than 30 reasonably priced works. Chika’s works are breath taking.

    Chika was born in 1974 in Delta State and had his early childhood and education in Lagos. He got his higher education at Auchi Polytechnic in Edo State in 1998. In 2000, he and eight other painters opened a studio in Ebute-Meta, Lagos called Defactori Studio where he was elected coordinator. He created the first ever water colour society of artists called ‘Sables’

    His works are characterised by its heavy texture and hazy rendition, he calls this technique ‘light against visual distortion’. He has been painting this technique for 16 years and he is inspired by observing the behaviour of light striking against visual imperatives like dust and misty fog.  He specialises in oil and water colour. His favourite tools are pallet knives for oil and sable brushes, tooth-brush for water colour.

    Chika’s favourite themes are women and children and he sees himself as an activist, he sees his work as the beginning of a dialogue and not the dialogue or the end of it.

     

  • NGO calls for entries

    NGO calls for entries

    Teaching Visual Art, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) has called for entries from art teachers for this year’s virtual art exhibition in commemoration of  UNESCO International Arts Education week.

    It is an online art exhibition for   art teachers to further create awareness for art education and art appreciation with the theme Art education for sustainable development.

    Entry format includes a digital image of art works (painting, sculpture, metal works, ceramics to be sent via email with the following information, art teachers’ name, name of school, title of work, media, contacts and short description of work.

    Entries should be submitted by email to: teachingvisualart@gmail.com. The deadline  is  Friday,  May 22. Online exhibition date/platform is between Monday, May 25 and  31 May on www.teachingvisualart. blogspot.com.

    Teaching Visual Art is a creative social enterprise that provides diverse platforms for promoting, encouraging artistic engagements and to increase the community’s awareness on the importance of arts education. It is a strong advocate of art as a means of unlocking innovation and creativity, and dedicated to serve children from various backgrounds and culture.

  • Ekitipanupo marks 10th anniversary May 23

    lecture

    Ekitipanupo, the pre-eminent Ekiti socio-political group, will mark the 10th year anniversary of existence on May 23 with a public lecture and presentation of Ekitipanupo Legacy Book (ELB) at ABUAD Hall of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti at 9:00am.

    Emeritus Professor Michael Abiola Omolewa, an Education Historian and President of the 32nd Session of the General Conference of UNESCO, will deliver the 2nd Ekitipanupo lecture.

    The chairman of the event with the theme, Rejuvenation of Ekiti bond and values is the first elected Governor of Ekiti-State, Otunba Niyi Adebayo while Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), the Founder Afe Babalola University is the special guest of honor. The discussions session on the theme will be moderated by Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN, onetime pro-Chancellor University of Ibadan.

    The Legacy Book was packaged by Okan Seye Adetunmbi, the Convener of Ekitipanupo Forum.

    Chief SB Falegan, one-time Managing Director of Federal Mortgage Bank wrote the foreword while Prof Niyi Osundare the renowned poet wrote a blurb for the preface.

    The  pictorial legacy book will be reviewed by Prof J. O. Aina of Babcock University and Prof Bolaji Aluko, the Vice-Chancellor of Otuoke Federal University. Chief Segun Oni, one-time Governor of Ekiti-State will unveil the book while  Architect Lanre Olayinka, Prince Adedayo Adeyeye, Federal Minister of State, Ministry of Works and Yemi Akeju will be the Lead Presenters of the ELB to the public.

    Ekitipanupo Forum was convened on March 6, 2005 as an indigenous think-tank and intellectual roundtable under the leadership of Prof Akin Oyebode of Faculty of Law University Lagos on March 6, 2005.

    The 10th anniversary will debut Ekitipanupo Timeless Merit Award and Prof Senator Banji Akintoye, Chief  Falegan, Dr Mrs Adebimpe Okunade, Chief  Babalola and Prof Omolewa made the maiden list of awardees.

  • Clergyman advises youths on talent use

    Clergyman advises youths on talent use

    competition

    Representative of The Living Word Family, David Babajide Nadi has emerged the overall winner of LAGOS SHIFT 2015 Ambassador organised by the National Youth Affairs of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Lagos. It was held at the premises of Cricket Arena, Tafawa Balawa Square, (TBS) Lagos.

    The event, which was tagged: Exceeding Expectation drew together thousands of youths and was held simultaneously in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja featuring comedy, dance expression and music. Nadi emerged winner after winning the music category and Precious Uban, an 11-year-old boy from the Mountain Top Secondary School won the round up prize. Dance Evangelists, a group comprising six members won the dance category. There were auditions held in seven centres around the country before selection of about 10 contestants for the final phase of the competition. Winners emerged from different categories of performance such as comedy, dance, public speaking and singing.

    The Special Adviser to General Overseer of RCCG on Personnel and Administration, Pastor Johnson Odesola said that programme is aimed at harnessing the gift of today’s youth toward a brighter future.

    He noted that the anomaly in today’s world could be corrected by this generation that has enormous abilities, vigour, talents and skills which when utilise on godly principles would create a more just, equity and peaceful society.

    He blamed the increasing spate of insurgency as a result of long years of neglect, marginalisation and indifference to the well being and development of young people.  Odesola said that ‘records have shown that between the ages of 15-17 years old, boys are being used by members of the Boko Haram sect in the name of Alamagris to foment mayhem and terminate innocent souls because government and other stakeholders failed to catch them young’.

    He went further to appeal to the new ambassador to keep the light shining and represent the interest of Jesus Christ in all that they do.

    He continued: “RCCG is quite doing a lot in that regard, to empower the youth who are talented in various professions. Various programmes are being mapped to make this happen”.

    National Youth Pastor of RCCG, Pastor Belemina Obunge said that the faith based initiative which is aimed at discovery and harnessing the talents of young people started in Lagos in 2012 and has spread to other parts of Nigeria and the world.

    He also said that the shift initiative has gone beyond Nigeria and has visited Dubai, Istanbul, Nairobi, South Africa, Ghana in the past 4 years.

    Obunge noted that the programme helps to expose youths to morally and ethically sound ways of living so they in turn can influence others as well as offering them opportunity to express themselves by showcasing their talents, gifts and creative abilities.

    He said ‘as Christian youth of this generation, our best is yet to come. We are trusting God to break more grounds, do more exploits, reach out more for the lord and be the best in all that we do’.

    Human Resource Management Consultant, OluJimi Tewe challenged the youths to leverage and explore their talents, skills and the ability in them for the betterment of the society. “You are the solution to your generation and until you understand that, you will realise that you cannot save your generation,” he said. He noted that the world is facing hard times as all the sectors of the nation’s economy is yearning for change, new ideas, concept and critical thinking, which can be done by a solution driven youths.

    Tewe believed that God is still in the business of raising men from the dung hill to the mountain top of success if they could only trust him and give their best to whatever task they are given to do.

    He observed that there are youths who want to achieve success without a dint of hard work, which is a misnomer and not sustainable for anyone who wants to get to the top and stay on top.

    Nigeria music maestro, Cobams Asuquo advised the youth to make judicious use of their time as chances and opportunities will come their ways to reach stardom but ‘our preparation to harness those opportunities will matter a lot.’

     

    caption

    Pastor Charles Kpandei, Odesola , Nadi and Pastor Toks Adetayo

     

  • Artist shares his experience in the other world

    Artist shares his experience in the other world

    Everybody who lives in Lagos is aware that Lagos is a busy place. The morning and evening traffics make it unbearable for those who live on the mainland and work on the island, a contemporary topic which makes Lagos more of a suffering and smiling place for many, even though the place is called the Centre of Excellency.

    Chika Idu, a contemporary Nigerian artist who lives and does his painting in Ikorodu but goes to the island to market his artworks, said the traffic in Lagos forced him to abandon his car for boat. The artist said he was struck by the activities that go on in the water when he started using the route

    He said: “Lagos is a very busy city with a very poor road network. A 20 minutes trip can turn into a three hours journey, so I sought an alternative to driving; a friend introduced me to the ferry terminal, what a relief….now I can reduce a four hours journey by three hour thirty minutes. A ferry ride is quick and relaxing; from the lagoon, I began to see Lagos from a whole new angle but the peace is quickly disturbed when I sight the dredging that goes daily on hourly basis”

    In order to create awareness and draw attention towards these activities, Idu said during a press session last week in Lagos that 20 of his recent watercolour and oil paintings will be on display on Saturday, May 23, at Alexix Gallery, Victoria Island, Lagos, which he is using to campaign against this. The exhibition with a theme: The Other World; will run until May 30. “The Other World is more of environmental awareness campaign due to my experience on the water from Ikorodu to Victoria Island.

    “The water is calm, the boat ride gives a different view of Lagos but you cannot totally ignore the rate of environmental liquidation and pollution that goes on in the water and the boat ride is not very safe because of the high buildings creating a caution over the waters. There are signs that say this part of the water is safe or unsafe,” said the Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State, graduate.

    He is of the view that there is an urgent need for the government to check what goes on in the lagoon. “The last time I counted eight dredging companies scattered from Ikorodu to Victoria Island, tons and tons of plastics and unidentified objects submerged floating in the waters, families living by the river banks defecating, dumping, washing and at the same moment fetching water for cooking and children swimming in the waters, I mourn for the life that is supposed to be underneath these surfaces, the waters look dead,” he pointed out.

    With Idu’s emerging awareness for environmental pollution, natural disaster and health hazard, he fears what will happen if the storm should strike. He believes natural disaster could occur if the sand excavators are not controlled. Also, he pointed out that the waste and defecation, which the inhabitants discharge into the lagoon, could lead to health catastrophe.

    “Through my works, I have tried to draw attention to the subject, how it should not be necessary, how it is, with the intension to open a dialogue on our endangered marine,”he said.

    His works are characterised by its heavy texture and hazy rendition. Idu calls this technique “light against visual distortion”, a technique he has used for 16years, inspired by observing the behaviour of light striking against visual imperatives like dust and misty fog.

    His themes are women and children. He sees himself as an activist and his work as the beginning of a dialogue, and not the centre of the dialogue or the end of it. “My work is around children because they also have problems such as child abuse, child trafficking; children becoming the breadwinners of their families, the negligence and the abuse, which children are forced to endure. I know this has been banned in Lagos but do you know what goes on after a law is enacted?”

    You may say Idu is a painter who changes your mood about life when you look at his paintings; this you will see in works such as Task, Dept, Descend, which will also be on display.

    Idu specialises in oil and watercolour and he works with pallet knives for oil and sable brushes, tooth-brush for water colour. His works have his footprints at the back of the canvas. He is from Delta State.

    He had his early childhood education in Lagos. In the year 2000, he in conjunction with eight other painters opened a studio in Ebute-Meta, Lagos, called Defactori Studio, where he was elected coordinator. In the same year, he created the first ever watercolour society of artists called Sables. He is currently an art teacher at the French International School Lagos. He has participated in over ten group exhibitions and many solos.

    The exhibition is being curated by Mrs. Patty Mastrogiannis. She said: Chika’s work can diversify very low key paintings and vibrant colours. He actually can switch moods as he paints.

    “His work is very nicely palliated and he uses the media which is not very easy to copy. You will immediately know Idu’s work when you see it. His style is unique and I have been dealing with Chika for the past three years and we have been doing well in terms of sales. We are very proud to show him in Alexis Gallery even though he is not signed under us.”