The Nation Newspaper

Category: Life – The Midweek Magazine

  • When Doves Fly lands at Ibom Hall

    When Doves Fly lands at Ibom Hall

    A new stage play Ibiom: When Doves Fly, which will feature Ini Edo and erudite Prof Ahmed Yerima, former director-general of the National Troupe of Nigeria, and carry out an extensive theatre clinic for the youth, will hold on April 30 and May 1 at Ibom Hall in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.

    Anchor Insurance is supporting the production.

    Managing Director/Chief Executive of Anchor Insurance, Mr. Augustine Osegha Ebose reiterated the need to strengthen our cultural ethos through platforms as provided by this stage play.

    He noted that Anchor as a socially responsible corporate citizen was further buoyed to be part of this initiative by the offer for the free theatre clinic which will see highly esteemed Yerima fly into Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State Capital to engage over 500 youths in a three-day session. The sessions would see the don take interested youths through the fine rudiments of theatre from costuming, dance, elucidation and more.

    According to Ebose, this underscores the vision of Anchor especially in the area of youth engagement and empowerment.

    For Mr. Joseph Edgar, an investment banker and theatre producer, Ibiom- When Doves Fly offers not only the people of Akwa Ibom but also Nigerians the opportunity to better delineate our history, putting it within the right context while packaging it to serve as a trigger towards an effective renaissance in the country.

    The play, according to Edgar, will tell a story of courage and love. It will also pull together  the ethnic groups that make up  Akwa Ibom State while also engaging the legendary Arochukwu people of Southeast who share a historical lineage.

    “It will expose audiences to a wide and varying kaleidoscope of colors, costumes, cuisines, loving folk tales in a sweet mix of sporadic dances carefully curated to elicit spontaneous appreciation from audiences. Over 50 different dances will envelope the Ibom Hall in Uyo as over 25 actors and dancers take to the stage.

    Edgar said the performances would be executed under very strict COVID guidelines as the famed Ibom Hall would only take 30 per cent of its usual capacity hence, the plan to live stream the show to a wider audience globally, he said.

    Producers have received clearance from the Akwa Ibom Hospitality and Tourism Board, The States Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the state Ministry of Information.

  • Osofisan stirs debate on ‘love’ with Medaye

    Osofisan stirs debate on ‘love’ with Medaye

    A select audience of reporters, literary critics and arts buffs recently converged on Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, for a reading performance of Prof Femi Osofisan’s latest play, Medaye: A Re-Reading for the African stage of Euripides’ Medea. Venue was Helendale Suites in highbrow Agodi neighbourhood of Ibadan, OYEYINKA OLUDAYISI FABOWALE reports.

    The performance, a collaboration between the foremost dramatist, Prof Osofisan, on one hand and Prof. Kunbi Olasope, a professor in the Department of Classics, University of Ibadan, was directed by Dr. Tunde Awosanmi of the university’s Theatre Arts Department.

    It explores and attempts to interpret the Greek classic from the African historical, social and cultural perspectives in line with an international experiment at encouraging writers and artists to share, explore and integrate themes and elements of literary/artistic works from various cultures in theirs to explain and deepen better understanding of issues and concerns across the world.

    Medaye is a product of this drive by Osofisan, who is a member of the advisory board of the Berlin-based Comparative Literature and Interweaving Performance Cultures Research Centre at the Freie University, Berlin, Germany, behind the movement. It is also a campaign by Prof Olasope for the playwright to help adapt some classical Greek dramatic literature for the African audience as a means of promoting the study of Classics among students, especially prospective undergraduates for whom the discipline barely appeals due to misperception that it is irrelevant to contemporary society. The erroneous view was responsible for an attempt at a time to scrap the department, which produced the likes of erudite lawyer and politician, the late Chief Bola Ige (SAN) and reputed technocrat and boardroom guru, late Deacon Gamaliel Onosode.

    It is reckoned that highlighting cultural similarities shared by the Greeks and indigenous Africans, particularly the Yoruba can help awaken the flagging interest in the subject. Olasope’s persistence was, in fact, instrumental to the writing of Women of Owu, and Tegonni, Osofisan’s adaptations of Sophocles’ Antigone and Euripides’ Trojan Women.

    Of course, a Femi Osofisan performance is not one anybody watches having a feeling of Déjà vu! No matter how many times he has seen the same play or is familiar with the story, there is always the unpredictable, the novel and the dizzyingly spectacular awaiting the spectator in every fresh expression of his work, especially in the weaving and thickening of the plot that drives the audience up the climax of suspense and ultimately to a delightful catharsis.

    The experience with a new offering is then best imagined.

    Based on Euripides’ Medea, an old tale of love and passion, Medaye is a tragic drama in which the protagonist sacrificed and lost all including her entire family to unbridled jealousy. Insane fear of losing her husband to another woman and blinding lust for vengeance incited her to kill her two children and aid the death of her beloved husband on the battle field. She realises her folly rather late as she became victim of political/military intrigues that consume everything she herself ever lived for!

    Although it draws substantially from the original Grecian text, Medaye is a creative attempt that reveals Osofisan’s distinct voice, force and skills as a dramatist of great talent, especially with respect to exploration, expansion and elasticity of the theme, plotting and other elements of the dramaturgy!

    This spurred lively debate at a postmortem session which the playwright had specifically invited and said would guide the final outcome of the play, he remarked, in his unassuming character, as “still a work in progress” when introducing the play to the select audience, gathered under a big canopy on the lawn of the breezy ambience of the luxury hotel that cool evening.

    The discussions centred essentially around Osofisan’s tendency to generate controversy with the multi-sided and multi-layered perspectives, themes and mechanics of his art. Some participants at the post performance workshop queried some lines in the play including Medaye’s obdurate objection to her husband taking a new wife as an incredible grafting of European monogamist culture, which was alien to the largely polygamist African society.

    But others rose in their defence remarking that the overly overtone and bias for feminism were hallmarks of many Osofisan’s plays and should, therefore, not surprise at all, as the playwright had a pedigree for speaking up for women in his works.

    Some participants, apparently forgetful that it was merely a reading performance, quarreled with the dramatics, characterisation as well as historical and cultural validity of some of the songs used to frame some of the acts, the relevance of which the contents suggested lie well after the 19th century Yoruba tribal wars in which the play was set.

    Although Director Awosanmi offered justification for his judgment, he was unconvincing in explaining the entry and exit of a noble like Kurunmi (Ropo Ewenla), a ruler and field marshal of the Yoruba nation, shorn of protocol and accompanying flourish and regale. Ditto for allowing his being disrespected by defiant Medaye and the Akunyungba, a writhe of professional women singers who hung around her house singing abusive songs to humiliate her rival and indeed anyone in support of her husband’s bid to bring her home. It is hardly possible that a rump of his subjects would extend such custom to a foremost personage such as the leader of an imperial army who also doubled as viceroy of a formidable kingdom as Ijaye, over a trivial domestic matter, some critics argue.

    However, for those who perceived cultural dissonance between the dramatic text and its classical sibling the playwright reminded that the play was not an adaptation as such, but “a re-reading” as indicated in the title, which implied rupturing, re-interpretation and refashioning of the old story and message to suit and address present as well as emergent issues and situations.

    Although not a costumed production, the actors, (who all wore a uniform of black vest on jeans) gave a most entrancing performance, going beyond the scripts to entertain the audience with thrilling music, dance, choreography and evoking the magic and powers of the African pantheon! The spectacle was so superlative that a guest, apparently a stranger to live performances declared it was more than TV and church drama shows he was used to and there and then confessed his conversion as a theatre fan!

    Members of Ibadan arts circuit notably UI Department of English’s Prof. Nelson Fasina; veteran broadcaster, Yomi-Layinka; renowned African visual artist, Tunde Odunlade; Ebika Anthony, a poet; Educare Trust’s Moshood Folorunso and other guests in the audience were unanimous  that the play was yet another masterpiece from Osofisan’s creative studio bound to shatter box office records when it eventually goes on stage, an event they said they could not wait to see.

    • Fabowale is Ibadan-based writer
  • Family head for burial

    Family head for burial

    The remains of the head of the Eshanokpe Family, Mr. John Oyovovwiroro  Eshanokpe, will be buried on Saturday, April 24, at the family compound in Ughwrughelli-Agbarho in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State after a  service of songs.

    The body leaves the General Hospital, Orho Agbarho at 8am. There will be a short Christian service before the funeral. This will be followed by traditional burial.

    Aged 70, Eshanokpe died on December 14, 2020 at Enerhen, Warri after a brief illness. He is survived by his wife Doris, three children (Onome, Oghenovo and Uruemu) and over 10 grandchildren.

     

  • Way forward for survival of Igbo language, culture

    Way forward for survival of Igbo language, culture

    Communicating in one’s mother tongue does not indicate that one cannot speak or understand other languages, including the English language. But the interest shown in the deployment of the English language in an average Igbo man’s every day conversation in the stead of the Igbo language signifies a dangerously speedy descent to linguistic and cultural extinction of Igbo language and culture if nothing fast is done to promote the use of Igbo language and culture among future generations. AMBROSE NNAJI examines the implications.

     

    Speculations that the Igbo language and culture may soon seize to exist has raised serious concern among the people. This is because owners of the language have decidedly chosen to embrace foreign language in their everyday conversation, even in the homes; a situation that tends to place the Igbo language in a retrograde state. The implication is that the Igbo may lose their linguistic and cultural identities in the scheme of things.

    As a means of communicating values, beliefs and customs, language has an important social function and nurtures feelings of group identity and unity. Language is central to cultural identity.

    A particular language points to the culture of a particular social group. So, it can be deduced that language is a part of the culture and through it, cultural beliefs and values can be expressed. Specific usages of a given word are peculiar to a language and its relationship with culture.

    The United Nations (UN) had declared the International Mother Language Day as proclaimed by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

    International Mother Language Day is celebrated every year to promote the awareness of language and cultural diversity all across the world. It’s believed that languages are the most powerful way to preserve and develop culture and to promote it all across the world.

    According to UNESCO, when 40 per cent of the world’s inhabitants do not have access to education in the language they speak or understand best, it hinders their learning as well as their access to heritage and cultural expressions.”

    Ms. Audrey Azoulay, the UNESCO Chief has noted that: “For when a language dies, a way of seeing, feeling and thinking the world disappears, and all of cultural diversity is irretrievably diminished.”

    The National Coordinator, Igbo Women Forum, Mrs. Nneka Chimezie, put the responsibility of the declining Igbo language on parents whom she accused had failed to communicate effectively with their children in their mother tongue.

    According to her, if a child can’t speak his/her language, it’s the fault of the parents. She noted that a child who could not speak his/her mother tongue had no identity, you are defined by your language, she added.

    “A child is identified by the parents, if the parents are Igbo, the child becomes Igbo, and therefore the first language a child speaks is the one it hears from the parents, that makes the home the bedrock of language.” She said once a child was created by God, he learnt first the mother’s tongue.

    Mrs. Chimezie is also the chairman of Ekwe Kuo Ama Agbaa, an Igbo newspaper that was launched recently by the Indigenous Language and Culture Initiative (ILCI), to further promote the Igbo language and culture.

    The launch accompanied the unveiling of Igbo Language and Training Centre at the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Secretariat in Lagos State.

    While advocating the culture of speaking one’s mother tongue, especially in the homes, the National Coordinator of the Igbo Women Forum stressed the need to guard against the prediction that the Igbo language would go into extinction.

    She, however, assured the group would not relent in its efforts in spreading the news around and telling the owners of the language to embrace their mother tongue.

    “We will do whatever we can to save our language. Igbo language is a dying language of a living people. We appeal to all Igbo to join hands in promoting the Igbo language and culture. We call on all well-meaning Igbo to join in the crusade to save our language,” she said.

    To save the Igbo language from extinction, Mrs. Chimezie said programmes had been mapped out to salvage the situation.

    According to her, the group is looking at offering scholarships to anyone who wants to study the Igbo language as a course in any tertiary institution. This, she said, would enable them to have enough teachers to  teach the language.

    She spoke of working with the committee set up by the Alaigbo Development Forum (ADF) to sensitise students, especially in the Southeast, to the need of speaking their mother tongue. Evening schools would be established to teach the language, she added.

    John Chukwu, who is the initiator of ILCI, said the group had instituted Igbo Language Fans Club across schools in Lagos State. He urged the Igbo to leverage the UNESCO awareness campaign on the importance of language to further the usage of their mother tongue.

    The group distributed books and other gift items to students as a way of encouraging them. The idea, he said, was to encourage students to speak their language even though it’s the English Language they speak in school. According to him, the move has afforded some children the opportunity to know their origin.

    Chukwu said Ekwe Kuo Ama Agbaa had been unveiled to also serve as a document to help the Igbo, especially the younger ones, learn to read and write their mother tongue.

    “We came up with this newspaper to educate and encourage our people to begin to read in their mother tongue, and see it as a way of disseminating information effectively among themselves,” he said.

    “We do not want the Igbo language to disappear; we want our children, especially those who were not born in Igbo land to also learn to speak the Igbo language because it’s their mother tongue,” he said.

    Chukwu said the newspaper would be used effectively to communicate and pass this message across to all Igbo, including those in the Diaspora.

    The Secretary of the Alaigbo Development Foundation, Emmanuel Ifeanyichukwu Mok, stressed the need for Igbo national revival in culture, economic development and social integration.

    He traced the dominance of foreign culture, including way of worship to the belief system adopted by the Igbo. Mok insisted that it was not everything of the foreign culture that was blameless, adding that it’s false teaching through Christian doctrine that Blackman’s culture and traditions were not morally good.

    “This is very largely false, our culture is better in many ways. Our language is as forward-thinking and developed; in fact, in many ways more expressive.

    “Our Proverbs, idioms and belief systems are more honourable in many ways. In fact, ours follows Christian Jewish doctrines,” he stated.

    Mok urged Ndigbo wherever they lived to begin to hold family, community, and town as well as street meetings to discuss the way forward for the Igbo.

    “Truly, we have neglected our own and embraced foreign beliefs through language, culture and Christianity. It’s not in our culture, we need not live in isolation and we need to rediscover themselves,” he said adding that “lack of integration and unity has denied the Igbo man so much in Nigeria.”

    Mok urged the Igbo to support and patronise their local firms to grow so as to create employment and boost their economy.

    The President, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Lagos State, Chief Solomon Ogbonna Aguene, observed that some Igbo who were born in the land could not even speak their language, and yet they were heritages of the land. He described it as an abomination to their ancestors.

    He called on Igbo women leaders to be properly involved in the crusade.

    “You can never get it right if you don’t know the culture and tradition of your homeland, especially the language through which you were taught moral and ethical behaviours, how to train your children, and make peace with that particular language,” he said.

    Aguene urged Igbo to proudly express themselves in their own mother tongue. He also urged them to come out boldly and make effective use of the media to present themselves in the limelight, adding that Igbo have everything they can think of in life, including noble ideas.

    He noted that the Igbo were a beautiful set of people in language, dressing and food though lacked the self-assurance to proudly communicate in their own mother tongue.

     

  • Safeguarding the ivory towers

    Safeguarding the ivory towers

    Title:  Campus Security  Management: Insights  from the Frontlines’

    Author:  Paul Ogidi

    Publishers:  Slimmar Concerns Nigeria LTD

    Pagination:  200

     

    The contemporary realities on campuses of tertiary institutions, particularly in Nigeria, have given strong signals that there is a need for very effective, efficient and professional security operations on these campuses for conducive, resourceful and enabling environment, for research learning and teaching to be guaranteed.

    Managing security threats is therefore key to achieving the foregoing objectives and this is where Paul Ogidi’s book, Campus Security Management: Insights from the Frontlines, becomes a goldmine for security professionals who desire effective and efficient security Management on campuses of tertiary institutions anywhere in the world, particularly the Nigerian clime.

    Divided into thirteen chapters, the over 200-page book, is expository, highly educative, illuminating, enlightening and inspiring on the subject matter it treated. It also has a very good, thick cover which is equally beautifully designed.

    While the author’s overriding intent is to teach security practitioners and managers how to do their job much better on campuses, the fact that his teaching are further strengthened with many testimonies from his personal and professional experiences as Head of security of a first generation University, is apt.

    Thus, in sharing his experiences, he engages the reader fruitfully, taking him or her through the elaborate processes of doing the job and ensuring that positive impact is made and positive results are achieved. Each chapter of the book deals with an aspect of security Management on campus that is very germane, and dependant on one another.

    In chapter one, Ogidi elucidates on general introduction to security, touching carefully on such concepts as the two broad aspects of security operations, i.e State Security and Corporate or Industrial Security.

    According to him, State Security are those security agencies established by government, they include the Police, Army, Air Force, and other para-military agencies like, Customs, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, and Department of State Services among others. While the Corporate Security organisations are mostly privately owned security firms which are licensed by the Government to provide security services. He stated that campus security operations does not require license from government since such security services are limited to the campus premises. Ogidi concludes this chapter by explaining the main services of the corporate security organisations, especially as applicable to the tertiary educational institutions.

    The author explicates on Campus Security in chapter two, tracing its origin to USA in 1894 with the establishment of the Yale Campus police department by the authorities to check constant face- off between students and host community in New Haven.

    He explains that such challenges as students and host community face-offs and other issues related to crimes being committed on campus, among others, had necessitated the formation of campus security in all tertiary institutions across the world and in Nigeria particularly.

    The author then concentrates on his case study, the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria, where he had served as the Head of security for several years.

    He discusses exhaustively the nature of campus security system, its aims and objectives, mission and vision statements, functions, structure, and using the OAU campus under his watch as an example, he touches on the standard operational procedure (SOP) of Campus Security and explains such aspects of the SOP as the CSO’s secretariat, Security Outpost, Fire Services, security communication and control, security monitoring and general security duties as well as Surveillance and Training. The writer also describes the general operations of the campus security system. He gave very professional views on all the concepts under this area.

    In chapter three, the author discusses Elements of Campus Security Operations, some of which he identified as Security Liaison which according to him, is about establishing a good relationship with the State Security Agencies. Other relevant topics in this Chapter also includes, application of Intelligence cycle, managing campus security and  proper handling of staff and students of the institution in terms of safety and security as well as effective Management of information of value and Intelligence.

    Drawing from his experience, he stresses the need for security personnel in higher institution to be very discreet and careful regarding the management of information so as to avoid fueling crisis and breaching security plans and designs.

    He hinges on experience as being more germane to managing campus security system in comparison to the number of books a security manager would have consumed. Hear his professional advice about this sensitive matter:

    “It is significant to note that most self-acclaimed security experts are addicted to security books, journals, class consciousness, security workshops and seminars. These books, journals and workshops/seminars prescribe several measures and methods of neutralizing a threat. All these are good and complimentary, but do not make one a true security professional. What makes one a true security professional is one’s years of Frontline practical experience in security activities, passion and intrinsic motivation for it and how you have been able to manage existing and emerging threats including security breaches, as an individual, as a team player and as a security administrator.”

    A practical application of security investigation was well explained by Ogidi in chapter four of his book and in this area, he shares with the reader, the procedures involved in apprehending suspects in such a way that such a reader could simply become a detective without having an adequate, prior knowledge of security operations.

    He cited some detailed examples of arrests made on the OAU campus through very thorough series of investigations by his team.

    The author also discusses those germane attributes of an investigator in Campus Security.

    While the book’s chapter five details Ogidi’s professional views on how to protect Very Important Personalities (VIPs) on campus , who, according to him , are the members of the school Management and other principal officers, chapter six deals with a very important area of campus security management which is management of student Union activism on campus. Here , Ogidi draws generously on his experiences in OAU to share with the readers on how to handle this sensitive area of campus security management.

     

    He discusses, to the benefit of readers, such issues arising from managing students’ activism which include managing extremism in students’ activism, curtailing excesses of students’ political activities on campus.

    His sincere discussion on this aspect of security management leads him to put in proper perspectives, certain incidents that gained global attention such as the 1999 gruesome murder of student activists including the late General Secretary of the students’ Union Government of OAU, late George Iwilade, the dangers and legal implications of student activists taking laws into their hands in dealing with suspected cultists or criminals in campus among others.

    His very touching and didactic story regarding this area of the book, which he titled, ‘A visit from Yesterday’ that gives the narrative about an ex-student leader, Mr. Peters, who suddenly met his death in front of his young family fifteen years after graduation, from an armed robber who had fallen victim of the student leader’s jungle Justice style in form of Maximum Shihi while they were both students in campus, is very apt in advising students on campus against taking laws into their hands when it comes to dealing with suspects of cultism or crimes being allegedly committed in campus.

    Ogidi painstakingly elucidates on other matters of serious concerns about campus security in other chapters of the book and these include Management of cultism on campus, in chapter seven, Types and Management of other crimes on campus in series 1 and 11 in chapters eight and nine respectively. In these two series, he discusses very exhaustively and from professional perspective, how any campus security department can effectively manage crimes such as cyber fraud, internet scams, rape, kidnapping, arson, terrorism, vandalisation and other crimes which may be committed by students or non-students on campus.

    Ogidi discusses in a very revealing and educative way, the management of workers’ agitations on campus in chapter 10, Management of Religious fundamentalism on campus in chapter 11, Burden of leading a security department on campus in chapter 12 and Security Alerts and Caution in chapter 13. In each of these chapters, one finds out the author’s deep knowledge of the operations of campus security, his passion for the job as well as his expertise leading to the huge successes he has recorded as a practitioner for many years.

     

     

  • ‘I wasted 10 years to publish my books in U.S’

    ‘I wasted 10 years to publish my books in U.S’

    By Ozolua Uhakheme, Assistant Editor (Arts)

     

    After about ten years of waiting on US publishers’ decision on his manuscripts, UAE-based Nigerian biomedical scientist and poet, Mr. Ifeanyi Amadi said he is fulfilled and happy he was able to publish his two books- Tourist in Wahala Land and The Chemical Poems of Ayatollah Khameni in the UK.

    He said the challenges of getting his books published took him to some publishers in the US, UK and Nigeria without success until he got AuthorHouse’s nod in the UK, which eventually published the two books. He spoke recently at an interaction with Arts Writers at Win Arc Gallery Ipaja, Lagos State.

    “I started my journey to publish the books in US, after several attempts two publishers rejected them because of the tittle. And for nine years nothing was forthcoming. On the tenth year, I told my uncle I can’t continue because he was telling me I should wait to see if we can have a breakthrough. But before I went to AuthorHouse I also tried about three publishing houses in Nigeria.  One of them said they can’t publish poetry or they don’t welcome poetry from unknown author and because of that I went to AuthorHouse in the UK,” he said.

    Amadi recalled that as a student at University of Port Harcourt, he was an activist, who was never comfortable with situations of things then. He said hunger for positive change lured him to form a student movement to fight some of the ills in the society. But, he was disappointed when many of the students backed out of the movement for one reason or the other.

    Undaunted by his inability to go ahead with the movement, Amadi decided to channel his energies into writing books as his weapons against these inadequacies in governance.

    Following his revolutionary tendencies, his mates nicknamed him Ayatollah Khamenei, after the spiritual leader of the Republic of Iran. He combined this name with one of the famous Rosicrucian manifestos, The Chemical Wedding, to form the title of the collection of poems.

    “Since I could not mix chemicals to bomb or create chemical weapon, let my book be a replacement for that.  That’s how I combined my relationship with the love for Iran, their revolution, the love of Cuba, as well as their revolution and that of French revolution. I brought everything into it when I chose the name, The Chemical Poems of Ayatollah Khameni as title of one of the books.

    “There was a time we planned to go for protest and planned to use petrol to bomb some facilities.  But today, this is my gun, my petrol bomb and everything. So, this is the chemical weapon, which I am using to do my fighting,” he said.

    On his hunger for change and the difference between his ideology and that of Boko Haram insurgents, he said: “I believe that there’s a big difference between myself and the Boko Haram in the sense that Boko Haram are against Western education unlike me. I am pro-Western enlightenment while Boko Haram is violently bombing people and shooting people who are directly and indirectly involve. For me, I know who I am fighting and I do not go to a church or a school to kidnap or bomb because I want change. I want change in way that it will not negatively affect those am fighting for. So, there is a whole lot of differenc e.”

    Amadi has concise style of writing in the diverse subjects of his books, including regions and characters outside his Nigeria origin. In the three-act play Tourist in Wahala Land, the author presents a political satire designed to cast literary light on the corrupt goings-on in the dysfunctional systems of most third world states. The play presents a political satire designed to cast literary light on the corrupt goings-on in the dysfunctional systems of most third world states. It also points out the roles developed societies play in contributing to the failures of these third world nations and seek to expose the hypocrisy of some religious adherents who sneak into the red-light districts to partake in sexual activities at dusk while feigning chastity, sanctity, and sanctimony during the day.  In all, it reveals the near absence of justice and communal welfare in a failed society as everyone struggles for what they and their cronies alone can benefit from the corrupt system.

    The Chemical Poems of Ayatollah Khameni is a poetry collection offers a series of political, satirical, sarcastic, surreal, and adoring rhymes and rebukes to the events of our contemporary society. It is a collection of poems written mostly from a laboratory at the University of Port Harcourt, one of the prestigious universities in southern Nigeria.

  • Booksellers intensify fights against pirates

    Booksellers intensify fights against pirates

    By Evelyn Osagie

     

    To intensify the fights against pirates and piracy in the country, Nigerian booksellers, have launch a directory.

    The Directory of Nigerian Booksellers, which was launched under the auspices of Booksellers Association of Nigeria (BAN), is part of broader enforcement strategies to arrest copyright piracy in the country, while stating that BAN is collaborating with other stakeholders in the fight. The book review at the session is billed to be undertaken by the writer and journalist, Dr. Olayinka Oyegbile while the compere is CSS Bookshop Limited’s DMD, Mr. Adegbola Adesina.

    Copyright piracy remains a real threat that is destroying the book industry, according to BAN President, Dare Oluwatuyi. The directory, he said, is a great leap in the fight against piracy.

    “We are presently collaborating with the Nigerian Publishers Association and the Nigerian Copyright Commission in the fight against piracy.  Piracy is a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the Nigeria Book Industry. The aim of the publication is to bring together booksellers in Nigeria under one umbrella that will enable us operate within the same business policies that will guide our profession.

    “The event is to launch the e-version of the ‘Booksellers Directory’; the print edition will be released in June 2021.   Our business policies will help us to have a common front that will make the fight against pirates possible and effective,” Oluwatuyi said.

    The presentation ceremony, which was held virtually, was chaired by the Director General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), Mr. John Asein.

    “Piracy has also become more sophisticated and constitutes grave danger to society since many pirates work with other syndicates to undermine national security. The Commission has adopted a multipronged approach, focusing on the different players and subsectors in the value chain. We are talking with authors, publishers, printers and of course booksellers. Booksellers are often the face of the book industry. They interface directly with buyers and ultimately play a very critical role in guaranteeing that the customer gets a genuine copy of the book,” he said.

    The association outlines that the work is the outcome of a year-long research that has spanned the length and breadth of the country. It is a listing of members of the association and other Nigerian booksellers and publishers in the country.

     

     

  • Documentary chronicles #EndSARS

    Documentary chronicles #EndSARS

    By Chinyere Okoroafor

     

    The October 2020 #EndSARS protest, many activists at the time made clear was a rapid response to address the long history of Police brutality and demanding justice for victims of police violence and extrajudicial killings.

    It may have come and gone, but the memories of that event are still alive in many young Nigerians.

    In its debut documentary, Rocksteady Production painstakingly details the  episode, providing valuable context for  the events, its aftermath, the impact upon the youth, civil society, economy and rule of law.

    Titled Forces Beyond our Control, the 1:27:29 minute film tells the story of the near-nationwide movement by the youths against Police brutality in Nigeria under the #EndSARS banner.

    The film is put together by Justina Mathais as Line Producer, Owah Temitope Amaju and Peace Ekamni-Etukudo as Associate Producers  and written and narrated by Peter Aziza and Olumide Odumosu.

    It features protesters such as social activists, Rinu Oduala, Flagboii, Florence Ogbeide, Comedian Mr Macaroni, music stars Mr P, Wizkid, Davido, Flavour and others through news coverage, interviews and archival materials calling for the disbandment of SARS.

    We also see youth narrates their violence experiences in the hands of some of the officers of the SARS, why they joined the protest and their disappointment on the lies that marred the protest in an effort to silence them. But, the Nigerian youths are the hero of this first of its kind protest that stood for days until their demands were answered.

    The context provided by ‘Forces Beyond our Control’ is certainly helpful as it brilliantly navigates the Nigeria economic issues, the history behind the emergence of SARS, their excessiveness, earlier reports on their brutalities and extortions, the youths response under the banner #EndSARS, government responses and the immediate aftermath of massive lootings across the country.

    The film combines good editing, tight screenplay and spectacular narratives. The speed at which the plot moves is extraordinary. Even as you approach the end of the documentary, the documentary is a remarkable tool that keeps reminds us never to forget.

     

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  • ‘Why we’re making a movie on Ojukwu’

    ‘Why we’re making a movie on Ojukwu’

    One of the Executive Producers of “The Other Side of History”, a movie on the life of the late Chukwuemeka Ojukwu between 1956 and 1960, Duncan Osy Ifijeh, speaks on the new film project. His company, OIG Entertainment, has teamed up with Aboyeji Iyinoluwa of Future Africa Media, 28 Studios and Blues & Hills Pictures Ltd.

     

    About Ifijeh

    I was born in Agbor, Delta State. I am from Edo State.  Growing up was not quite easy because I was sent to Lagos at 16 to complete my secondary school education at Igbogbo, Ikorodu. I also attended Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma.

     

    Investing in films/ “ The Other Side of History”

    The “Other Side of History” is a powerful narrative that we haven’t seen yet, laced with different languages and aesthetics. This project should be finalised before July 2021 then launched by the 1st of October which is Independence Day.

    I started investing in movies in 2018. I was 29 years old then, after gaining some knowledge of the media platform and also how the movie industry has grown so fast. The reason I decided to go into entertainment investment is that it brings exposure and it is profitable. It is also a way of preserving cultures and I am quite interested in seeing such stupendous transformation.

     

    Meeting Onyeka Nwelue, the Director

    I met Onyeka Nwelue, the director of “The Other Side of History” through a very good friend of mine, Maro Amos, who has been a great impact on my life because I also had to travel for CinemAfrica Film Festival 2019 in Stockholm, Sweden which gave me more interest in the entertainment and movie business.

    My plans are for wealth creation for the future and also to keep me enlightened in the entertainment industry both in Africa and other parts of the world.

     

    Canada-Nigeria relationship in this project

     

    My take on the Nigeria-Canada relationship on this project is the exposure of African cultures and entertainment to the diaspora and other parts of the world.

     

    Africa’s future

     

    I see a great future for Africa, yes, which would lead to co-existing of African cultures and other cultures.

  • Total Books releases new story books

    To bring to the reach of  children educative storybooks that are easy, and fun to read, Total Books Production has released some story books. They are Me & my father’s Hero, Me and my state governor, and Madam Next Neighbour Friend.

    They are titles under the outfit’s Role Model series, which is an initiative to use interesting stories of notable Nigerians to teach children vital lessons that will be useful to them in life.

    According to the company’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Tomiwa Olaosebikan, the need to enable children have access to good reading materials that can positively impact on their lives and make them better citizens is the reason why the company is publishing the mini-biography of successful Nigerians whose life history can be used to encourage the children to dream big and work hard towards actualising their desires in life.

    Me and my Father’s Hero is the story of His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the former Governor of Lagos State, written in the language children can understand and enjoy. It is a story about how hardwork can help an individual to be successful in life.

    Apart from the Role Model Series, Olaosebikan said the company was equally set to contribute to the rejuvenation of the reading culture with Naija Read Series.

    Under the Naija Read Series, interesting storybook such as My Father’s Tax, My parents save for the future, Ladsen’s love for clean environment and others are part of the titles already published by the company for the purpose of using story books to influence attitudinal change among the children and prepare them for societal acceptable conducts.

    Olaosebikan said that the company’s focus was to encourage sponsorship of the Role Model Series by eminent Nigerians in a rare opportunity to use support for a project that is germane to the rejuvenation of reading culture as their contribution towards exposing the secrets of life, which can only be found in books, to our children.