Category: Arts & Life

One Prediction, Two leaders…The Progressive ends, and the Means. Oluwaseun Okunnuga’s soon-to-be-released book, juxtaposes two Yoruba dramatis personae – Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He submits that the latter perfectly epitomises the former’s age-long  prediction of a figure who would rally progressives to wrench power from government at the centre. ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA writes.

It is one of those rare predictions! It is the myth of two gladiators; one who began the project through dint of hard work and altruism; and the latter, accomplishing what the former once thought was impossible and could not achieve in his lifetime.

Still, it is the story of two powerful and influential dramatis personae in Yorubaland who rose through hard work to become individuals to whom the world now genuflects like the prominent Orisha.

They shone like a million stars, conquering territories, men and stamping their signatures anywhere they went. Today, with one dead and the other still living , the duo have become beacons of leadership, and shining light cascading through the length and breadth of the Yoruba race, Nigeria and beyond.

Like the Biblical John the Baptist who once predicted that the person coming after him would do tenfold what he did, the book overview posits.

During the First Republic when Action Group won all states in the Southwest but lost in other regions,“Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the first Premier of the defunct Western Region and the Leader of Action Group and Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), foretold the emergence of a man (Tinubu) that would achieve what the opposition in the country could not achieve in 1959, 1960, 1964, 1979, 1983, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011, despite their intellectual capacity and vision for a better society”.

Having failed to deliver the centre, Awolowo reportedly prophesied to the effect that “Progressive forces would float a formidable opposition platform that would conquer federal power in Nigeria.”

According to the author, that prediction, however, took 54 years to realise via ‘common sense revolution’, and via a man who, in the nation’s political history today, has that single honour of championing the amalgam, ‘All Progressives Congress (APC), which eventually eclipsed a political party (the PDP) that has clung on to power over the last 16 years.

Okunnuga said: “Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is arguably the most celebrated leader of the Yoruba race”. But how valid is the author’s claim; and what are the basis for his convictions about Bola Tinubu?’’

He recalled how, ahead of his project, he in 2015 stumbled on some newspaper headlines in The Nation that provoked his inspiration.

He said: “I was ,going through a features interview titled: “Comparing Tinubu with Awo makes me sad” granted by one of the prominent members of Awo’s clan. And I asked myself: “How could he (Tinubu) make him sad?” The interviewee was talking about Tinubu, his background and ideology.

“I later stumbled on another headline by another  frontline politician and former  Ogun State governor with the caption. ‘Yoruba has no leader for now’. The interviewee claimed that Awo became a leader because first, he was a students’ leader in his student days, and second, there must be a crisis before one could be made a Yoruba leader. So I was prompted to look at what Awo and Tinubu have achieved. “How has Tinubu fared with Awo’s welfarist ideaology?”

Okunnuga continued: “So I decided to start looking at Tinubu’s achievements in comparison with Awo’s. In the end, I realised that though they were poles apart, the pair are same in spirit.

“Like in the Bible where the lost glory of Adam in the Garden of Eden resurfaced in Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary; the unfinished greatness of Awo resumed in Asiwaju Tinubu. Through pictorials, I discovered that virtually all what Awo agitated for, especially with respect to the ideology of welfarism, has been endured and sustained by Tinubu in different ways and beyond. For instance, Tinubu went beyond ‘regional politics’ with his APC controlling the very  centre Awolowo craved. He successfully had a  handshake across the Niger; and his visualisation, introspection/talent hunting resulted in installing Awolowo’s in-law as a vice-president.”

The book, which is split into two volumes, is also garnished with nearly a thousand pictorials.

According to him, lines portraying similarities between Tinubu and Awo are inscribed in purple colour, while dissimilarities are in black and red.

Volume 1 of the book, Okunnuga said, expounds how Tinubu succeeded in blazing Awo’s trail, and by implication, stepping into his shoes. The first volume also features comparison through pictorials, between the duo in terms of achievements, gestures and ideologies.

“Volume II deals with the transcendent 2015 general elections and how the APC championed by Asiwaju Tinubu was able to recruit people via the ‘change’ vision. This section mirrors activities in the pre election, election proper and post election exercises. Besides, it also shows how the shenanigans, profligacy, and campaigns of former President Goodluck Jonathan failed to stop Tinubu and his associates from claiming victory in an election considered the most prodigal in the nation’s history,” he added.

The book, according to Okunnuga, would be ideal for researchers, students of political scientists, and History and secondary school who crave rich knowledge of the duo’s exploits in life.

Beyond its beauty and grandeur, what some have tagged as the eighth architectural wonder of the world holds some of the most poignant monuments of Nigerian and African cultural heritage, PAUL ADE-ADELEYE writes.

The Natural History Museum in Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife is seen as  the eighth architectural wonder of the world.It not only smacks of beauty, its bowel is inhabited by an assortment of natural and cultural heritage to follow.

Before it was finally moved to its new abode, the museum ran the gauntlet between abandonment and lack of adequate funds. In a recent address delivered by the director of the museum, he stated that: “Availability of space was the biggest problem facing the museum. This was solved by the intervention of the AG Leventis Foundation by completing the museum building that was abandoned for 34 years.”

A quick visit to the museum a fortnight ago as it held its 3rd John Agboola Odeyemi Annual lecture, however, proved that it was fulfilling the objectives for which it was founded.

A first striking feature of the museum, from which it derives its fame, is its premises.   The architectural construction orchestrates an illusion of a sculpting in high relief spread over a hundred metres. Its low hanging roofing bears great semblance to the inviting romanticistic appeal of a cottage in the woods, drawing visitors to explore the treasures within – not unlike the fairytale cottage made of candy.

As you enter, you would be treated to a behemoth effigy of a scholar with open arms garbed in the academic gown characteristic of the university whose campus hosts the museum.

The first section of the museum is a repository of the natural and mineral resources Nigeria is endowed with, and a testament to the research the museum conducts regularly. It calls one for sober reflection on where Nigeria got it so abysmally wrong that it has not been able to harness the wealth inherent in her.

Minister for Solid Minerals Dr Kayode Fayemi seems to have answered this question already, noting at the aforementioned lecture that Nigeria is afflicted with the curse of oil. He said: “When a nation discovers oil reserves in her territory, the sudden avalanche of petrodollars causes neglect of sectors like agriculture and manufacturing, thus leaving oil to dominate the economy.”

The next section in the museum offers geological insight of the Nigerian terrain. Ample labelled illustrations with soil samples to match populate this section and is reminiscent of the nature of research the museum is engaged in.

In addition, numerous coral samples are amassed in an adjacent section, even as multiple arachnid and insect samples occupy the opposite section. All of these are native to Nigeria and are labelled with diagrams and annotated accordingly.

Following these are sections displaying the molluscs, termites, art history, stone tools as well as bead stones. This explains why the university, in the 1990/91 academic session,decided to merge the department of archaeology with the Natural History Museum, thus expanding its scope to include archaeology and cultural anthropology.

Climbing up the stairs to the mammalian section of the museum, a tourist of faint heart may be tempted to dispose of his tour and dignity and flee to safety. This section houses stuffed lions, baboons, snakes, and other such creatures of the wild as they inhabit the Nigerian jungles. Their trompe-l’oeil mien is such that one would be forced to look repeatedly over the shoulder and ensure there is no animal creeping menacingly behind.

You would think that the niftily designed exterior provides all thewonder of the Natural History Museum in OAU, but with the museum, it is a classic case of beauty and brains. Its research and contribution to the documentation of Nigeria’s cultural heritage is not only commendable, it is a worthy cause to support.

Family, friends and well wishers gathered to celebrate  the late founder of  Vanni Security, Chief Victor Vanni at the Chief Victor Vanni 10th Memorial Service.

They extolled his virtues and zeal for safety. The security expert and founder of the first private security firm in Nigeria called Vanni Security, which spans three decades, was said to have been very conscious of safety in the course of his job.

They said he had a soft spot for humanity and the less-privileged, which made him to establish a non-governmental organisation to create jobs and give scholarship to those in need and succour for less-privileged widows around him for many years.

Born on February 25, 1942 in Iguebem, the present day Edo State, he was an Alumni of the  University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1954 and proceeded to England in 1960. He came back and got a job with Shell Nigeria and later National Bank of Nigeria. His vibrancy and intelligence drove him into security matters.

He was the first founding president of the Nigerian Safety Association, moving cash with security vehicles and the first Nigerian to import security vans during President Olusegun Obasanjo administration  in 1979. He was married to Mrs. Harritta Vanni and their marriage was blessed with eight children.

In this tribute, Prof Osa Egonwa writes on the leadership roles of the late Prof Uche Okeke and his contributions to knowledge and creativity.  

Any attempt to assess the impact of the NCAST Zaria artists class of 1961 must begin with the premise that it was a function of the leadership roles of two Okeke’s first Simon and second Uchefuna but more of the latter. Simon Obi-Ekezie Okeke sparked off the revolution but Uche Okeke sustained it not only by physical presence and concert of activities but by providing the philosophical principles and practice of what he christened natural synthesis.

When, therefore, he is daubed the philosopher king of the group, it is rightly so. The principles and practice of the new Nigeria art after the Britto Argentian one is what some call the Zarianist foundation.

His quantum of literature on the transactions of the group is so well taken beside none that art historians likened it to a mono-causal  evidence. The fact is that it might be so (mono-causal), but not by design, but by reason of him being distinguished from many of his mates who had little documentary interest in happenings around them.

Uche Okeke is a professor, not as a chosen title, complement or flattery as has become the vogue of late. He was a professor of Fine and Applied Arts, not as a fashionable accolade because his school mates were now addressed as such but by his chosen path. He is a Professor from hard work and genuine contribution to knowledge and research, teaching and community service in the Visual Arts. He has many contributions to be remembered for; is it his argument for the place of abstraction in African arts? Or the rationale for indigenous theory of art?

Art is not complete until it has a practical relevance in the affairs of its owners. His reasonings on art are many. This has a model in old and changing African art. Hence it was easy to see the limitation of the nomenclature department of Fine Arts, as was the case before his arrival at the scene. He therefore, chose the better option of Fine & Applied Arts. Being a lover of the German experimentalist Walter Gropuis of Bauhaus fame, he became the originator of the name Fine & Applied Arts by which very many visual arts departments in Nigeria Universities are known.

If by some freak of convention, first generation universities appointed Professors by names of known disciplines, e.g. Professor of religion or professor of history, Uche Okeke’s span of operation in the visual arts was wide enough to merit being appointed professor of Fine and Applied arts. It is rare to find many-sided or versatile artists of his type.

Artists Evaluation

The University of Nigeria, Nsukka Art department under the leadership of Dinka was first to argue for the use of creative works of arts for the assessment of artists in academics. The Yellow Book that is widely used today in a number of university’s Art departments stemmed from the Nsukka model. Unfortunately, some of our colleagues are still blind to the logic, truth and developmental potential in that practice. Art practice genuinely engaged is enquiry in another order of reality or operating environment different from the propositional mode of literary productivity of many other disciples. In studio art writing is not the central issue at that level of scholarship even though it cannot be excused as well.

Two Zaria Art Schools

When the Ibadan College was relocated to Zaria for apparently no artistic reason, but politics of Northsouth, there was another hidden agendum. It is that North was a tabular rasa unlike the south with many artistic traditions which would counter the foreign art which is being imposed like many other ideas such as indirect rule or new taxation system etc. The policy dishonesty of the colonial and postcolonial ambassadors is subtle for many to understand. Enwonwu had his “personal reservation,” which was swallowed by official exigency.

Zaria was thought and rightly so to provide a neutral environment for the propagation of Euro American art. It to a large extent succeeded in doing that (Yaba, Auchi\Ibadan poly, Uniben, Ife, Uniuyo). If not for the interventions of Uche-Okeke and some of his colleagues notably Demas Nwoko, Dr Bruce Onobrakpeya, Irein Solomon Wangboje and Jimo Akolo, Nigerian art today would have been the story of British art in Nigeria.

The college-trained artists of Nigeria are all products of the ‘Zaria colonial design’ for art in Nigeria. Artist of that ideological domain cannot see art beyond what the ‘other’ purposes for ‘them’ but for Uche Okeke and his mission at the University of Nigeria, the artistic mentality that works in El Anatsui, Obiora Udechukwu, Chike Aniakor, and the Nsukka in diaspora (not necessarily outside Nigeria, the relocation of NCAST from Ibadan to Zaria would have completely wiped out traces of Africanness in contemporary Nigerian art.

Foreign art practice undiluted since the appearance of Aina Onabolu (1882-1963) was part of British civilising mission just like the award of Slade school diploma at NCAST and later Ahmadu Bello. Nigeria modern art though earlier cited among the court artist of Benin in the 16th century and sustained unseen thereafter began with Uche – Okeke and his circle of kindred persuation at Zaria. Professor Ben Enwonwu began something at about 1947; however he didn’t have enough disciples to make his idea well known.

As a matter of fact, there are two Zarias, the one of Uche Okeke of the Zaria Art Society, another of Charles Argent that propagated foreign art in Nigeria, the mother of college – trained artists. This is why the “trek of artistic practice has many legs but little movement.” The art stream consists of artists who are visionary, conceptually in deep waters and those of shallow ideation; artists whose themes are mundane “Yellow Oshodi Buses” and those whose themes are universal even when physically local objects are used.

The exit from the physical art scene of Dinka Uche Okeke marks the end of a generation. However, one is consoled by the truth that he and his likes have built trustworthy trans-generational artistic bridges ahead of Africa’s deign time! Adieu pathfinder, mentor and leader! No du mma!