The Nation Newspaper

Category: Arts & Life

  • Spreading the gospel of poetry in US

    Spreading the gospel of poetry in US

    Award-winning poet Chijioke Amu-Nnadi has set a tall ambition for himself.

    The author of Pilgrim’s Passage is set to publish seven volumes of poetry in the next few months.

    At the same time, in the past  few weeks, Amu-Nnadi has been sharing his poetry experience in the United States where he is on a visit to the Centre for Black Literature at Medgar Eva College, New York, to which he was invited to have an interface with students.

    According to the Port-Harcourt, Rivers State-based poet, the experience has been an interesting romance with poetry.

    From classrooms to some cultural joints, Amu-Nnadi, who went to the US through Germany where he attended the Frankfurt Book Fair, has been speaking on his poetry and African literature. According to him, one of the most exciting aspects of his journey is the positive response his works are attracting.

    For Amu-Nnadi, who was a finalist at last year’s NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature, the move to publish seven poetry volumes has been rough but satisfying.

    “It was tough, putting them together, but the experience has been wholly gratifying. Some friends have asked why I have been quiet, especially on Facebook. I have been quite busy, putting together, for printing, seven books of poetry. Three are old books I am only reprinting, but which needed some retyping and re-editing, while three others are a selection of my poems along the themes of love, anguish and travels. And then there is the manuscript for a new book that would formally be published next year,” he said.

    He does not see himself as a student of theories in the orthodox sense of it. Interestingly, the first poem he wrote began in his sleep.

    Amu-Nnadi said: “Awakening, the threads of the Abiola dirge to Kudirat, came while I was asleep. I write poetry without punctuation and capital, not for any other reason than the fact that “life is a fragile metaphor, told with neither capital nor punctuation.” It is a train of unbreakable and uncontrollable motions and emotions. Its essence is not in the punctuations, but in the story itself that unfolds. I am constantly trying to improve my craft, so I am always looking for new opportunities for interaction, to catch up with what I always feel I have lost. That’s why, when I hold talks in schools, I always ask the children to read and to write. That’s the best way to grow.”

    His vivid imagination as a writer was what earned him a spot at Celebrate Africa in honour of Eric Edwards, a collector of African artefacts, holding at the Medgar Evers College, where he would be giving a lecture on poetry.  According to the Chair of the English Department at the Centre for Black Literature, Prof Brenda Greene, Amu-Nnadi’s writing paints an in-depth picture of the complexity of the human existence.

    Meanwhile Amu-Nnadi expressed delight over the whole experience, saying one of the most exciting aspects of his journey is the positive response his works are attracting. He said: “I read at the Celebrate Africa programme of Medgar Evers College last night. It was a surreal experience, especially seeing men and women, young and old, white and black, react with such excitement, joy and love that approached devotion. The experience brought them to laughter and tears. It was scary and uplifting all at once. Sold all the books I took there and they were not enough. Sold even the copies I kept for myself. Now they want me to come back as a solo performer.”

    He also recalled an ‘awesome evening, he had at the home of Quincy Troupe, veteran teacher, poet in Harlem. Amu-Nnadi was so awed by Troupe’s personality that he described him as a moving, living library and shrine of poetry.

    As part of the Medgar programme, he was also the guest of honour at a fundraiser for ‘a dear new friend’, Becky Seawright, Democratic candidate for the November general elections on Park Avenue, in Manhattan.

    “I was meant to say a few things. I thought I would be more eloquent speaking through a poem, of which I am more familiar. A truly humbling experience to see how distinguished men and women of American politics honour the words of poetry and having them line up afterwards to have me sign the books was beyond what I’d experienced. Somewhere in there, I wondered when Nigerian politicians would begin to bother,” he recalled. He has written and published several poems, such as The Fire Within (first published in 2002, and won the ANA Poetry Prize that year); Pilgrim’s Passage (published in 2004, and long-listed for the Nigeria Prize for Literature; Through the Window of a Sandcastle (published in 2013 and won the ANA Poetry Prize and was runner up to the Nigeria Prize for Literature; Flames (love poems) and Wild Oaths (travel poems). Others are Ihejuruonu (poems of anguish and lamentations); and A Field of Echoes (new poems written in the last one year or thereabout).

  • A humble beginning

    A humble beginning

    About a decade ago while researching for a class I taught at the University of Colorado, I stumbled on an arresting narrative. A woman had a baby in a stroller at Trafalgar Square in London. She carted the baby around and an onlooker was taken with the charms of the little one.

    “Your baby is very beautiful,” remarked the onlooker.

    “You haven’t seen anything, yet” replied the mother. “Wait until you see her pictures.”

    The mother had imposed a new reality on her baby. The baby was not what you saw in flesh and blood, but what technology had wrought. What the dark room had configured, what the click and flash and the angles of the camera had brought to life. We now have two eyes. The one that sees everyone without the mediation of the machine, and the one that the machine has made.

    I could not but wonder at this when I got hold of the book, In Tune with Destiny, Dr Emmanuel EwetaUduaghan. I saw, rather I ogled, from page to page and I started to see whether technology was trying to impose one reality over the one that was there. I mean the truth, unvarnished.

    But I saw, too, that though it is described as a pictorial biography of Governor Uduaghan, something else moderated the pictures. Words. Words are powerful but as the cliché goes, pictures cannot lie. Of course that cliché preceded the technology that distorted pictorial realities.

    But the power of words in telling reality, especially the ones that pertain to the clarity of vision, came from the testimonial zeal of one of the greatest craftsmen ever of the English language. Joseph Conrad, author of Heart of Darkness and Nostromo,  spoke about what he did with words.

    “My task, which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel – it is, before all, to make you see.”

    From going through the pages, I observed that the authors of this package did not only want to make us see, but also to make us feel. For what is the point of vision without sentiment? How do you see the picture of the governor at two years old, with a small, multi-coloured cap, and a pair of eyes of an alarmed and astonished infant and not wonder what he was thinking?

    It is not just what we see, but what that sight makes us feel. That is what makes us human.

    “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched,” remarked another writer, Helen Keller, “they must be felt with the heart.”

    This is a book of 239 pages that tell the story of one man and his odyssey of six decades.

    During this period, he was with the father, was without his father, enjoyed mother for two years and loved his mother. He was raised by a grandmother, a woman with an imperial dignity, in another village called Mosogar. He lived in a village without electricity, roads, pipe-borne water. Time was determined not by clock but the cock with three crows in the morning signifying different activities. He tapped rubber, set traps in the bush for game, dipped into the river to catch fish with bare hands. His right hand could not touch his left ear when his mates went to school. His brilliance, however, beat the rules for him. He wanted to be an accountant but became a doctor. Nobody thought he could be a party nominee for governor, but he won not just the party primaries but the state elections; not once, not twice.

    He married his heartthrob who shared the same family background, both fathers in military, both parents separated, both minorities. His heartthrob first thought he was short at first sight because she pictured marrying a tall man. He won the heart of her brother and mother and everyone else in the family circle before Roli Nere Tuoyo. She said she was a female chauvinist, but she thanks God that “God touched me positively and I relaxed to give it (the suitor’s advance) a deeper thought. Then something struck me. I realised he is someone I can truly respect, which is not in my character to do, no matter who he is and what he does.”

    The pictures of their wedding, you need to see that. The bridegroom with his long neck and lean face is not the one you see today. The bride, whom he described as usually in trousers and was like a tomboy, looked quite mellow in tranquil elegance in the photos. Marriage had done a miracle. Roli Uduaghan herself says she submits to her husband in all things, according to the prodding of scripture.

    What else shall we know? That as a medical doctor he struggled and, as one of Roli’s relatives put it, he packed his Volkswagen Beetle over slope so that folks could help push it to start. They married, he a doctor and she a teacher, with the beetle as a family story.

    Listen to this: “In the course of the courtship, each time they both rode in the Beetle car, there was a usual amusement: Roli would, for reason of the fact that the Beetle had no back door, adjust the front seat backwards and place her legs on its dashboard and, thereafter, adjust the small side window to let in air directly towards her. Shortly afterwards, she would burst into a prayerful song to God to give her and her spouse an air-conditioned Mercedes car in place of the Beetle car.” That prayerful song remains a refrain of sentimental gratitude in the family today.

    We see pictures about his public life, especially as governor, a lot of it. Is it when the President,Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, hands him the coveted Commander of the Order of the Niger, or when he crouches before respected H.I.D Awolowo, when he gives a present to Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. We also see pictures of him at work in government, commissioning projects, meeting with political titans like Chief E. K. Clark, or with his fellow governors in the south-south like ebullient Godswill Akpabio. We see him with southeast governors like Theodore Orji, the Ochendo. With traditional rulers like the Olu of Warri and the Ooni of Ife.

    The pictures show him in tune with all, those in his state, those in his ethnic group, and those outside. The pictures show a man at peace in his skin.

    In spite of the plenitude of pictures, there are two things that the pictures cannot carry. One of them are the key moments of his childhood in the village. I remember conducting an interview with Governor Uduaghan barely a year after he became governor and I asked him his favorite viewing delights. He pointed out Nollywood movies and the reason was that the settings often reminded him of his childhood. But we do not have the picture of him trying in vain to let his right hand touch his left ear, although we see a picture of an adult Uduaghan in the book performing the feat perfectly. We do not have the picture of him tapping rubber, catching fish in the river, playing soccer with his sisters looking with admiration. We do not see him in class.

    Recently, when Brigadier BenjamenAdekunle died, we learnt that he polished the general’s shoe during the civil war in Sapele. Since then when I saw him, I looked over at his shoes to see how they shone and whether he still did it himself. But we don’t have the picture of him and the general who always insisted that the young Emmanuel should shine his shoes. We see him paddling a canoe as governor but one would have loved to see him do that as a young villager.

    In a wonderful forward from President OlusegunObasanjo, GCFR,  he described Governor Uduaghan as “not only calm and indomitable; he is also firm and indomitable – he is indomitably firm.” Testimonials came from almost everywhere about his sense of calm and serenity, from his wife, his daughter Orode, and his colleagues and fellow governors. But no picture can capture such temperament. Only words did. That is one of the weaknesses of pictures.

    Words collide with pictures in this package. In some instances, the picture tells nothing until the words intervene. For instance, I tried to study the countenance of his mother, Cecilia and had a clue when she is described as calm. His father, Edmund was a polygamist and at one time he visited his frustration outside on Cecilia and she discovered that it was because a woman had turned down his advances. Cecilia went to beg the woman to accept so she could have peace at home. The story does not tell whether Edmund had his wish and Cecilia her peace.

    The preponderance of pictures and the attempts to match words to vision is one of the delicate assignments undertaken in this book. It succeeds in some areas. Where it has challenges is whether it tries to delve into the areas of policy and governance. The words try and the pictures say a few things but it can never serve as a substitute for a cerebral undertaking.

    But the pictures have told many stories that have saved the imagination. Readers will pick their favorites. Is it two-year-old with alarmed eyes, or Roli and Emmanuel Uduaghan face to face, eye to eye, forehead to forehead? Or the wedding photos, or the Beetle car impression? There are many.

    The package in a variety of colours keeps interest alive and we also see the quotes and interviews presented with aesthetic dexterity.

    But quite a few errors can be sighted. The first quote in the book and the first sentence of President Obasanjo’s forward could have been better read. In one of the pages, Governor Uduaghan’s father was called Desmond instead of Edmund.

    As a work of six decades, more than half of the photos took place in his years as governor, a lopsidedness that may arise from an absence of either research or paucity of photos. If he grew up in a village without electricity and pipe-borne water, then we know why pictures could not be in abundance. If he grew up in an age of internet and selfies, there would have been a suffusion of pictures telling perhaps too much detail.

    In all, this is a wonderful effort to document a life, in pictures backed by words. I therefore recommend this book as a story of a man who transcended  the odds and has lived an exemplary life. The story continues. I, therefore, present this book to you all.

  • Benefits, prospects of Cash-less Nigeria

    Benefits, prospects of Cash-less Nigeria

    Sunday Olowoyobiojo’s Cash-Less Nigeria: Benefits, Opportunities and Challenges published in 2014 is undoubtedly an epoch-making, innovative, cutting-edge and most likely, pioneer textbook on the cash-less experience in Nigeria. In all ramifications, it espouses the essence of cash-less policy in Nigeria in terms of benefits, opportunities and challenges. Written by a Banking and Finance graduate (from University of Ado-Ekiti now Ekiti State University) with half a decade experience in the financial sector, the book is enormous in its attention to details in terms of retrospection, currency and futurity. Thus, the material content of the book effectively flows from the past to the present and then projects the future for the now nation-wide cash-less policy in Nigeria. The book, handy and portable, covers such relevant areas as the justification for cash-less society, genesis of money and banking, the relatively new cash-less era in Nigeria, alternative banking channels, e-branch and ATM gallery, agent banking, strategic approach to cash-less transactions, benefits, opportunities and challenges of the policy, as well as galvanizing action for a cash-less society.

    The book has provided practical insights on the cash-less initiative, addressed salient issues, examined legal and regulatory frameworks, identified challenges and benefits, and proffered suggestions on how to deploy technology toward building a better Nigeria via cashless-policy-driven financial inclusion. Thus, the book is a veritable source of financial literacy as it contains relevant materials on the ongoing transformation of the Nigerian financial system, especially the banking industry.

    This innovative piece of work is indeed unique and the author tried to present this apparently wide range of issues of financial relevance within the ambit of cash-less Nigeria as an insightful gateway to advancing the legal-regulatory, socio-political, economic and finance experience of Nigeria in particular and other developing countries in general. This is further enhanced by the simplicity of the language in which the author has organized and presented the material contents of the book thereby making it possible for even non finance experts and professionals to be able to read, understand and apply in their daily finance decisions.

    The book will be useful to policy makers, regulators, financial analysts, investors, entrepreneurs, professionals, instructors, students, the banking public and others who desire unbridled access to banking services and payments facilitation, especially in today’s transactions and payment system in which physical presence in a bank or market place, is no longer a necessary condition for exchange relations. Also, its usefulness comes to the fore when one considers the evolving paradigm shift of emphasis from the regulatory end towards consumer protection that has made the banks to provide significantly many more convenience banking service options driven by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and now being fostered by the cash-less policy; the harmony, synthesis and futurity of which is the essence of this book.

    Chapter one extols the need for the Nigerian nation to go cash-less. In the chapter, the author identified technology and globalisation as the key drivers of banking system reforms that have orchestrated the need for cash-less society in different parts of the world. As a member of the global village, there is the need for Nigeria to key into the trend. Therefore, the cash-less Nigeria initiative is a move in the right direction because its benefits cut across all social classes and critical sectors of the economy. Moreover, the initiative has the potential to enhance the country’s aspiration for, and achievement of, financial inclusion for sustainable development, and modernize and develop the payment system in line with the Vision 20:2020 agenda among others. Chapter two traces the genesis of money and Banking. By way of introduction, the author considers both money and banking as veritable tools for progress and development of humanity, nothing, however, that while the former facilitates the acquisition of good things of life, the later guarantees the safety of funds and facilitates the financing of personal, investment, infrastructural development and other needs as well as businesses. The author traced the evolution of money from the barter system through metallic money, cowries, beads, manila brass, tobacco and paper money to the modern forms of money. He also traced the origin of banking to goldsmith’s receipt issued to gold depositors, which was subsequently used to foster transactions.

  • ‘Our culture hasn’t helped Nigeria’

    Joseph Agbakoba doubles as a professor of philosophy at the University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka and National President, Nigerian Philosophical Association (NPA). When Assistant Editor DADA ALADELOKUN met him, he spoke about the fundamental problems of Nigeria, 100 years after amalgamation, and other issues. 

    A fool at 40, it is often said, is a fool forever. At 100, Nigeria as an entity is yet to crawl. What has been wrong with the parent, guardian or the post-natal circumstances of this “child?”

    Unknotting this riddle, according to Agbakoba, was the thrust of an international jaw-jaw recently spear-headed by his association. It was held at the University of Lagos.

    Seething with an amalgam of rage and palpable concern, the varsity don told this reporter: “As stakeholders, we can’t but be worried to the marrow. Our nation has remained plagued by issues of culture, value systems, political structure and ideology. There is also the issue of the justification of the economic model we are running – capitalism – and our traditional culture. We also have issues surrounding revenue allocation. Nigeria was borne out of the 1914 amalgamation because of the budget surplus in the South and the deficit in the North. And since then, the South has been paying the bills of the country in terms of the extra money needed to balance the budget and pay for infrastructural development. The outstanding foreign exchange earners in this regard have been first, palm oil, then, cocoa and now, crude oil. This is not to say that the North has had no money at all; we must not forget the tin in the Jos area and the groundnuts pyramids, but they were not enough to gain budgetary surpluses. The conference looked at all these issues and examined them from various philosophical standpoints.”

    “So an academic group like the NPA could be concerned about the nation’s stunted growth …” The reporter cut in. His emphatic response unveiled the raison-d’être of the birth in the 1970/80s, of the association and its relevance in nation building.

    “This association was born to bring Nigerian philosophers together to discuss philosophy and explore its relevance to our lives as a people and as a country. Philosophy as an academic discipline is largely misunderstood by the public. Most people in this country see it as an abstract academic discipline that has no place in today’s world, whereas it is the foundation of all learning in the past as well as the present; virtually all branches of knowledge have their roots in philosophy. Since its birth, its different leaderships have worked to move it forward and the tradition continues. Members of the association in Nigeria meet biennially to discuss philosophical issues in the search for new knowledge, to address the interests of the association and deliberate on the state of affairs of the association vis-à-vis the study of philosophy and the society generally.

    “Usually, our meetings go along with a national academic conference. This time, it was international. Some of our colleagues from outside of Nigeria attended. We had participants from universities in Ghana, Cameroun, Ethiopia and South Africa. The theme of the conference was: “Nigeria: 100 years After Amalgamation: Philosophical Issues and Perspectives.” The conference was motivated by the need to look at Nigeria after 100 years of our amalgamation by Lord Lugard in 1914. We can all agree that in Nigeria today, there are fundamental issues of justice for the minority and majority groups,” Agbakoba explained.

    Another poser for him: “It is said that in the last 30 years, by available records, no scientist in Nigeria has patent right to any innovation that is really commercially viable. Is it because Nigerian scientists are not qualified?” His response: “What do you think accounts for this poor situation? We have found ourselves in this situation because our scientists do not largely appreciate the philosophical underpinnings of their work. When a man or woman gets a PhD, he or she is an expert in a given branch of knowledge or area of specialisation and he/she ought to be imbued with the philosophical underpinnings of the field and philosophy generally. And by this I mean the metaphysical, epistemological, logical and axiological underpinnings as well as the concomitant habits of mind, dispositions and actions that make it possible for one to generate new knowledge and technology in a given area.

    “To be a scientist or philosopher is to be a seeker after truth and knowledge. And one needs the appropriate values and attitude to life to succeed. Such includes among other things, a detachment from crass materialism that is the order of the day today; otherwise, one may sacrifice truth and knowledge on the altar of self aggrandizement and other passions. Further, one cannot for instance be crassly materialistic, seeking immoral and illegal gains and advantages and at the same time spewing novel scientific and technological theories and innovations. This is because one’s life negates order and truth which are crucial to the generation of new scientific and technological ideas in and about the real world.”

    Maintaining that to be a scientist is to have a profession, he explained that it is also a vocation, but insisted that only those who take it as a vocation often make the breakthrough.  “In Nigeria, it is mostly a profession which is supposed to pay the certificate holder. The idea that it is a vocation for which the certificate holder should make sacrifices in order to gain and propagate truth and knowledge is not appreciated readily. And for this, the values of our society are largely culpable. Our society is very vulgarly showy and grossly materialistic.

    “Sadly, we don’t have the values that drive science here. So, when people talk about funding and infrastructure as the bane of innovation and research in Nigeria, I don’t fully agree; the values are not there too. Some scientists have been known to embezzle the funds meant for the equipment of their laboratories and spend such money on some luxury items. So, scientists in countries like India with similar experiences of poverty have performed generally better. You can link the development going on in such countries to the outcome of the work of their scientists and other researchers,” he said.

    Then his admonition: “No tangible innovation can ever come out of a very hedonistic and materialistic culture like ours. It is for this reason that a scientist who wants a high post in government or even in a university could run to a native doctor for assistance, thereby showing that he/she is not convinced about and committed to the fundamental rationality that governs the universe, which is one of the metaphysical assumptions of his/her profession. We do not have a culture that promotes science here. This has to change as quickly as possible!”

  • Campaigning for peace, transformation

    Campaigning for peace, transformation

    All is now set for the 14th edition of the Miss Niger Delta Beauty Pageant. With the theme: One Voice for Peace, Empowerment and Transformation, this year’s edition is scheduled to hold in December with much pomp and fanfare in Bayelsa State.

    Given the peaceful disposition of the indigenes, Chief Executive Officer of Miss Niger Delta Beauty Pageant International Organisation, Prince Sodin, said the contestants and guests are sure to experience the true hospitality, Bayelsa style, and, by extension, the Niger Delta region.

    He said this year’s winner would go home with a cash prize, a brand new car and an all-expense paid trip to Dubai, adding that she would be saddled with the responsibility of building bridges of peace not only in the Niger Delta region, but across the country. She is also expected to work with other queens from other regions to promote peace, love and socio cultural integration.

    According to Sodin, the pageantry, which is expected to attract celebrities within and outside Nigeria’s fashion and entertainment industries and beyond, is not all about crowning beauty queens, but is designed to promote socio-cultural integration, tourism, human capital development, advocacy projects.

    “Miss Niger Delta is a cultural pageant that started in 1999. The show has championed diverse campaigns to promote early education for children, with protection of the right of the girl-child right, campaign for re-orientation of values among Niger Delta youths, eradication of violence and cultism, among others. It campaigns against indecent dressing and prostitution, HIV/AIDS, sickle cell, breast cancer, environmental protection, examination malpractice, cultism and other social vices.

    “The pageant has brought dignity and respect to the pageant industry because it promotes the rich cultural heritage and dignity of womanhood hence, contestants do not wear bikini or indecent attires or exposures during the show. It has produced 13 winners namely: Miss Niger Delta Ambassador for Peace and Development, Miss Niger Delta, Face of Beauty, Pride of Niger Delta, Symbol of Talent, Miss Niger Delta in Diaspora and Miss Niger Delta Model for Change. And they have used their positions to touch the lives of people positively in the region,” he said.

    While expressing satisfaction over the policies and achievements of the tourism industry and development in the region, particularly that of the Bayelsa State, he commended Bayelsa State governorandtheDirector-General of Tourism, Mrs Ebizi Ndiomu Brown, for promoting tourism in the state.

    The first runner-up will also go home with a cash prize and a trip to Dubai, while the second runner-up will go home with a cash prize and an all expense trip to Tinapa, Cross Rivers State. Other winners will go home with consolation prizes. It is expected to attract cream-de-la-cream in the society, stakeholders in the beauty pageant and entertainment industry in Nigeria, Africa, those in the Diaspora, Britain, America and Europe. The pageant forms are still on sale and would close at the end of the month. Sodin said the show is open for sponsorship to individuals and organisations.

  • ‘We ‘re driven by strong passion, professionalism’

    The management of Arthouse Contemporary, an auction house, has identified passion and strict adherence to professionalism as the main impetus behind the success story of the outfit established in 2007.

    Its Manager, Nana Sonoiki said aside being driven by a strong passion and professionalism, the auction house does not compromise on standard and that the experts work as a team. “Every auction is an improvement of the previous edition and we try to work with the professionals in the sector who are not bias. In fact, we have turned down an art work by Prof Ben Enwonwu at a time because we were not satisfied with the state of the work,” she said during an interactive session with Arts Editors in Lagos last week.

    Founder of the auction house, Kavita Chellaram, said the thirteenth edition of the auction of modern and contemporary art will open on Monday, November 3, by 6 pm at the Wheatbaker Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos. It is sponsored by Citibank Nigeria.

    The auction, which will be led by notable auctioneer, John Dabney, will from Saturday, November 1, through Monday November 3 afternoon display works at the Wheatbaker Hotel for viewing in anticipation of the auction. The previous auction in May made a sale of N85,334,000 with 75 lots sold.

    This edition will include 115 lots of artworks from 1955-2014, spanning the mediums of painting, sculpture, mixed media, and photography. Notable artworks from the modern period to be auctioned include El Antasui’s The Mask (1978), Ben Enwonwu’s Elongated Female Fiture (1978) and Ututu, Morning Meeting of Chiefs at Old Asaba (1970), Yusuf Grillo’s Hawker in Blue (1964), and Bruce Onobrakpeya’s Totems of the Delta (2003). Contemporary artists featured for the first time include Muri Adejimi, Cyril Omamogho, Tchif, Mohammed Abba-Gana, Samuel Ajobiewe, Abiola Idowu, Sam Maduike, Nengi Omuku, Julien Sinzogan(Beninese) and Silas Adeoye.

    “The auction house has created the Arthouse Foundation, a non-profit organisation that aims to encourage the creative development of contemporary art in Nigeria. Through a residency-based programme, the Arthouse Foundation provides a platform for artists to expand their practice and experiment with new art forms and ideas. By establishing a network that supports cross-cultural exchange between Nigerian and international artists, the Arthouse Foundation embraces contemporary art as an educational model to engage communities, promote social dialogue, and advance the critical discourse of artistic practices,” she added.

    According to Chellaram, the Arthouse Foundation has inaugurated its first year by supporting Nigerian artists in their participation in art programs abroad, including Victoria Udondian’s graduate study at Columbia University in New York, residencies for Uchay Joel Chima and Tayo Olayode at the Vermont Studio Center, and Chibuike Uzoma in Vienna, Austria. This auction will include a selection of artworks that have been generously donated to support the Arthouse Foundation from artists including Yetunde Ayeni-Babaeko, Uchay Joel Chima, Tayo Olayode, and Arthouse Contemporary Limited.

    Recalled that Arthouse Contemporary also expanded its scope to include Arthouse-The Space, which organises exhibitions of contemporary art outside of the auction. Arthouse-The Space recently opened an exhibition of Nigerian photographer George Osodi entitled TRANSGREXION, which took place at the Renault Showroom in Victoria Island, September 28 – October 17, 2014. The exhibition was sponsored by Renault Nigeria.

  • Amidst the Mire recalls fuel subsidy removal

    Amidst the Mire recalls fuel subsidy removal

    After two years of hard work, contemporary Nigerian artist, Mavua Lessor, presents Amidst the Mire; a solo art exhibition of mixed media which covers events that happened within 2012 to 2014.

    In his exhibition of 40 works, Lessor highlights on the dramas that took place during the fuel subsidy removal era, Boko Haram insurgency, the yet-to-be-rescued kidnapped Chibok school girls and the Ebola crisis.  The show held at Alexis Gallery in Victoria Island and was curated by the gallery owner, Mrs Patty Chidiac.

    “Amidst the Mire is a theme I chose for this particular show because of the circumstances that occurred while I was doing the works. These works cover a period of 2 years, and if you look around the world a lot has happened within this period. The theme serves as an umbrella for each of these events,” Lessor said.

    Despite these disturbing issues, Lessor feels life must go on and this he try to discourse in some of his pieces. “One thing about life is that no matter the problem or trouble; we should concentrate on the positive areas, the things that will keep life going. Some of the works are complementary, I trying to document them with more humor.  I am not focusing on the problem; I didn’t really put the problems on canvas.

    “Most of the works focused more on experimental material in this exhibition, which is fabric on canvas or fabric on fabric as people will prefer to call it. I am trying to explore fabric as discipline on figures, this is fading away, so I am trying to bring it back, using mix medium,” he said.

    In recent times, many artists seem to be exploring the medium of fabric, but to Lessor, “It appears to be a trend but I have been exploring this mix media for as long as my career. In 2008 and 2010 I had this mix media in works

    With theses disturbing issues, Lessor feels life must go on and this he try to discourse in some of his pieces. “One thing about life is that no matter the problem or trouble; we should concentrate on the positive areas, the things that will keep life going. Some of the works are complementary, I trying to document them with more humor.  I am not focusing on the problem; I didn’t really put the problems on canvas,” he asserted.

    Most of the works, “focused more on experimental material in this exhibition, which is fabric on canvas or fabric on fabric as people will prefer to call it. I am trying to explore fabric as discipline on figures, this is fading away, so I am trying to bring it back, using mix medium,” he said.

    In recent time many artists seem to be exploring the medium of fabric, but to Lessor, “It appears to be a trend but I have been exploring this mix media for as long as my career. In 2008 and 2010 I had this mix media in works,” he explained.

    While explaining one of his works Cans of Life, he said, “Cans of Life is a painting that focused on shortages of portable water in our city. What you see are vendors with cans going around hacking priceless commodity (water). We cannot do without water, is something very important. I look at distance and reflection, these are cans of life and that is how life is.”

    Lessor was born on 26 November, 1960 in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria. He had his early education in Warri, Delta State and higher education at the Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi. Between 1987 and 1993, Lessor engaged himself as a freelance artist, experimenting with metals and other materials for interior and exterior decorative works. By 1993 he opened his studio and concentrated more on his specialiSed discipline of painting.He has exhibited his works locally and internationally, he is well recognised in the art community due to his consistency.

  • Macmillan literary night focuses on rebirth

    Macmillan literary night focuses on rebirth

    Nigerians have been blamed for the challenges which the country is currently battling with.

    The Chairman, Macmillan Literary Events Committee, Mrs Francesca Emanuel, observed this during a briefing at the Macmillan Publishers Ltd office in Lagos, saying there is a burning need to change the mindset of many Nigerians in order to reinstate the norms, values and tenets, which can have positive impact on the society.

    “We amass wealth by hook and crook, stupidly thinking that our wealth will see us, our children, and our children’s children through whatever ills befall our country. All of us, the helpless, the silent, the desperate, the stingy, the greedy all of us are part of the problem. And when religion is used to foist mayhem on the populace, it becomes really frightening. When the society exhibits these symptoms, a REBITH becomes imperative,” she said.

    She believes one of the ways to achieve a rebirth is through social activities. This, she said, is why the 12th edition of Macmillan Literary Night, holding tomorrow at the Agip Hall of the MUSON Centre, Onikan by 6pm, will be focusing on the theme: The Rebirth. The theme, according to her, reflects the characteristic responsiveness of Macmillan Nigeria Publishers Limited, sponsor of the event to the promotion of ennobling and productive values, essential to national development.

    She said: “Hence our theme for pointing the direction for us to see, to address, to know and to actualise. Faith, unity, honesty, love justice, honour, these are words entrenched in our motto, our anthem and pledge. Let these words guide our intentions and actions. And as usual, we shall utilise the various genres of arts to sensitise and entertain our audience in a refreshingly different way.”

    For the past 11 years, the organisation has been engaging the public through the annual Macmillan Literary Night, which they intend to keep doing as part of social responsibility.

    This year’s edition, she said, will feature some Nigerian’s outstanding performers, such as, Joke Sylva, Odia Ofeimum, Taiwo Ajai-Lycett and the Crown Troupe of Africa.

  • UNESCO advocates women in politics

    UNESCO advocates women in politics

    As the 2015 general elections in Nigeria draws near, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Abuja Regional Office, has called for more women in elective and appointive leadership positions in Nigeria.

    This, according to the Director, Prof Hassana Alidou, is in continuation of its support to the electoral process. Speaking at the training of trainers’ workshop on Gender and Transformative Leadership in Nigeria, she observed that the lack of more women in leadership is not only a sign of inequality, but tends to highlight the gender disparity. The disparity, she said, “can be seen through a lack of role models for young women and through the absence of women’s voice and input into the decision-making processes”.

    Prof Alidou, who was represented by a UNESCO National Programme Officer, Dr Safiya Muhammad, said: “In the 2007 elections, some 516 women sought political office in elective positions at various levels, while in 2011 more than 900 women contested for elections into the various offices, an increase of about 78 per cent.”

    She noted that even with such increase, the percentage of women currently in political offices in Nigeria is estimated to be 8 per cent, an indicator of the high levels of exclusion faced by women in the political arena.

    The training, which is aimed at equipping women who intend to go into leadership positions whether appointive or elective, was initiated by UNESCO and Rutgers University in the US ; funded by the European Union (EU), UK AID, the Canada Government and UNDP through the Democratic Governance and Development project, and supported by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.

  • Evolution of Ije Uwa runs in Quintessence

    Evolution of Ije Uwa runs in Quintessence

    LAST Saturday, Quintessence Gallery, Park View Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos, hosted an arts exhibition of works by contemporary Nigerian artist Promise O’Nali. It was an event of mix medium, entitled: Ije Uwa (Life’s Trajectory).

    According to the curator of the exhibition, Moses Ohiomokhare, the show will run for two weeks. “Quintessence is delighted to show works of this promising artist. They are works that one characterises as contemporary or avant-garde art and will be a delight for collectors and art lovers,” he said.

    O’Nali, said: “Life is a journey, but one constant thing in life is change. Ije Uwa is an Igbo title, it demystifies the kind of person I am.  My art has gone through a lot of processes in terms of evolution to the state where it is now and it may not be the end point because I am still revolving, searching and experimenting.”

    After graduating in 2007, “I have been pushing my frontiers, exploring, experimenting; trying to see how far I can go with my expression. I was always driven by the brutal force of visual reality and communication,” and this according to him inspired Ije Uwa.  “A phrase that means a lot to people, it could mean: science, faith, life, evolution or change. There is a lot of drama going on around the Ije Uwa phrase, which is why I fell in Love with it.

    On his works, technique and style, he stated that he is a versatile artist, which is why he described himself as an experimental artist. “I don’t like terming or tagging myself because it kind of put a hold on me as far as I am concerned. But I can call myself a contemporary experimental artist. I try to stay grounded with contemporary trend in my discipline; I am not like a stagnant artist who is always exploring one theme. That is why I read a lot.”

    Among the over 30 works that will be on display for the viewing is: Gaia’s Dilemm. “This piece is about the earth being able to harness poisonous situations and turning it into friendly ally. With all the pollution and unwanted things thrown into the atmosphere to the biopsy, somehow the earth has been able to use all these things to its advantage. The Dilemma is being able to take positive and negative and make something worthwhile,” intimated.

    Ayakalunka Mana Obu Ogodo Ayi Kaluka, which he said means: “We are not old but is our clothes (body) that is old. “The piece was inspired by the atoms of our body. The atoms are billion years old, the genetic makeup of our bodies is very old, but we don’t look it,” he explained.

    Recently many artistes are shifting a bit from their usual medium, style and technique, exploring other areas. O’Nali has also joined this league in the area of colour; you can call his a colour shift. “Before now I used to be a colour freak, and it reflected in my works then. This exhibition is quite a discipline to play down on colours and it bit my palate,” he said.

    The paintings are based on the evolution of man to the present state of man from O’Nali perspective as an artist. He explored black, white and earth tone colours to communication his view. “I was looking at evolution from the state of energy to matter and to self reflective consciousness.

    “The black colour in the paintings represents energy, the earth tone basically represents matter; the geology, how land came to be. I can’t actually put a colour to consciousness, so I explored white in that regard to represent consciousness. That is why most of the paintings for this show are have white background,” he narrated, pointing at the works. “It is basically white, black and the earth tone colours for this exhibition,” he hinted.

    Other beautiful pieces which will also be on display are: Ego vs Self, Schism, Noogeneses; and they depict evolution.