The Nation Newspaper

Category: Arts & Life

  • Gabriel Garcia Marquez : Farewell to the Magic Muse

    Gabriel Garcia Marquez : Farewell to the Magic Muse

    Gone, the Magic Muse of Aracataca. In a manner similar to his wondrous tales, I can see him levitating towards the skies, a pen in one hand, a trumpet in the other, a rueful smile on his face. For his body is too precious, too imperishable for the grave’s cramping dungeon and its ravenous coven of worms. Beyond the clouds, Angel Gabriel is waiting for his famous namesake at Heavensgate, waiting expectantly for this curious mortal whose fame and flourish competed so triumphantly with those of hosts of heaven. And I can see the intrepid ‘Gabo’ later, negotiating a niche with a revolving door and a wide window through which he can continue to peep at the turbulent world he has left behind and watch how the strands of his magic narratives continue to unfold. Without a doubt, his dealings with other angels are likely to be contentious; for this Gabriel is a being who so often obeys his own rules; a spirit averse to time-worn routines and conventional thou-shalt-nots.. . .

    Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of the most influential literary figures in the past 100 years; and in literature in the Spanish language, his fame and impact are only rivaled by those of Miguel de Cervantes, the pioneering genius who gave the world the timeless Don Quixote. Veteran journalist and author of numerous novels and short stories, Marquez shook the world with the publication of One Hundred Years of Solitude in 1967, and literally rewrote the rubric of the narrative genre. Intensely political and socially committed, he assailed the incubi of colonial/imperial exploitation and social injustice in a language and style that made his narration of that exposure irresistible even to those being exposed. He settled, finally, the quarrel between History and Literature, Myth and Reality by making Politics the flexible Mediator between the four. He gathered the strands of our workaday life, wove them into tales with an indelible touch of weird wanderings and wonder. He erased – or extended – the traditional gulf between the probability of the improbable and the improbability of the probable. And therein lies the phenomenon which literary critics and avid name-givers have christened as “magic realism”, a terminology that has been with us for several decades now and which has been splashed rightly or wrongly on works from different parts of the world with little or no consideration for local peculiarities. Whatever name his style is called, in whatever critical lingo it is couched, Marquez is the master of the hint and hyperbole, of the awe in the story and the aura in its telling. His narrative invented other ways of perceiving reality, other ways of cognizing human existence, other ways of being human. That is why his works are so full of rumble and resonance. That is why his new realism unlinks the chains of the old one. That is why William Kennedy, the noted American writer, recommended that One Hundred Years of Solitude should be compulsory reading for the human race.

    Influence, or, better still, influentiality, comes naturally to women and men of Marquez’s stature. And he had it and made the best of it. His influence is easily seen in the literary sphere where he changed the content and form of the narrative genre since the last half of the 20th century. The other kind of influence, a little less easy to perceive, is his influence on the political scene (I almost said ‘destiny’!) of Latin America in a 20th century bloodied by military dictatorship and all manner of murderous incivilities. Marquez spoke out against evil. His voice was loud, insistent, unafraid. And when he spoke, the world listened, for he earned his space, his right to speak, his will to the Word. Not infrequently, his interventions made military dictators shake in their boots. Quite often, the people found their strength in his words. Like the great Pablo Neruda, his Latin American compatriot, he too made an unbreakable pledge to himself that the people would find their voices in his song. We must never underestimate the contribution of people like Marquez to the return of democracy to Latin America and other parts of the world afflicted by the absence of that ideal.

    Gather round this fire, therefore, oh ye acolytes of the Word. Sing a song and shake a leg. The master storyteller has levitated to the skies. Gabriel is back at Heavensgate. Banana leaves are clapping in the fields of Aracataca. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is laughing, his patented moustache lush and green like the forests of his beloved Colombia.

     

    •Osundare writes from New Orleans

  • Redemption of Africa (ll)

    (A review of Wole Soyinka’s Harmattan Haze on an African Spring)

    Politics of exclusion, intra and inter-country boundary problems, lust for power, warped ideology, etc. are identified as the heart of the crises plaguing the continent in the book. While underscoring the place of “strict adherence to democratic justice” in resolving most of the myriads of convulsions threatening the continent, the blind defence of these European-created boundaries of death certainly demand interrogation: “Is it truly in the interest of the occupants of that continent that the present boundaries are being consolidated, defended, held so inviolate that the population of the continent is routinely decimated, millions maimed and incapacitated for life, vast hectares of farm land rendered useless by liberally sown anti-personnel mines? Youths are robbed of their innocence and their humanity, as the continent becomes the corrupted playground of boy soldiers. In short, what price is worth paying for the illusion of boundaries and ‘sovereignty’?”

    To clear any misconception, the playwright-historian is not advocating the disintegration of the present nation entities. In fact, a proper interrogation could even lead to the opposite – amalgamation. The point is where such horrendous human conflict is traceable to this product of European fictioning, as in the case of Sudan, “Where this is seen clearly to be the case, and internal instability of a costly dimension evidently derives from such impositions, common sense urges that, at the very least, the basis for such amalgamations be revisited with a view to ascertaining where precisely lies the will of the people themselves, acting in freedom.”

    The criminality of the Janjaweed, under the banner of impunity, really troubled the human rights activist and he devoted a lot of attention to it. South Sudan eventually gained its independence after the publication of this book but then what does one make of the current internecine upheavals in the new country? I think the answer to the situation could be located in Soyinka’s lecture during his investiture as Awo Laureate on March 7, 2013: WINDING DOWN HISTORY: RELIGION AND NATION, POWER AND FREEDOM.

    One then comes to the conclusion that, whereas there are no absolutes in any propositions, it seems the path of “democratic justice” , as enunciated by the author, can be the best of all the alternatives as a way of restoring our humanity in Africa. The sanctity of the rule of law, constitutional provisions that safeguard the interest of minorities and entrenchment of democratic norms such as free and fair elections, all within the structures of government most suitable for different countries based on their cultural, economic and socio-political realities – federal, confederal or unitary. But admittedly, these can only be achieved through interrogation of the present in an atmosphere perfumed with burning passion for justice. Restructuring, either of the structures of government, forms of government or power relations, seems inevitable across the African continent.

    If I may add in passing; in Nigeria, for instance, the present unitary system disguised as federalism must be dumped without further ado. The aim of dividing the country into three regions, each with a regional council in 1947, according to the then governor of colonial Nigeria, Sir Arthur Richards, was “To create a political system… within which the diverse elements, may progress at varying speeds, amicably and smoothly, towards a more closely integrated economic, social and political unity, without sacrificing the principles and ideals in their divergent ways of life.” Inherent in this submission was federalism. Again at the Ibadan General Conference, preparatory to the promulgation of Macpherson Constitution of 1951, the question on the structure of Nigeria was asked: “Do we wish to see a fully centralised system with all legislative and executive powers concentrated at the centre, or do we wish to develop a federal system under which each different region of the country would exercise a measure of internal autonomy?” The London Conference of 1953 and Lagos Conference of 1954 that followed emphasised a full-blown federal constitution, which was later captured in the Lyttleton Constitution of 1954 and Independence Constitution of 1960… Now that history has come full circle in Nigeria, we need to return to the bequest of our founding fathers – federalism.

    In Harmattan Haze on an African Spring, Wole Soyinka (WS) also holds that the redemption of African spirituality, indeed, Africa and the world lies in the embrace of the doctrines of Orisa. “Thus, for all seekers after peace and security of true community, and the space of serenity that enables the quest after Truth… we urge yet again the simple path that was travelled from the soil of the Yoruba, across the Atlantic landmass to contiguous nations, across the hostile oceans to the edge of the world in the Americas – Go to the Orisa, learn from the Orisa, and be wise.”

    What WS presented in this book is an exegesis of Orisa worship. The Babalawo (traditional healer/diviner), the equivalent of a Bishop or Imam is “the wistful embodiment of all that is missing in the political life of a continent.” Ifa, the equivalent of Bible or Koran, according to WS, “emphasises for us the perpetual elasticity of knowledge. Ifa’s tenets are governed by a frank acknowledgment of the fact that the definition of Truth is a goal that is constantly being sought by humanity, that existence itself is a passage to ultimate truth, and that claimants to possession of the definitiveness of knowledge are, in fact, the greatest obstacles to the attainment of Truth.”

    He rejects the tag of paganism often placed on believers of Orisa by Christianity and Islam and cautioned that these traditional religions should not be conflated with cults. “The accommodative spirit of the Yoruba gods (Ogun, Esu, Oya, Sopona, Sango, etc) remains the eternal bequest to a world that is riven by the spirit of intolerance, of xenophobia and suspicion,” he submits.

    WS spoke of the “beneficent gods and their potencies, their curative and fortifying interventions…the combative, even malevolent, who can be invoked to work against the enemy,” citing the reference by a former head of state after a visit to Mandela in prison to the potency of these traditional powers: “Where is our egbe? Where is our onde? Where is our famed juju to take out these perpetrators of hideous injustice on our own soil?”

    Rightly or wrongly, the question cannot escape the attention of a reader, let alone a reviewer: Why did these traditional powers not work against the intruders, including their religions on the continent of Africa? The dramatist is a faithful of the Orisa but is he a worshiper in any shrine? This certainly is another conundrum.

    In summary, we cannot but agree with our erudite scholar that religion should be an evocation and constitute “the spice of life, not the trigger of strife.”

    The culture icon made a strong case for the efficacy and potency of traditional medicine, citing a haunting instance where the latter had come to the rescue of orthodox/western medicine. Harmattan Haze on an African Spring is a treasure trove, controversial to boot in some aspects.

    Finally, WS urged that the questioning of cultures and social norms within the concept of what is globally acceptable or fundamental human rights is a categorical imperative. Cultural relativism or respect for other cultures should be within such a context. You cannot say because in your own culture, the toe of the first born must be cut or that girls must not go to school, therefore I have to respect such.

    Of course, this lucubration cannot but contain some errors – the ritual every reviewer must perform. “African past and present” is given as “African past and presence” on page 19. Berlin Treaty of Partition of Africa took place in 1885, not 1881 as provided on page 50. “…is one of my favourite” should have been “favourites” on page 98; “it serves” is typed as “it serve” on page 196.

    Through the exploration in Harmattan Haze on an African Spring, Prof Wole Soyinka, my intellectual avatar, has once again reiterated the immensity and polyvalence of his knowledge. He has sown a seed on a fertile ground, which should sprout to produce “a new breed of explorers for the relay race towards a deeply craved Age of Universal Understanding – African inspired.”

     

    •Soyombo, is an Abeokuta-based journalist

     

  • Micah Ekpe the legend: 50 years after

    Micah Ekpe the legend: 50 years after

    It is said that Greatness is of three types – the one somebody is born into, like Royalty, the one that is entrusted on without one necessarily working for it and the greatness one achieves by dent of hard-work.

    Micah Okoye Ndibe Ekpe, Ezenwa 1 of Enugwu Ukwu na Umunri belongs to the last category as he rose from a very humble beginning to become the President General of the entire Enugwu Ukwu community in the former Northern Region of Nigeria.

    In Uruekwo, one of the 18 villages in Enugwu Ukwu, Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State, the name MICAH EKPE is highly revered, recognized and appreciated for good and noble deeds and famed philanthropy. Your father was a good man, he did this or that for me, he assisted us in one project or another, or he led us well, was a ready and willing response to any of his children by the generality of Enugwu Ukwu people and beyond who had any association with him.

    These testimonies are evidenced by the statement by Albert Paye – “what we have done for ourselves alone dies with us, but what we have done for others and the word remains and is immortal”. The tremendous goodwill that reverberated

    from his memory has been the leading and guiding light for all his children, opening doors of opportunities for them. After all the Holy book says in Proverbs 20 v 7 “The Righteous is working in his integrity, happy are his sons after him”

    Micah Okoye Ndibe Ekpe, was born in 1914. As the first son had the responsibility to assist his parents in their farm work and also cater for his younger ones. He was privileged to be sent to Central School Abagana for his primary school education, a rare opportunity in those days. Soon after his primary education, the problem of what to do to sustain his parents and siblings arose and he had to locate to Agbani to participate in Palm oil trade which seemed a thriving business in those days. He joined his brothers, friends and associates in Agbani including John Nwokedi and Obed Okonkwo who were already pioneers in the business and resident there.

    Micah was still doing business at Agbani when a fortuitous circumstance arose. One of his relations Ekwenugwo Okenwa who was then resident in Kano had died from an attack of meningitis. The mother of the deceased due to a very high regard for Micah’s trustworthiness and honesty confided that it was only Micah that she could trust to travel to Kano and evacuate her late son’s property home Micah did just that. While in Kano for this emergency assignment, he saw business opportunity in the ancient city and stayed back soon after the funeral to extend the frontiers of the palm oil trading business. He then formed a company which supplied palm oil to a Kano based soap factory Niger Soap Factory owned by some Lebanese nationals. Supply of Palm oil transported by train from Enugu and Agbani through his suppliers Obed Okonkwo, John Nwokedi, Michael Okafor (Dogo) and Augustine Ujuagu all of blessed memory to the Kano Soap Factory became his main business.

    Micah’s status in business grew tremendously and he bought and built houses in Kano, Nguru and Enugu. He also as a natural leader of men organized the Enugwu Ukwu community in Kano in particular and the entire Northern Nigeria generally towards development projects at home. His residence at No.37 Aba road, Sabon Gari Kano became the first port of call by any visiting Enugwu Ukwu indigene to the North. In the 10 laws of leadership articulated by Bill Newmer, Micah combined Vision, Wisdom, Development of friendships, Courage, Humility, Executive Capacity and Inspirational Power, to offer leadership to the Igbos in Kano. He rose to become the President of the defunct Enugwu Ukwu Patriotic Union (EPU), Kano branch and later President General of the Union in the entire Northern Region of Nigeria, positions he held until his voluntary relocation to Enugu in 1953. On his leaving the North, he was succeeded in his Kano branch seat by Chief A. N. Onwudinjo and the Northern Region portfolio by Chief F.G.N. Okoye both of blessed memory.

    He, along with the late Okonkwo (Okonkwo Kano) and others led the Igbos resident in Kano in their self defence during the Kano Riots of 1953. It was after this ugly episode that he relocated with his family to Enugu capital of Eastern Nigerian, naming his then 3 months old son Chukwudozie (may the Lord settle the problem between the Igbos and their Northern hosts).

    Micah’s decision to leave Kano and return to the East after the 1953 Kano Riots is very historic and of great significance. This was the first move by an industrious Igbo businessman to abandon his thriving business in Northern Nigeria to return to safety in Eastern Nigeria. This movement has remained a recurrent feature in the life of Igbos resident in the Northern part of Nigeria. The pertinent question asked then in 1953 and still being asked today in 2014, more than 50 years after, is why should Nigerian citizens not be free to live and practice their trade in every part of the country they call their own? If this matter is not satisfactorily addressed, will it not be advisable that Nigeria should be a Confederation of Six geo-political Regions instead of the so-called Federation in which many of her citizens are massacred on regular basis. It is very clear that the Nigerian Federation as presently constituted is just not working. There is so much hatred, bitterness, religious intolerance, malice, ill-will, ethnic jingoism, mutual suspicion and mistrust among the constituent ethnic groups in the country.

    This time that President Jonathan has convoked a National Conference is very opportune to discuss this nagging problem which has stunted the growth and development of Nigeria in the past 100 years

    On his return to his No.23 Udi Road, Asata Enugu, he engaged in some businesses including transport and cement sales supplied by Nigerian Cement Company (NIGERCEM) Nkalagu of which he was a shareholder.

    As an ardent Christian, Micah worshipped his creator to the best of his ability, assisting in the growth and development of the Anglican Faith in Enugwu Ukwu. He served as the Treasurer of Immanuel Anglican Church, Enugwu Ukwu until his death.

    Soon after the 1962 general return in Enugwu Ukwu, his illness deteriorated and on July 6, 1963, this excellent specimen of humanity, this philanthropist per excellence, this trail blazer in human development, with monumental achievements packed within his 49 years of life passed on.

    He is survived by seven sons, five daughters, many grand and great grand children all contributing their quota to the country’s social, political and economic development. A 50th year remembrance service will be held in honour at St Andrew’s Anglican Church, Enugwu Ukwu, Anambra State on Easter Monday April 21, 2014 after which the Micah Ekpe foundation for assistance to the less privileged in the society will be launched.…To live in the minds of those we leave behind is not to die.

  • ‘Writing has shaped my career’

    ‘Writing has shaped my career’

    Author of many books, Ima-Mariam Nike Agunbiade, is an artiste, lawyer and educationist, who started writing since 1997. Ever since then, she has been using her works to touch lives by reaching out to students across schools not only in Nigeria but elsewhere. In this encounter with Edozie Udeze, she shares her experiences as a writer, a school proprietress, artiste and lawyer and lots more

    Ima-Mariam Nike Agunbiade, has, in the past few years, devoted most of her life and time to writing books. Her love of writing is so vast and deep-rooted that she has 12 books to her credit. The books range from marketing, career guide to motivational books and others on how to make the best out of children. So far, she has made herself and her works so visible that some private and public schools use her books both for moral instructions, attitudinal and character formations.

    “Yes”, she said, reminiscing, “I have written about 12 books, ranging from career guide, to educational books to help both primary, nursery and secondary school students. Oh, for me, one has to write when one has something substantial to say. When you’ve interacted with the public the way I’ve done so far, then you’ll certainly have something to say. And that’s what I’ve been able to do. Most of my works are based essentially on my experiences with people or what my friends have gone through in life. Some of these experiences have in one way or the other touched or inspired me to write.”

    Making reference to one of her books entitled Survival and the Role of Detachment, which was basically inspired by what happened to one of her closest friends, she said: “She suddenly died when she wasn’t even sick. Her death was so shocking to me and to most of our friends. That experience set my mind racing about the nothingness of life. It is a book that deals on how to handle sudden and impromptu events. In her own case, she was not sick – in fact, she was planning the wedding of one of her siblings and was very committed to it. Then suddenly it happened.”

    That incident not only showed her that life itself is but a puff of the wind, it also began to let her see the other side of the philosophy of life-that whatever we do here on earth is tied to our own ability to touch lives, using what we have to create the desired change. “We need to make plans in life but whether we succeed in achieving them or not is a different ball-game entirely. Again we have to take relationships seriously especially family relationships. They matter a lot in our day-to-day activities. Then some of the issues I took time to look into are how we spend our leisure times, how you react when you’ve worked in a particular place and when others were being promoted and you were not. So many issues that bother most people from time to time also received my attention.”

    Because of her love for writing, Agunbiade, who had his first degree in Creative Arts from the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has since chosen to surround herself with books that can easily inspire her imagination and lubricate her discipline and comportment to write. “This is why I concentrate more on human situations. Apart from my own philosophy about life, I also think of how to handle what happens to the people I know, to my close friends and so on. So, when I want to write I get my inspiration from all that. Even then, one of my books was inspired by a journalist friend of mine who called me up one day and said: “look you have to be here to talk to some of our students on career development. It was such a short notice but I had to do it”, she said, clasping her hands.

    After delivering that talk, which was in a short form, the audience seemed to be carried away by its rich contents and message. “I am glad to tell you that that topic later led to a book I wrote to encourage young girls and boys to find their rhythms in life. The book basically is for students both in secondary schools and those in higher institutions. It is equally for those who have just graduated and are trying to develop their carrier or find their career and so on.”

    With the acquisition of more degrees in Law and Educaton, Agunbiade has truly discovered that to write books that can help to shape characters and build individuals into meaningful citizens of the society, versatility and broader perspective and understanding of human nature count a lot. “My interest in writing began when I was in the university. Not only that I read Creative Arts, we did courses in script writing and directing. All these helped me to begin to show interest in writing. Unfortunately, my first works, I was not really confident of myself to make them see the light of the day. From that moment, I just wanted to write. But when later I went into education, the whole orientation began to change. By 1997, I had already started writing, especially when I began to run my own school and many children were being sent to my school.”

    Even then, some physically challenged students were also being sent to her school. Not properly trained to handle such cases, Agunbiade found herself in a very tight situation. In as much as she wanted to reject these children, more were still sent to her and her conscience did not allow her to abandon or reject them. Consequently, this singular experience made her to write another book on how to run and handle such children in such circumstances. “And part of my post graduate diploma in education was on how to deal with such problems. I did it to be able to help because other schools around were not accepting the children. I also went to the special school for the blind in Surulere, Lagos. There I learnt how to handle the special needs of children with different degrees of disabilities.”

    Not satisfied with this level of exposure and experience, however, she proceeded to England where she took another post graduate diploma in education at the University of Nottingham. In addition, she studied yet for another diploma in Special Educational Needs at the Blackford Learning Institute also in England. Today, she has established a couple of schools which include Beaconsfield College, Silversands Hall Schools and others, located in Lagos where she and her well-trained teachers apply the modern Montessori teaching techniques to groom children to become better leaders in different respects and spheres.

    Her concern primarily centres on the fact that the Nigerian society does not accord enough time to the physically challenged and children with other forms of deformities. “Imagine, out of the 100 universities we have in Nigeria, only three have courses and provisions for such students. That also struck me to write a comprehensive book for special education teachers. It is for them to know what it entails to teach these children; to also realise and appreciate their needs.

    A committed and prolific writer, Agunbiade takes her time to research into any topic she wants to write on “Once I have chosen a theme to handle, I can retire into my study for say one or two weeks to do justice to the theme. Once I am writing, I do not want any other issue to distort the flow. During this period, I do not do any other thing except writing. This helps me to avoid writer\s block or get stuck or even forget some salient issues. I make sure I get the theme to a reasonable level once I start. Thereafter, I give it to my secretary to type and other corrections would then follow.”

    A lover of popcorn, she said that this is one habit she often indulges in once the muse takes hold of her. “When I write in order to keep myself glued to what I do, I take a lot of popcorn. This is to steady myself and help my body become attuned to my writing. You know sometimes when you are writing, you want to nibble at something and then it is a way to be attuned to the environment. And if I pick popcorn, I also have a companion because I am all by myself writing. You do it because you also do not want to get tired or bored or distracted. However, you don’t have to take something heavy so that it will not knock you off. You also need to replenish the energy you’ve been burning while writing. So for me, popcorn does it. At times I may prefer to take soft drink or the like.”

    On the whole, she is not just a lover of motivational books done by both Nigerians and foreigners, she equally expressed her special interest in the works of Pastor David Oyedepo, founder of the Winners Chapel. “Most of his works touch me a lot. I read all sorts of books written by him even though I do not go to the Winners Chapel. Brian Tracy’s works have been of immense inspiration to me. If you read some of these books you will have an idea of how things work,” she said, noting that she may one day write a play. “The one I did before was too crazy and somewhat radical. So I didn’t go further. In future, I may do one or two prose fictions”, she said hopefully.

  • Love meets sacrifice and conviction

    Love meets sacrifice and conviction

    Book Title: Falsely Accused

    Author: Jide Popoola

    No of pages: 99

    Publisher: Cypress Concepts & Solutions Ltd

    Reviewer: Hannah Ojo

    Perhaps one of the most puzzling features of love is the tendency for both partners who have caught the Cupid arrow to be deaf to the sound of reason, even if it is to the detriment of both partners. They become fools to themselves and the world, following after the dictate of passion. To pay the price of addiction, they are ready to incur the wrath of their families and even break the rules of established tradition. We saw this in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a classical love story written in the 15th century which continues to find relevance across cultures and times.

    A peculiar love story served from the angle of a clash of culture and religion in a modern day Nigerian society is the subject matter of the novella ‘Falsely Accused’ by Jide Popoola. Although the book is more apt for the literary cravings of junior readers, adult individuals would also find it relishing as it touches on issues which at one time or the other have birth conflicts in the society.

    The evils of cultism and its irreparable damages is one of the issues addressed in the book. Taking on cultism with vivid descriptions, shown in the use of language and the presentation of the lifestyle of their practitioners, one cannot but commend the author for his firm grasp of the underpinnings of the local parlance in the occultic world. One cannot but cringe at the spat of bloodlettings and havocs wrought by acts of savagery which has become the norm in our institutions of higher learning across the country. Cultism takes a center stage in Falsely Accused as personified by the character of Bashiru Babalola aka Stone, a fellow whose bent on revenge to heal the pains of his bruised ego led to the crisis in the book.

    Hauwa Nagogo, a clever teenager who is the daughter of a devout Muslim and a hardline conservative, is the heroine of the story. Her choice of a lover from Igboland led to an unprecedented crisis. Hauwa met Austin Achebe at the Polytechnic, Ibadan where they were both students and became enamoured with affection. “He reached out with his left hand and gently placed it on hers. She shivered visibly at his touch. It was at once sweet, warm and electrifying! She knew that feeling. It plainly told her she was smitten (page 22)”. It was an affection she would have to pay heavily for thereafter as upcoming events in the novel would later show.

    Angered by the turn of events and in order to detach her from her Iyanmiri lover, her father hurriedly gave her out in marriage to Alhaji Mai-Rabo, a wealthy business partner of his. Her strong will and love for Austin, which propelled her to refuse to be ‘touched’ resulted in her becoming a victim of mutilation. This aspect of tensions in the novella alluded to the dehumanising act some women have been subjected to in this part of the world. The case of Mallam Mai-Cindoya who mutilated his wife’s foot because of alleged infidelity in the year 2002 serves a bitter reminder.

    Falsely Accused is such a good story but one tends to wonder why the author did not translate the meaning of some Yoruba words such as gbana and didn’t leave a foot note for explanation. This may not help non Yoruba speakers. All in all, Popoola should be credited for a great effort. His deep penetrations dished out with brevity would hold the interest of impressionable minds.

  • What a wonderful tale

    What a wonderful tale

    Title: The Wonderful Life of Senator Boniface and other Sorry Tales

    Author: Ayo Sogunro

    Publishers: A Bookvine Imprint, Lagos

    Year of Publication: 2013

    No of Pages: 199

    Reviewer: Edozie Udeze

    This is a book full of the myriad of absurdities that define the social, political and religious landscapes of Nigeria today. The stories come in different shapes and guises, properly presented by the author, Ayo Sogunro, to dissect a society at war with itself. Like the title of the book says, The Wonderful Life of Senator Boniface and other Sorry Tales, it is a total package of the many issues that trouble the land. The author, a legal practitioner, rather uses satires and innuendoes to tackle these issues. He uses themes and topics that touch on the core-values of the people, their leaders, their everyday lives and more, to bring out these problems.

    At a first glance, you’d think that this is a novel or fictitious work to embellish the ideals of the people and what they stand for. But it is more than that. It is a well-thought out book, properly researched and clearly written to address Nigerian issues without reservation. The combination of poetry and prose in narrative style shows that Sogunro is an author with deep understanding of the art of writing. This approach, which in all intents and purposes, serves as his own forte and style spell him out as a force to reckon with as a literary genius.

    He understands that the power of the people will one day overwhelm the sentiments of their leaders. Most of the issues he raised in the book are not only prophetic, but they go a long way to point to the direction Nigerian political landscape may assume in the nearest future. How soon will Nigerians lose confidence in their leaders? Are there proper indices of checks and balances in the political terrain in the land for the masses to hold their leaders accountable? In one of the stories in the book entitled, A Loss of Confidence, the author directs his attention on a member of House of Representatives who suddenly becomes too big for his constituency that he feels he cannot be recalled and questioned. He feels he is now too big to go home to render account to his people. But can he succeed?

    However, it is not that the people do not have the nerve to rattle their leaders. The pent-up anger in the minds of the people have reached its climax that even some police orderly are not happy with their bosses – the politicians, the very people they are detailed to guide. Now when a police orderly shoots his boss in an attempt to show his frustration, what then is the hope of the political class in the present political dispensation? That is the lesson in the absurdity or the loss of confidence, for whatever goes up must one day come down. It is a law of nature.

    In his clearly defined goal to present different issues to educate readers about the rough nature of leadership in the land, Sogunro narrates the political history of Senator Boniface. His story is the story of most political office holders in Nigeria, who rise from nothing to fame only to turn back to stab the very people who made it possible for them. From being a lecturer to becoming a member of the House of Representatives to senator, Boniface ambitiously assumed that the position of the president of the nation was his by right. How far then can he go?

    But the consequences of this untoward assumption are grave. The story is also prophetic because the author gives a vivid account of how the senator wisely lures his colleagues to attend his party where he plays his last game to end all political intrigues. On page 129, the author presents part of the scenario thus: a party to be hosted by Senator Lawrence Boniface was nothing unusual in itself. Parties were a stable of the Lagos metropolitan high life… What was exciting in this case was the circumstance under which the good senator had decided to throw the party… Indeed the final party hosted by Senator Lawrence Boniface would be remembered for decades to come”.

    It is a sordid scene created by the author to predict the possible end of corrupt leaders in this society someday soon. But he makes it abundantly clear that the leadership class may start to crumble from within. If that begins to happen, then the general political cleansing in Nigeria may have begun in earnest. However, how possible, how soon will this be, given the level of moral and political decay in the system? The story serves as an eye-opener of sorts. It shows that a system can correct itself when it cannot cope further or when it cannot continue to stomach more nonsense from within.

    The book goes further to lampoon the social issues that have made it near impossible to have a clean society. The issues of murder, arrogance, thuggery, wickedness, ritual killings and so on are handled in two separate stories – The touts on the bridge and There is more than meets the eye. In these two stories the book presents Nigerians as their own worst enemies; that there is so much deep-rooted hatred and bile in the minds of most people. Poverty begets frustration which in turn breeds disorder, disunity and confusion yet what is the way out of this unfortunate situation?

    In 14 stories divided under different socio-political and religious crises in Nigeria, Sogunro has been able to lay bare most of the serious problems that beset the society. The stories are factions, a combination of fiction and facts. And this is why they strike you as you read them. The book addresses both the leader and the led. It has a deep lesson for a people steeped in vices that do not benefit anyone. And the author uses his deep knowledge and understanding of the law to make the stories stick in the hearts of people.

  • Abuja celebrates ‘Arrow of God’ at 50

    Abuja celebrates ‘Arrow of God’ at 50

    As the train of the eight-city celebrations of the 50th anniversary of late Prof Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God continue to travel across the country, Abuja and Lagos will not be left out in the literary festivities.

    While Lagos will be holding its version today at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) where Emeritus Prof Charles Larson from Washington DC, USA will be the keynote speaker along with other eminent Nigerian scholars, Abuja has already held its.

    The Abuja literati commemorated the book’s anniversary with a Children’s Carnival held at NTA Arena. It featured drama sketches, quiz and dance dramas centred on the novel.

    A major highlight of the event that thrilled the audience was a dance drama by pupils of the School for the Gifted, Gwagwalada. The performance, drawn from the novel, was focused on the taboo committed by Oduche, one of the sons of the chief priest of Ulu, Ezeulu, when he imprisoned the royal python. It earned them first place of the dramatic performance category.

    The audience watched with amazement as a box was dropped with some violence on the ground, with the lid flinging open to the let the royal python out. With bated breath, the audience saw the royal python, slither out of the box and made its escape, albeit drawn by a thin, almost invisible thread by one of the dancers, to the thunderous ovation of the fear-gripped audience who had thought it was a real python.

    For young post-primary school pupils, it was no doubt an ingenious theatrical stunt that would not fail to leave a lasting impression in the minds of the audience.

    Chukwuemeka Obi-Obasi, Ikeogu Oke and other Abuja-based artistes also thrilled the audience. While Obi- Obasi, a fast growing young performance poet gave life to Isaac Ogezi’s The Warrior’s Homecoming, a tribute to Achebe, Oke read two poems from his children’s poetry collection, Songs of Success.

    The event was chaired by a Member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Prof. Chudi Uwazurike, who gave a brief opening remark. According to him, the development of education at the grassroots, i.e. the primary and post-primary stages of education, would help improve the present moribund reading culture in the country.

    He commended the Achebe Foundation and the members of the National Organising Committee of the Arrow of God @ 50 celebrations for involving the secondary schools’ pupils in the eight-city literary fiesta.

    Prof. Jerry Agada, former President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and ex-Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, also lent his voice to the clarion call that “we must catch them young.”

    The event had 350 pupils from 10 schools that qualified for the knock-out phase of the quiz competition in attendance. They were there with their teachers.

    The School for the Gifted emerged winner of the final stage of the competition based on the celebration text with Regina Pacis and Government Secondary School as first and second runners-up. Peace and Unity School, Suleija, could not participate on the grounds of its late arrival to the venue.

    Government Secondary School, Garki and Regina Pacis emerged second and third positions of the dramatic performances on the novel.

    Other guests in attendance included the Chairman of the National Organizing Committee (NOC), represented by Mallam Denja Abdullahi; Oronto Douglas, represented by Mr Michael Afenfia; NTA Managing Director, Chief Ifeanyi Ileogbunam; the competition judges: Messrs Jide Atta, Spencer Okoroafor and Mrs Joan Orji, among others.

    Abdullahi praised the efforts of the local organising committee led by Halima Usman and the sponsors of the eight-city fiestas.

    The carnival came to an end after the presentation of awards and certificates of participations to schools by Chief Ifeanyi Ileogbunam and other dignitaries.

    The train of celebrations comes to Lagos today. The event will hold at the.

  • Etching their names in gold

    Title: Giants of History (The making of our world)

    Author: Lateef Aderemi Ibirogba

    Publishers: Sage, Lagos

    No. Pages: 322

    Year of Publication: 2014

    Reviewer:  Sanya Oni

     

    Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish writer it was who stated that “The history of the world is but the biography of great men”. Lateef Aderemi Ibirogba, journalist, advertising practitioner, politician and currently Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy must have taken this to heart when he set out to write the book aptly titled Giants of History (The making of our world).

    The 322-page book, a biographical sketch of some 150 personalities is an important compendium – albeit a short one – on the lives of these remarkable individuals that have not only impacted massively on the vast canvas of human existence but have left indelible inks in the sands of time.

    Ibirogba’s subjects, although a blend of the ancient and the contemporary, are in a sense truly giants as they are trail-blazers. Their lives are as remarkable as they inspirational. If the world now stands in awe of the cutting edge technologies that have revolutionalised travel, work, pleasure and even the beverages we consume, it is because of the invaluable work of these giants who dared to challenge the scientific orthodoxies of their days, going as far as laying the foundation for subsequent breakthroughs that the world now knows. These are truly leaders in ideas, humanities, service, law, economics, governance, and activism; individuals who made history by venturing into uncharted terrains for personal glory and as a consequence helped to expand the frontiers of humanity’s collective achievement. Among the pack are those who fought oppression, tyranny and injustice in all forms and manifestations and so ended up etching their names in gold. Humanity is today richer not just by the breathless pace of their ideas and inventions, but also by their commitment to the discipline of inquiry, and their endless striving to enhance the quality and dignity of the human person.

    What Ibirogba has done through the book is present the lives of these individuals in simple strokes. Individuals like Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Archimedes, and Galileo –who through relentless inquiries defied the orthodoxies of their days. Great inventors like Marcus Pollio – the world’s first engineer; the Chinese Lun Cai who invented paper; the German Johannes Gutenberg who invented printing and in so doing supplied the catalyst for scientific revolution. Others like Blaise Pascal who invented the mechanical calculator, Thomas Edison who invented the electric bulb, Isaac Newton, the great mathematician who established the laws of motion and thermodynamics; James Watt whose improvements on the steam engine marked the turning point in industrial revolution in Great Britain; Alesandro Volta who invented the battery, not forgetting George Stephenson, the man who built the first railway and Steve Jobs who revolutionalised the world of Information Technology.

    Not forgetting the trail-blazers in the medical sciences like Hippocrates – the ancient Greek physician acknowledged as the father of the medical profession; Louis Pasteur for his revolutionary findings in vaccinations, Alexander Fleming, the biologist who discovered the anti-biotic penicillin; Florence Nightingale for her pioneering role in nursing. And of course, the greatest writer of all times, William Shakespeare; James Hadley Chase, inarguably, the king of thriller writing; Chinua Achebe probably the continent’s best-read writer, and Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel Laureate. So also are lives of leaders like Winston Churchill, J.F. Kennedy, Ayatollah Khomeini, Nelson Mandela; Kwame Nkrumah, Fidel Castro – and not least Adolf Hitler – leaders who at various times impacted the world. The reader will also find the book a compendium on Nigerian leaders past and present – individuals who have contributed and are still contributing to the shaping of the Nigerian state.

    Giants of History is however much more than mere excursion into the past. It is also a window into the future – of the limitless possibilities available to those who would dare to be different – for themselves and for our world. Clearly, this is the central theme of the book – something that should resonate with the youth and those dissatisfied with the status quo. Ibirogba’s book is a welcome contribution into the discussion on the infinite possibilities of our future – our universe.

  • Limbless kids tell tales of loss, agony and hope

    Limbless kids tell tales of loss, agony and hope

    They are like child soldiers carrying wounds that bore fatal remembrance of a distress battle they  had  gone through. Hannah Ojo tells their stories of agony.

     

    What makes Medinat Jimoh different from other babies? It is not just in her radiance or the vivacity of her dainty steps, shown in the manner she warmed up to the inviting smile of this reporter, coiling into  her extended hands with consummate familiarity.  She is three months away to clocking two, yet she has withstood intense pain and anguish that would jolts adult an  individual faced with the same circumstance.  The story of her limb loss commands sympathy; her arm simply fell out with the towel her body was wrapped with on getting to the hospital. According to her mother Mrs Motunrayo Jimoh, a fashion designer, who resides in Igbo Olomu, a hinterland in Ikorodu, Lagos State, she noticed some days after Medinat’s naming ceremony that she couldn’t wriggle her right hand the way infants are wont to do when they cry to get attention.

    “The third day after her naming ceremony, I took her for immunization at the Ikorodu General Hospital. I had a misgiving when the nurse wanted to inject the same arm that wasn’t moving well but she assured me not to worry saying injecting it would prevent infections from getting into it.  Knowing the attitude of nurses in government hospitals, I kept quiet because I can’t teach them their job”.

    It was a week after the immunization on the injected arm that complications began to set in. Slowly, the arm began to deteriorate and the peace of the baby was disturbed.  At barely a month old, Medinat was bearing pains which prevented her from eating and sleeping well. Following the disturbance, her mother took her to a trado-medical clinic at Oworo, a community which she had patronized in earlier times for the delivery of the first three issues she had before Medinat. With the affected arm becoming dark, she was told to rub Shea butter (ori) in order to relieve the baby of pains.   By the second day, the hand had darkened so much that the softness of the bone could be felt at just a touch.  It was at this point that she was advised to take the baby to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba.  Recalling how Medinat’s  limb finally came off, she said: “ When we got to LUTH, as the nurses made to remove the wrapped towel from my baby’s body to begin treatment, both the towel and my baby’s arm fell off together. The bone was just standing. I was shocked”.

    To save her life, the remaining part of the arm had to be amputated. Battling to control her emotions while relieving the painful experience of her child’s limb loss which led to her spending close to three months at LUTH in 2012, Motunrayo believed her baby must have been a victim of some spiritual attack.  “My baby was attacked”, she said  with a firm iota of certainty. However, investigation by this reporter showed a contrary possibility.  The eventual loss of Medinat limbs may have been as a result of the circumstances surrounding her birth and the ignorance which trailed the handling of the situation thereafter. Dr.  Orlando Ugwoegbulem, a consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeon at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos, affirmed that weakness at the upper limb of a child can occur as a result of the circumstance surrounding the birth.

    According to him, “There is a possibility that in the process of trying to deliver a child, the hand might have been pulled and the nerve that powers it becomes stretched so the hand becomes weak and the child usually is unable to make use of that hand. Commonly when you notice that, what you do is to rest the hand or send to a physiotherapist, it would regain its power”.

    Asked whether  the immunization which was injected on the same hand could  have worsen the case, he said; “That injection would have introduce an infection into the bone which now caused gangrene and the hand dropped off.  That is the likely pathology of what happened. It is the immunization that would have introduced an infection and that infection now caused what you call osteomyelitis, an infection of the bone”.

    In actual fact, Medinat was not delivered in a hospital. Her mother, Motunrayo was rushing from her base in Ikorodu to Oworo, where the trado-medical clinic she patronizes is located.  “I took an Okada (motor cycle) to Igbo-olumu junction but I could not go on again.  There was no hospital around so some women came to help deliver the baby and I went back home. I usually don’t have birth complications”.

    A dream on the fringe

    There is a future prospect which makes 10 years old Dorcas Adepitan cheer with excitement. She imagines herself in a white coat holding a stethoscope. Little wonder she tells anyone who cares to listen that she wants to be a doctor. However, a sad development occurred, her dream is on the verge of being washed out as it appears to be hinging on a fringe. The JSS 1 pupil of Elvan Adelaja Secondary School, Bariga, Lagos was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a cancer of the bone. This led to her right leg being amputated in order to prevent the tumour from spreading. Life was normal until on an ill-fated day; she hit her leg against a desk in school.  She relates her experience thus, “I was staying on my seat and the boy was running so I hit my leg on the desk. I told my mum and she started rubbing it for me. It started swelling up so they took me to LUTH. The result came and they said they had to amputate.”

    Describing her daughter as a loving and happy child, Mrs Erinola Adepitan, a petty trader relayed her fears for the future: “I need help so that I won’t lose her. She has taken more than six doses of chemotherapy. I am reaching out to Nigerians to help me.  If we can meet a helping hand on time, the cancer won’t kill her.  I can’t do it alone. What am I selling? For me to spend money on her and end up losing her would be a huge loss”.

    Bone setters, Phony Prophecies and needless loss

    The tales of Adebowale Alabi and Afeez Usman are cases of acquired limp losses which might have been prevented if help had been sought at the right time and the right place. When Oscar Wilde, the Irish poet wrote in his book The Importance of Being Ernest that “Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it, and the bloom is gone”, he certainly didn’t have Mrs Ayomide Alabi in mind. The young woman had been force to abandon her private business owing to the burden of caring for a child with a missing limb. She did not heed to the doctor’s advice to take her son for surgery when his fracture became complicated because she was told at the churches where she went to pray that her son might die or end up being amputated. So she hoped for miracles and heeded to the advice of an Imam to hire the service of an Ijaw bone setter to treat her son.  Her son, 7 years old Adebowale  Alabi had sustained an injury while playing ball with his brother. After the passing of time with the bone setter in charge, things took a turn for the worse. The leg later developed a swelling which seems to contain a mixture of blood and water.  “Although the bone setter said I should ignore it that the boy was only responding to treatment, I called a nurse who advised that the wound should be pressed to remove the pores.  She used scissors to open it and said I should buy antibiotics.  After they opened the wound, for five days the boy couldn’t sleep again. He was in pains. I didn’t want to go to Igbobi because of the message I heard. When I eventually took him there, I was subjected to rains of abuses with the way I handled the case. The doctor said I should take my baby away if I didn’t want surgery”.  After the surgery, Debo has been fine. He is looking forward to receiving prosthesis from the Irede foundation, an NGO dedicated to raising hope for limbless children.

    She learnt the hard way and is quick to warn others. “Don’t listen to people who said it is someone that is behind your situation. If I had not listened to people that (the prophecies) and gone to the hospital on time, maybe this would not have happened. The second one I regret is that local treatment is not good. Anybody with any kind of problem should go to the hospital in this case”.

    For  Afeez  Usman, the  lad sustained an injury on his hand while playing with his step brothers at Ilorin.   In the course of five days, the hand got swollen and the mum took him to a bone setter in Bariga on returning back to Lagos.  The hand which began to decay was amputated at a General Hospital at Ilorin.  Aware of the limitation that his limb loss cost him, the young lad actually shed tears when the reporter met him and his mum. “Whenever he returns from school crying, I can always guess what the problem is. That means his mate has called him alapakan (one hand man) and I will console him and urge him to leave them to God”.  Afeez who has been without a limb for five years is also waiting to get prosthesis fittings at Irede Foundation.  Her mum expresses her joy at the prospect. “That means he would be able to help with the house chores and also wear fine cloths”.

    Although it is quite common for parents to employ the use of bone setters to treat fractures, the trend however could be dangerous. It was learnt that 75-80 percent of amputations in children which occurred at the The National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi was a result of complications from bone setters. It is in lieu of this that Dr Ugwoegbulem further said the efficiency of bone setters is limited in treating fractures because there are important structures in the bone which they may not be able to identify and treat appropriately.

    Congenital limb loss in children

    Congenital deficiencies can be the complete absence of a limb, more commonly, part of the limb is missing and the remaining portion has not formed normally. Sometimes, surgery is performed to straighten the limb or to address limb length inequality. At other times, surgery may be recommended to reshape the limb to enhance prosthetic fitting.  Mrs Elfrida Usman, a civil servant who gave birth to a child with congenital limb loss describes her shock when she delivered her baby and noticed his limb was missing. “When the nurse raised him for me to see and one leg was off, I just said wow! She told me ‘ Thank God you have other children’. Immediately I just felt this is like having a child and the child dies”.

    At that moment what were you thinking? She was asked.  “It was like carrying a child for nine months. I actually tried to console myself that I have other children, I mustn’t die because of one since I have to be there for the others. That moment I didn’t feel too bad at that time but later the impact of what had really happened dawned on me”, she said further. Elfrida who named her son Isaac has come to see the special ability in him. Even though one of his limbs is missing and he has no fingers, he attends a regular school and he is able to write and even help with house chores. “There are certain things my son does that other children of his age can’t do. If Isaac should pick up a broom and sweep the floor, you will be wondering who swept it. One of the teachers called me and said ‘this boy is an amazing child he is going to do great things’.  She showed me how Isaac kneaded tiny holes during art work. He feeds himself”.

    Hope springs eternal

    At a cocktail event organized by The Irede foundation in August last year, 3 years old Beulah Chigbu who was born with  a missing tibia and patella in her right leg, came out to render a poem thanking donors for giving hope to child amputees. Her mother, Crystal Chigbu, a top manager with one of the multi-national companies in the country could not hold back her tears.  She confessed to her inability to hold back the emotions at other moment when she sees her child aiming for things without limitation. “A case in point would be when she had to compere an event in school and she was standing for over one hour. I can go on and on with such moments when I see her trying to cook, dance ballet and swim.   With that I am excited and a lot of times I ‘tear up’”.

    When her daughter was born with congenital limb defeat, Crystal had a hard time accepting her daughter’s fate. With the support of her husband, she moved on and was inspired to start a foundation to help child amputees after seeing the difference a prosthesis fitting made for her daughter. The Irede Foundation was founded in 2012 and with the support of donor partners is giving hope to child amputees by providing them with free prosthesis so that they can confidently live a self-sufficient life   free of limitations and social stigmatization. Some respondents who shared their limb loss experience with this reporter have benefited from the foundation while others are waiting in line to get prosthesis.  Reacting to how it feels to keep parents on hold before getting prosthesis, she said; “It can be very painful. At those times I just feel I wished I was the richest woman in the world. We are beginning to learn that life is in phases and things have to be done in phases so our call  is for people  to support what we are doing so that we can attend to these children faster and better. We would like to do a lot more than we are doing today but it is tied to a lot of finances. We are hoping that we would keep getting better and we can reach out to more kids”.

    It is more common to see children with disability using more of clutches as against prosthesis owing to the cost involved. Mrs Juliana Aluko, the Assistant Director, Prosthetics and Orthotics department, National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi  also opined that prosthesis is the best option for a child  when it comes to mobility. “Mobility with clutches is not the same as artificial limb. When a child has artificial limb, he would be able to walk and go back to normal life”. She also speaks on the types of prosthesis available for mobility: “There are the conventional types of prosthesis which is called exo-skeletal because the outer shell is hard. It is made of plastic and wood.  The second is the endo-skeletal type or modula prosthesis. It has a pipe that represents the bone of the patience. That pipe is covered with foam which represents human flesh and is covered with holes called cosmetic stockings.  The foam represents the muscle of the patience such that when you touch it, you feel a soft part of that prosthesis. It is easy to assemble, it is durable, lighter but it is more expensive”.

    According to a development report, every year, 2000 children are born with a disability or become disabled before the age of 19. 70 percent of these children are in developing countries like Nigeria. It is said that without access to adaptation assistant tools 90 percent of these kids born into developing world like Nigeria may never have the opportunity to access education, employment, marriage or even a self-supportive lifestyle.  For the countless kid caught in this quagmire, hope can still play its part. It is time for a forward thinking Corporate Social Responsibility from both individuals and organizations.

     

  • ‘Art collection is big investment’

    ‘Art collection is big investment’

    Although he is a trained Economist, Toni Phido, the Managing Director of Investment Trust Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Bank of Industry is an avid patron of visual art in Nigeria. He speaks to Edozie Udeze on how the journey began and why it is good for Nigerians’ to begin to invest in the art and lots more

    An avid art lover, Toni Phido, the Managing Director of Investment and Trust Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Bank of Industry, has been one of the greatest patrons and collectors of visual art works in Nigeria. Known for his versatility in the business of art collection which he began to indulge in since 1985, Phido says that his love for the art has equally brought him closer to the creme of Nigerian artists whose works in his custody range from mixed media to paintings, surrealism and realism.

    But why the love for the visual? He was asked. “You see, I am an art collector, a patron of the art. As at today, I have an extensive art collection which began way back in 1985. I think it has been a wonderful experience for me to be involved in this. But you have to realise also that Nigerian artists produce some of the best works in the world that a good art lover may find difficult to resist”.

    He went down memory lane on how the journey began when he was in secondary school. “It was way back in secondary school. I was indeed one of the best Fine Arts students in my school then. I used to have one of the best grades in Fine Arts that even in my Advanced Level Examination, I had a B. However, I did not pursue it further. I had to take a degree in Economics but then that natural love I have for the art did not fizzle out; or rather I did not allow it to die.”

    To Phido, an imaginative art that has plenty of beauty in it, holds his attention most of the time. “For me, I love an imaginative art with a composition that is irresistible; an art that would immediately capture your essence. For me, art has to have a lot of life in it, where the issues of landscape come into play. Above all, I love art that has a lot of economic activities in it. This appeals to me because it helps me to look at the people, to see what they are involved in, in their day-to-day activities. It is just because art itself is life; life in its totality, in its ability to mirror man, to show what the society itself can offer to man.”

    Such economic-based works which appeal to him include Fulani cattle herdsmen, life at the beach, the commercial life style of fishermen and so on. “You see, I have a lot of works based on cattle herdsmen, market women involved in their economic activities. When I look at these works, they bring me back to the reality of life itself in our society. They make realism not only believable and true, but helps to make one see the profundity of visual in life. In all, these works have to be pleasing to the eyes; they have to be catchy and spectacular.”

    Justifying his commitment to the art, Phido stressed the need for art patrons to do more in terms of encouraging more people to do art works thereby enriching the sector. He, however, mentioned the works of Biodun Olakun as one of the artists that has held him spellbound over the years. “Olakun’s migration, a work that is full of realism and conviction still remains one of my most cherished works to date. There is another one he did on life at Badia in Lagos which, for me, is a spectacular painting. It has very deep and colourful seaside background and these trip me a lot”

    He reiterated the need for artists to be real in their works so as to capture the essence of the people. In this wise, he drew people’s attention to the contentious issues of the Niger Delta and why art can be used to explore some of them. He said: “I also love works that explore the Niger Delta. They show the people and their environment. Well, it is good to note too that Nigerian artists have done well over the years. When we took some of them to the Nigerian House in London for an international exhibition many years ago, they did quite well. I think they need more encouragement and recognition to continue to forge ahead”.

    Phido, who hoped to hand over his array of collections to his children, stated that Nigerian brand of the art is unique; it is peculiar to the people and to the environment. “But first of all, Nigerians themselves have to begin to appreciate the art. We need to have a steady market or outlet where we can go and view and buy art works at auction sales. This is one of the ways we can begin to see and experience more art auctions and then this can help the sector to grow bigger and create economic base for everybody. Also, we need to have specialised institutions responsible for the sale of the art. For example, if I need the work of a particular artist, I can go there for it. Anyway, we are getting there. We are not there yet,” he said, smiling.

    As an economist, Phido said he discovered many years ago that art is a good investment. He regretted, however, that not too many Nigerians know this fact.

    “Yes, art is a good investment. An art work you bought say N50,000 10 years ago, can be auctioned for over two million naira years after. But it is not the roadside art we are talking about here. When we talk art in this regard, we mean serious artists and their works. The art we have can appreciate from time to time. And what you have today that makes little or no meaning to you, can be of bigger value tomorrow. We need to move to the level where art is considered as valuable as real estate or stock market, because all of them amount to real investment for the future. But above all, you have to love the art, you have to see it as a big business concern where you can put in your money.”

    Owing to all these, Phido said he is not in a hurry to dispose of his rich collections. “Ah”, he exclaimed, beaming with smile, “all my collections have to be kept intact for my children. Yes, I will bequeath them to my children. I can’t even tell you now how much the works are worth in the market. But I can tell you how much I have spent on art works so far. That will also tell you how much I am leaving for my children. May be one day, I’ll call members of the Guild and say to them this is my collections, how much can I sell them? But this can only be done when the proper structure is in place.”