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  • Ekiti: what’s the fuss?

    On August 19, Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, told the state’s Art and Culture Stakeholders Forum that the state had banned the use of English at public traditional functions.  Henceforth, Yoruba and the Ekiti dialect would be the means of communication at those fora.  He spoke through Deji Ajayi, Ekiti State Head of Service.

    Since that announcement, not a few have excoriated the governor, claiming his latest diktat was nothing but a gubernatorial chase of shadows. In their view, Ekiti has more pressing problems than a government dabbling into what language to use or not use at public events — perhaps.

    Still, it would appear those who hold this view are the ones chasing shadows – without knowing it. Language is the window on life.  Without its mastery, life itself becomes a lifetime chase of shadows, with all of the angst and trauma that entails. Should you be in doubt, ask why post-colonial Africa has become a laggard in world affairs; compared to some parts of Asia, especially China and Japan. Why does much of Asia cope better with the present Euro-American rigged global order?

    The casual answer would appear language. The colonial masters truncated the native tongue, in the process of imposing their own. So, much of Africa got marooned in a cultural no man’s land: departing own language zone; but never fully arriving the destination of the new foreign tongue. If language is only the entry point into a people’s cultural universe, then truncated language would arrest much more than the tongue – the hub; the essence of the affected peoples – and negate the formation of concepts, which everyone must grapple with, to make headway in life.

    Apart from this basic deficiency, there is also the pernicious politics of language, which deliberately glories everything in the language of the so-called “master race;” but puts down everything in the “servant tongue”. At the peak of apartheid in South Africa, the White minority regime tried to impose Afrikaans as language of instruction in Black schools. The opposition to that attempt led to the Soweto uprising of  June 16, 1976.  After everything, 700 school children lay dead, victims of police bullets. Still, it was heroism well earned. Had that attempt not been resisted, that racial regime would have culturally swallowed the black populace. It would have been a total culture rout, with devastating consequences. That is the challenge of burying a language.

    Even Nigeria (which escaped the South African experience despite English colonisation), also tasted the pernicious politics of language.  Suddenly, Yoruba and other native tongues became “vernacular” to the “posh” English, with all the inferiority complex that entailed. Elsewhere, persons of mixed races became “mulattos,” with all that word’s racial slur. The psycho-social baggage, of these assaults, takes a terrible toll on the carriers; and could well limit their confidence, self-esteem and progress, as a collective, all through life.

    Back into the Graeco-Roman fundaments of Western civilisation, the Greek started the voyage into myth, theatre, philosophy, mathematics and physical sciences, the basis for the cutting edge of technology in contemporary times, with a thorough mastery of their tongue.

    Back then, English was not even the language of court – it wasn’t rigorous enough!  Literature historians would say such inferior feelings forced Englishman John Milton, to write Paradise Lost, and his other epic poetry, to challenge earlier classical masters, in Greek and Latin, and prove English too was robust enough to express complex thoughts. Again, that underscores the imperative of fully mastering your native tongue. That China and Japan have somewhat avoided a freeze in their language evolution, over the ages, has accounted for their ability to develop concepts and conceits, thrive in the sciences, and forge own native technology, so vital to competing in the modern world.

    So, by deciding on this new policy – speaking strictly Yoruba and the Ekiti dialect at traditional events – the Fayemi government is aiming at some renaissance, a form of cultural rebirth, which could eventually end in a cascade of flowers, in total development, in various parts of Ekiti life – art, culture, scholarship, science and technology; thus berthing better general wellness among the people.

    Read Also: Gov. Fayemi bans use of English Language during traditional events

    In neighbouring Osun State, under the Rauf Aregbesola governorship, the state started a policy in which adherents of the three major faiths – Christianity, Islam and African traditional practices – say prayers at government events.  Just as it was then in Osun, it is now in Ekiti: those who seldom understand the concepts – and even lack the temper to try to do so – are the first to hurry and condemn it.  That is a pity; for it is condemning policy from the point of willful, if not outright, combative ignorance.  Everyone loses by that.

    Still, the present Ekiti policy is a good point to start an aggressive crusade and public enlightenment, on how vital language is to the survival and general wellness of a people.  Beyond that, it needs to go back to the educational fundamentals: the school curriculum.  Perhaps it needs to push a revolutionary policy, making Yoruba the language of teaching in the first three years of primary education.

    That would not be novel. It used to be the practice in public primary schools of yore, before the malady to willy-nilly speak English crept in. Besides, the late Prof. Babatunde Fafunwa once experimented in the mother tongue, as sole language of teaching, at the University of Ife.  The result was mostly rewarding – again, testifying to the core place of language in every human endeavour. Some of the fluent personages in northern Nigeria, like former Governor of Nasarawa State, Tanko Al Makura, grew up in schools where Hausa was the language of teaching for the first three years.

    What is more? Ekiti State could make compulsory, the teaching of every child, in Ekiti schools, the Ekiti dialect.  That way, every child enters the school system, imbued with pride in his or her mother tongue.  Though those who don’t understand its intrinsic benefits would howl and kick, that policy cannot be bad for Ekiti children – or anyone for that matter.

  • Efik and Ibibio influences on Nollywood

    FIlm and digital media is undoubtedly the current emphasis in the media production circuit globally. It is incontestably the future of the creative industries. David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson asserts the ubiquity of film by noting that motion pictures are so much part of our lives that it’s hard to imagine a world without them. In their view, our appetite for film is what sustains this immense industry.

    What they are saying is ringing true in contemporary times all over the world and clearly evident in developing societies including Nigeria. The increase positioning of Nollywood as an emerging screen culture of significance and a core local creative industry in Nigeria currently attracting immense international interest and extensive local patronage is already well established.

    However the massive and increase tempo of its influence on the creation of new sites of production in other parts of Nigeria is yet to be given the kind of attention it deserves. With the current emphasis and concentration of research and media attention in not only the mainstream centres of global cinema and studies in movie making and the existing gap in knowledge of fringe cinema cultures in different parts of the world, the onus for redirecting attention to Nollywood’s other areas of expansion within Nigeria becomes imminent.

    Though film came to Nigeria with colonialism and flourished because of its usefulness to the colonial agenda yet its later development and emergence into an active area of media operation and commerce surpasses that initial objective. In Nigeria, in particular, film development is categorised into three eras of Colonial information management and propaganda setting, the Golden era of experiments and successes in celluloid filmmaking and the Video or home video film production era.

    This categorisation marks the different periods of development according to Nigeria’s socio-political circumstances. However, early film emerged in the late 19th century and improved in the 20th century through various viewings of foreign films in places like the Glover Memorial Hall in Lagos, Rest House, Port Harcourt, Government Hill Museum, Uyo among other places. By 1926, Palaver produced by Geofrey Barkas was released with speaking roles involving Nigerian actors. Much of the later effort in popularising cinema came through the Federal Film Unit that exhibited at various locations in the country.

    By the country’s independence in 1960, film production was already established with local productions involving Nigerians in key roles and responsibilities. The early effort of theatre-turned-film makers such as Hubert Ogunde, Ade Afolayan, Ola Balogun, Eddie Ugboma to name a few, laid the foundation for a technical direction but what has come to represent the biggest boost to Nigeria’s foray in filmmaking is the home video production industry popularly called Nollywood.

    Nollywood came out of a combination of the ingenuity of commercial merchants and local television soap production in the late 80s and early 90s. Video production industry in Nigeria is currently not only popular internally but it has gone on to attract global attention and patronage from the African Diaspora all over the world.

    As already established, the spread of filmmaking in Nigeria did not only impact the social imagination of the people but also generated reverberations and creative reactions from the different indigenous groups that make up Nigeria. Beyond the Igbos and the Yorubas, the Ibibio/Efik people were in the forefront of the film and television renaissance that took over the land in the 80s and early 90s.

    Not only did iconic films of the era paraded a great chunk of Ibibio and Efik talents as actors, script writers, directors, producers and technical hands but a significant corps of the army of notable faces that defined the excellence of the emerging Nollywood especially in the field of acting were of Ibibio and Efik extraction. Starting from Uduak Nkanga’s (nee Umondak) foray into television acting in the 80s and 90s in popular TV dramas such as Mirror in the Sun, Supple Blues, Behind the Clouds, Checkmates, Fortunes, Basi and Company, Ripples, New Masquerade, Fuji House of Commotion, The Village Headmaster, Cockcrow at Dawn, Second Chance, Tales by Moonlight and many other production outlets.

    Other notable theatre and media production practitioners of Ibibio and Efik extraction such as a John Ekwere, Inih Ebong, Afi Usua, Bethel Bassey and many others  positioned themselves as trainers key actors at the theatre and film programme in different institutions and production houses in the country. At the University of Jos, NTA Television College and Nigerian Film Institute and the entire media production axis that developed out of the then Benue-Plateau State, there were many Ibibio and Efik people working in different capacities and contributing to the building blocks of modern filmmaking and media production in the country.

    Dr. Ebong, an Associate Professor of Theatre Arts, for instance was also playing roles in notable serial television productions of the time such as Supple Blues (1991-93); Shadows (1994), Heritage (1995) while teaching at the University of Jos and through his creative activities added impetus to the role of Ibibio and Efik indigenes in the development of film and media industry in the country.

    Moreover, a random list of Nollywood films of Ibibio and Efik extraction, films produced by or featuring actors and production personnel from this demographics includes Edikan (2009) jointly directed by Desmond Eliot and a selection of Akwa Ibom filmmakers, I’ll take my Chances (2011) by Ini Edo, Kokoma (2012) by Tom Robson, Obio Iban (2012) by Eddie Brendan, Ayama (2016) and Uyai (2017) by Emem Isong, Ete Idung Ntebrekemem (2017)  by Alucity Films, Nke Efik (Asari ye Edem), Jasmin (2019) by Moses Eskor and many productions in the local vernacular especially popularized by actors Peter Umanah (Nkpo Ndik) and Ime Bishop (Okon Lagos) two popular artists in the local and national media arena.

    We shall also not forget in a hurry the primacy of Inyang Emah’s catalytic role in media production not only at the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) but also in the entire media production arena in the country from the late 80s to the 90s. What Mr. Emah did at the NTA was to later receive higher levels of technical expertise in the work of Engr. Sunday Ibok who put in many years of meritorious service as a television and communication engineering expert at the foremost national broadcast institution.

    The upsurge of interest in film largely brought about by the early effort of the pioneers of the field in the country thrived on the innovation, drive and success of Kenneth Nnebue who debuted a video film production initiative that ignited an upsurge in public awareness and acceptance of filmmaking in a way never witnessed in the country before. In Kenneth Nnebue and Okechukwu Ogunjiofor’s Living in Bondage (1992) directed by Chris Obi Rapu which is regarded as an exponential effort in contemporary film and video production in Nigeria, Ibibio and Efik artists featured in various capacities and shaped the early beginning of what has come to represent Nigeria’s major home grown media breakthrough of the current century.

    The other notable productions of the early developing period of Nollywood had many Ibibio and Efik sons and daughters playing major roles in the various departments of film productions. In films such as Glamour Girls 1& 2, True Confessions, Rituals, Strange Ordeals, The Price, Rattle Snake, Violated, Nneka, the Pretty Serpent, many Ibibio and Efik stars such as Keppy Ekpeyong, Liz Benson, Obot Etuk, Nse Ikpe-Etim, Kate Henshaw-Nuttal among others gave the film viewing public the best of their interpretation of roles and positioned the burgeoning industry for the quality and extent of successes it is recording at the moment.

    This also acted as a pedestal for the building of interest in film and video production in this part of the world leading to the increase participation of artists from the Ibibio and Efik flanks of the country. Later entrants including Emem Isong, Ime Bishop, Adim Williams, Eyo Ekpenyong, Oyoyo Nsa and many others came into a space that was galvanized by their brothers and sisters in different productions.

    At home and creating the base for the development of a fringe Nollywood production axis between Uyo and Calabar has been the rising input of persons such as Fidelis Duker, Moses Eskor, Ekere Nkanga, Moses Armstrong and many others. The new breed producers, actors and directors of Nollywood films of Ibibio and Efik extraction came to build on the foundation already laid by the active television production culture of the NTA Calabar, Cross River Television and private initiatives in media production though mainly in the Radio by John Idung whose contributions to the media production field in Asuama, Ifiok Ikeme Owo among others set the tone for what has come to represent a thriving base for film production in Akwa Ibom and Cross River State.

    Earlier on, film enjoyed some leverage with a Mobil Producing Nigeria sponsored film in the early 90s titled The Land of Tall Cocoyam directed by Ben Edogbayi and showcased for public viewing at Ibom Hall. The serenity and  picturesque conviviality of Calabar, the capital of Cross River State soon led to its ascendancy as a regular destination for  filmmaking in the country.

    Not only did the establishment of Tinapa by the government of Donald Duke boosted the profile of the city especially because of the conceptual integration of the creative industries in the industrial vision of the economic zone, the citing of state of the art media and production studios and facilities added pep to this creative localization and set the tome for the shooting of not only local productions but also productions of international reputation such as the adaptation by Biyi Bandele Thomas of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Half of a Yellow Sun and its location shoot in Calabar, Cross River State.

    The film, directed Zack Amata drew a lot of attention perhaps because of the already existing international profile of the novel and her author setting the stage for the influx of other filmmakers to Calabar for the shooting of various films at different times. As at today, the city of Calabar is clearly a first choice location for not only features film but also musical videos and film festivals. A retinue of films shoot and production folio have already been aligned to the city of Calabar.

    Also, the existence of a film and media studies programme at the University of Calabar in the Department of Theatre, Film and Carnival Studies which remains undoubtedly the training ground for early film practitioners and present day actors of note affirms the role of local tertiary institutions in the development of Nollywood, a development that is yet to be accorded the sort of attention it deserves. University of Calabar’s theatre and film programme is now ably complemented by the Department of Theatre and Film Studies in the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

    These two federal universities have played complementary roles not only in laying the foundation for the study of film but they have equally maintained an unrivalled status as the training nursery for grooming young talents that eventually graduate into major actors and producers including the likes of Eve Esin, Annie Macauley-Idibia, Theresa Edem, Didi Ekanem, Ini Edo who obtained a diploma in Theatre Arts from the the University of Uyo before launching full scale into Nollywood, Uchena Nnana who holds a degree in Theatre Arts from the University of Uyo, Perekeme Odon, a sought after make-up artist in Nollywood,  actress Anita Hogan who is of the pioneer set of the Department of Theatre Arts in the University of Uyo and many other notable practitioners.

    Lecturers and notable scholars in film and communication studies including Professors Effiong Johnson, Uwemedimo Atakpo and yours sincerely have experimented not only in film theories, techniques and principles in the classroom but have also conducted several simulative practical productions to enhance the classroom experience.

    Examples of such productions includes The Republic, written and directed by Efiiong Johnson while Uwemedimo Atakpo, a professor of Film Studies has already initiated several student-led film productions under his supervision. Star actors in both stage and film including Charles Ukpong, Nissi George, Bassey Okon, all very active in the Nollywood circles, trace their ancestry to Ibibio ethnic stock. Young film buffs such as Ime Ete, Fadamaner Okwong, Miracle Blaise, Frank Abasekong, Abass Brave, Nyaknno Uko, Emmanuel Inyang are actively building tendrils of new productions primed on low budget and generally involving student actors and recent graduates of theatre programmes in tertiary institutions around the Akwa Ibom and Cross River States.

    The list of practitioners though not exhaustive and the purview of examination limited to major productions however, the film and media production circuit involving either productions in indigenous Ibibio and Efik language or the English productions reflecting indigenous narratives, storytelling and production dynamics all affirm the imperative of Nollywood’s expansion not only within Nigeria but also along the lines of indigenous cultural norms and experiences. This is a development that should not only be celebrated but keenly studied and projected by scholars, media reviewers, policy handlers in the cultural and creative sectors as well as promoted in exhibition circles internationally.

    • Dr. Inyang, the General Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) lectures in the University of Uyo

     

  • My lasting memories of Dele Udoh

    Dele Udoh was a Nigerian Sprinter who lived in St. Louis, Missouri in the United States of America for many years. In 1981 he came home to participate in a tournament but was shot dead by a police man in a Lagos checkpoint. For over 31years, his African-American wife, Angela Udoh and only child, Angellus Burrus had no contact with the Udoh family members in Nigeria. That was until Taiwo Abiodun met Burrus in December last year at St. Louis, Missouri. He has finally been able to convince the wife Angela Udoh, to talk to him. He reports.

    Dele Udoh was a Nigerian Sprinter who lived in St. Louis, Missouri in the United States of America for many years. In 1981 he came home to participate in a tournament but was shot dead by a police man in a Lagos checkpoint.

    For over 31 years, his African-American wife, Angela Udoh and only child, Angellus Burrus had no contact with the Udoh family members in Nigeria. That was until Taiwo Abiodun met Burrus in December last year at St. Louis, Missouri. He has finally been able to convince the wife Angela Udoh, to talk to him. He reports. friend with a friend of his girlfriend, and Dele had come down from Columbia to Missouri on Spring Vacation, his friend brought him over to my friend’s apartment.

    We were just hanging out doing good things and he came and introduced himself that he’s another great athlete, we were very, very close … and it was very quick, everything went very, very fast, It was like a whirlwind romance. I would say, it was a little less than 90 days because I met him in March 1981 and we married in May, 1981, so it was less than 90 days.”

    I was a minor when we married

    Love for the young Angella made her to take a fast and quick decision to get married to her heartthrob, Dele Udoh. She   confessed that she was a minor when she married him and that in the State of Missouri, he could have been jailed for marrying a minor. According to her, “I was 17 years old, my birthday was June 1, and we married on May 19”. But to save the situation, her mother signed for her because of the love she had for Udoh. “Yes,  my mother  signed for me because in the State of Missouri I was considered a minor  and I could not consent to  a marriage unless I have consent from my parents.”

    With air of fulfilment and happiness, she brandished her marriage certificate and said, “This is my marriage certificate in 1981. I got married in Columbia in a little small Chapel, and it was attended by a few of us; the pastor or the minister, myself, Dele and my mother  who  stood in as   my witness,” she said radiating total confidence and pride.

    ‘What attracted me to Udoh’

    On what  attracted to her to  Udoh, Angella said she cannot really say, adding, “Well, I don’t know, he told me I was very intelligent, he said I knew a lot about Africa, he said he had ran into many African-Americans who didn’t know anything about Africa but I knew a lot. But I didn’t know about his athletic activities, he told me about his country, he told me that he was a star, and I just ignored him. I never saw him run track, basically I knew he was intelligent.”

    Unfortunately when they got married in 1981, they never had honeymoon because of the national assignment he had to do. A national assignment that snuffed life out of him! He travelled to Nigeria to participate in an international athletic tournament, she recollected almost in tears, “It wasn’t years, like I said it was very fast, We met 90 days before my birthday. After we got married he left  for Nigeria two days after .We never had honeymoon, he went to Nigeria in July  and that was all!”

    Romantic days

    For the young and innocent 17 year old Angella, who met love for the first time in her life she remembers the good old days they enjoyed together. “He took me out to movies, to dinner and for shopping. He was nice and was very giving. The next time I saw him he came down and took me back to Columbia because we were on date, he was going back to Columbia. Everything was very fast, I didn’t know why everything was very fast then at that time ….now I understand.”

    How I received the bad news

    According to Angela, her world crashed when she received the news that her husband had been killed on that night when she came back from work. After a very tough and hectic day, all she wanted was to crash into her bed and sleep, but a knock on her door took away all that. The bearer of the sad news was her parents. They told her Dele was dead! Young Angella refused to accept and believe it saying it cannot be possible, she swore, thinking her parents only wanted to trick her.

    According to her, “My parents  travelled from St Louis to Columbia, all I knew was that I had been working throughout the night, working on night job, I wanted to lay down and I heard a knock on the door, and  I went to   open the door, when I opened the door  they had  this look on their face, I knew something was wrong ……my father and my mother …said  they  had  something to tell me, they said  ‘last night Dele was shot and killed’. I immediately went into denial.

    I couldn’t believe what they said.  I burst into tears. The last time I spoke with him, he said he would call me back. I called someone in the National Sports Commission in Nigeria they refused to confirm or deny that he had passed away. They refused to tell me. But apparently what they were saying was true. Two weeks later, I went to Nigeria and saw for myself that he was dead!”

    Strange letter from Dele’s father

    Angella who managed to keep a bold face but with shaky voice said her late husband before he travelled to Nigeria received a letter from his father warning him of an impending doom. According to her, “A couple of  months before Dele travelled to Nigeria, he received a letter from his father and he  read the  letter to me and the letter said  “Hello my dear  son, I am writing to you to let you know that I  have been fasting for seven days,” adding that the reason why he was fasting was because he saw  a vision that Dele was going to be killed. He dreamt that he was shot.

    And Dele read the letter to me  and  I asked why would someone want to kill him, he said “I don’t know, I have no idea”. His father didn’t add any information to it  so he put the letter down and he did not discuss it again. His father already had a premonition and he was trying to pass away the premonition, hoping that the evil will pass away.

    Dele was upset when he received the letter and he didn’t talk any more about it again. I didn’t question him about the letter again. His father said he had gone to the priest and asked him to pray it away to fast and he fasted for seven days and seven nights. His father fasted, he did not ask Dele to fast, so that his prayer would be answered who would have known that this would come to pass?,” she asked as she turned her misty  eyes away from the reporter.

    I took to drug

    For a young girl who lost her husband at that age, she went in search of succour and refuge. She went into drug, “I really could use therapy so I had to find my own way, so I took to drug. The pain was so deep, so profound, your husband and your wife they are like the most important thing in your life and when one of them go untimely; this was not untimely, it was very traumatic.

    I had a baby to take care of when I was a baby myself, so I lost a lot. He was my shining star, he took care of me, he  was protecting me, he was everything. In fact, my everything was lost in one swoop, gone! So I was completely lost.

    “I was on drug for seven years. But I have stopped taking drugs. In fact, I don’t smoke cigarette now.’

    ‘I have forgiven the killer policeman’

    She confessed that it took a long time, 38 years, before she could forgive the police officer pulled the trigger that killed her husband. “I have forgiven him, for he did not know what he was doing. It took me 38years before I could forgive the killer of Dele Udoh. I forgive him because he did not know the destruction and the pain that he caused me. But I have forgiven him with all   my heart.

    The deep sorrow that took place as a result of his action but I’ve forgiven him with all my heart. Though I don’t know his name, and I heard that the officer was jailed for seven years, but I don’t know whether justice was carried out.”

    ‘I attended Dele’s funeral’

    She had to travel to Nigeria with her three month old pregnancy to attend her husband’s burial ceremony. “When I went to Nigeria in 1981, I was three months pregnant with Angellus, the National Commission in Nigeria took care of everything, they paid … they did the best they could to try and ease  my burden. I cried when I saw his corpse, he was shot in the head, below his temple.

    I was traumatised, for that was the first time I would get close to a dead person.”

    Asked whether she remarried, she said, “That is a very good question. I tried to replace him but I couldn’t. I tried but it was not possible. I have come to realise it that you cannot replace him. There are individuals they are unique in their own. There can never be another Dele Udoh, there are no two people that can be same,” she said shaking her head wryly.

    “Nobody can be like Udoh, I didn’t marry but I have seven children. I went back to school to study but now doing business. I work as an estate agent in St. Louis. Before then I had worked in government   establishments.”

    Remembering Udoh

    She described Udoh thus, “He was outgoing, flamboyant and talented, a confident person, he loved music, he was a Dee jay. Like I said he was flamboyant, he was a great dresser.

    “Every July 15, I always remember him, after so long now I celebrate his birthday. That is the day he was killed  but  I replaced him with that (birthday), I would say happy birthday to my husband Dele Udoh and my  friends  would join me to say happy birthday to him.”

    I don’t have a gun

    She said guns make her feel traumatic and remember her husband’s violent death via gun. She said, “In Nigeria most of the citizens don’t have weapons like that whereas in America anyone can go and buy a gun. The guns are readily available. I don’t have a gun, I refuse to have a gun. When you’ve lost someone through violence you will not like to have a gun.”

    Why I refused to drop Udoh’s name

    Asked why she didn’t change her name from Udoh, she said “I can’t change it that was something they cannot change, he didn’t expect this. You know when you find love, it’s not that love found him, he was single, available guy, student, he met a 17 year- old girl, it just happened.”

    She still recollects some of his friends’ name such as Edwin Ofilli, Chidi Imo, Yusuf  Alli, Ben Ogiri, Chuks Olisa and others saying, “I would be happy to come Nigeria if invited by  the government.”

    As the interview was rounding up, she said with emotion suffused voice, “I was bride, a woman, mum and a widow in one year. I am going to write a book  on it.”

  • Identities of resilience debuts in Lagos

    Photographs always tell stories the way they truly are. In the identities of resilience, a photography exhibition by five Nigerian documentary photographers going on in Lagos at the moment, various issues of environmental degradation, poverty, the quest to survive and more are explored. Edozie Udeze attended the opening ceremony

    The photographs truly define the state of confusion and anomie in Nigeria.  The photo exhibition opened at the Thought Pyramid Gallery, Lagos, last weekend.  There were five photographs who were taught for 3 months in what is now themed Creative Photography Masterclass.  The exhibition was entitled identities in resilience involving the following: Adebisi Oluwatosin, Oluwabukunola Adesanwo, Igho Ogbobine, Anthony Monday and Chukwuka Obu.  The training took place at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Lagos, where the likes of ace-photographer, Tam Fiofori was able to instruct the young ones on the rudiments of the profession.

    In fact at the opening on Saturday both the NIJ and Fiofori were on hand to direct proceedings.  Fiofori was glad this second edition of the masterclass project came out well.  “If I talk about your work in a very hard way, please bear it.  It is to help you do better. First of all as a photographer you have to acquire good education to help you do photography very well.  You need lots and lots of issues to address and sound and quality education is a must.  So try to go to school before you go into photography”, he told the exhibitors as the ceremony got underway at Thought Pyramid, Lagos.

    It took the group difficult moments and hectic brainstorming sessions to arrive at the theme of the exhibition to suit the issues raised in the works.  This is so because the themes revolved around environmental problems, illegal mining, pollution, the politics of the hijab, the cheer leaders mode of sports and so on.

    In beyond sweat and stones by Ogbobine, she got to Kwara State where she researched into illegal quarry mining in a remote village called Ogele.  She said: “sitting under trees, hammers swinging in different directions, with stones flying around, the women of Ogele break rocks in the quarry for survival.  They work endlessly from dawn to dusk only to end up with 4,600 naira once in every 4 days.  Indeed their only tools are hammers with handles sourced from trees around them.  In this, danger looms as there are no forms of protection”.

    It took Ogbobine, a fragile looking lady, months of shutting between Ogbomoso in Oyo State where she used to lodge Ogele to accomplish this hectic task.  In the end the photos were taken and she looked back to see the other side of hard existence by Nigerian women.  Ogbobine added: “their biggest worry is not the danger but the ability to cater for their kids so they do not get trapped in the same vicious cycle.  What will tomorrow bring?  For them, pain and suffering or pleasure and comfort, where do they meet to ensure that lives of people in the community become better?  So this focuses extensively on the daily struggles of Halimata Gani”, she said.  This woman is 45 years and still struggles over this to survive, to feed her family and ensure the kids go to school.

    The photos show her at work with all the commitment it deserved.  She sweated, she gritted, she struggled, very pathetic pictures of an endless recourse into the deep foyers of survival.  The photographer intoned: “my aim of carrying out this project is to highlight the struggles of women as breadwinners and caregivers of their respective families.  Education is therefore very important part of life.  In fact, these women will do whatever it takes to make it a reality for their children”.

    Monday took a swipe at a dash of identity paying attention to what he termed a multicultural society.  “Today’s multicultural society is where we have different types of influences from popular media in which the world has become a global village…  However, the windshield of vehicles serving the purpose of rekindling the flames of identity as owners of Lagos yellow buses popularly called danfo and tricycles in the metropolitan city of Lagos paste symbols, pictorial posters and momentoes to express their beliefs”.

    These were the issues he raised in his collection showing in diverse forms the menace posed by these set of people on Lagos highways, streets and roads.  He used the photographs to describe a state of confusion in the state.  He also helps to direct attention to the comic side of these habits.  The pictures are clearly instructive, explicit and diverse on this theme.  There is the yellow colour everywhere; in all corners of the state, all defining what makes Lagos a mega-city.

    Conversely, Adesanwo is interested in the constant dumping of refuges in Lagos without total regard to health, to human safety and so on.  She said: “plastic waste is littering almost everywhere; on the streets, gutters, canals, drainages, walkways, including the beaches, just to mention a few.  This is very threatening.  Accumulation of plastics in the environment is fast increasing by the day to the point where they create problems for habitats as well as for human populations.  Here companies produce varieties of pet drinks for flexibility and easy accessibility but it seems to be causing more damages to the environment than the contents filling empty stomachs”.

    She went on: “From research it is said that by 2050, there will be more plastics in the ocean than fishes.  Now, some enterprising individuals and companies have begun to use the discarded plastics to earn a living by collecting and recycling them into fibre PVC.  This way it can be used for clothing, or to make shoes or clothes to cover chairs”.

    Therefore, her photos on this aspect of pollution concentrated on Isale Eko area of Lagos, where it is an eyesore to see the level of degradation on the environment.  Photos do not tell lie.  The amount of plastics at Isale Eko can make anyone who loves the total preservation of the ecosystem weep.  It is so terrible and Adesanwo’s photographs took different angles of it.  It is revealing.  The pictures truly challenge everyone to be conscious of the menace they constitute to the environment now and in the future.

    Obu went into the cheers leading sports.  Even though it is not yet popular here in Nigeria, it has begun to gather momentum among the youths.  It is a sort of swinging sports where people almost hang or be suspended in the air with the aid of their mates.  Obu said “In March of 2016, Lilian Obieze was motivated to bring together a group of young women and men to champion the bid of cheer leading as a competitive sport in Lagos.  Among the cheer leaders included Hassana, a salsa dancer, now a flyer in the senior team that combines her licensing job, with schooling at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos.  She teaches younger ones, children and so on dance and she also has time for her church activities…”  These constitute the bulk of his photographs which exposed the level of performances, trainings and the amount of people so far involved in the sports in the country.

  • Ruffle dress madness

    Ruffle dresses are the hottest fashion items right now! Everyone looks good in ruffle. So, it’s a bonus that the ruffles attire is a huge fashion trend this season.

    The great thing is that ruffle inspired dress basic items are classic.

    The ruffle dress will never go out of style, and we know that you can never have too much of it in your wardrobe. They are remarkably apparent this season and a subtle and sexy appeal to one’s look.

    The mainstream fashion and celebrities are going back to ruffle trends because a ruffle dress can always be counted on to deliver a best-dressed look with hardly any extra effort.

    Basic tips to rock the look: Glam up your ruffle dress without piling on many accessories Opt for bold and innovative accessories.

  • The world on a ledge

    Spilt blood is the fountain of empire where compassion remains the light unseen

    My pen has been still for quite some time. The hiatus came not from a dearth of important matters to cover but from the troubling abundance of challenges this world faces. Challenges of such severity and complexity should give rise to great concern to all who profess a modicum of love for humanity in general and for their irksome neighbor in particular.

    However, the collective urge for justice and peaceful accord is drowned out by our desperate, yet silent cry to be left alone from it all. Amidst the roiling madness, each of us would rather retreat into our diminishing sliver of personal peace. If only one could I find a cocoon and slip away from those things that make the daily turn of the world a fretful venture! But there is no cocoon and no escape. The mounting challenges and the relentless difficulties they cause inevitably invite trauma into our lives. The bottle, the pipe, the television and the nights of uneasy sleep provide only most transient comfort. Every day, everything grows darker as money grows short and harder to come by while simple joy is a rare and brief visitor in our homes.

    Anger and frustration mount. As the strength of these raucous emotions compound, they also become the authors of our thoughts instead of being the things our better thoughts seek to constrain. These emotions crowd out deep reflection, causing us to embrace simplistic, mostly angry, answers to matters that do not lend themselves to facile antidote. Thus, we tend to treat the profound questions of our time dismissively as if understanding them is amenable to emotional outburst or base prejudice more so than to lucid contemplation and intelligent inquiry. In an age such as this, those who know the least seem to know it all; they express their hollow findings with the brutal certainty that only profound ignorance of the world’s complexities can bring.

    The injustices that belittle and exercise us are to be laid at the foot of someone else, anyone else for that matter. If no genuine enemy exists, a most notorious malefactor will be invented or otherwise supplied. For in this day and time, we need a stark and clear villain at whom to cast our ire. Armed and sickly comforted by this ersatz certainty, we carry our anger and sense of injustice about with perverse pride, donning them like badges of virtue.

    We draw inwardly smug because of this overwhelming sense of moral superiority over that evil other being.  When we gather with friends and those like us, we recite the litany of things we have been made to endure; we berate the presumed doer of the evil and curse his progeny. We hold fast to our angry biases as if they were golden ingots or a rare plant to be cultivated with the utmost care.

    Enthralled by our prejudices, we countenance not a contrary word. To speak against the anger and perceived causes of it is to commit a misstep more grievous than religious blasphemy. With great difficulty does Reason find entry into the mind of an angry man. Into the thoughts of an angry society, Reason holds even less of a chance. Against the ways of an angry epoch, Reason itself becomes of ill repute. Few want to think and understand. It is more comforting and much easier to harshly emote and revile the conjured scapegoat.

    Despite the false assurances provided by our biases and reactionary impulses, nothing much improves. The lack of improvement serves not to make us question our presumptions. It serves only to affirm them. We know so much but understand too little. Our opinions are cooked in a kitchen not our own, using ingredients the names of which we do not know. Yet, we consume the gruel and consider ourselves filled, even wise.

    The certitude of ignorance is elevated to that place better reserved for clarity of thought. The courtyard of public opinion is adorned with ideas more dangerous to those who consume them than had the person not ventured to think at all.

    None of this misdirection can halt the process of reality intruding into our banquet of lies. The ground breaks under foot. The house crumbles beneath the pressure of our diminishing lives. Still we anchor to the canard that this or that other person or group is the blame for it all.

    Yet if only we had eyes that discern instead of those so well trained to misinterpret, we would notice the very people we blame for the troubles at hand also suffer the same calamity. The immigrant, the poor man, and that fellow of another race or religion also stagger. The man or woman of another color or ethnicity too  bear the same indignities. None is the master of his own fate; how can he be the masters of yours? They too march limply in servitude to force they cannot see. To blame them is to blame yourself.

    That which besets us is of stronger fiber than the superficial ethnic and religious differences that seem to animate the average person. Fundamental socio-economic and ecological forces are at work, changing the face and function of social institutions and how these institutions relate to each of us.  We are beset by how the world of human interactions is being restructured to distribute profit and pain. The system never was fair. It is becoming even less so.

    Just as the physical earth undergoes its seasons, the political world too ventures through cycles. At times, there is prosperity. Other times, there is want and famine. Periods of peace and harmony come only to be chased away by the blasts of deafening war. We have entered a wary period, one of high alert and alarm. It has been a long time since the world has experienced such a period of escalating economic tensions, increased geopolitical rivalry and social alienation. Rarely, has it emerged unscathed from the ominous path. The last moment the world was captive to so many complex, interlocking problems was at the turn of the 20th century. During that period, wisdom ceded control to ambition, restraint gave way to bellicose raving. Conciliation lost out to greed and power lust. Bells pealed. Drums rolled. Old men gave speeches. Young ones dreamed of a glory that had nothing to do with the undertaking they were about to enter.

    Nations gleefully sent their children off to mindless slaughter. The world rushed headlong into the pit of catastrophe. The ensuing battlefields became the final resting place for millions of young men. Whole kingdoms fell, never again to have their names appear on modern maps. Princes and potentates were dethroned. Pestilence stalked the war-ravaged landscape, killing millions more efficiently than did all the guns of war. The common person who survived was made numb by the enormity of all the evil that befell his tranquil existence. The First World War did this and more; nevertheless, the folly of man led him into a second more violent conflagration barely two decades later.

    I am not predicting such calamity for our times. However, today’s world does angle toward the ledge at moment when its most powerful nation is led by a purblind crew whose collective knowledge of history compares unfavorably to that of a precocious toddler.

    The only way we escape greater trouble is to begin to respond to the big problems of our times with answers and solutions of commensurate magnitude and grace.

    The global economy teeters. Aggregate private debt is larger now than when its unbearable weight precipitated the great financial crisis of 2008, hurling the world toward near depression. Germany, the fulcrum of the EU, slumps into recession. The UK says it wants out of the EU but approaches the task much like a drunk standing midway between pub and home, uncertain which destination is truly preferred. The Eurozone has not amended its structural flaws which destine several nations, particularly Greece and Italy, to perpetual crises. The US has embroiled China in a needless, ill-timed trade war. There is an oil glut and commodity prices are slipping. All of this will hurt African nations. Perhaps more frighteningly, extreme weather threatens global agriculture. Food will be less bountiful and more costly next year. This will only beget economic contraction and human misery.

    Geopolitical tensions promote additional ill-humor. America and Russia threaten another nuclear arms race by dismantling, piece by piece, the existing international regime. They also continue to stare each other down in the Ukraine and Syria. America seeks to box in an emergent China. Although neither pose a serious threat to the  American people, Washington plans to bring the Iranian and Venezuelan governments to their knees. India goads Pakistan as if they are two boys with pesky slingshots not powerful nations with ruinous nuclear arsenals.

    Apart from Kashmir, a common strand threads through these geopolitical face-offs: The United States. I have become accustomed to people calling America “God’s country.” Let’s assume the moniker is apt for America truly is a place of beautiful sights and many wonderful people. Sadly, that it is God’s country is mitigated by the fact that it is being governed by the devil’s own children.

    Leaders in both of America’s major political parties have become seized with a most disconcerting mindset. They believe America should be the lone superpower and have deceived themselves that they are justified in taking any measure to assure this objective. They see three things as key to this exalted status: (1.) Military strength, (2.) The US dollar as the world’s reserve currency and (3.) Control of global energy flows. Any one deemed to threaten one of these pillars is considered a mortal foe. Thus, Saddam and Qaddafi were made to walk the plank.

    The Maduro government in Venezuela now has to be broken because it sits on the world’s largest oil reserve yet had the temerity to suggest that oil trade should turn away from the US dollar. Because of the rebelliousness of this South American nation, America has concocted a tale that the populist government there is has beset its own people with every imaginable sin. America’s shrewd resolution to end the suffering of these people is to impose a menu of economic sanctions that will starve them and cause the deaths of thousands. Washington’s strategy is to end suffering by multiplying it. The illogic of this is inescapable. Yet, most of the so-called democratic world and the media remain deaf and silent to this immoral onslaught.

    However, when bombarded with news of deranged individuals shooting down people in shopping malls and nightclubs, we huff and puff in great moral indignation.  It is as if bowling down whole nations for no compelling reason is considered sane behavior or, at worst, a slight peccadillo; yet; our sensitivities are terribly insulted by the violent crimes of wretched individuals.

    The shooter in El Paso, Texas is truly inhumane. But, there is a deeper consideration that must be given this hellish episode. Suppose the demented young man had decided to put aside his guns and apply himself in school. He might have attended a prestigious university and later entered public service.  He could have been the next John Bolton, President Trump’s National Security Advisor. Instead of killing a mere 22 hapless people, he would be sinking his eager incisors into the hides of 22 nations, placing tens of millions of black and brown people under fear of quick annihilation via martial strike or gradual death by economic sanctions. The social pathology that motivated the mall shooter to drive ten hours across Texas to shoot down unarmed Latinos buying school supplies for their children is the same mindset that makes Bolton the mauler of nations. Only the scale of carnage is different.

    American sanctions now deprive the Maduro government of billions of dollars it rightfully earned. Whatever you think of that government, it is entitled to the money it earned. In effect, America is stealing a poorer nation’s money because it does not like its form of government. This is the way of a bully not of a nation that seeks to create a world order based on justice and mutual respect.

    Despite the intimidation from its northern neighbor, most Venezuelans would rather have Maduro than Washington’s surrogate govern them. The people know the racial and class fault lines of their own nation. They have experienced more freedom and democracy under Maduro and his predecessor, Chavez, than when the euro-centric elites ruled in the past. For the moment, the bulk of the people would rather hold out than to allow a return to the racist elitism of yesterday.

    But America is intent on starving them into submission. This conflict with America has nothing to do with democracy or elections for Maduro was elected in a credible election. (In near-by Haiti, the people complained that the election was rigged but America pressed the downtrodden people to accept the result. The winner was Washington’s pick. The election that brought Maduro was markedly better than the Haitian election America so strenuously endorsed. The same can be said of Honduras, another country undergoing significant upheaval because of the clumsy hand of Washington.)

    Eventually, the proud people of Venezuela will forfeit their pride to widespread hunger and devastation. They will succumb to greater power; protracted hunger and economic deprivation breaks the resistance of a weaker nation. America will see this victory as affirmation of the righteousness of American global domination. This will embolden the next misadventure. With each misadventure, the world spins ever closer to the ledge.

    We, the people, sleep the prisoners’ slumber. We get angry at the next inmate for having a slightly better cell. We question not why we and the fate of our nations are incarcerated in the first place. If only we would awake. We just might find that the beginning of true awareness is the beginning of true freedom as well.

    Thus, I have decided to write again. I do so not because I profess to have any answers. I do so because I have so many questions.

    • 08060340825 (sms only)

  • SNAPSONG

    Early morning

    The sun is very young

    Shadows fall like long shawls

    Over the shoulders of the road

     

     

    A truthful enemy

    Is far better than a phony friend

    Face me without a mask

    That I may see your words

     

     

    Of sinful Saints

    And saintly Sinners

    Life’s inseparable twins

    Its undecipherable code

     

     

    If you turn the world

    Into a bowl of poison

    You will not go without

    Drinking a sizeable cup

     

     

    The powerful live

    Above the Law

    The powerless lurk

    Below its wings

     

     

    Walk steady, friend

    Walk easy

    Don’t ever let your feet

    Quarrel with the road

  • Eat’N’Go marks 7th anniversary in Nigeria

    Eat’N’Go Limited, franchisee for pizza company, Domino’s Pizza, and its two other global brands, Cold Stone Creamery and Pinkberry Gourmet Frozen Yoghurt, is celebrating seven years of continuous growth since it began operations in Nigeria in August 2012.

    This anniversary further throws a spotlight on the company’s success and immense progress in the dynamic quick service restaurant industry in Nigeria.

    As part of its growth trajectory, the QSR brand has remained consistent in the expansion of its services to more Nigerians, providing value and satisfaction for its customers all year round. With presence in Abuja, Port-Harcourt, Lagos, Ibadan, Ilorin, Akure and Enugu, Eat’N’Go has also just recently extended its footprint to Calabar with the launch of a mega outlet in the heart of the city this August.

    Since its entrance into the Nigerian market, Eat’N’Go has recorded significant milestone across all aspects of its business with the delivery of high quality service. In the last seven years, the brand has grown from 250 members of staff to over 2400 staff members, increase in number of outlets to 102 and currently operates with a N10 billion investment in Nigeria.

    In the course of its operations in Nigeria, the company has recorded a long list of achievements and awards, most recent of them is winning the QSR brand of the year 2019 and the CEO winning the most innovative CEO award at the Business Day Leadership Awards2019.

    While commenting on the Businessday Awards, he added, “we are particularly honoured to have received this prestigious award. It proves that the hard work and commitment of our team has not gone unnoticed. Since inception, we have remained consistent in our dedication to bringing the best food experience and concepts to Nigerians and Africans. We are inspired by this recognition and will continue in this light.”

    Speaking on the anniversary, CEO Eat’N’Go Limited, Patrick Mc. Michael, revealed his excitement on the organisation’s growth in Nigeria over the years, owing its success to all its stakeholders. He said: “Our experience in Nigeria has been tremendously great. Not only have we grown as a company, we have evolved enough to be a huge contributor to the Nigerian economy as well as giving back to the society. We will like to say thank you to all of our loyal stakeholders whose impact and contribution has proven priceless to us as a company.”

    Within its seven years in Nigeria, Eat’N’Go has invested significantly in human capital development, contributing greatly to Nigeria’s labour market. The organisation as part of its corporate social responsibility has also partnered with Slum2School Africa, a volunteer-driven developmental organisation that provides quality education to disadvantaged children, to send 1000 undeserved children to school in Nigeria.

  • ‘How we achieved local content in cable manufacturing’

    George Onafowokan is the Managing Director of Coleman Wires and Cables Limited. In this interview with Charles Okonji, he speaks on the company’s plan to enhance and promote local content in the sector as well as increase investment in Nigeria. Excerpts:

    What efforts are you making to ensure local content thrives in the cable manufacturing subsector?

    This is an indigenous company that believes a lot in local content. For local content, what makes us outstanding is that we are always pushing the limit. Today we are expert in high voltage production of Specialty Linear Polymers (SLP) and high voltage cable production. We are the only source in West Africa, Central Africa and East Africa. We have pushed the limit of that till now and we are moving local content into SLP and marine cable production which is our next face of production.

    We have started working on some new cables and it will be the first of its kind in this region. The cable called WTR has never been considered for production in history in this part of the world. The IOC was what they were skeptical about but today, that cable has been tested by the IOC company and they are proudly talking about it.

    This tells you that there is possibility of local content if we drive and believe that Nigeria can do it and that is the level of skepticism that we have to keep breaking. To make it viable, we must raise the bar and raising the bar is not about getting the job, but in standards, machinery, and capacity building in Health and Safety Commitment policy (HSC), quality assurance and employee systems.

    Once you raise the bar, it makes everybody to feel at ease. Some Europeans who visited our factory and test lab were surprised at what they saw and they asked if they could bring cables for recertification in our labs. Some of the equipment in our own lab can only be seen here in this country. I have a testing lab that cost a million dollars and how many people can afford this? So the investment bar has to be so high that you are either feeling you are in Europe or even feel beyond that.

    This is what we stand for and we got it right from day one because we push the investment bar as our company can compete favourably anywhere in the world. I will use the word of Engr. Simbi Wabote when he was speaking during a programme that if oil and gas companies don’t practicalise local content, at the end of the day the tsunami of people going across the sea will not stop because. If they don’t create jobs in this country some people will even be willing to cross the sea.

    More jobs must be created to reduce unemployment. Our drive is to make cables cheap at a reasonable price to all. Our cost of investment is a lot higher than any other cable company and that has been our success point. If you are hoping to get returns in six months, you can never be successful in the cable business.

    How do you think epileptic power supply can be addressed and how is it affecting your industry?

    The only solution to epileptic power supply in Nigeria is deregulation of the power sector. You need to make it possible for me to generate, transmit and distribute power or does anyone of them do without hindrances? That is the solution. We all keep talking about the telecommunications sector. This happens because the government acted as the regulator and allowed the private sector to drive it.

    I could remember we bought a sim card for N25,000 and we were paying per minute billing. We cannot deregulate a sector and still allow monopoly. We cannot have Distribution Companies (DISCOs) here and there and still expect a miracle to happen. There is no competition, we must deregulate totally. We should make power to be easily sold to people at cheaper rates and if the price is competitive, the ability to move from one power provider to another will be easy.

    Can you tell some of the recent achievements of the company?

    The major move by the company was the opening of its first high voltage factory in Nigeria 2014, which was and is still the first investment to directly make impact. The NOGIC Act of 2010 for the country produce high voltage cable. Prior to that, we made every low voltage cable, but this still didn’t get headway since 2009, when we built the biggest factory in the West Africa at that time.

    With the promulgation of the Act, the government has clearly established its intention to increase indigenous participation in the industry in terms of human, material and economic resources. I will say our efforts started geminating seed under the NOGIC as Coleman Wins NOG 2019 Nigeria Best Indigenous Company. We won the Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) 2019 indigenous company of the year award which is the first in the 18th edition of NOG award in their industry.

    The ceremony held at the NOG conference that took place in Abuja. The award was presented by the former and pioneer Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Arch. Denzil Kentebe and received by me. For us, what earned us this honour is years of hard work and investment by the Coleman team, especially with focus on investment on products that are directly on NOLGIC Act of 2010. Most people taught we got into the oil and gas sector about two years ago, but sincerely we have been in oil and gas business for over nine years (in the NOGIC act of 2010) quietly pushing the business into recognition.

    How has government policy enhanced the company?

    NCBMB has been fighting for Coleman based on what they have seen. It has taken over five years of additional investment of over $30 million to yield patronage from the oil and gas industry. Nobody will invest such a huge amount of money on an investment that will start yielding fruit after five years, but Coleman broke every rule on book of investment and decision making, because we believe in long term prospect of the industry and in the law backing the industry.

    Based on what Coleman has shown that can be done in country cables sector, this has made NCDMB fully convinced to fight for the whole industry in order to encourage others to push the boat and patronise locally produced cables. With this encouragement, we started gaining entrance in IOCs and job started coming in 2018.

    What makes you outstanding amongst others?

    We are outstanding because of our internal policy. Our policy started with our resolve that we will not import what we could not produce, which meant that we must try and do everything possible to start producing locally. For me as the leader of the team, within the first one or two years, I studied this industry and I felt we needed to think differently for this industry to be successful because we have so many deficiencies from infrastructure, power, water amongst others.

    For an industry that depends heavily on power using  diesel generator or other alternative power like gas generator, it is a tough industry to be in, as you have to make additional provision of almost of about 30 percent of your total investment of the project just on power solutions which is far more than other businesses. In order for us to meet up with the expectation of customers on pricing we are forced to make far bigger investment in capacity in order to meet that expectation of a viable and good cable price. To others, high voltage investment was a blind investment but we knew what we were doing with the new investment and the team believed in it which over time we have been able to prove that it was a right decision we made.

    My colleagues that cautioned me when we started, don’t say so anymore because this made us to outstanding. We have over N20 billion worth of investments so far and we are still investing. By 2020, we will have additional $40 million investment that will be commissioned in the first quarter of next year and all have to do with cable. For us this is how far we can take it.

    You recently won an award, can you tells us about it?

    Yes, the Coleman Wires and Cables Limited won the Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) 2019 indigenous company of the year award, which is the first in the 18th edition of NOG awards in their industry. The ceremony held at the NOG conference that took place in Abuja. The award was presented by the former and pioneer Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Arch. Denzil Kentebe and received by me.