Theatre 09… all’s well that ends well

By Gregory Austin Nwakunor

WITH the 2010 World Cup, as the major event to look forward to this year, 2009, at best, remained the forerunner to the great feast that could be imagined in theatre in the last few years. It offered a sizeable bite of theatrical possibilities.

The year started on a bright note and ended on same note, with a lot of theatrical options, especially among regular producers: Wole Oguntokun, CHAMS Theatre Series, Patrick Jude-Oteh and National Troupe of Nigeria.

In 2009, every Sunday, Oguntokun and his band of renegade theatre artistes put up a play as part of the Theatre @ Terra project. In January, Wole Soyinka’s Camwood on the Leaves was performed weekly. February was South African playwright; Athol Fugard’s Sizwe Bansi is Dead. Prison Chronicles was the option in March.

From July 2007, when it started as a joint project by Oguntokun’s Jason Vision Media and Terra Kulture, as a way of re-invigorating live theatre in the country, has run for more than 29 months, making it one of the most consistent theatrical efforts in Nigeria.

When it first held, it was to celebrate Soyinka’s birthday. Titled A Season of Soyinka, it featured several plays by the Nobel laureate. A Gathering of Eagles, which celebrated works by Zulu Sofola, Femi Osofisan and Ahmed Yerima, followed it.

Other theatrical performances that held in the beginning of the year include Eniyan, Wale Ogunyemi’s adaptation of Everyman. Tunde Adeyemo directed the play that was staged in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on February 4.

Ola Rotimi’s Kurumi, as directed by Shina Ayodele, went on stage for the Lagos State University’s 2007/2008 convocation. Athol Furgad’s Sizwe Banzi Is Dead was staged at Terra Kulture and Merit House, Abuja. Other stage outings of the period include The Swamp Dweller, directed by Nick Monu and produced by the National Troupe of Nigeria on March 6. V-Monologues, the Nigerian Experience was also on stage at the MUSON Centre, Goethe Institut and National Theatre, Lagos.

Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) produced the play, which was directed by Najite Dede.

Suffice it to say that the year produced a lot of emerging directors other than the popular names. The Jos Festival of Theatre, which was held in March 2009, confirmed to many that will soon become one of the most important theatrical showpieces in the country’s performance calendar.

Organised by the Jos Repertory Theatre (JRT) since inception in 2005, the festival has grown considerably in importance and significance, taking into consideration the new plays, new writers and new directors that have been thrown up.

Since it started, the festival has celebrated more young writers and directors, while confining the old to a little roaming space, in the yearly theatrical fiesta. 2009 was no exception.

An Adaptation of Wole Soyinka’s The Trials of Brother Jero by Bisi Adigun for the National Theatre/National Troupe before de-merger was on in May, while the Chams Theatre Series, sponsored by Chams Plc., with Fabulous Adventures of A Sugarcaneman and Agbara Ife adapted from Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa’s novel, Ireke Onibudo, were staged Ibadan, Lagos, Akure and Abuja in November.

JRT also staged Ahmed Yerima’s The Sisters in Abuja in November. Eucharia Egah directed it. There were also Truth and Togetherness Dance Festival of Africa (TRUFESTA), organised by Ijodee Dance Centre, the international dance festivity named Danse Meets Dance, which is organised by Alliance Francaise and the performance-marked Macmillan Youths Day and Macmillan Literary Night, among other events in the sector.

A new project on drama and poetry, tagged P.L.A.Y, (acronym of Poetry, Laughter, Art and You), an initiative of the veteran journalist, art critic and dramatist, Ben Tomoloju, capped the year.

Staged at Terra Kulture Tomoloju said his initiative is “basically a poetry festival, which explores the interface between poetry and the performing art. GTBank sponsored it.

Little Drops… another vintage social drama from the creative rash of Yerima was on stage at the National Theatre in November.

Iba, a dance drama directed by Yerima, devised and choreographed by Arnold Udoka was staged during the last days of December, giving hope that the year was filled with theatrical productions, apart from the pockets of drama on campus.

Beyond the stage productions and yearly theatre festival at Jos, the first quarter saw National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) celebrate its 20th anniversary. The celebrations coincided with the World Theatre Day (March 27).

Honour also came to Professor Dapo Adelugba, foremost theatre scholar and critic, who was 70 in March, as his old students held a lavish 70th birthday party for him.

A two-day international symposium themed Issues and Developments in Contemporary Nigerian Drama and Theatre Practice, where some of his former students examined his contribution to scholarship and extolled his virtues, held at the Faculty of Arts conference room of the University of Lagos, on December 1 and 2.

As part of the celebrations, there was launch of Daodu of Nigerian Theatre: Tributes in Honour of Dapo Adelugba edited by Sola Adeyemi and Akin Adesokan preceded the presentation of papers.

A documentary on Adelugba, whom his students reverentially call Baba (father), was also screened during the symposium. Yinka Akanbi produced the documentary.

Be that as it may, the fortunes of Nigerian theatre have continued to dwindle due some reasons, ranging from what Prof. Chris Nwamuo enumerated as, “inadequate modern and hi-tech facilities to practitioners un-professionalism and un-familiarity with the hi-tech facilities as found in other countries of the world.”

The erudite scholar said, “the practice of theatre in Nigeria is heading for the rocks and needs to be rescued urgently. While theatre academics are researching, teaching and publishing according to world class standards, little or no new theatres and studios are being built for them to practice in and to train student apprentices. Most of the theatre facilities and equipment are dilapidated and obsolete. Authorities prefer to spend money on chemicals and test tubes for the science laboratories than equip theatres, recording and rehearsal studios or even costume and technical equipment. It is a sad situation, which will kill the theatre and the creative spirit and discourage young men pursuing careers in the performing arts and in creative teaching. It is sad to know that we are hailed as being wise in everything except in how to use our wisdom. We are gradually getting dehumanized as we hotly pursue scientific and materialistic education without a great concern for the arts.”

For Oteh, “the challenges of theatre in Nigeria are definitely not about talent, they have to do mainly with sourcing and looking for funds.”

He added, “I think most of the theatre artistes have shied away from creating formidable marketing department that would rival that of any bank. We might not be able to pay what banks are paying, but the lesson here is that we must be able to create departments that must be able to drive sales for our product and they also must be able to hustle like every other bank is hustling because marketing is not just sitting down and wishing our art is going to speak for us, you can have a good art without good marketing and it is as good as dead, so, what we are going to try to do in the next one or two years is to create a whole new marketing department and their major aim is to drive market sales for our plays and other products that we are having. There will also be a funding department. Its major aim is to get funds from as many offers as possible.”

Oteh, who is one of the 2009-2011 fellows of John Kennedy Centre for Performing Arts, said, “the challenge is not the challenge of talent, it is that of creating a formidable marketing department and a development office that would be able to drive our product to go beyond what it is right now and we should be able to achieve that in the next two years.”

Should government be involved in the running of National Theatre? And what should be done to get more people to the place?

Oteh answered: “I will digress a little; when Michael got to the centre in 2001, it was running at a deficit every year of nothing less than $38 million every year. But what did he do? He concentrated on programming. The beauty of the Kennedy Centre is that the government owns the building and gives money to take care of the building, but the organisation that functions inside the building is a privately run organisation, the president of the organisation knows that he is responsible for 450 salaries at the end of the month he evolves new strategies to remain afloat, I am very sure that if we are put in that kind of structure in Nigeria, it will work. So, my take is that if it is possible for the government to say ‘we are only the structure that houses the National Theatre, so DG, source for your funds, how you pay your salaries, what you do inside the building is entirely left to you and the artistes to manage well.

“But as long as the government is funding everything, from the building to the programming, the National Theatre will continue to remain the way it is because the people inside will see themselves as civil servants. Art can never function under government bureaucracy. To me, it is not that people don’t go to the National Theatre, it is not that people are not interested in the place, it is not that people don’t find the place enabling, but what programmes are happening in the National Theatre to attract people to that place. You must get people excited about a place for them to want to go there, for them to be proud to say, ‘I am going to the National Theatre of Nigeria’.

“As a theatre person, I should be able to feel proud that my play is going to be staged there; I must have that pride that my play is going to the National Theatre of Nigeria, not just National Theatre. There is a distinction that must be made clear, there is a difference between my play is going to the National Theatre, it sounds too ordinary. But it is weighty when you say ‘my play is going to the National Theatre of Nigeria, there must be an element of pride, and this is where programming comes in. Create an enabling environment, create exciting programmes that will make people want to come there on a day to day basis, create an environment where schools will want to come to on excursion, clear all the back stage, let students come and see what happens at the back stage, let people come and see rehearsals in progress, it gets people excited, people will come to the National Theatre, I’m very convinced about that. Artistes have to device their own programs, sort for their own funds, plan what they want to do years ahead, then you are going to have a formidable National Theatre.”

Nollywood is a people’s cinema, says Okome

By GREGORY AUSTIN NWAKUNOR

Nollywood is one of the fastest-growing film industries in the world, and one of the largest, too, in terms of output, alongside Bollywood, based on UNESCO’s survey conducted a few years ago. Nigeria produces a staggering 2,500 films a year. Onookome Okome, Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, Canada, and a leading expert on Nigerian films, tells GREGORY AUSTIN NWAKUNOR that the attempts to ghettorise the film industry is wrong.

YOUR assessment of Nollywood?: He looks up and smiles, “it has sustained itself. There’s a lot to be said about the industry; this is why it is seen everywhere, I can tell you, from my last count, that there have been two full-length documentaries on Nollywood. I was interviewed in the latest one. Even though I object to the title of the film, I still believe that it is good for the industry. The title of the documentary is Nollywood Babylon, which I’m not fond of.”
  He draws a deep breath and remarks, “but the point that is made is crucial, for me that people are beginning to take proper and serious interest in the cinema culture, which is very, very Nigeria, though it is now global, it is also pan-African; there’s element of pan Africanism in Nollywood that it cannot be ignored at all. These elements you will find in the connection that Nigerian filmmakers are having with people in Kenya, Malawi, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, in terms of reception and consumption, also Africans in the Diaspora, in St. Lucia and the Caribbean, the films are very popular, in many ways, we can say that Nollywood is very much alive and it is really a great honour to Nigerians at the point where it all began.”
  Okome says with pride, “since we started writing seriously about the industry, I mean since our very first serious essay on Nollywood, which I did with Prof. Jonathan Haynes of Brooklyn College, Long Island University in New York, a lot of people have started working seriously about it. But some of them are working from a very ethnographic point of view. And it seems to me that those people working in that area have tended to see the films as a replication of the lives that we live in Nigeria; this is not true. It is a representation, not the real thing. And because of this misconception about the film culture and the way it represents the society, there is the tendency for a certain discourse to build around it, which emphasises the very common thing such as there is juju, women are maltreated, oh, it is full of repetitions. These are becoming some kind of stereotypes in its discourse, which is not good for the academic side of the industry because it is very diverse.”
The film expert says, “there are stories that are civilised and also there are stories that do not have anything to do with magic; there are all kinds of stories. Nollywood is not just one thing, it is many things.”
  For Okome, what is called Nollywood today is a general name for a larger cinema culture that has subsidiaries: including Yoruba, Hausa, Edo, Igbo and Urhobo. “They are part of the cinema culture, and anybody who is trying to deny that is just trying to make a fragmentation out of nothing.”
Living in Bondage (1992), a classic credited with kick-starting the industry, was made in Ibo but later dubbed into English.
  As the industry grew, movies were made in Pidgin, a broken English that Nigerians with different mother languages use to communicate. And that has made the films accessible to all of Africa.
He says, the main industry began in Lagos, and has influenced other productions. “Nobody is going to tell me that Nollywood that began in Lagos did not influence the Ghanaian video films. Nobody is going to tell me that it did not influence the film industry coming up in Kampala.”
  The University of Alberta professor explains, confidently: “I have just been invited to give a talk on the industry and its influence in Africa. I co-convened a conference last year at the University of Mainz, Germany, the title of the conference was Nollywood and Beyond and what we tried to do at that conference was to define the film culture inside and outside Nigeria, we found from the papers presented its influence on the continent.”
  He adds, “we found out that we cannot reduce the industry into one thing: that it is juju, or that it is made in three or four days, these are the kind of impressions that don’t have anything to do with the practice itself. If you encourage that kind of discussion, you are minimising the artistic input that these filmmakers inject in the making of the films. You just cannot do that. That is the reason I don’t like the documentary called Nollywood Babylon, by trying to mobilise the idea of the industry as Babel, it is like ghettorising the wonderful cinema practice that it has been doing from time to time. Ghettorisation is something I object to. It is not a ghetto cinema, it is a people’s cinema defined by Nigerians and kept afloat by Nigerians.”
  While saying the industry evolved from grassroots as a way of documenting social events, Okome points out that it reflects issues in society like television. “It is a popular culture.”
He notes as technology evolved and grew more affordable, the industry exploded. Despite the cheap budgets, its quality is improving from its rudimentary, home-video-style beginnings. “They are Nigerian stories. Perfect Nigerian stories. These are the stories Nigerian people want to see. Story about a man beating his wife, story about a man cheating his wife. A man going to jujuman in order to make money. These are our stories. In the America frontier films, the Wild, Wild, West films, they are stories about the American macho, masculine man conquering the frontiers: killing the red Indians in order to expand American interest. That’s their story, this is our story. These are the stories told by the filmmakers and it cannot be anything else.”
  While admitting that the way the stories are told is actually the problem, the film scholar says, "The scripting is getting better, the actors are getting better."
  He says distribution is a structural problem in the industry. “What is happening here, let us contextualise this, is that the distribution of Nollywood films have now moved up. It is advancement. When Nollywood started, it was okay for the marketer to just distribute their films to the stores. But that is no longer the case as Nollywood has gone global. It has gone transnational and as such, requires a different format for distribution.”
  For him, the industry should set standards on distribution not government. “This what happens in every film culture.”
  The academic, who will be home from July for the next one year to carry out more research on the industry is the convener of an international workshop titled Nollywood: A National Cinema? which holds at Kwara Hotel/Kwara State University, Malete, Ilorin, Nigeria from July 7 to 10, says the workshop will answer, inevitably, questions asked about how the social and cultural veracity of the art of Nollywood coalesce into one grand probe. According to him, “this workshop interrogates the intersection between the nation as a narrative entity and the uses of Nollywood as agent of this act of narrativity.”

Swaniker comes in from Accra, Juxta Posed

BY GREGORY AUSTIN NWAKUNOR

CONSTANCE E. Swaniker is not a household name in the continent’s art scene, but this year, the 38 years old lady took a bold step at making herself known beyond her immediate environment, Accra. She decided to hold a show in Lagos to internationalise her work.
   Titled, Juxta Posed, and slated for November 5 to 14 at the Nike Art Gallery, Lekki, Lagos, Constance is showing works that task sensibilities.
  She had held a solo show in June, which received rave reviews and critical acclaim from art lovers who thronged the Artists Alliance Gallery in Accra.
  Why is she just hitting the exhibition circuit?
  “At the initial stages, I channelled much of my work into functional pieces, so, I went more into the commercial route as opposed to the typical route many artists take. The traditional art route is difficult for young artists — especially so for women, that have yet to make their mark in the art world,” she says.
  According to her, the bit of sculpting she used to do was mainly on commissioned pieces. “Now, I feel I’m in a better place to concentrate more on the purely artistic aspects.”

EARLY in life, the young lady realised she could break out on her own. Whilst a  student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Constance worked as an apprentice carpenter for a period of five years in a joinery company but specialised in metal work and sculpture, graduating with honours in Sculpture.
  “Indeed, there is no greater challenge, excitement and satisfaction in life than turning your ideas into reality,” she retorts.
  She has raised the benchmark in the wrought iron industry in Ghana and remains an outstanding leader in her field.
  “For a woman to venture into a male-dominated sector and excel is no easy feat,” she says.
  A descendant of the legendary Amartei Fiator, the lady, who is from the Amartse We family, a Ga clan famous for producing goldsmithers and revered throughout the Asere Dynasty, has a heritage of excellent ‘craftsmen’ who plied their trade at a time it was taboo for women to work as blacksmiths or goldsmiths.
  Her aunty, Korkor Amartiefio, is a well-known Ghanaian artist and has had managerial experience with the National Theatre, while her uncle, Nick Amarteifio, the former Mayor of Accra, is a respected architect with an international taste for fine works.
  The mother of two, who has a multi-cultural / multi-functional background, having spent 18 years outside her native Ghana — in the Gambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe — says, “this diversity in my background has been the dominant factor in how I approach the ‘arts’ and business.”

FROM its beginnings in a wooden shed 11 years ago, Accents and Arts, which Constance is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer, now sits on an expanded plot of land including offices, showrooms and workshops fitted with modern equipment.
  She started working from her family’s home in Bubuashie, a suburb of Accra and created garden fountains and ornaments and sold them to friends and those who have acquired a taste for fine furniture.
  Armed with the little money she had raised from selling fountains, as well as a loan secured from her mother, she built a shed and that began the journey into entrepreneurship.
  Today, the company has a workforce of 40 staff including carpenters, electricians, sprayers, creative artistes and administrative staff.
    “When we started, it was with the aim of rediscovering the striking and artistic nature of wrought iron, today, we skillfully blend wood with glass and various materials to bring out the splendour of metal art,” she says.
  “Using the finest iron, wood and other raw materials, the company manufactures state-of-the-art gates, furniture, balustrades, accents, garden décor and hand-painted wrought iron chandeliers, lamps stands and candlestick holders.”
  The company has also created for itself a very reputable clientele, with their products seen not only in diplomatic homes but also in Ghana’s Parliament House, African Regent Hotel, Mahogany Lodge, Labadi Beach Hotel, Buka Restaurant, Melting Moments and construction company Taysec, all in the nation’s capital, Accra.
  Constance, who is angry at the extent to which Africans had abandoned their creativity for mass-produced articles from abroad, is confident of designing and producing “tastefully manufactured things for our homes by looking within the borders of Ghana to her own natural roots for inspiration.”
  Touching on the items designed by the company, Constance said a lot of thinking and creativity go into each piece to meet the expectations of clients.
  “We design each piece to be viewed as a work of art as well as a utilitarian item. We believe that our products represent the best that this nation’s artistic and artisanal tradition can produce.”
 
CONSTANCE is passionate about serving her community and nation. She works hand in hand with the local Assembly woman, “to organise periodic clean up and tree planting campaigns within the neighboring communities and schools,” she reveals.
  She also goes a step further in recruiting underprivileged and would be delinquents in the area. She puts them through three-year apprenticeship training in carpentry; welding and spraying to enable them build a secure and better future.
  Each year, she also takes on students from the tertiary institutions to provide them with a hands-on experience of their courses at Accents & Art.
 In recognition of her immense contribution towards the development of the community and the nation as a whole and appreciation for her role in building up and training the youth and the elderly in all spheres of life and also providing employment in one or the other to the general public, she has received several awards such as Outstanding Industrial Metal Furniture Firm in Ghana Award by wAi Africa, The Network Journal Africa 40-under 40 Achievement Award (2010) and Community Service Acknowledgement Award by Nii Ashie Komowuo II, Chief of her locality. She has also won the Best Entrepreneur S.M.E. Innovation Award from the entrepreneurs’ foundation of Ghana and many other accolades.
  In 2007 and 2008, Accents & Art featured on various TV programmes – Reuters News Agency, MNet’s Studio 53, TV Africa’s Obaa Mbo and TV3’s Today’s Woman & M’Asem.

What to expect

THEMES of transition, emancipation and resilience run through her motley of collection of works. Her courage is not only evidenced in her work but also as a single mother raising two boys.
  At a time when the world is in danger of extermination as a result of conflicts, global warming, poverty, disease and many others, Killing Fields emerges to warn humanity of disaster waiting to happen. In this revolutionary piece, the destruction human beings cause to the world is represented, and thus, there’s a clarion call to save the planet.
  In Killing Fields, Constance presents a beautiful and colourful garden with three offensive weapons perched right in the middle of it. The contrast is quite noticeable.
  Her inspiration for this piece “came from reading an article where children in conflict regions innocently playing in fields only to be maimed by landmines,” she says.
  In the piece, Pretty Wings, Constance depicts a woman on her mark, ready to sprint off, with her head bowed down owing to all the challenges in her life.
  Another arresting work is titled, Weapon of Mass Destruction, and it’s in the form of a headless male torso.
  Between his legs, in place of a male member, there hangs a huge pistol. This appears to be the ultimate male boast but as the name implies, it is a violent representation of a cruel murderous bravado.
  It is a harrowing image in a continent where rape has been used deliberately as a weapon of war and where a lot of men still see it as part of the discourse between the sexes. This wonderful collection of thirty pieces reveals how far Constance has travelled in her life’s journey.

Theatrics of The Trial of Brother Joe and NGA directors

By Gregory Austin Nwakunor and Bridget Chiedu Onochie (Abuja)

WHEN Chief Joe Musa, Director General, National Gallery of Art got a call to appear at before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), he had imagined that it was going to be business as usual. In the past months, he had appeared in the office for the umpteenth time and had been investigated several times.

In fact, from the third month when he was appointed DG in August 2006, petitions had started to fly around, which had necessitated a constant visit to the anti-fraud commission. The visit last Monday, July 20, 2009 presented, however, a different scenario entirely. It marked the beginning of what could be mused as "The trial of Brother Joe and the NGA 4".

Perhaps, Musa did not know it at the time. Maybe he underrated the level at which his adversaries had operated, but like 'thieves' in the night, they had crawled in quietly to the scene, hiding in different cloaks, even as colleagues, until they eventually wreaked damage.

The anti-Musa campaign had begun their move as a body of 'Concerned Senior Staff', drawing support from some discontented staff and slipping in by the backdoor as witnesses to Musa's alleged financial 'misappropriation' in newspaper write-ups and at the EFCC.

And the end result? The trial that the arts community has said is another chapter in 'culture persecution' in the country.

A section of the artists' community had observed that ever since the administration of ex-president Obasanjo broke the jinx of not appointing professional artists to head culture agencies, the civil servants who had always occupied headships of such organisations had been uncomfortable. And they've never hidden their disdain for these artistes whom they often called 'interlopers' that had come to invade their exclusive kingdom.

Only recently, Mr. Afolabi Adesanya, Managing Director, Nigeria Film Corporation, was arraigned in court by EFCC, for the same alleged 'misappropriation'.

Picked up a few days to his 50th birthday anniversary and few weeks to the end of his first tenure, it was later discovered that the action was the machination of certain civil servants in his office, who had wanted to stop him from vying for a renewal of his appointment.

They got support of a state government to convince the EFCC to harass him for alleged misappropriation, which eventually led to his being docked. Similar scenario is playing out in Musa's case.

What has raised suspicion about the nature of this particular case are the cheeky actions surrounding the arraignment of Musa and his fellow directors at NGA.

For instance, The Guardian learnt the court had been billed to sit on Thursday, July 23. But the date was curiously brought forward to Monday, July 20. No explanation was provided even when The Guardian sought it last weekend.

According to Musa's Counsel, Valentine Offia, "without any prior notice, copies of the charges were not given to them until they were already in court. They saw the charges for the first time when they were asked to plead. They were not given time to contact a lawyer to represent them.

"Their (EFCC) plan was to conduct or start a trial without affording them (the accused) opportunity to have legal representation. That would have forced the judge to postpone the trial, as the accused persons would remain in detention. And EFCC knew that the whole of August is vacation for the judiciary, the implication is that the accused would remain in detention for over a month, at least, till the end of September. All because EFCC rigged due process to deny them legal representation, which suggested that it was more of persecution than prosecution. It was a staff of the NGA that called me, knowing that I am a lawyer to one of the accused."

According to sources in the parastatal, the criminal charges were filed without any investigation. "The charges are based on unproven rumours by a staff, who was under disciplinary action; whose misconduct is being investigated by the management," a source in the NGA said.

A director from the middle belt of the region is said to be the arrow-head of the plot to unseat the DG, especially because he thinks he can benefit from the crisis. It was gathered that with the support of his state governor, a lot of underground tactics had been perfected to oust the director general, Musa. In fact, the director is suspected to have orchestrated the appearance of a series of articles in a newspaper based in one of the middle belt states.

It was learnt that the director knowing that there were some other aggrieved staff members had suggested the idea of raising a petition against the DG. Inside sources said that everything was planned to ensure the absence of key management staff for the meeting that was scheduled for July 22, 2009; two days after the arraignment.

According to sources, in the absence of the DG of NGA, a high ranking member of board illegally took over the administration and started issuing administrative queries to staff, locking out staff from the offices and assigning schedules to staff at his pleasure. Any staff, who challenged his authority, was queried and threatened with suspension.

"A few people want to use the opportunity to install their lackey as DG," said an inside source in the parastatal.

Another curious twist is the fact that Messrs Bayo Kazeem, Orji Chidi and the others, who authored the petition against Musa were the same people who had gone to EFCC to give statements as witnesses to a petition written by the DG in relation to the series of articles that had appeared in Newsstand Newspapers; and to alert possibility of arson in the place. It was their evidences that formed the charges presented by EFCC, The Guardian learnt.

The grievance of some of the petitioners, as contained in their submission to the EFCC is that the DG not being a civil servant ought not to head a government agency and is "not competent and not a technocrat." However, the arts community, especially the visual artists in calling for fair trial, noted that when a technocrat was in charge of affairs from 1993 to 2006, the NGA did not experience the kind of revival that has been seen from 2006 till date.

Another curious note was that in the petition by Bayo Kazeem, an Assistant Chief Administrative Officer at the National Gallery of Art, Umuahia, given on May 19, 2005, written in long hand and witnessed by Ibrahim Galadima, there was no evidence suggesting that Musa and his directors had misappropriated any fund.

The kernel of Kazeem's statement reads: "The little time I worked with the Director General and having worked (tirelessly) intimately with three director generals in the past, I discovered that the present DG lacks experience to cope with such position. This is because he has never worked in the public service before his appointment.

"He sees his position as that of Almighty God that is infallible. All what he needs to do is to be conversant with the public service rules and the financial regulations so that civil servants will not hoodwink him into committing avoidable crimes."

Another witness, Orji Chidi F., in his own statement, said, "he should be cautioned on issues concerning management and implementation of self rules imposed on the staff. I know he has committed a lot, but since I don't have any document to back myself, I would not say anything on that. He is aggressive, he is like a tin God and does not take advice from anybody."

A statement by the management of NGA signed by the PRO, Ngozi Adamu-Ibrahim said: "Documents presented before the court have revealed that the petition was written by staff members, who are facing disciplinary action for various acts as well as those, who are displaced by their transfer to National Gallery outstations to boost operations there. They are being supported by elements desirous of displacing the DG in order to gain control of NGA for their selfish reasons; a trend that seems prevalent in our polity, especially when an appointee is nearing the end of his tenure. Reports reaching management of NGA indicate that this is targeted at rubbishing all that Chief Joe Musa has accomplished since his appointment as Director General in August 2006 and forestalling his being re-appointed for second term in office."

Lending credence to the views of the arts community is the fact that Musa's trial was hurriedly started to incapacitate activities in the parastatal. For instance, the second edition of the yearly Art Expo launched last year is only a few days away; while preparation for the African Regional Summit and Exhibition of the Visual Arts (ARESUVA) is nearing pick period.

The culture activist organisation, Committee For Relevant Art (CORA) had noted in its reaction that the development is instructive, as the cultural sector has never been, until now, a target of the anti-corruption crusade.

In the statement signed by its Secretary General, Toyin Akinosho, the arts foundation appealed to the EFCC to investigate this case carefully and be sure it is doing what is fair and just.

The statement said, "CORA appreciates the work that EFCC has to do in cleaning the cobweb of corruption in our national life and requests that the organisation prosecutes this particular case with a high sense of probity and fair-mindedness."

The Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA), while expressing its belief and commitment to the protection of the rule of law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, said the current tide of progress and projection of Nigerian visual arts, which is gradually gaining local and international ground that have made the country's Visual Artists begin to develop genuine interest and accord with the government not be truncated.

However, in the words of CORA, "the National Gallery of Art has delivered high quality work on empowerment of the visual artists in the last three years and has vigorously prosecuted visual arts programmes that call attention of the international culture community to Nigeria. For once, in more than 40 years of growing culture sector parastatals in the country, the artist and his development has been the centre-piece of the work of the National Gallery. Capacity development of Nigerian artists and their competitiveness in the global marketplace of creative ideas have been enhanced, through interactions at international art exhibitions facilitated by the National Gallery of Art and a host of seminal workshops and exhibitions that are taking place in the country.

"Through the work of NGA, Abuja is being seen as a site of Pan African cultural activities, for visual arts, in the way that Bamako (Mali) is considered the site for biannual assembly of African photographers and Ougadougou (Burkina Faso) is cited as the venue for African cineastes to assemble every other year.

"As an organisation committed to the flowering of all the contemporary arts of Nigeria, CORA fervently supports the work that the current executive of the NGA is doing."

In the statement signed by its president, Uwa Usen, and secretary, Best Ochigbo, the Society of Nigerian Artists noted specific programmes such as the First African Regional Summit and Exhibition of the Visual Arts (ARESUVA) 2008 and the approaching ARESUVA 2009; the current trend of exhibition of Nigerian visual arts across the globe as represented in the just ended Pan African Festival of Arts in Algiers, Algeria, the Dakar Biennale of Contemporary African Arts (2006 and 2008), the Art of the Main New York (in which Nigeria participated to the envy of the world), the Las Vegas Art Expo 2008; and the First Lagos Art Expo 2008 (which the NGA has undertaken to host again this year); the on-going work on the Nigerian Artists Registration Council as well as the plan (now in advance stage) for a National Gallery of Art display monument in Abuja among other current developments, which we identify wholly with.

"We also re-emphasise the art community's resolve in several SNA national art roundtable conferences and colloquia - the most recent being the Colloquium in the just ended 'Life in My City' Art Festival Enugu (June 22-27, 2009) and the SNA National Executive-organised Roundtable Conference in Olive Hotel, Enugu, March 22, 2009 - that we will not support any development that puts a person who is not an artist at the helm of the NGA. This is the practice everywhere in the world."

Meanwhile, The Guardian learnt that as at Monday, there were frantic but clandestine moves by some forces in Abuja backed by the government from the middle belt to quickly appoint acting Director General; a move that is contrary to the legal community's position on such a matter.

The Chairman, Board of NGA, Barr. Peter Nwabunike Eze, when contacted, said he was not aware of who the minister is appointing.

According to him, the board had written to the minister, suggesting that the most senior staff in the parastatal, Mr. Abdulahi, who the D.G. had just promoted for being a team player, should be appointed. But the minister is said to have declined based on competency and need to have a neutral person as acting D.G.

He also said that the Civil Service law stipulates that when the head of any office is charged for a criminal office, he should go on suspension pending the outcome of the case. "As such, appointing acting DG for NGA is not illegal."

According to comments from the legal community: "In a situation such as this, once a matter is charged to court, all further actions is stayed until the court decides the issues. The government had a choice to set up an administrative panel or to go to court. Since the government chose the court option, it cannot go back to the administrative panel option."

Bespoke offering

BY GREGORY AUSTIN NWAKUNOR

"THIS building is very classy," said a guest. "Oh, my God, I'm so excited to be here."

  Another guest said, "I love all the decorative details. It is a state-of-the-art and fully equipped entertainment centre that can host birthdays, funerals, musical concerts, sports festivals and other events. It would be good for a wedding reception, too."

  Those were some of the reactions at the Bespoke Centre, located beside Auto Germaine, along Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lekki, Lagos, which was declared open by Lagos State Commissioner for Housing, Bosun Jeje, on October 9.

  To celebrate the grand opening, the owners of the facility hosted a red carpet event, which attracted celebrities, socialites and high networth guests such as Abiodun Aloba, Mr. and Mrs. Biodun Odejayi, the singer Alariwo, the sports journalist Mitchell Obi, the filmmaker Kunle Afolayan, Kingsley Omoefe and many others.

  The event included performance by artistes such as DJ Zeez, King Wadada, Waconzy and celebrity-packed red carpet.

BESPOKE has three fully air-conditioned halls of different sizes with one conveniently sitting 1,800 (theatre style) or 1,500 (banquet) and each of the two other halls sitting 200 people.

  In the words of Mrs. Abiola Kila Onalaja, the purpose of establishing the entertainment outfit is “to provide clients with a premium event experience, relieving them of facility related concerns by providing them with a world class event facility, backed by an unbeatable level of service.”

  “Our utmost concern while your event last is your comfort and that’s why we have taken time to invest in the best and most modern equipment and furniture to make your event a memorable one,” Onalaja says. “It is built to make every client find it most interestingly possible to create and execute their peculiar events and activities in an atmosphere of poise and comfort.”

Applauding a homegirl

THE alumni association of School of Media and Communications (SMCAA), Pan African University (PAU), recently honoured Ebi Akpeti, author of The Perfect Church, Growing Pains and Castrated.
  The event, held at the Victoria Island campus of PAU (popularly known as
Lagos Business School), was a reunion of sort, as Akpeti’s classmates gathered to honour their own. Her work, The Perfect Church, which was made into a movie by Wale Adenuga Production (WAP), has enjoyed commendable reviews among movie buffs.
  In a presentation, titled, From Script to Screen: Content that Sell, Akpeti said there were billion of people with desperate need for real stories and if writers take the trouble to learn what a story really is and how to spot it, it will give them tremendous advantage. "Just think how many stories pass us everyday," she said.
  Going through her time as a student there, Akpeti thanked all her lecturers in the school who had modeled her especially Dr. Hyginus Ekwuazi and wondered what would have become of her without the don’s gentle admonitions for her to become a better writer.
  The event also featured discussions with the movie producer, Adenuga, producer of the movie, and clips from the film were shown.

  Adenuga commended Akpeti for her ability to write and ‘unusual story’ and further revealed that The Perfect Church would soon be shown on national TV in the coming month. 

  Mrs. Funke Treasure, Vice President, School of Media and Communication Alumni Association (SMCAA), anchored the event.

For Ebi Akpeti, A Writing Perfected From Growing Pains

Ebimoboere Omoaruke Akpeti is an author and banker. Wale Adenuga has made one of her novels, The Perfect Church, into a movie. She speaks on the novel and how she writes despite her tight schedule

By Gregory Austin Nwakunor

DATELINE: March 6, a Saturday afternoon in an eatery in Ogudu, Lagos. The door flung open and Ebimoboere Akpeti glides in with a youthful bounce. She’s casually dressed in a tee shirt with the inscription The Perfect Church in the front. She has a flat heel sandal on her legs.

  This is not the best place to have an interview, but not with a humourous person. Ebimoere is a chatterbox. And you’re sure to enjoy her company, even when dining.

  She smiles to every joke, and creates many. Each character she creates in her novel represents her almost humorous existence. It’s impossible not to notice this on a first meeting.

  Ebi, as she is popularly called, however, says, “these characters are not just extension of my humorous nature, but to give hope to humanity.” She stares into an empty spaces and grimaces.

  “Look at the character Oyinkro in Growing Pains. People were just waiting for the man to die because life was over for him. But did he?” she asks, as if expecting answer.

  “No, because at the end of the story, you would see that he was not only able to get up, he was also able to get back in line! So that’s what my stories are all about.”

  The lady, whose name, Ebimoboere, means the girl that came with goodluck, muses, “writers write about what they know. I write stories about events that hold in our environment. I write about unemployment, drugs, poverty and other issues in our society, and I use fiction to show how people can surmount these challenges.”

She talks animatedly, waving her hands as if offering them as a gift to her guest. “They are to encourage people… you know, just to say that no matter how far you have fallen, you can still get back on your feet.”
  Her latest work, The Perfect Church, is currently making waves. Now shot into a movie, it is showing in cinemas across the country. So, what inspired the writing and what does she think of the movie interpretation? 

  “Well…” She pauses. Pregnant silence follows. “I will say God gave me the ideas. I can’t really say exactly how. I started and completed it in about six hours.”

  She says, wryly,  “I never expected it to turn out like this and that it will one day pay Ramsey Nouah’s actor fees.”

 From Ebi’s seated position, passion lifts her voice and raises her out of the chair, “I was really impressed when I saw the movie and would be forever grateful to Wale Adenuga for investing his millions to turn my dream into a reality.”

  She laughs and flicks her eyes; a shadow of hope rushes in. “Honestly, he has turned this little girl into a true believer. I now know that anything the mind conceives, it can achieve. It’s just for one person to believe in you.  After writing the book, I was wondering how to take my writing to a new level. I was watching super story and then something just hit me that Wale Adenuga is the one that should produce one of my stories in one of his super story series. At that time, I wasn’t even thinking of The Perfect Church. I was thinking of Growing Pains. Anyway, I got his phone number from one of my colleagues in the office, I went to his office one Saturday and met him and gave him the books.”

  Talking slowly, she says, “it’s funny now but when I first gave him the books, I remember the first thing he said, ‘so how much will you pay me for producing your books’ but I wasn’t even expecting money all I wanted was for someone to produce it and keep the rights in my name. He read it, and the next weekend, he called me again and said ‘I read it, I gave it to my wife and she has also read it. I gave it to my daughter, who has equally read it; and all of us have decided The Perfect Church is the script I have been looking for’. That day was one of the best days of my life.” 

  She wears a cheerful mien, as she speaks.  Her round face broadens, convincingly and her dark colour glistens. She says, “and looking through the film and even during the premiere, you could see that he did not spare any expense in making the movie. He got the best actors in the industry and they interpreted the book very well. I am very grateful to him and most especially to the Almighty God for directing me to him.”

  She dabs her face with a white handkerchief. She snorts: “Three things I believe have been responsible for everything that is happening in my life today: God Almighty and the fact that I worship in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). From the day I joined RCCG, it seemed liked I had tapped into a covenant with God for a lot of things. My family has been very instrumental in my writings.  Finally, the few places I have built my career such as Purples Consult, The Week Magazine and UBA, where I currently work.”

  Looking back, she now understands that it was all a process and part of what God has done in her life.

 She relaxes and a broad smile fills her face. “I see the future as being very interesting and that is all I have ever wanted — a life that is truly interesting, where I can impact lives by what I write. I want to write books that will endure for generations to come. While people are thinking of the next election, I want to think of the next generation and hope that my stories will serve to guide them in their quest to make this world a better place.”

  What’s her goal as a writer? Nobel? Caine? Booker? What really?

  “The truth is, I don’t really have a goal. I don’t aspire to get rich, famous or win any prize, but if I do, it will be good. Writing is something I’m passionate about and something I would do whether I get paid for it or not,” she says, her eyes twitching.
  Her encounter with writing?

  Ebi says in a gripping voice, “I always say it was by accident and I insist that I started writing by chance. There was never a time I sat down to say I wanted to be a writer. What I really wanted to do was sing. I used to sing all the time because as far as I was concerned back then, I was Whitney Houston’s younger sister even though it was obvious that my talent did not lie in singing. I began writing out of a need to fill the emptiness in my heart at a time in my life when I had nothing to do. I created two characters: one, of a deranged man; and a young lady trying to survive on the streets of Lagos. These two people, Oyinkro and Yvonne, became the main characters in Growing Pains.”

  Book opens the eyes of the readers to the ‘double’ life of Akpeti. But you can’t blame her for this. She’s a writer and banker.
  After her Master of Science degree in Finance, for some reason, which she now understands, she just could not get a job.

  “I was jobless for some years and out of frustration, I wrote a story titled Growing Pains. I took the story to a media house for it to be published and when the editor saw it, he was impressed and employed me right on the spot and since then, I have written so many other books. Stories are all around us each and everyday. In fact, it is stories that make sense of the world for me. I was just faithful with the gift God gave me and that was how it all began. I did not want to be perfect, I did not want to be rich, I just wanted to write,” Ebi breathes.

  The lady, who bagged her first degree in Business Management from the University of Calabar, also holds a Master’s degree in Media and Communication to her string of certificates.
  As a media relations’ officer/banker, how does her job impact on her literary calling?

  “I write when I get the urge, which is virtually all the time,” she says. “Balancing time between different types of writing projects is definitely something that I struggle with but the good thing is that my job complements my writing. As a media relations’ officer in a bank, I do a lot of writing and that has greatly improved my writing. When I began to write, I did not aim at perfection, I just wanted to give my all to something I knew I could do and since then, I have become better at writing stories because of the constant use of words on the job. My job is the greatest motivation for my stories and I thank God for it. I would not have it any other way.”
  She says, “people always ask me that question because they wonder how I’m able to write in spite of my daily responsibilities as a full time banker, but it’s never been a problem. Writing is how I relieve myself from stress. Every blessed day, before I sleep, I write something about that day. I just jot it down.”

  In 2006, she was one of the nominees for the Nigerian Media Merit Awards in Capital Market category.