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Editor of ‘Encomium
Weekly’ magazine, Azuh Arinze, is set to join the train of journalists
trying their hands at book publication with the presentation of his
work, ‘Tested and Trusted Success Secrets of the Rich and Famous’ on
Wednesday, January 26.

Sam Omatseye of the
‘Nation’, Victor Akande of the same newspaper, and Shaibu Husseini of
‘The Guardian’, amongst others, presented their books in Lagos last
year.

‘Tested and Trusted
Success Secrets of the Rich and Famous’ will be unveiled at the
Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Kofo Abayomi, Victoria
Island, by 11a.m.

Eminent Nigerians from corporate Nigeria and the media will grace the occasion that comedian, Julius Agwu, will compere.

Chief executive
officer, Neimeth Pharmaceuticals Plc, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, will chair
the occasion while Fidelis Oditah, professor of Law and Senior Advocate
of Nigeria, will review the book.

Ausbeth Ajagu of
Betcy Group is the book presenter while Muiz Banire, the Lagos State
commissioner for environment, is the special guest of honour. The
Orangun of Oke-Ila, Osun State, Oba Dokun Abolarin and veteran
broadcaster, Bisi Olatilo, will also attend the ceremony.

Journalists in the
mainstream and Arinze’s senior colleagues in soft sell journalism,
Kunle Bakare, Mayor Akinpelu, and Seye Kehinde, publishers of ‘Encomium
Weekly’, ‘Global Excellence’ and ‘City People’, respectively are also
expected at the book presentation.

‘Tested and Trusted
Success Secrets of the Rich and Famous’ which draws substantially from
the author’s field experience as a journalist, features over 70 success
stories of Nigerian achievers in different fields of endeavour.

“Its ultimate aim is to open the winding door of success to everyone who comes across it,” Arinze says of the book.

Photographer Dayo
Adedayo, who has made a name for himself in the profession both within
and outside the country, talks to NEXT about the passion and creativity
that has taken him from humble beginnings and catapulted him to a place
of prominence.

He also talks about
his latest project, a compilation of images from a seven-year tour of
the 36 states of the federation. The coffee-table book, ‘Nigeria’ is a
beautifully packaged publication featuring historic and scenic sights
around the nation, festivals, and lots more.

Give us a background to yourself and your profession

I am a citizen of
Nigeria. I do not like to say I am from one state or another. Before
God we are all equal. I am closer to 50 than 40. Photography was
something I started early. I am lucky to be among those who went to
school to study what they love. In my early years, I studied
agriculture but when the Andrews began to check out of the country in
the 80s, I joined them.

My sister gave me a
camera on my 18th birthday and that’s how my passion for photography
began. I’ve got tons of pictures of myself and my friends growing up.
While they spent their monies on girlfriends and stuff, I spent mine on
buying films and printing.

My roommate in
school then had a 35mm camera and that was my first encounter with such
a [device]. He didn’t know how to operate it as it was sent to him from
abroad. So I took advantage of that and found opportunities to borrow
the camera to improve on my skills. I am a shy person by nature, but
once I handle my camera, the shyness disappears.

Can you tell us how you got photography training?

I studied
photography in the UK. I went to one of the best universities in media
in the UK, University of Westminster. You had to have a strong body of
work to get a place in the university. I also attended Westminster
College before I went into the University. If I hadn’t been to school,
there’s no way I would have known the rudiments of the profession.

You need to get
trained because there are skills you need to be taught. Joe Bulaitis,
one of the best photographers in the UK, saw me at a wedding. I was the
only black photographer there. He had been coming to Nigeria. He took
interest in me and gave me some tips which I still use now. It will
also interest you to know that I have a diploma in Video production.

Did you practise video production professionally?

Yes, briefly. But I
got tired of it along the line. I am a restless person and photography
affords me the opportunity to be up and about rather than being behind
a camera filming.

You seem particular about getting educational training

Yes, because that’s
what differentiates the professionals from the roadside photographers.
If I were president, there are three things I would work towards:
education, education, education. With an educated mind, what you can do
is limitless. I’m glad I studied photography. Photography is like
medicine. There are different genres.

When did you begin professional practice and what has been your experience so far?

After I left
Nigeria for London, I did a few menial jobs to support myself. I still
practised my photography, but not professionally. On my off day, in
‘87, all I did was photograph all of London. London has really changed.
I still hope to do a then and now of London.

One of our problems
in Africa is that we don’t keep records. In that regard, I hope to also
do a then and now of Nigeria. Photography is one of the best things to
have been invented. It’s like a knife, you can use it to slice bread
and it can also kill. I remember that there was a time when news kept
making the rounds that the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Dimeji Bankole, did not participate in the compulsory National Youth
Service scheme. Then one day, a picture surfaced on the front cover of
the Punch newspaper showing Bankole in NYSC regalia and that
immediately killed the talks.

That is to show you
the power of photography. Again in 1963, during the Cuban missiles
crisis involving America, a possible Third World War was averted
because of a photograph.

In this
environment, we tend to look down on things that are not the norm, but
we are moving into the digital age. In ‘91, a friend of mine who was
getting married needed a photographer. I covered it and people started
calling me and I quit my job at MacDonald’s then because photography
was getting me more money.

I have also worked
with Ovation Magazine. I did a photography piece titled ‘See Dubai and
Die.’ Dele Momodu the publisher was impressed when he saw it because he
had no idea I was working on such a project. That particular edition of
Ovation sold about 500,000 copies.

What are some of the challenges associated with working in Nigeria?

There is no
dedicated professional printing studio in Nigeria. This is essential in
that as a photographer you wouldn’t have to worry about your films
because these are professionals who understand the business of
photography in addition to printing. They are all struggling and we
have not even scratched the economy. Major stuff on entertainment are
still being produced abroad.

There is also the
problem of infrastructure. To run a printing studio, you need water
working twenty-four/seven. You also need light.

What are your own contributions to improving the nation? What are you giving back?

The book is the beginning of my giving back. Also, people have learnt from me.

Why this book?

People come into
Nigeria, visit Lagos, which is the commercial hub of the nation, and
then maybe Abuja, and they assume that is all there is to the nation.
Nigeria is beyond Lagos and Abuja. Nigeria is one of the most beautiful
countries in the world. But have we explored it? Yes, we have potholes,
yes there is no light, but these things have been there. America was
developed by Americans. This country can be built within five years. I
went abroad and saw pictorial books about countries abroad. When I look
at Nigeria, I don’t see Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa. When the national team
plays nobody cares if the goalkeeper is a Northerner.

In Nigeria, we
don’t honour our own. It took me seven years of deprivation and using
my own personal funds to ensure that my dream of people seeing Nigeria
in a good light is fulfilled. You can’t take the picture of a junkyard
and then call it Nigeria. Those are the kinds of pictures the West
wants to see. But you would never see such images of the West. The book
came out in 2010.

One of my dreams
has been that no one goes through the day without seeing one or two of
my images. And this dream is gradually becoming a reality. For
instance, I took the images you see displayed on the new Nigerian
e-passport. My works are displayed at the presidential lounge of the
airport in Abuja.

I also photographed
the images used for the Heart of Africa commercial during Olusegun
Obasanjo’s tenure. The arts may not fetch you so much money, but you
have the name, contacts etc. And your works will live on after you.

Through the
photography project for this book, I can tell you about the best places
to visit in Nigeria in a particular order. There is the Mambilla
Plateau in Taraba, which is 100 kilometres of breathtaking beauty.
There is the Awhum Waterfalls in Enugu, Jaffi falls in Borno, which is
the end product of a comet falling and forming a crater, and then you
have Obudu. I want my photography to get to the point that when you
need anything imagery in Nigeria, you’ll come to Dayo Adedayo.

When is ‘Nigeria’ going public?

I do not want to
talk too much about the book, but I hope to launch it after a few
things fall into place. And at that, the book is coming out in limited
numbers, after which it will become a collector’s item.

What else is on the cards?

It’s an ongoing
project which involves state by state photography. We have already
begun with four states namely Lagos, Abuja, Rivers, and Ebonyi, and we
hope to be done before the end of June this year. Other states will
follow after this and before 2014, we would have covered the whole
country. We are also taking this project beyond Nigeria as by 2015 we
hope to have covered West Africa.

Why Art?

Photography was
something I started early in life. My sister gave me a camera on my
18th birthday and that was essentially how it all began.

Training

I went to college
in the UK before going to the university. I studied photography in one
of the best universities in media in the UK, which is the University of
Westminster. I was fortunate to have come in contact with the likes of
Joe Bulaitis, who took special interest in me and taught me a few
things in the profession which have been of great value to me and my
craft.

Medium

Photography.

Influences

There are a lot of
them. For portraiture Yousuff Karsh, who has photographed some of the
greatest people of the century. For landscape, Ansel Adams. There is
also Joe Bulaitis.

Inspirations

Little things. Anything from travelling, to just looking through the window and viewing the environment around me.

Best work so far

I don’t know. It’s subjective. For me, I think the best is yet to come. It’s all work in progress as far as I am concerned.

Least satisfying work

I don’t have any. My works are my babies.

Career high point

To have my works
honoured by visiting presidents. To have been afforded the opportunity
of taking the pictures currently displayed in the new Nigerian E-
passport.

My works are also
displayed at the international airport in Abuja. These are
accomplishments that have moved me to tears when I think about them.

Favourite artists, living or dead

Yousuff Karsh

Ambition

To leave an eternal
legacy in photography. Also, to get to the point whereby nobody ends
the day without having seen one or two of my images in the course of
the day.

For Kayode
Adegbola, grandson of the late Bola Ige, slain Minister of Justice and
Attorney-General of the Federation, photography is “a way of recording
things in ways they would never be seen again.”

According to the
artist, his interest was fired by his undying attraction and
appreciation for photography and works of art in general.

“But, I didn’t
start paying much attention until 2007. Then, I picked up camera more
actively and made it my best friend. Since then, I have never looked
back,” he told NEXT at the Ibadan opening of his debut photography
exhibition, on December 23, 2010.

His tenacity
fetched him a collection of eminent Nigerians when he gathered people
for nine days for the display of some of his most striking images thus
far.

Young and older
generations took their time to behold the wonders Kayode had done with
his camera. According to him, the photographs were taken within and
outside the shores of Nigeria, covering a wide range of interests,
including the abstract.

Further explaining
his fascination for the still world, kayode noted that, “As you sit
down here, if I take a photograph of you and I take another one in
another moment, the last will not be exactly like the former one. You
will probably blink or move your head. That is why I think recording
events with photography is important because you cannot have the same
situation the same way again. And I do that with my third eye; I refer
to my camera as my third eye.”

Facets of a man

A man of many
parts, Kayode is in his final year as a Law student in the University
of London, United Kingdom. He agreed that the two vocations are worlds
apart, and summed up his reasons for combining the two thus: “There is
no link between the two. I look at Law and Photography as parallel
lines and parallel lines cannot meet. They can overlap. I do
photography in my spare time. When I go on holiday, I do my travel
photography. When I come home, I do some polo photography. During
weekends, I do music photography. It is a way of living a fuller life
by having a passion separate to what you do as a profession.”

He, however, said
he would not contemplate leaving one for the other. “I can’t leave Law
for Photography, neither can I leave photo for Law. They are parallel
lines. I enjoy studying law. Photo is one of my passions. I am very
interested in politics, current affairs, music and cultural things.
These are the things that make me who I am. They are the different
facets of me.”

The exhibition
raked in some decent cash for the artist. Kayode packaged items of the
collections on display for fees and a good number of the participants
made their bookings before leaving.

And besides
fulfilling his passion, the exhibitor described the cash coming in as
one of the joys derived from his investment in art.

“The greatest thing
about my photography is the fulfillment that it gives me. I have
developed my photography to a kind of art. I begin to reap the effort
that I have sown. I am becoming fulfilled doing photography and the joy
is what it gives.”

Supportive parents

Looking back at his
very early days in photography, he recalled how his father gave him his
first camera as his 17th birthday gift in 2007, adding that “though I
saved up about half of the cost, my dad happily paid the rest.”

“My parents are the
type that would not discourage you from doing something which some
conventional parents would not really want their children to do. They
have embraced my passion, helped me to push it forward, and have
supported me financially and morally,” he said.

His mum, Funso
Adegbola, a lawyer and school proprietress, described herself as the
proud mother of Kayode. She told NEXT that her pride goes beyond what
the young man was displaying that day, but that “because he is not a
typical 20-year-old boy, has artistic eye. He is focused and looks at
everyday things with different perspectives.”

Ekiti Chair

That perhaps was
also what endeared the young Adegbola to Kayode Fayemi, Ekiti State
governor, who was the chair of the occasion on the exhibition opening
day.

Fayemi, who was
represented by Ayo Afolabi, publicity secretary of the Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN) in the South West, expressed his high respect for
Adegbola’s intellect and deep sense of reasoning.

Mrs. Adegbola,
during an interview, hinted that her son had elected to commit a
percentage of the proceeds from the exhibition to charity.

He had earlier done
something similar, when in 2007, he donated all the proceeds from the
launch of his poetry book and picture collections to the children’s
ward of the University College Hospital (UCH). He had been on admission
on the same ward ten years earlier.

Of this photography exhibition, his mother disclosed that, “Part of
the money is going to charity. He did not tell me the percentage.
Whatever God lays in his heart is going to be for mankind.”

Theatre, which
helps to reflect a people’s style and way of life, is dying in Nigeria
because most Nollywood stars are stage shy and also not sufficiently
schooled in stagecraft, Lari Williams, a veteran actor, has said.

The University of
Calabar Theatre Arts lecturer observed that, besides today’s actors and
actresses’ inability to stand before an audience to perform, government
at the federal and state levels have turned theatre halls to events
hosting centres, a development that has further worsened the prospects
of live stage acting.

“Most Nollywood
stars cannot act on stage. They cannot stand before a crowd. Theatre is
where we have to reconcile between stage and screen acting. Wole
Soyinka got annoyed and walked out of the National Theatre in Lagos
some years ago when one of the famous names in Nollywood could not
recite the lines of his play,” Williams said.

Also, most
Nollywood actors and actresses are not schooled in Theatre Arts, as
their only qualification for the screen is a beautiful face and good
voice, unlike the trained professionals that can act on and off stage
in accordance with the rules of the industry, adding that all Nollywood
people do is to memorise their lines for six weeks and get recorded on
video.

How to revive theatre

“Theatre in Nigeria
is dying. It cannot raise its head anymore because of Nollywood.
Nigerians now prefer to buy cheap video compact discs to watch films in
the confines of their homes. The implication is that they no more go to
cinema halls to watch plays. This, more than anything else, has killed
drama in the country,” he declared.

According to him,
this is not helping the country as “theatre is a reflection of a
people’s life. We vibrate through theatre, playing back our good and
bad sides. Despite the advent of technology and its advance in the
Western world, people there still go to theatre halls to watch plays.
Plays there are categorised and acted in the various cinema halls based
on their rating.”

The first
president of Actors Guild of Nigeria argued that if the West, which is
so advanced in everything, has not rejected stage acting, Nigeria that
is still crawling in all spheres of development cannot afford to do
otherwise. He solicited for the support of government, corporate
bodies, and wealthy individuals to revive theatre projects in the
country.

Williams, who is
the Omenka 1 of Akumazi Kingdom, Delta State, and director of the Lari
Williams Play House, particularly advised the Cross River State
government to encourage theatre, rather than waiting for only December
“to give our local musicians the voice to mime their records. Stage
acting should be an all year round affair. If theatre is still going on
in Britain and USA that produce all kinds of films, Nigeria should not
be an exception.”

Training is essential

He argued that,
for theatre to regain its lost glory in the country, there is the need
for basic training in the profession to be enforced. He further
stressed that, until the Actors Guild of Nigeria which makes it
compulsory for members to undergo the basic training in acting, films
produced in the country will continue to be of low quality, without
standing the test of time or competing favourably with others from the
rest of the world.

The university
teacher faulted the adoption of the name ‘Nollywood’ for the indigenous
movie industry, saying the lifting of the coinage from America’s
Hollywood without knowing its origin was wrong.

“Hoolywood came
about in the US because of the trees grown in that part of California.
Those trees are known as Hollywood, hence that part of Califorina is
known as Hollywood City. Pinewood (Studios) in England came about by
the pine trees found in that part of the country.”

Williams believes
that, instead of Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry should have been
known as Camwood, since camwood is found in abundance in the country,
that is if the suffix ‘wood’ must be used. Williams kicked against the
indiscriminate use of ‘wood’ after the different movie industries of
countries around the world.

“The proliferation
of home videos is good for actors and actresses, but the cradle of
acting is the stage. We should not let it die. Yes, home videos are a
reflection of our culture, but it is the arts that keep it alive. We
must do everything humanly possible to preserve the arts since acting
starts from the home through every day activities,” Williams maintained.

What government can do

‘In order to revive
theatre in the country, government should ban the use of theatre
auditoriums for wedding ceremonies, political rallies, and church
services. University authorities should stop hiring out their arts
auditorium for non-acting use by members of the public,” he further
advised.

He urged government
to ensure professionalism in the appointment of ministers and
commissioners of culture, if results are to be achieved.

The veteran actor also called on federal government to raise a
committee for the release, disbursement and use of the S200m US dollars
promised to the Actors Guild of Nigeria by President Goodluck Jonathan.

I would like to
start off this new year on a positive note. I am superstitious like
that. First of all, a big thank you to all of you who spend time
reading my column. I actually enjoy reading the online comments on my
column. They communicate more than folks realise and in many instances
provide valuable insights into the subject matter.

Most of the
comments on my column have been respectful, thoughtful, and gracious.
This is especially impressive, given that most of the respondents are
writing under aliases. There are ample opportunities to be abusive but
few of my readers take advantage of them.

My columns are
mostly opinions based on my life’s journeys and I totally understand
how some may be offended by my admittedly strong views. I do not
understand the mystery of writing, why and how I feel the need to say
certain things, but it is what it is and I really appreciate the
patience of so many folks.

One such patient
person is my editor, Molara Wood. I was one of the writers she
contacted at the founding of NEXT. One day, I got this email from her
wondering if I would author a column of my musings to be hosted by this
new newspaper outfit called NEXT. The column would be in the Arts and
Culture section and I would be free to basically say whatever I felt
like saying.

I was flattered
but nervous about the whole idea. I am not a trained journalist; I have
a full time job and a large active family that occupies most of my
time. It just seemed like a lot of work at the time. Those who know
Wood would say she is gently steely about her vision and I did not look
forward to saying NO to her. I said YES, and chanted a silent prayer to
the gods of my ancestors.

It has been
roughly two years and the other day I realised that I had written over
one hundred essays since then. I salute Molara Wood for befriending me
when she did not have to, for seeing in my demons opportunities for
communing with the world. She has faithfully edited my works, leaving
just enough irreverence and darkness to keep readers coming back. I
thank her for putting the ‘u’ back in my ‘color’ and reminding me that
Nigeria is a place on earth where my placenta is buried.

I must thank NEXT
for giving me such a beautiful platform for expressing myself. It is
great to be in the company of dreamers and doers and the founders of
NEXT have assembled some of the best writers and visionaries out there.
I am proud to have been part of this exciting project. I believe
Nigeria is the better for it because of NEXT.

I always thought
that there would be times when I would beg off this assignment for a
little while to attend to my family, work, and personal demons. We have
not confronted that junction yet; indeed it is the case that I have not
had a week when I was short of something to say. Instead, I have been
in the embarrassing situation of begging my editor to just print my
thoughts as is because I could not reduce the words to the requisite
length. My muse and my demons have been hopping, providing me the
necessary inspiration to keep engaging and sometimes enraging my
readers.

Sustaining a
family and enjoying the process is challenging. My lover is mystified
by my need to write nonstop at all times and in inappropriate places
but in over two decades, she has held us all together while I doused my
demons in e-ink. My escapades within and without the family unit have
been a source of inspiration for my column. Our children complete me
and their pet names are probably now household names, especially
Ominira and Fearless Fang. My life and my writing would be incomplete
without them.

English literature
as practised in Nigeria is a lifelong passion of mine. There are many
things wrong with Nigeria, but telling our stories is not one of them.
There is a new generation of writers out there determined to tell our
stories. They are doing a great job, running as fast as they can. If
you love reading, this is a great time to be alive: From Facebook to
books, our stories are being told. I salute our writers.

Finally, the theme
of my life is friendship, warts and all. Nothing is sexier and more
thrilling than having a really good friend to be with. The Internet and
Facebook have given me the gift of umpteen friends over the years. They
have all been extremely supportive, even when I have not been
charitable to them.

I wish every one of you a great and prosperous New Year. And this is
a promise: I am not going anywhere, I shall be here goading and
enraging all of you into greatness. Because I love you all.

At the first sight
of the Holocaust Memorial, one is amazed and wonders what it
represents. We all stand by the edge of the street bordering the
American Embassy and backing the Tiergaten Park in Berlin. From here,
one has a landscape view of the memorial; it looks like a sea of
moulded square bricks.

It is not until you
make the move to start walking in-between that you realise that it can
swallow one up, height-wise; you will feel so small. Our guide asks us
to walk for 30 minutes in the maze of brick and come back to tell her
what we felt, what kind of ideas we had. Then the proper tour.

Done in memory of
the six million Jewish victims of the holocaust, the memorial was built
in 2005 but its history dates back to the late 80s.

It was designed by
Peter David Eisenmann, an architect known for his radical designs and
architectural theories, often characterised as deconstructive.

How do we preserve memory?

Germans started
asking how they would deal with the memory of the holocaust in 1987,
when the Berlin Wall was still in place and there were two Germanys.

It was in West
Germany that the discussion started. People asked: how it is possible
after 40 years that there is no memorial to commemorate the biggest
crime in German history? There were survivors, but they decrease in
number with the passing years. How do we keep the memory alive? These
and other questions kept coming up.

A citizens’
initiative group was formed; they walked the streets canvassing
opinion, asking citizens and prominent figures for signatures, to lobby
for government support. They also sought donations through media
campaigns.

How do we deal with history?

The next phase of
questioning covered the following: “How do we deal with our history?
How do we deal with the past?” This sparked a big debate with differing
opinions; some for a memorial, others against. “What was the memorial
about? Why do you build a memorial?”

It has the purpose
of telling the history but most importantly, it is for future
generations to ensure that the same event does not repeat itself. This
was difficult for most Germans; they did not want future Germans to
feel guilty about their history and the part they played in the Second
World War.

The memorial should
be about taking responsibility, to ensure a remembrance of the
holocaust; and as a sign of respect to the victims and their offspring.
It is not about feeling guilty. Nonetheless, this clarification took
about four to five years to gain wider acceptance.

What about non-Jewish victims?

The Jews were not
the only group of people persecuted by the Nazis, so the question
arose: ‘What about the other groups?’ Victim groups of the holocaust
included homosexuals, the disabled, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Gypsies.

The Jewish
community in Germany was not comfortable with the idea of a memorial,
fearing it could spark a new wave of anti-Semitism. They did not want
people saying: ‘The Jews are at it again.’

There was also
another theory put forward by those against a memorial: such a
structure could imply closure: You build a memorial, that is it, ‘we
are done, let’s move on’. Some thought it would no longer be about
keeping memory alive, but coming to terms. Many argued that you can’t
come to term with this kind of past.

The European Dimension

In 1992, the then
German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, made the political decision that the
memorial would be dedicated to the largest group of victims alone: the
Jews. A major reason for Kohl’s decision was what historians call ‘the
European dimension’. Of the six million Jews exterminated, only 165,
000 were German Jews. Whereas, the Nazis wanted to ‘cleanse’ the entire
Europe of all Jews.

When the Wehrmacht
(the Nazi army) started matching all over Europe, they hunted and
killed Jews wherever they went. In Poland, Romania, Russia – all over
Eastern Europe – they came down to Greece, Cretan Island, took the
Jewish people and deported them to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
They went on to Italy, France, the Netherlands, up to Norway and
Denmark… Today, only an estimated 10, 000 Jews live in Poland; the
country once had the largest Jewish population in Europe, numbering
several millions.

Why this location?

The location chosen
for the memorial is in the vicinity of embassies, cultural
institutions, businesses and residential premises, the Brandenburg gate
which is the symbol of Berlin, as well as the Tiergaten Park. All these
express the public character of the memorial, passing the message that
they are not hiding the history but facing it.

It is a symbolic site, for it was the centre of the former Nazi government.

Translating the history to where the memorial is located, between the East and West, it is a memorial of a unified Germany.

What should the memorial look like?

In 1994, the
government decided to hold an open artistic competition. Anyone could
take part. There would be a committee made up of five members of the
Citizens’ Initiative, five from the Berlin Senate, and five from the
government. They would choose the winning idea from anonymous entries.
528 ideas were received. The 15-person committee had to choose one. It
was a chaotic process, and there was no headway, even after an
additional two years.

The government then
changed the procedure. It was streamlined to a selection of 25
architects and artists, to be judged by five committee members. The
committee eventually chose two ideas from a total of 19; and Chancellor
Kohl selected the winning entry. The final design was made by Peter
Eisenmann, with the initial input of a sculptor named Serra.

Bundestag involvement

Helmut Kohl could
not actualise the idea for the memorial until the German elections of
1998. A new government subsequently came into power and voices were
raised in opposition to the memorial. The Bundestag had to vote on it.
A six-storey building with research centre and a library were among the
new concepts proposed.

Eventually, it was agreed that the design would stay exactly as
previously conceived, with an underground exhibit on the story of the
holocaust. The Holocaust Memorial opened in 2005; its fifth anniversary
was held last May.

Outside, the roof of the house

points skyward,

it reaches far and near as it presses on,

sea-green dome

green against clear blue skies,

a picture postcard,

its mahogany doors,

whitewashed walls

screen the chambers,

you can’t hear the sergeant at arms

calling the house to order.

I am sitting in the lower room of the house,

a tourist with a camera.

Once it was hallowed,

not this house

I am focusing so intensely on.

The nine days’ long
technical capacity building workshop in film production, organised by
the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) in collaboration with
Nollywood Travel Market Limited, ended on December 16, 2010 with a
brief closing ceremony at the Royalton Hotel in Abuja.

Addressing
organisers and participants at the event, M.M. Maidugu, the chief
executive director of the National Council for Arts and Culture,
expressed gratitude at the turnout and success of the workshop.

“Our initial fear
about this workshop was on whether or not it will be possible to
mobilise enough people to partake in it. But what I saw in Lagos,
Enugu, and now Abuja shows that our youth are hungry to learn. So, I
must congratulate the organisers for their ability to mobilise such a
huge number of people within the time available for us to plan and
execute this event,” he said.

The workshop
focused on four major areas namely: scriptwriting, costume and make-up,
editing, and cinematography (which includes light, camera, photography,
and sound engineering) with the aim of engaging practitioners in
refresher courses by way of improving performance and delivery which
will in turn impact on the quality of films turned out by producers and
marketers in Nigeria.

Wilfred Ayeni, a
member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria in Abuja and one of the workshop
participants, expressed concern at what he described as the influx of
mediocrity in the Nigerian movie industry.

“Nollywood as it is
today is populated by mediocres who are not bothered about professional
ethics and quality of output in what they do but their short term
returns,” he observed. “This workshop, I am sure, will go a long way to
put us in good stead to contribute to the development of our industry,
and by extension, the nation at large,” he added.

Reiterating an
earlier promise for a better and improved edition of the workshop next
year, Chidi Nwokeabia, of Nollywood Travel Market Limited, challenged
other relevant ministries and agencies to emulate the NCAC.

“It is not just
enough for people, including those in the government quarters to
condemn the quality and depth of our work. They should emulate the NCAC
by supporting training efforts like this,” he said.

Maidugu presented
certificates to the over 100 participants at the workshop, while
promising that subsequent editions will ensure that more people
participate.

In addition to the
workshop, three films are expected to be produced by the body, one each
from Lagos, Enugu, and Abuja. Nwokeabia revealed that the decision to
produce the three movies is to provide opportunity for participants to
demonstrate what they have learnt in the course of the workshop, which
had Ernest Obi and Lancelot Imasuen as some of the facilitators.

Nita Biyak George, an Abuja based artist who participated in the workshop, described it as a worthy experience.

“I felt fulfilled being part of this workshop. It is three days that
every serious minded person within the trade will live to treasure. I
am glad to have been part of it and I thank the organisers for giving
me the opportunity,” she said, expressing the hope that the knowledge
impacted in the participants will make them complete artists.