Nigeria Content Online

Onyekachi Apam eyes Nice exit

Super Eagles
defender Onyekachi Apam’s days at his French club OGC Nice appears to
be numbered as the Nigerian defender has set his sights on leaving the
first division side at the end of the season.

The 23 year-old
joined Nice in 2005 from Nigerian Premier division side, Enugu Rangers,
and has over the past five years become synonymous with the Cote d’Azur
based club that has won the French Ligue 1 title on four occasions and
lifted the French Cup three times.

Their last league title however came as far back as 1959 while their last French Cup conquest arrived in 1997.

In fact, their best
finish in the league since Apam’s arrival was 8th in the 2005/06
season; and they are currently 15th in the 20-team Ligue 1 table with
just four games to the end of the season.

As a result, Apam
feels it is time to call it a day with his only European club to date
as he seeks to further his career away from the Stade Municipal du Ray,
preferably at a club capable of winning laurels and competing at
prestigious European club competitions such as the UEFA Champions
League.

Ambitions

“I want to join a
club that competes for the title and takes part in European
competitions,” explained Apam in an interview with French Football
website. “I want to play at a higher level, and this could be in France
or abroad.Since I started playing here, I have progressed a lot, but I
want to move to a bigger club.”

A host of French
clubs, most notably Bordeaux, Lille, PSG, Rennes, and current Ligue 1
leaders, Marseille, have overtime expressed interest in securing the
services of the versatile Nigerian defender.

Last season, Rennes
reportedly made an offer that was turned down by Nice, but French
Football reports that the current club of Apam’s Super Eagles team mate
Elderson Echiejile could likely be the next destination for the
Nigerian who will, if the deal comes to pass, be reunited with his
former coach and mentor Frederic Antonetti.

But this is by far
not a certainty as the likes of Marseille and PSG, as well as English
Premier League outfit Sunderland have reportedly sent scouts to watch
Apam on several occasions.

“I will leave all
that for my agent (Pierre Frelot), but all I can say is that it is time
for me to move, in France or abroad,” continued Apam.

“I had a chance to
leave last season, but I decided to remain for one more season. I was
also assured by the former president (Maurice Cohen) that I would leave
at the end of the season,” added Apam.

If Apam’s departure
does come to pass, Nice will be in the transfer market for a central
defender and reports suggest they have expressed an interest in
bringing back home French defender Maxim Brillault who currently plays
for Belgian club Charleroi.

Sports

Selection headache for Maradona

Selection headache for Maradona

Diego Maradona
recently revealed that he already has an idea of what his starting
line-up will look like for Argentina’s opening match against the Super
Eagles on June 12 in Johannesburg but the Argentine coach has now
acknowledged that he is going to have a difficult time finalizing his
23-man squad for the World Cup.

Maradona, who
captained Argentina to the World Cup title back in 1986, has since his
emergence as the national team’s coach in October 2008 called up over a
hundred players; but he has up until May 11 to submit a preliminary
30-man list to FIFA and the final 23-man squad for the World Cup by
June 1.

And with so many
Argentine players doing so well for their respective club sides both at
home and abroad,Maradona feels he has a torrid time ahead of him as he
gets down to the business of selecting his squad for the tournament
where he will also get to face, in addition to Nigeria, Greece and
South Korea in Group B.

“It’s going to hurt
to leave players off who have given it their all, or who are having a
great season,” said Maradona. “But they gave me a team and I have to
select. When you have to make a choice, someone has to be eliminated.”

Coloccini remains hopeful

An Argentine player
who has been in great form this season is central defender Fabricio
Coloccini who is hoping to force his way back into Maradona’s World Cup
plans following his displays in the colours of English club Newcastle
United, who recently gained promotion back to the English Premier
League.

The 28 year-old,
who has been capped 33 times by Argentina, has not received a call-up
to the national team since last November’s friendly against Spain but
he feels he has chance of going to the World Cup because of the recent
success he has enjoyed at Newcastle United.

“I don’t know about
the World Cup yet,” said Coloccini in an interview posted on his club’s
website. “I think that it’s May 25 when Maradona makes the squad. I
don’t know yet, but I want to go. It’s my dream, but it’s up to
Maradona this season so I have to wait.

I haven’t spoken to
Maradona since we won promotion or the Championship title, but I have
been in touch with the training staff, and they gave me their
congratulations. Maradona will know that we have won here.I think our
success here will help if I go to the World Cup. I have worked hard. I
think I have had a good season, but I have to wait for the decision on
whether I go.”

Favourites in South Africa

Argentine were in
very poor form in their qualification for the World Cup and there was a
lot of pressure on Maradona to resign, but he didn’t and got the job
done in the end.

The South American
country will in South Africa be aiming to win a third World Cup title
and Coloccini feels they will be one of the favourites, along with some
familiar names.

“I think Argentina
could have a chance in the World Cup because it’s a big team, a big
national team,” he continued. “It’s helpful if you’ve already won it
before and everyone needs a bit of luck in a competition like that, but
we know we have a very good team.”

He then added: “There are lots of teams to beat, Brazil, Spain,
Italy, France, England, they are all the better teams and as always I
think one of those teams will win.”

Sports

South Korea warns Nigeria ahead of World Cup date

South Korea warns Nigeria ahead of World Cup date

If the Super Eagles
are hoping to pick maximum points against South Korea as part of the
strategy to progress into the next round of the FIFA World Cup in South
Africa, it could turn out to be a mere dream, according to Coach Huh
Jung-Moo.

Huh, a former
national team midfielder, will be leading South Korea to the first
World Cup to be hosted on the African continent and is determined to
make it another memorable experience for his country after Dutchman,
Guus Hiddink, guided them to the semi finals of the 2002 edition, which
they co-hosted with Japan.

“This will be the
last chapter in my football life. I will put in all my energy to
achieve good results in the World Cup,” Huh had said last year shortly
after guiding his side through the 2010 qualifiers.

That could sound
like mere platitudes for our Super Eagles who are still struggling to
put up a solid pre-World Cup arrangement barely 43 days to the
kick-off, but the former PSV Eindhoven of Holland star has reiterated
the Taeguk Warriors are ready to cause their group B opponents trouble
as he looks forward to the tantalising fixtures against Nigeria,
Argentina and Greece.

Hard time

The 1986 World Cup
veteran admits Korea may not enjoy the same level of acclaim with their
opponents but his team will play a major role in how the group will be
decided.

By the time the
World Cup starts in South Africa, the Asian team who will come up
against our Eagles in Durban on June 22 would have played about 10
build-up games against the likes of Cote D’Ivoire, Spain, Ecuador and
Latvia to put them in shape. However, the Nigeria Football Federation
is yet to add to the already confirmed May 30 Colombia friendly for the
Eagles.

“No team is weak.
Greece, Argentina and Nigeria in Group B are not easy opponents.
Objectively, our capacity lags beyond those of our rivals but we are
trying our best to give our opponent a hard time. Our players are ready
to make a stir,” warned the Korea handler yesterday.

Though about half
of the players Korea expect to parade in South Africa are playing in
the country’s domestic league, Huh still worries about the bonding of
his squad before the Mundial.

“The biggest
practical problem is communication between players. Since players are
concentrating on playing in their respective leagues, they lack the
ability to communicate,” he said.

“Trust between the
coaching staff and players is important, but trust between players
themselves is also important. When players trust each other while
playing, they can generate true teamwork. Our coaching staff’s top
priority is to ensure players build their teamwork”, Huh added.

Meanwhile Guus
Hiddink who led Korea to the World Cup semi finals in 2002 has told the
Taeguk Warriors they must win their first group game against Greece or
forget about a second round ticket.

The former widely
travelled tactician insists Korea will find it difficult against
Nigeria and Argentina, adding that anything short of victory over
Greece could spell doom for the team in South Africa.

“I think it’s
Greece on the first game, I think this is a key game to win, if not you
might have a few problems against Nigeria and Argentina, so this first
game is really a key game for Korea,” Hiddink said during a press
conference held on Monday, in South Korea, to promote Holland’s bid to
co-host the 2018 World Cup with Belgium.

The new Turkey
national team coach however expressed confidence in the composition of
the Korea squad ahead of their World Cup campaign. “If you see the
selection of the Korean team, then I think there is a good mix between
young promising players who are playing here or even one or two are
playing in Europe,” he said.

“But also there are some remains from the successful team in 2002;
players are around 30, 32 or 33, which means they have gathered a lot
of experience. At the time when we started they were inexperienced, but
now these players they have gone all over the world and that is a huge
contribution,” added Hiddink.

Sports

Super Falcons jet out for Korea test

Super Falcons jet out for Korea test

Eighteen members of
Nigeria’s senior women’s football team; Super Falcons will today depart
the country for a two -match international friendlies’ programme
against the senior team of North Korea.

Team Coach,
Eucharia Uche will lead out the 18 -man playing squad and other
technical officials aboard on Ethiopian Airline flight later today.

The tune-up matches
with the North Korea team is among the planned matches designed to put
the five -time African champions in good shape ahead of their 2010
African Women Championship against Cote d’Ivoire next month.

The Falcons were
dethroned as perpetual Champions of the Africa Women Championships in
the last edition held in Equatorial Guinea and now seems set to regain
its pole position in the continent. Currently the North Koreans are
ranked fifth in the world while the Falcons are twenty seventh.

According to the
team’s coach, the Korean’s would be a quality opposition for the
Falcons as they prepare for the African qualifiers.

She said: “We are
happy this opportunity is coming at this time. North Korea is among the
leading nations in women’s football in the world and their team will
provide us with stiff opposition”.

The first match
against the North Koreans will take place in Pyongyang on Sunday while
the second match will take place on Tuesday next week.

Among the 18
players heading to North Korea are goalkeepers Precious Dede and
Tochukwu Oluehi (Bayelsa Queens), others are Martina Ohadugha (Rivers
Angels), Ulumma Jerome (Rivers Angels), Lilian Cole (Foreign-based),
Josephine Chukwunonye (Rivers Angels), Tawa Ishola (Bayelsa United),
Stella Godwin( FCT Queens), Ebere Orji (Rivers Angels), Gift Otuwe
(Bayelsa Queens), Akudo Iwuagwu (Delta Queens), Loretta Sador( Bayelsa
Queens) and Titilayo Mekuneyi (Bayelsa Queens).

Sports

Goldman’s Shares Plunge on Inquiries and Downgrades

Goldman’s Shares Plunge on Inquiries and Downgrades

Already facing investigations on two fronts into
its practices in the mortgage market, Goldman
Sachs came under pressure from investors as well on Friday.

After reports on
Thursday evening that federal prosecutors had opened an investigation into
trading at Goldman, raising the possibility of criminal charges against the
Wall Street giant, the firm’s stock was downgraded on Friday by two analysts. Standard
& Poor’s lowered its rating from hold to sell, and Bank
of America Merrill
Lynch dropped its rating from buy to neutral, citing the mounting
investigations.

Investors
responded by sending the stock down 9 percent in midday trading, to $145.89,
contributing to an overall decline in financial shares on Wall Street.

The financial
impact of Goldman’s troubles continues to mount. Since the Securities
and Exchange Commission announced on April 16 that it had filed a
civil fraud suit against the firm, its stock is down 20 percent, removing
about $20 billion from its market capitalization. The drop is all the more
striking given that Goldman delivered a blockbuster
quarterly report last week, with first-quarter earnings doubling from last
year.

Goldman has
vigorously denied the accusations by the S.E.C., which accused the firm of
defrauding investors involved a complex mortgage deal known as Abacus 2007-AC1.

On Thursday
evening, people familiar with the matter said the S.E.C. had referred its
investigation to prosecutors for the Southern District of New York, which has
now opened its own inquiry. While the investigation was said to be in a
preliminary stage, the move could escalate the legal troubles swirling around
Goldman.

Federal
prosecutors would face a higher bar in bringing a criminal case against
Goldman, whose role in the mortgage market came under sharp scrutiny this week
during a marathon hearing in the Senate. In contrast to civil cases, the burden
of proof is higher in criminal ones, where prosecutors must prove their case
beyond a reasonable doubt.

The stakes are
high for Goldman, but they are also high for the United States attorney’s
office. Prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York lost a case last year
filed against two hedge fund managers at Bear
Stearns, whose collapse presaged the turmoil on Wall Street.

Prosecutors
built much of that case around internal e-mail messages at Bear Stearns, much
the way the S.E.C. and senators have pointed to e-mail messages at Goldman in
which employees had disparaged investments that they were selling to their
customers.

In the end,
however, prosecutors were unable to
prove to a jury any criminal wrongdoing by the Bear Stearns employees.

A spokesman for
Goldman declined to say whether the bank knows about a criminal case, but he
said “given the recent focus on the firm, we’re not surprised” to
learn about a criminal inquiry. The spokesman said Goldman would cooperate with
any investigators’ requests for information.

A spokeswoman
for the Southern District also declined to comment.

The opening of
the Justice Department investigation was first reported Thursday evening by The
Wall Street Journal’s Web site.

Goldman has said
it will defend itself against the S.E.C.’s accusations. The firm’s executives
discussed the case last week during their quarterly earnings call, and this
week, they testified about their mortgage operations in a nearly 11-hour
hearing in Washington before a Senate subcommittee.

That hearing
focused broadly on Goldman’s mortgage operations, and the Senate subcommittee
released reams of new internal documents from Goldman. The Senate Permanent
Subcommittee on Investigations is looking into many other mortgage deals beyond
the one cited by the S.E.C.

The deal at the
heart of the S.E.C. case was one of 25 mortgage securities that Goldman created
in a program it called Abacus. The agency has hinted that it may expand its
inquiry to other Wall Street firms.

Those securities
were synthetic collateralized
debt obligations, which are bundles of derivatives that mimic the performance of mortgage bonds. The securities allowed people who
believed that the housing market would collapse to buy insurance against
certain mortgage bonds they thought might fail. When those mortgage bonds did
fail, the investors in the Abacus deals suffered major losses.

The Abacus deals
were, however, very profitable for the parties that were negative on the
housing market. In the Abacus 2007-AC1 deal, the hedge fund manager, John
A. Paulson, raked in about $1 billion when the bonds he helped select hit
trouble.

Mr. Paulson has
not been named in the S.E.C.’s case because he was not involved in marketing
and selling the deal.

Many in Congress
have been pressing for a criminal inquiry. This week, 62 House members sent a
letter to the Justice Department asking it to conduct an investigation into
Goldman’s actions.

© The New York Times

Money

Nigeria’s First Bank to form group holding company

Nigeria’s First Bank to form group holding company

Nigeria’s First Bank said on Friday it planned to form a listed holding
company which will own the bank and its subsidiaries to comply with reforms to
the sector planned by the central bank.

Chief Strategy Officer Onche Ugbabe said the bank would likely be de-listed
to be replaced on the stock exchange by the group holding company. He gave no
timeframe.

“The group holding company will be the listed entity and will be 100
percent owner of the bank, as well as of the other subsidiaries,” Ugbabe
told an investor conference call.

Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi has said he intends to do away with the
universal banking model and separate banks’ core lending business from more
speculative capital market activities — such as stockbroking, asset
management, private equity and venture capital.

First Bank is one of Nigeria’s first lenders to clarify how it plans to
comply with the central bank’s reform agenda. Others have said they plan to spin
off subsidiaries but have not yet given details.

Chief Risk Officer Remi Odunlami said First Bank was targeting 10 percent
growth in its loan book this year, with the focus on long-term credit.

“We have a liquidity ratio of 45 percent which means we have excess
liquidity and that will be channelled to loans,” Odunlami told the call.

The central bank has said it is concerned about banks’ reluctance to lend in
sub-Saharan Africa’s second-biggest economy and has kept its benchmark interest
rate on hold at 6 percent for months to try to stimulate the flow of credit.

First Bank swung to a pre-tax profit of 15.4 billion naira in the first
quarter of this year from a loss of 9.8 billion naira a year earlier.

The bank said it was targeting 20 percent return on equity in 2010, up from
15.9 percent at the end of March.

REUTERS

Money

May

May

Welcome, welcome, merry month

Your fame has spread from south to north

From the joyous riot of pollen grains

And their powdery pleasure, their aching pains

Butterflies abuzz, the bees are busy

The sparrows spin till their tails are dizzy

I follow my fancy to the valley stream

Where gathering waters have begun to dream

Merry month, May-ting season

When we lilt and laugh without a reason

The rum and rhumba of the frolic dance

Will put old sorrows in a frantic trance

Wheat’s brown laughter is the joy of bread

Ease of the nerves as we lay in bed

Give me a room in your house of smile

And I’ll take you along for an endless mile

We’ll roll in the grass as we sing our sighs

Our only roof the indulgent skies

I’ll plumb your eyes for ancient treasures

As we swing and swell in forgetful pleasures

When your lips touch mine in sheer delight

Lightning’s song will surprise the night

When our lovebird soars into fancy’s height

No volcanic ashes can provoke a fright

All hail the month of green desire

Of rainbow promise and quenchless fire

Of the heavenly mango and its sinful juice

When passion puts its heat to use

Download Poem here

Afrobeat and Jazz on Ogunlana Drive

Afrobeat and Jazz on Ogunlana Drive

It was a marriage
of two great musical genres that incidentally borrow a lot from each
other at the ‘Afrobeat meets Jazz’ concert on April 24, 2010. At the
Ogunlana Drive, Surulere-based Moods Club, the presence of Louis
Armstrong, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Fela could be simultaneously
felt. This was combined with the creativity of Funsho Ogundipe, leading
his Ayetoro band in a performance that cut through the old and new
schools. His brand of music which is also called Ayetoro (“World at
Peace” in Yoruba) was the engine that drove the evening’s events.

Ogundipe was born
in Lagos where he created his own Jazz-based style. The composer and
pianist began playing the piano aged 17 and after regular visits to
Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s Afrika Shrine. Memorably, Ogundipe performed with
the Afrobeat legend in 1988.

In 1996, he formed
Ayetoro. The band’s music is influenced by the maestro Fela; Jazz
greats Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Sun Ra and Apala
persona Haruna Ishola. Due to constant travel, Ogundipe’s band exists
wherever he is based.

On this occasion,
the band existed in Lagos in a venue that was filled to capacity and
beyond for the evening’s performance. Lovers of Jazz and Afrobeat
trooped into the Club to listen to jazz and Afrobeat music played in a
unique fusion of the two genres.

The band led
listeners on a musical journey that cut across age: from the jiggling
photographer and culture critic Tam Fiofori to the foot tapping Sista
Soul.

The nine-man
Ayetoro band played songs that did not only combine contemporary
musical instruments like the trumpets or guitar, but added a very
African feel with the talking drum. Ogundipe’s use of the structure of
12-bar blues, diminished chords and whole tones to improve the band’s
sound distinguished his style of music. His combination of jazz, Afro
beat and highlife added more colour to the sounds produced by the
ensemble. The tempo of each tune was transmitted in waves that took the
audience from one musical high to the next with a few sober moments in
between.

At the end of the
first session which lasted almost an hour, the musicians took a break,
but the crowd did not disperse for fear of missing the second half of
well-served music. The next session featured other artists in vocal
performances. Veronny “Sista Soul” Odili rendered a poem on the Umaru
Yar’Adua administration’s Seven-Point Agenda, while another young
artist gave his impression of renowned Senegalese singer Youssou
N’Dour. It was indeed a job well done.

Sista Soul also
delivered a love song in the fashion of popular female jazz vocalists
like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Lena Horne.

The evening continued with more danceable jazz-inspired Afrobeat that kept the audience busy until it was time to go home.

Some of the popular
faces at the event were Reggae Musician Ras Kimono, photographers Unoma
Giese and Don Barber; and Society for Nigerian Artists (SNA) Chairman
Lagos Chapter, Oliver Enwonwu.

Funsho Ogundipe’s
‘Afrobeat Meets Jazz’ sessions are at Moods, 57 Ogunlana Drive,
Surulere, Lagos – every last Saturday of the month.

Introducing the poetry of Ankur Betageri

Introducing the poetry of Ankur Betageri

Contemporary world
poetry, it appears, is a prescriptive ocean in which contending world
views are strenuously vying for recognition and relevance. Contemporary
Indian poetry, no less, is caught in this agenda of making the human
voice to be heard.

Ankur Betageri is a poet born in India on November
18, 1983, whose poetry marks a departure from the predominantly
prescriptive into a probing, questing sensibility. Ankur who writes in
Kannada and in English, is a trained clinical psychologist and a
photographer of great talent even as he maintains a day job as an
assistant editor at the Sahitya Akademi.

While Ankur’s works bear a
semblance of the traditional fare in portions, his approach is actually
radical, verging on the iconoclastic. Betageri maintains a playful ear
on the fringes of his works, daubing with the erotic here and the
platonic there. He is in this introduction represented by a variety
both in kind and in chronological topicality. Ankur has benefited from
the influence of scholars like Hulkuntemath Shivamurthy Shivaprakash,
playwrights like Wole Soyinka, film makers like Martin Scorsese and
visual artists like Jayant Parmar.

Apart from being an
agent of a vigorous thematic impulse in his poetry, this poet is also
markedly improvisional on the level of style. His exposure to cultural
intellectuals in the mold of Satchidanandan, many times guest editor at
the Indian Academy of Letters has no doubt had an effect on his poetry
and writing generally. I find Betageri’s eclectic background and
approach to poetry a fresh way of ‘computing’ the universe.

Certainly
the idea that poetry is for those of a certain temperament or formal
training is now anachronistic and poets like Ankur have done their bit
to confirm the idea antiquated. I find the poetry of Betageri
invigorating on another level, that of risk. Even when he pretends to
be, he is no lotus-eater and his constant challenge is to a generation
that witnessed the winning lyrical strength and narrative impact of
Slumdog Millionaire, the film. If space had permitted, this
introduction would have included poems in which Betageri engages India
in a lover’s quarrel and in which the active imagination of a
generation of the youth of the Indian sub-continent is mirrored. The
reader is enjoined to allow the grace notes in Betageri’s poetry to run
free.

On a personal level, I derived a lot of enjoyment reading Betageri’s
‘I am Water’ to a song by Fela Anikulapo Kuti on Water. I found the
poem ‘If Love is the Most Natural Thing’ a most compatible dessert to
Roberta Flack’s grooves and I totally enjoyed Evening at Tagore Park on
the rocks. Finally, for me, Betageri proves that a ‘young poet’ is a
redundant expression. Poetry is ageless and a man is either a poet or
he is not. Ankur Betageri, everyone…

Women artists reflect on Nigerian history

Women artists reflect on Nigerian history

For two days in
April the works of seven Nigerian women adorned the lobby of the
Transcorp Hilton Hotel, in Abuja. Their individual artistic expressions
of the past and future of Nigeria were on display in an art exhibition
tagged ‘50 years ahead through the eyes of Nigerian Women.’ Held from
Thursday April 22 to Friday 23, the exhibition was the result of
collaboration between the African Artists Foundation, the Netherlands
Embassy, and the Transcorp Hilton Hotel. For art enthusiasts, and
guests who thronged the exhibition, the common agreement was that the
show and the works were something to behold.

A unique exhibition

Of particular
interest to many was the exploits of two artists from Northern Nigeria:
Aisha Augie – Kuta and Aisha Ibrahim Dapchi. Both successfully shifted
from the constraints of cultural and religious restrictions to freely
express themselves in the visual art form. The various mediums of
expression spanned photography, sculpture, painting, mixed media and
video art. When asked why the exhibition featured only women, the
curator, Zainab Ashadu, responded that “a society cannot develop if its
women are not invested in, and it is to this end that we choose to use
this exhibition to give a voice to the women.”

Based on its
interest in the development of female artists, the African Artists
Foundation sent out an open call for participation. This requested
interested female artists to send in proposals giving a summary of
their individual visions for interpreting the chosen theme. “All
entries received revealed a remarkable level of awareness by the
artists. With these, we created this unique exhibition,” said Omotayo
Adeola, the Project Coordinator.

All one and the same

Aisha Augie-Kuta’s
exhibit titled ‘Versus’ investigates the various factors that limit,
propel or stall us in our development as a nation, exploring identity
by challenging the apparent disregard for indigenous culture in favour
of a Western one. Through her photographic displays, Augie-Kuta
captured varied images of ordinary Nigerians at work, from the
challenging landscapes to a political party’s street trawl. She
presents the vision of a Nigeria where we can borrow from and merge
different cultures without sacrificing our own identity.

Unoma Giese, an
artist of Nigerian and German parentage, presented ‘Double Caste’, a
body of work that attempts to show identity as not merely black and
white. Her images of mixed race – part Japanese, English, German and
part Nigerian subjects – explore the fragmentation that still exists in
Nigerian contemporary society, especially with respect to mixed race
persons commonly referred to as ‘half-caste.’

‘In Women: Our
Continuity’, Shade Ogunlade used her stylised paintings to portray a
unified Nigeria where there is no distinction between one person and
the next; where Nigerians are defined not by their ethnicity but by
their similarities and achievements.

Art is life

In ‘Time Honoured,’
Priscilla Nzimoro’s lenses captured the aesthetics of everyday mundane
activities in the urban mega-polis, Lagos. The new media artist
presented us with images of ordinary lives across the landscape: the
vulcaniser and his makeshift roadside garage and the vigorous rhythmic
pounding of food by women in roadside restaurants, among others.

Aisha Ibrahim
Dapchi’s exhibition – ‘AMARYA’, was a collection that highlighted the
sacred rite of passage from girlhood to womanhood in Hausa culture.
‘Amarya’ boldly displays the beauty, pride and the evolution of Hausa
culture.

Lucy Azubuike, a
mixed media artist, explored the relationship between Nigerian Society
and the roles of women. ‘No Going Back’ is a video exploration of the
quest by African women for equality, empowerment and
self-actualisation. Using nature, particularly trees and crops,
Azubuike explored the relationship between man’s treatment of fellow
man and man’s relationship with nature.

Taiye Idahor stood
out in the exhibition with her choice of medium and theme. This
promising young artist expressed herself through soft sculptures,
formed by using readily available newspaper prints in the production of
hollow cubes with holes, representing the errors of a damaged nation.

If the organisers keep their promise, the exhibition should be a
regular platform for female artists to express themselves from now on.