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Organisers of the
Lagos Jazz Series have announced the inclusion of South African
musician Jimmy Dludlu on the bill for the event, which kicks off in
Lagos on Friday. A multiple award winning jazz guitarist who has
performed on many continents, Dludlu joins a host of musicians already
lined up for the festival, including: Mike Aremu, Simone, Morrie
Louden, Ben and Aiyetoro.

With sponsorship
and suport from MTN, Lufthansa, Sofitel Morehouse, Bang and Olufsen,
Mercedes Benz, Petrolex and others, the organisers have promised that
this first Lagos Jazz Series,“will give Nigerians a musical experience
they will not forget in a hurry.”

With the recent announcement of Jimmy Dludlu signing up to perform at the event, they might just achieve this feat.

Dludlu an award
winning jazz performer and guitarist is celebrated both in his home
country South Africa and internationally. His style reflects a fusion
of both traditional and modern elements of jazz which have been
influenced by the likes of George Benson, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela,
Pat Metheny and Allen Kwela amongst others. He has toured and
collaborated with the late south african musician Brenda Fassie,
Chicco, Sipho Mabuse, Zairean Music star Papa Wemba and the late Miriam
Makeba.

Dludlu, saxophonist
Mike Aremu, Jazz band Ayetoro, Rwandan-Ugandan singer Somi, Soul-singer
Bez and all the others will star in what the organisers say ‘is not a
clash of talent but a symphony of voices and instruments for the
benefit of jazz enthusiasts in this part of the world‘

The Lagos Jazz Series beginning on November 5 will hold at the
following choice venues: Sofitel Morehouse Hotel Ikoyi, The Federal
Palace Hotel waterfront and Muri Okunola Park.

UK-based Nigerian
musician, Lekan Babalola, will headline the Muson Jazz Festival, which
holds at the Onikan, Lagos arts venue on November 6.
Touted as “one of
the most extraordinary percussionists in world music and jazz,”
Babalola was met by festival director Ayoola Sadare at Murtala Muhammed
Airport earlier this week as he arrived the country for the concert.
The Jazz component
is one of the major highlights as the festival, which began on October
25, draws to a close. Intended to celebrate Nigeria’s Golden Jubilee,
this year’s programme has so far paraded various events like; a youth
concert, classical concert, a play and ‘My Kind of Music’ – in which
society figures share their favourite musical compositions and
playlists.
Joining Babalola on
the Jazz night’s playbill are the likes of Ayinke Martins (also based
in the UK), Herbert Kunle Ajayi, Biodun and Batik, Imole Africa, Mike
Osadolo, Pure and Simple and Olujazz.
As for Lekan
Babalola, he is an international musician who regularly forms part of
Jazz star Cassandra Wilson’s band when she tours. He also played on her
Grammy Award winning CD, ‘Loverly’, just as he appeared on the late Ali
Farka Toure’s ‘In the Heart of the Moon’ – also a Grammy winning album.
Babalola has collaborated with many international players like Branford
Marsalis, Tony Allen, Roy Ayers, and the late Fela Kuti; he has also
appeared as one of the African Jazz Allstars. Babalola’s music is
heavily influenced by his rich Yoruba cultural background, having been
born into a family who are custodians of tradition.
Jazz fans can
expect superlative performances of the Sax from Herbert Kunle Ajayi,
traditional talking drums from Imole, Rhythm and Blues and African
groove mixture from Mike Osadolo and others from the star parade.
Ayinke Martins is
an eclectic jazz performer. A protégée of Frances and Tunde Kuboye,
Martins is known for blending the Yoruba and English vocal medium with
Soul and African Jazz styles to produce a style that is solely unique
to her.
The Muson Jazz Night will kick off at the Shell Nigeria Hall, MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos by 7pm on Saturday, November 6.

Emerging writers
gave a good showing at the just concluded national convention of the
Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) held in Akure, Ondo State, from
October 28 to 31.

The meeting, the
29th annual gathering, themed ‘Myth, Fantasy and Indigenous Theatre’,
saw young writers clearing a number of the prizes at the awards dinner
hosted by the state governor, Segun Mimiko, at the Government House on
the last day of the convention.

Though it may be
too early to start singing their praises, they sure gave a good account
of themselves. Ngozi Onyioha-Orji took the NDDC Flora Nwapa Prize for
Women Writing with ‘The Knots of Karma’, while University of Lagos
trained medical doctor, based in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Godwin Noah, won
the Jacaranda Prize for Prose with ‘The Bear Hug’.

The not-so-young
US-based Ben Igwe, won the NNDC Ken Saro-Wiwa Prize for Prose with
‘Against the Odds’, his debut novel. It was indeed a worthwhile trip
for the Ph.D holder in Library and Information Management, who flew in
from the US for the convention.

The major upset of
the night, however, was caused by young lawyer, Seyi Hodonu, who piped
former ANA national president, Olu Obafemi, to the NDDC Gabriel Okara
Prize for Poetry, worth N100,000. Hodonu’s ‘Songs from my Mother’s
Heart’ won the prize, ahead of Obafemi’s ‘Illuminations’ and Gbenga
Ajileye’s ‘Droplets’.

Choreographer and
deputy director with the National Troupe of Nigeria, Arnold Udoka, got
the best of University of Lagos Literature lecturer, Chris Anyokwu, and
Fidelis Okoro to claim the NDCC J.P. Clark Prize for Drama, worth
N100,000. He and Hyginus Ekwuazi, winner of the ANA/Cadbury Prize for
Poetry, however, cannot be labelled young.

Ekwuazi, the 2007
winner of the same prize, won this time around with ‘The Other
Country’. It will be interesting to see who will be the first to win
the prize the third time between him and the other two-time winner,
poet Akeem Lasisi.

Dramatist, Isaac
Attah Ogezi, held the flag of the young aloft by winning the Esiaba
Irobi Prize for Drama with ‘Waiting for Savon’. The work beat Tunji
Ajibade’s ‘The Sacrifice’ and Chidozie Chukwubuike’s ‘The Day the Owl
Died’.

Abuja-based Spencer
Okoroafor won the ANA Funtime Prize for Children’s Literature with ‘The
Missing Chip’, while the young also took the three remaining prizes in
the children’s literature category. Author of ‘Under the Brown Rusted
Roofs’, Abimbola Adelakun, emerged the ANA/Anyiam-Osigwe Literary
Journalist of the Year, for her work in the Punch newspaper.

Children were not
left out of the colourful awards dinner as ANA Happy Kids entertained
the audience with some songs. In a short speech at the occasion where
he was decorated as a national patron of ANA, Governor Mimiko promised
his continous support to Nigerian writers.

“I assure you that
whatever leverage I have, both in my official and personal capacities,
I’ll add value to you,” he said, adding that “whether we like it or
not, Nigeria will come to celebrate literature, because it is about
describing our reality in the past, present, and future.”

The governor
reiterated that writers must be empowered for Nigeria to develop, and
that he doesn’t believe in art for art sake. Recalling the achievements
of Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, Mimiko told the writers, “Your tribe
has done us proud. I wish I could say the same for politicians, but we
will do you proud.”

The absent King Sunny Ade, Seinde Arogbofa, and the late D.O. Fagunwa were invested as patrons of ANA Ondo.

Radio station
Smooth FM is set to regale music Nigerian lovers in its upcoming Jazz
festival, holding in Lagos on November 12. Tagged ‘Love Music, Love
Life’, the festival will showcase an impressive line-up of Nigerian and
international musicians.

African American
soul singer and songwriter Angie Stone of ‘Mahogany Soul’ fame and Jazz
Saxophonist Gerald Albright will be performing alongside Nigerian
musicians Bez, Tiwa Savage, Pure and Simple, and others.

A major highlight
of the festival is the inclusion of Richard Bona, who will be jamming
on the same stage with Jazz guitarist, Mike Stern. Born Bona Pinder
Yayumayalolo, Richard Bona has performed alongside the likes of Manu
Dibango, Salif Keita, Jacques Higelin and Didier Lockwood.

A rising star of
the international music circuit with appearances on many continents,
Bona was born in 1967 in Cameroun into a family of griots and singers.
He lived in Germany and France before settling in New York; and met
Mike Stern when he relocated to the United States and did some musical
stints with him.

The Camerounian has four albums under his belt and has collaborated
with Harry Belafonte and John Legend. The Smooth FM Festival will hold
at the Expo Hall of the Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos on November
12.

The city of Abuja
will play host to ‘Art in Nigeria: She Moves On’, an exhibition
intended to symbolise the country’s victory over the many vicissitudes
that have befallen her since independence.

The organisers, the
Casalinda Gallery and Iroko Art and Culture, say they are creating a
platform for local artists to display their talent and culture. In a
press release, the organisers say they are keen on championing the
growth and appreciation of the visual arts in Nigeria. To this end,
they are pursuing long-term plans to achieve the goal, the coming art
exhibition being just one.

Casalinda Gallery
proprietor, Gandi Obiefule, says the exhibition is part of a new
revolution which would make Nigerian visual arts a talking point in the
world of art discourse.

His organisation is
working in partnership with Iroko Art and Culture to bring about what
they describe as ambitious goals for the development of art in the
country.

Artists whose works
will be on display during ‘Art in Nigeria: She Moves On’, include the
following: Uchay Chima Joel, Ankeli Christopher, Ndidi Emefiele,
Adetunji Tobi, Iyke Okenyi, Uche Agonsi, Abiola Idowu, Rasaq Abdul,
Chike Emembo, Chukz Okonkwo, Baba Shettima and Kehinde Dada.

‘Art in Nigeria: She Moves On’ is scheduled to run for ten days at
the Casalinda Gallery, situated at No 8, Colorado Close, Off IBB
Boulevard, Maitama, Abuja. It opens to the public on November 5, while
the official opening ceremony will hold on November 6 at 2pm.

Someone once told
me that the depiction of women in Chinua Achebe’s, Things Fall Apart
understates the role of women in Igbo communities. I am at a loss as to
what that means. Is it any narrower than the stereotypical fiction of
swashbuckling women in the West bossing snivelling male weaklings?
Indeed in that sense, is it not a less stereotypical portrayal? Have
you read Buchi Emecheta’s novels? Does she invite you to draw
conclusions based on her lived life and the testimony in her novels?
And why would any researcher worth his or her salt draw conclusions
about a people’s way of life based on just one novel? And what are we
talking about anyway?

Political
correctness threatens to distort the lived life. What we would like to
see is different from what happened. As for the bit about women being
empowered and getting chieftaincy titles etc, some of that is true and
Achebe has addressed this in some of his books (with mixed success
because rather than focus on his work, he was trying to be sensitive to
accusations of misogyny). What is true is that the fate of the vast
majority of women and children in today’s Nigeria makes their fate in
‘Things Fall Apart’ heavenly. We invest in mimicry and say all the
right things about women empowerment, blah, blah, blah. But the truth
stares us in the face. Today in Nigeria, many of our women and children
are mostly second-class citizens in a country dominated by powerful
patriarchs, men that have bastardised a cultural past and turned it
into the patriarchy from hell. Just like their “institutions of higher
learning,” “democracy,” and other perversions of mimicry, they clothe
aberrations in the power of empty words.

The notion that
Achebe has to travel the length and breadth of Igboland in order to
write the definitive epic on women empowerment is, to be honest with
you, silly. He has written a story based on a rich slice of Igbo life;
he has not drawn any conclusions. It is up to the reader to draw his or
her own conclusions. Why should that now translate into an acceptable
criticism of his work? It is one thing to say that Achebe’s worldview
is narrow; it is another thing to suggest that his depictions are
false. We can’t have it both ways: Should fiction document the lived
history or is fiction free to distort life?

We must be wary of
being ambushed by the fiction that denies our humanity, or that
italicises us into “the other.” I shake my head when I read thinkers
describing ‘Things Fall Apart’ as an Igbo novel, whatever that means.
It would never occur to them to describe a John Updike tome in such a
limiting fashion. Because Updike is human and Chinua Achebe is, well,
‘the other’. Things Fall Apart is of course more than an “Igbo” or
“African” novel. It is a novel about our humanity and how we adapt (or
don’t) to change. The compartmentalisation of our humanity is
relentless, despite loud protestations. Jerry Guo of Newsweek recently
did a semi-illiterate interview of Chinua Achebe (Chinua Achebe on
Nigeria’s Future, Newsweek, July 5, 2010). Sample blurb: “Although best
known for his 1958 masterpiece, Things Fall Apart, about a simple yam
farmer in tribal Nigeria, novelist Chinua Achebe is still writing about
Africa a full half century later. The 79-year-old author and social
critic spoke with Newsweek’s Jerry Guo about recent developments in his
home country and politics on the continent.” It is news to me that
Things Fall Apart is “about a simple yam farmer in tribal Nigeria.” We
are in the year 2010 and Things Fall Apart is being described in such a
hideous fashion. It gets worse: Here are sample questions asked of
Achebe: “Why do you think Nigeria has such a bad reputation?” “So how
did notoriously corrupt African states like Nigeria become that way
while others such as Botswana and Ghana went down a different path?”
“There’s been an uptick in ethnic violence between the Christians and
Muslims in Nigeria. Are you afraid of radical Islam taking root there
and spreading?”

Newsweek’s interrogation masks the usual clarity of Chinua Achebe’s
thinking. The questions force the responses to be pedestrian and that
is too bad. Once more Newsweek misses a grand opportunity to encourage
new thinking, shed new light on persistent challenges. There is nothing
new here from Achebe that many of us have not previously engaged and I
do not blame him. There are too many things to worry about. Again,
think of your favourite great white author, anyone of Achebe’s stature
and imagine him/her being taken through the indignity of this absurd
interview. For one thing, the questions would have been researched and
fielded by a senior ranking editor, not just a wretched stringer who
does not know how to read books. And can you imagine the author
responding to questions so parochial, they belong in medieval times? It
is not just disrespectful, it is an outrage.

The true and real
heroes of the Nigerian Army are not the few unethical gung-ho soldiers
who like armed robbers (to quote a former Colonel turned rebel General)
shoot their way into seizing undeserved power as Heads of State.

The hunger of a
bought-over section of the Nigerian press and media and, their
continued role as paid ‘misinformers’, has tried to entrench the hype
that these unprofessional armed usurpers were brave nation-savers and
builders. Rather, the true motives of this small band of ambitious
opportunists are now common knowledge, but unfortunately, their many
successes at hijacking governance has given the Nigerian Army an
undeserved bad name and image.

There have been
many fine officers and gentlemen in the Nigerian Army and, luckily,
there is now more evidence that these respectable corps of officers and
the enlisted men and women they led, have gradually earned the Nigerian
Army much-deserved respect and praise at the highest level of global
military engagements. It has taken time, effort and goodwill from the
Nigerian Armed Forces itself, to identify these truly brave and
patriotic men and women who have now been ‘enshrined’ as role models
and professional soldiers in the real sense.

Book

A new book, ‘Fifty
Years of Nigeria’s Peacekeeping Experience’; published by the Defence
Headquarters and appropriately released to coincide with Nigeria’s 50th
Independence celebrations is a welcome document of achievement which
should make Nigerians proud of their Armed Forces. The Armed Forces
couldn’t have wished for better image-boosting evidence at such a
critical time in Nigeria’s history. That both Nigeria and its Armed
Forces went into the international arena simultaneously was a political
strategy masterminded by Nigeria’s first Prime Minister, Abubakar
Tafawa Balewa, who, in his maiden speech after independence, declared
thus: “Having been accepted as an independent state, we must at once
play an active part in maintaining the peace of the world and
preserving civilisation. I promise you we shall not fail for want of
determination.”

Thus Nigeria’s
peacekeeping experience under the United Nations began and, on November
9, 1960, the first contingent of 26 officers, 640 soldiers and 4
British non-commissioned officers of the Fifth Queens Own Nigeria
Regiment under the command of Lt. Col. J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi was
airlifted from Kaduna to Kivu province in the Congo. There were there
until 1964.

Bully and liberator

Since 1966, the
Nigerian Army in particular has had ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ faces; one for
the international community and the other for the home front. Its face
on the home front has been one of a bully, oppressor and definitely
citizen-unfriendly; tainted by an arrogant mindset that regarded
millions of Nigerians as “bloody civilians!” There have been 38
Nigerian Armed Forces contributions to the United Nation’s Peace
Keeping Operations so far in places like West New Guinea, Tanzania,
Lebanon, Syria, Iran/Iraq, Angola, Namibia, Rwanda, Western Sahara,
Iraq/Kuwait, Cambodia, Somalia, Mozambique, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Bosnia
Herzegovina, Libya/Chad, Tajikistan, Macedonia, Slovenia, Baranja and
Sirmiium, Sierra Leone, Congo, East Timor, Liberia, Chad, Kosovo,
Sudan, Georgia and Central African Republic.

No wonder the
former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike CFR, in his
foreword says, “In her [intereaction] with other nations, nothing
projects Nigeria more, as a responsible and responsive member of the
international community, than her commitment to global peace and
security.” The mammoth crowds at the Lagos port that cheered the
arrival home of Nigeria’s troops after ‘liberating’ Liberia remains a
measure of the citizens’ response whenever our Armed Forces do us
proud!‘Fifty Years of Nigeria’s Peacekeeping Experience’ is a marvel in
its depth of information and the superb quality of the photographs that
illustrate the theme. It is another very good example and, combination
of what professor of History E.J.Alagoa describes as “photography as
art and also historical document.”

Lyrical photographer

These successful
components of the book are no surprise in that they are the work of
Jide Adeniyi-Jones who, for my money, is currently one of Nigeria’s
finest-ever and most lyrical photographers.

What might be a bit
surprising is the excellent journalistic skills exhibited by
Adeniyi-Jones; bringing to the fore a talent for research and informed
descriptive narrative that had hitherto taken second place to his
photography. Except for the foreword and an address by Defence Minister
Adetokunbo Kayode, all other editorial material in the 44-page book is
by the phototographer.

His interest in
military conflicts and their attendant social upheavals date back to
the early eighties when he was Photo Editor of the African Guardian
magazine. At some risk he covered the war in Chad. His recent revived
interest in the peacekeeping roles of the Nigerian Armed Forces and his
earlier independent documentary coverage of these activities dovetailed
into this specially-commissioned book by the Nigerian Defence
Headquarters.

Nearly all the
photographs are by Adeniyi-Jones on location in Darfur, Sudan, Liberia
and Sierra Leone between 2009 and 2010. His 42-odd photographs bear his
trademark touch of creative documentary photography in which subtlety
and, detailed emphasis on the critical parts of images, strongly
project the full visual message and impact.

Fine examples

A chest-to-knee
composition showing a Nigerian flag and name on the shoulder of a
camouflage-uniform and an arm clutching a rifle with a trademark curved
magazine; a name tag and Nigerian Army identification tag below it, is
a case in point. It is a side shot showing the Nigerian flag on the
shoulder and the red cross of medical personnel on the arm. There is
another image of two boys on a donkey-cart loaded with hay framed with
blue helmets and a rifle in the foreground and. A classic shot of a row
of well-polished black boots with the long reflected shadows of a row
of soldiers on the ground in front of them, is one of the outstanding
examples of Jide Adeniyi-Jones’ photographs.

There are
photographs that show the humanitarian face of Nigerian soldiers as
peacekeepers as well as their brothers’ and sisters’ keepers! These
include soldiers with guns watching over women as they gather firewood,
titled ‘Firewood Patrols’, a Nigerian matron and Liberian nurse, troops
and Sheiks in a mosque, a pilot by his jet fighter, teachers in
classrooms; and a collage of the men and women of the various units of
Nigerian peacekeeping troops.

The book begins
with an Honour Roll of 17 senior officers who have been Nigerian Peace
Mission Force Commanders and, at the back there is a mention of
Nigeria’s Lt. General C.I. Obiakor the United Nations Military Advisor
on Peacekeeping (2008-2010).

Surely, after 50 exemplary years of praiseworthy international
peacekeeping duties, the Nigerian Armed Forces must now be very aware
of the need to permanently curb the indiscipline of coups within its
ranks and, the attendant brutality and death of both its personnel
trained at high cost to the nation and unfortunate civilians caught in
the cross-fire.

Why Art?

Art makes me feel
easy, it is my passion. It gives me the chance to change things, solve
problems, provide solutions, and offer an insight into what many will
not see or figure out and think outside the box.

It allows me to
entertain, educate, and heal. It also affords the opportunity to
criticise, dialogue, and disagree to agree on issues that affect
everything: equal rights and love of the environment. Art, because it
is life.

Training

I was trained as a
scientist. I studied Biochemistry and later did a two-year diploma in
Art school. I never studied Art in elementary, secondary, and tertiary
schools. I was born an artist, not a trained artist.

Medium

I am a multimedia
artist involved in mixed media, painting, sculpture, installation,
photography, and performance. I also do video and sound art.

Influences

The works of late artists, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Living artists like El- Anatsui.

Inspiration

My inspiration comes from God and the environment that I find myself.

Best work so far

My best has not yet come. All I have done is good, and I am still working hard to be the best I can be in future.

Least satisfying work

I am not yet
satisfied with all I am doing or that I have done so far. I have lots
to still do and to offer. I am still hungry for more.

Career high point

In 10 years of
being a professional artist, I have received five awards, many grants,
scholarships, and residencies. I have participated in workshops,
biennales, and triennials. Solo and group exhibitions in all continents
of the world.

Favourite artist, living or dead

The late Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. My favourite living artists are El- Anatsui and Yinka Shonibare.

Ambition

My greatest
ambition is to set up an artists’ centre/residency where all creative
people can create freely and do their works. I want to exhibit my works
in the Venice Biennale, Tate Museum (UK), and the Museum of
Contemporary Art, New York.

The Nigerian Film
Corporation has raised alarm over the increase in fake and dubious
characters masquerading as film Producers, directors and Marketers out
to deceive and swindle unsuspecting Nigerians with genuine desire to
pursue a career in the movie industry.

Details of a Press
Release from the Public Affairs office of the NFC reveal that a number
of individuals, Government agencies, foreign embassies and Private
Organisations have been making enquiries at the NFC to confirm the
authenticity of the claims made by some of these of con artists. This
is a pointer to the fact that these individuals have spread their reach
to different spheres of the nation.

The NFC expresses
concern about these dubious individuals bent on bringing the Nigerian
movie industry to disrepute and is set to redeem the image of the
industry by exposing these con artists and their deeds to the public.

The Press Release
also reveals that some of these individuals flaunt the names of
accomplished industry practitioners, with the sole aim of legitimising
their deeds and gaining acceptance.

It is also revealed
that one of the prime ways these faceless individuals carry out their
scams is by sending out emails and bulk text messages to members of the
public advertising fictional film workshops and acting roles.

This is usually
accompanied with the condition that the unsuspecting reader showing
interest should pay certain sums of money to be able to participate.

The Nigerian Film
Corporation while drawing the attention of the Public to this
development is also set to remedy the situation by calling on industry
guilds and associations to be on the alert and cooperate with it in
hunting down the offenders.

Consequently the NFC warns that the perpetrators of these dubious
activities will face the full wrath of the law if they are caught, as
they will be handed over to the relevant enforcement agencies.

A Radio Drama
series, ‘Gbangan Gbangan’ (The Bell is Calling) to promote the value of
education in Nigeria, has debuted on the Radio Nigeria Network Service.
Produced by Flint Productions, ‘Gbangan Gbangan’, a project initiated
by The Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN), aired on
October 23 and will be broadcast in the mornings.

ESSPIN’s interest
in Education is fuelled by the Millennium Development Goals to achieve
Universal Basic Education. According to the Press release signed by
Bankole Ebisemiju ESSPIN’s Communications and Knowledge Management
Coordinator, it is hoped that the drama series ‘Gbangan-Gbangan’ will
assist Nigerians in identifying themselves with the characters in the
series, thereby opening up an avenue for the demand and supply sides of
basic education in Nigeria to engage in meaningful discourse.

Like the real
Nigeria, the fictional village of Tikomi where the drama is set is home
to a blend of peoples, cultures and histories. The drama series also
parades a number of characters: the self aggrandising Village Chief
Buba; the councillor who was once an area boy, a 10-year old boy Priye
who is a student on the one hand and a petty trader on the other, the
job seeker John and other characters whose lives and stories mirror
that of countless Nigerians. The education system in Tikomi is lax and
the village’s Central Primary School which is the focal point of the
drama series portrays reflects this malady.

ESSPIN reveals that
extensive research was conducted and observations drawn from public
schools, their pupils, their manner of administration and from all
facets of the Nigerian existence. This was done in a bid to accurately
portray and draw from the lives and experiences of real Nigerians.

Apart from
Education, ESSPIN is also interested in giving a voice to children and
laying bare the issues that affect children in the nation and to
sensitise Nigerians about them. Some of these issues are represented in
‘Gbangan-Gbangan’.

Aside from airing on Radio Nigeria Network, the drama series will
begin airing on Ray Power FM, FRCN’s Hausa Service and other partner
stations in due course.