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Laws are made to help society grow as well as maintain order. To
the best of my knowledge, the ‘due process’ laws were hatched to reduce or stop
the corrupt tendencies of mostly contractors who are mainly civil servants and
their fronts.

These same set of contractors have devised brilliant techniques
of circumventing the process and business has gone on as usual. It is only when
the interest of the Permanent Secretary, Director General or the Director in a
ministry or agency is not being served that the process becomes
hyper-effective. The ‘due’ in the ‘process’ becomes obvious or the ‘process’ in
the ‘due’ becomes frustrating and, at such times, the profit margin of such
jobs will definitely discourage the ‘connectionless’ contractor.

In other words, no contractor does any profitable job without
sharing almost all his profits with the owners of the yam and the knife.

I really do not want to digress, but I needed to lay a proper
foundation for this week’s discourse. There are some specialized fields that I
think should not be taken through the tortuous path of due process. For
instance, an artist works into a gigantic structure that is of international
relevance in Abuja and he thinks to himself, ‘these walls will look more
arresting, if I line it with some of my just completed works or I could add
some more in line with the aesthetic goals of this office’.

Now he has an idea and he believes a particular painting or
sculpture will appropriately represent the dreams and aspirations of the owners
of the building. He is bringing his priceless concept that will best showcase
or bring our otherwise ‘big for nothing edifice’ to life. He decides to write
to the office explaining his ideas in black and white and then putting a price
that he thinks would pay for his idea and also his work of art.

He gives the said office his proposal and they are amazed by the
beauty in the whole unique concept.

Now, instead of commissioning this young Nigerian artist and
encouraging him to continue with his creativity, one supposedly wise Director
decides to price, like a market woman pricing tomatoes, the whole idea not just
the art work. The creator of the masterpieces disagrees with him because he
feels his work is being undervalued and the next thing you hear, “we will get
another artist or let us compare the price of similar artworks from other
artist”. In fact, they tell him, they will have to get ‘quotations’ from other
competing companies so that they can now make their final choice.

That building has been there for donkey years and nobody thought
of decorating it with meaningful paintings, pictures and sculptures. No wise
director thought of inviting different artist to ‘tender’ or ‘quote’ for the
job. Someone gifted now works in and sells them his own unique ideas and,
because they do not understand that if you want Sunny Ade, for an event, you do
not go and get quotations from 9ice and Dbanj to make King Sunny Ade reduce his
artiste fee.

When one needs the service of a stand up comedian in an event ,
one must be ready to pay whatever Alibaba or Oma Oma , e.t.c request; you can
no longer dictate the price when you need the unique steps of a particular
performer. These are unique artistes with their own individual talents and you
usually cannot quote for their creativity or distinct kind of creative
artistry.

Every artist has his own unique price for every piece of
distinction. Every piece of art is unique and every performance (drama, dance
or stand-up comedy) is different; that is, it cannot be achieved the same way
twice, even in well written plays, you cannot have the same performance even
from the same cast and crew. Or have you not heard that you cannot drink from
the same river twice because it flows, not even if you stand on the same point.

The initiators of due process in our system did not and cannot
use due process for artists. Every established creative artiste is an inventor
and their works are priceless. Every artist has his own unique price and you
cannot ask another artist to submit his tender for the unique ideas of another
artist. Where due process stops is where creativity begins. Civil servants
should stop pricing works of art, especially in the Federal Capital Territory
where architectural masterpieces are daily springing up. If you need the
intricate designs of Victor Ehikhamenor, pay his price; if you need the works
of seasoned old masters like Bruce Onobrakpeya, Ben Enwonwu, Twins Sevene
Seven, Yusuf Grillo by all means give them their dues.

Due process has little or no business with creativity. The
creative process should not be encumbered by a fraudulent system.