BY MCPHILIPS NWACHUKWU

President Goodluck Jonathan (2r) points at the photograph of Former President Olusegun Obasanjo while the newsPhotographer, George Esiri (r); Information Minister, Mr. Labaran Maku (far left) and others watch during the photo exhibition

These are interesting moments for the Nigeria’s culture space: Surprisingly, at a time when every attention is expected to have shifted to the political turf, the culture space is rather witnessing national attention as various sectors of the sub sector now, receive front burner national notice.

In what looked like child’s play, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan towards the end of last year launched his laudable; Bring Back the Book campaign at Eko Hotel, Lagos; a programme that brought unmeasured attention to the ailing book and education sector. This momentous launch came in the wake of mouth watering donation of $200,000,000 Special Entertainment fund made by the President for the development of the entertainment industry on the occasion of the 30th year anniversary celebration of Silver Bird Group.

The interesting thing about these developments is that they are the first of their kinds, given the fact that no Nigerian President in the recent past has openly identified and demonstrated so much deep commitment to the promotion of the culture and entertainment sectors of the national economy.

While it gladdens the heart to know that the President, despite his very tight schedule would make out time to come personally, and stay all through to witness and listen to the plights of stake holders in the sectors, the activities also provide rare opportunities to seeing some of the lapses in sectoral expectations and failure in performance deliveries.

The reality of some of these observations came out last week during a solo photo exhibition titled; The People’s President held in honour of President Jonathan by George Esiri. The exhibition held at the Yaradua Centre Abuja in the presence of President Good luck Jonathan, Chief of Army Staff, Maj-General Ihejirika, Minister of Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Abubakar Sadiq Mohammed, Peoples Democratic Party’s Chairman Bello Haliru Mohammed among other top government functionaries.

Parading over 50 out of over 10,000 photo shots of the President claimed to have been taken of President Jonathan by the Photographer since the President’s tenure as Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, last week’s exhibition presented another interesting photographic insight into the life and character of the country’s number one citizen.

And as it were, viewers were not disappointed when the exhibition was declared open as the exhibits displayed capture the President at different sports: for instance, there were pictures, where he is adorned in the traditional attires of different ethnic formations of the country: in the attires of the Fulani, the Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Ijaw, Ibibio, Efik etc.

Through the various representative pictures taken of the President and showcased at the occasion, the President is also presented as one , who has vast knowledge of the country and finds home and acceptability among his host communities.

There were also pictures that showed President Jonathan on Campaign grounds ,and also pictures that capture historic moments like when the President met with stake holders in the entertainment and culture sectors and the launch of The Bring Back the Book Campaign.

Interestingly too, the photographer’s lens provides its own critical reading of some social mishaps in the polity. For instance, a photograph of a disillusioned police man, palpably standing in the sun, crest fallen, speaks volume of the nation’s policing system and the concomitant poor welfare of staff, not only in the Police , but also across many other ministries and civil society sectors.

However interesting this photo exhibition was; the exercise candidly exposed one important lapse in the way we do things in the country. For instance, there are no captions for the pictures nor a brochure to provide some textual information about the works.

An exhibition of this magnitude should not be seen to have ignored such vital provision of a brochure given the fact that the pictures speak about important historical moments in the life of number one citizen of the country.

Speaking at the occasion, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Strategy, Research and Documentation, Oronto Douglas explained that the exhibition is part of a “ process of preserving the experiences of today so that they will not be forgotten.”

While introducing the exhibiting artist, George Esiri to the waiting audience, Douglas added that “ George is a distinguished Nigerian, who has followed the activities of the President from the days of his tenure as Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State.”

“ We are here today to see his works and the moments at which he took the shots. It is hoped that the pictures will speak to us.” He said.

Tracing the journey of this great moment, the photo exhibitor told viewers that the journey started way back in 1977.

“ In 2007, when PDP was having campaign in Delta State, I left Lagos to join them for the coverage. When the President cast his vote, I was there to capture it. When his father died, I was also there.

Also, this time around when the President declared his intention to run I said to myself that I would be part of it. I was there to capture the day Mr President declared his intention to run for the position.” He said.

This task according to Esiri, was not carried out without its own daunting challenges. According to him,” I left my family for five months. I did this because I know that 200 years from now, the President would have made history by being the first South South person to become the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Commenting about the exhibition, PDP National Chairman, Dr Bello Haliru Mohammed said,” This picture exhibition is intended to provide a comprehensive record of the highly successful Presidential campaign tour of the country between February and March, 2011.

While many a people may read political meaning to this exhibition, Mrs Lola Soyinka, who brought students of Regent Secondary School, Mabushi, Abuja to the event remarked that” it was nice that photography and other forms of art previously neglected by subsequent administrations are beginning to take front positions in the scheme of things. It is really beautiful to see photography celebrated.”