By Japhet Alakam

Nike Davies Okundaye is arguably one of the most popular artists in the Nigerian art scene. She is the founder of Nike Centre for art and culture, an art centre committed to the promotion and development of Nigerian art and culture.

Many years back, when humble and soft spoken  doyen of Nigerian art, Nike Okundaye  started her romance with art in the poor village of Ogidi-Ijumu, no one gave her chances of survival but today, with four centres in Lekki, Lagos State; Ogidi-Ijumu, Kogi State; Osogbo, Osun State and Abuja, the seat of Nigeria’s Federal capital, the  foremost batik designer has  proudly become a household name in the world of art.

According to her, the beginning was not easy, as she ended her formal education at Primary 6 in her village and did not attend any art school, but today, the renowned artist and teacher has through her own self help touched many lives and has taken art round the globe.

*Nike Ogundaye, Mama Adire, (Left) impacting practical knowledge to young girls during one of the workshops organised by her centre.

As somebody from a poor background who does not want many to suffer, Okundaye has used her arts as a means of empowerment and fighting social challenges such as prostitution, unemployment and poverty. Her philanthropy has paid off as she has so far trained over 4,000 Nigerians in the making and designing of different Nigerian textile clothing, embroidery and weaving.

Presently, her gallery in Lekki  which is presumed to be the biggest gallery in Africa with over 7000 art works has become a Mecca of sort as people from all walks of life, especially foreigners visit the place every day. Her Osogbo centre is also a beehive of activities as workshops hold regularly for women and girls. And the Abuja centre also organises many art workshops too.

With all these achievements so far, one would have expected that Mama adire as she is fondly called  will feel fulfilled but that is not so, rather she is still bent on creating new frontiers towards actualising her mission of improving the lives of many, especially, the less privileged and unemployed in the society, discover new talents, empower the rural women and provide training for hundreds of aspiring young performance artists and craftsmen on the practical aspect of art.

During a visit to her gallery at Lekki, Nike who discovered art when she was seven years old disclosed that arrangements have be concluded for the establishment of an art village in Abuja. The art village which is located at Piwoyi village, FCT Abuja according to her, will serve two main purposes: first, it will provide functional platform for research into Nigerian traditional textile industry in the Federal Capital Territory by bringing the culture of the different people of Nigeria to one place where one will come and see the type of art done in different states like Delta, Cross River and Abia. It  will also provide employment for many youths that go  to Abuja for job.

The art village according to her is going to be a research centre that will represent all the ethnic groups in Nigeria.  “Abuja is the capital of Nigeria, so what we intend to do is make it a cultural hub by looking at the past and add something to make it look like the present.

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The village will be the first of its kind in the capital city. So, it will comprise of a library that will house all the traditional books, a gallery where the works of different genres of art, will be showcased, textile museum, a hostel that will house the students and visitors to the place.” She said.

Continuing, she stated that apart from the finished works, most of the processes involved in the production of the works will be  taught there, like the dyeing in Kano. “Indigo, cotton, cassava and others will be grown there and the students will be taught how to convert them into textiles. We will also bring people who know more about culture to the village so that people will see how they live, dress, greet and how they use art to communicate within the various communities.”

On the choice of Abuja  instead of  other remote areas, she said, “you know we have a centre at Osogbo, we also have at Ogidi in Kogi State, but Abuja is the capital and everybody wants to come to the city for one thing or the other, its just like going to Washington DC in US.

Many people especially the youths come because of employment but at the end of the day  most of them get frustrated and end up as armed robbers. The village when completed will provide opportunity for such people to learn a trade  so that they can  become useful to themselves and the society.”