The recent attempt by a Nigerian youngster, Farouk Abdulmutallab, to bomb an American Delta airline on December 25, 2009 has no doubt brought Nigeria in confrontation with world power, USA. The commotion has even resulted in former American attaché to USA embassy in Nigeria, Ambassador, Princeton Lyman telling Nigeria that it is fast becoming irrelevant in the world.

It is now five months since the issue of looted African terracotta was raised in connection with the exhibition entitled “African Terra Cotta: a Millenary Heritage”, at the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva and brought to the attention of all concerned. A group of renowned scholars alleged that many of the objects on display had been looted from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.

In his book, Cyprian Ekwensi, Ernest Emenyonu captures aspects of Ekwensi’s disposition to film in the 1950s. For instance, beyond revealing how Ekwensi “wrote and broadcast plays and stories for the BBC Overseas Service” , Emenyonu demonstrates how “once in 1954 his voice was ‘dubbed’ on to the sound track of the film Man of Africa, which was shown at the Venice Film Festival that year” .

I MUST begin my review of this complex work with the profession of disconcertion. All through my experience of life, the assumption has always been that people got assigned intellectual jobs on the incontrovertible basis of their ability to deliver.

BY MCPHILIPS NWACHUKWU ONE strong achievement of last week’s media meeting designed as part of activities marking the 70th year birth anniversary of thespian scholar, Pa Dapo Adelugba was the fact that the celebrant belongs to one of the privileged Nigerians, whose enviable lives make interesting profiling business. From every available revelations, Dapo Adelugba has […]

After a successful hosting of one of the greatest photo exhibitions of the year tagged “Perspectives on Contemporary Nigerian Photography recently, the Ben Enwonwu Foundation (BEF) owners of Omenka Art Gallery again in its bid towards the promotion and appreciation of Modern African art penultimate week brought the visual art community together for another exciting exhibition by one of Nigeria’s outstanding contemporary artists, Alex Nwokolo titled Musing: an exhibition of recent paintings by Alex Nwokolo.

One of Nigerian foremost scholars, Prof Charles Nnolim, in one of his presentations said that “Nigeria does not honour its intellectuals, rather Nigerians are only known for honouring politicians and soldiers, that is why many Nigerian great scholars are not named after some streets in Abuja.”

TRUE to his words, the streets of Abuja are now wearing carnival looks in readiness for the 2009 Abuja Carnival beginning from November 21 through 24. Earlier at his first media meeting with culture and tourism journalists in Lagos, the newly appointed creative director of this year’s Abuja Carnival, Professor Ojo Bakare had promised that his leadership of the carnival team would transform the hosting of the national festival to what he described as “a street party”, which according to him, carnival is all about.

THE illustrated Things Fall Apart produced in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Chinua’s Achebe’s classic novel will be the star attraction at a formal presentation ceremony to be held on November 17. The event which will take place in Lagos will be chaired by HRM Igwe Nnaemeka, Obi of Onitsha with renowned playwright, Wole Soyinka being the special guest of honour among other notable personalities in the art and literary world and beyond.

DETERMINED to reduced the number of fatal road accidents in the country and in line with its tradition of promoting creative thinking, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) Ltd is teaming up with African Artists’ Foundation (AAF) to sponsor a world-class photography exhibition in Lagos highlighting the issue of road safety in Nigeria.

FOR a man in his nineties, T.M. Aluko still has a very alert mind, and he has come up with a new novel that bears benedictory testimony to his venerated craft. Our Born Again President, a 218-page novel of intrigues in the affairs of state, tells the compelling story of David Tanbata who leads his country to independence and later becomes transformed in a Pentecostal manner not unlike the Biblical Saul-turned-Paul on the road to Damascus.

IN what looked like the first official visit of the acting director general of the National Gallery of Art, NGA, Muku Sabo Abudullahi, Sunday last week to the Lagos office of that federal parastatal responsible for the preservation and promotion of contemporary Nigerian arts and artists, the comatose centre, which in the last two years, under the leadership of Chief Joe Musa enjoyed unprecedented beehive of focused and determined visual art activities symbolically marked a return of life.

Contrary to the notion that T.M Aluko has not been accorded his rightful place in the Nigerian literary tradition, what happened last Monday at his Apapa, GRA residence remained a clear testimony of how much the octogenarian writer is held in high esteemed within the nation’s arts and literary circle.

Jelili Atiku’s kind of performance theatre, the type , he prefers to describe as Installation Theater is already generating interest  as to how art in its gorilla tactics can engage societal vices. Atiku’s kind of performance  seeks to address the socio-political plights of modern existence. Staged in odd places like the market environment and  inside […]

THE second leg of the London based, Kambani Art and Access Bank art initiative, Mirror the Master, successfully took place in the ancient city of Benin, Edo State from October 26 through 29. This successful tour came on the heels of the group’s upscale tour of the art city of Oshogbo, where participating students interacted with notable artists in the town including renowned Jimoh Braimoh.