Politics and Governance - More Than A Conversation

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Freestyle
Freestyle:
Mike Asukwo
BY AYANDOLA AYANLEKE
Etim Bassey Asukwo, better known as Mike by friends and
family, is the Chief Editorial Artist of BusinessDay Media.
Growing up, he had always wanted to be an artist, except for a
while when he thought he’d like to join the army. “Growing
up, I have always been doodling. If I spent more than 5
minutes around a surface, I was definitely going to draw on it,
consciously or unconsciously.”
“That I was an artist was obvious right from birth. I had actually
wanted to be a movie producer. I used to write scripts and
direct plays (mostly comedies) even before leaving secondary
school. Unfortunately, there was no art teacher at St Vincents
College, Oron, where I schooled and so I couldn’t offer Fine Art
in WASCE. It was a year after leaving school that I sat for Art as
a single subject in GCE and got A1.”
“I was already studying Business Administration by then. At
the end of my second year, I left the Calabar Polytechnic. About
3 years later, I was able to get into Yaba College of Technology
to formally study art for the first time.”
He uses his art to highlight situations of the common people.
“I try to bring some illuminations to the dark corners where
the common people live. I look for the perspective we easily
miss and draw our attention to them, especially where such
situations arise from the failure of those in authority to do what
there are handsomely paid to do. I have used my sculptures to
draw attention to the plight of workers, the unsung heroes.”
“I feel art should do more than celebrate beauty, imitate
nature or present objects for contemplation. Art should do
more than that. Art should demand change, art should seek
justice, art should advocate, art should spark reactions to
situations.”
“My art tries to do that, it gnaws at our conscience and makes
us feel guilty when we err and then hang around our memory
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