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36—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 japhdave@yahoo.com 08066625505 Alexis Galleries; promoting artistic creativity with Fate VI By Japhet Davidson POISED by her passion for arts and the need to change the face of African art by providing a platform for artists to exhibit their works in a favourable condition and hosting artists-in-residence programmes, one of the leading galleries in Nigeria, Alexis Galleries graduated the batch 6 artists that participated in a two-week residency programme with an exhibition tagged Fate IV. The programme which took place at the galleries home, 282 Akin Olugbade Street, Victoria Island lived up to its bidding as it afforded the artists a conducive environment which enabled them to come out better than how they entered there. Founder and Director, Alexis Galleries, Mrs. Patty Chidiac-Mastrogiannis, who introduced the artists to the press announced that the programme will climax with an exhibition tagged Fate IV, an exhibition of painting, assemblage sculpture, mixed media and metal foiling. The artists are: Olatunde Taiwo David, Taiwo Owoyemi Sola, Usman Semiu Alvin, Kalu Isaiah, Darlington A. Chukwumezie and Akeem Dada. The exhibition which is scheduled to open on 15th February and run till 22nd February, 2020 at Alexis galleries will feature diverse works of arts that speak on topical issues affecting human being. Speaking about the theme, Chidiac said that “Fate is just about people who are destined to come and grow with me and fulfill their destiny in arts. Since inception over 30 artists have participated, in this edition we have six artists from different backgrounds who were housed together for the purpose of identifying themselves, helping one another and learning from each other and it has been interesting. One good thing about the programme is that it offers space for creative minds to live and work with all expenses paid courtesy of some art loving organisations like Pepsi, Tiger, Indomie, Mikano, Wazobia, Cool FM, Delta, Cobranet, The Homestores , Art Café, UPS, Cool World etc. Another benefit of the programme is that, some of the works of the artists would be shown on the galleries to put them on a bigger scale. The studio was filled with some finished works and some unfinished works which they are working on. A look at the works confirm what she said as their stay brought out the creative ingenuity of the artists and they were able to produce many works within * A piece by Taiwo Owoyemi the short period. Speaking about their experiences, the artists commended the management of Alexis galleries for the wonderful opportunity which has really changed their artistic life. For Olatunde Taiwo David, who is a third time participant in the residency, “before the residency I paint on canvass but delved into panel after last year’s residency.” A look at some of his works confirm that as they resemble works by Professor Bruce Onobrakpeya and El Anatsui, who he said he studied online and got a lot of inspiration from. Some of his works are, Swim in your own direction, The heartbeat of love. For Usman Semiu Alvin, “My experience so far has been tremendous, meeting with colleagues of mine, got new ideas, new ways, new knowledge and experience. It was an eye opener, never taught what I did I could actually achieve that. In my studio, it takes me like two weeks to do one job, but here I was able to do five works in just few days. I acquired more speed, felt impressed with the residency. My coming here made me to explore new ideas, concepts.” For Dada Akeem, it was a wonderful experience, working with people, learnt a lot from them, improved on my speed and developed new approach to work. I really appreciate it. I really improved in the speed, a lot of training, advice, constant talk. I appreciate the opportunity given to me by Alexis, the experience I gathered is not what money can buy. For Taiwo Owoyemi, a multi dimensional artist who work on scrap materials. “The residency afforded me a new environment that allows me to work any time of the day unlike at my studio, no distraction. The volume of works I produced here is great, in my studio it takes me like two weeks to finish one work but here I have been able to produce seven works within this period.” He however advised art dealers/ community *The heartbeat of love by Olatunde David to key into what Alexis is doing, “make this type of opporprove on their work. Most of the masters benefited from tunity available to upcoming things like this, so they artists so that they can im- should do so for upcoming artists too”, he added. The Voyage of Saints; Marvin Abe’s testimony of love By Japhet Davidson ONE of the qualities of a good book is that it makes the reader feel and takes him/ her on a compelling journey and after reading Marvin Abe’s debut novel, The Voyage Of Saints, I was left with no other view but to concur with the view. Apart from the above, one other special attribute of this romantic thriller is that it is based on a true life story and the author as a good story teller exhibited his story telling act which made reading it very engaging. In the 334 pages book of thirty chapters published by Masobe Books , Lagos, Nigeria, the author narrates how Michael Ajose, who was convinced by an unforgettable dream that his life’s course could only be charted by a mysterious woman’s love decided to find her, and marry her. He was 12 years old. Michael has big dreams to sail on a big ship and travel the world. Despite all the road blocks thrown his way, he still finds himself on the path to be a sailor with his eyes on the ultimate prize to be Captain of a ship some day. It is on this journey fate brings beautiful *One of the works to be exhibited Lami his way. Here, the author tells the reader of how he loved her like an addiction. And how she loved him like an anchor for his soul. Their love is one that is hard to believe still exists but yet believable as they go through life’s difficulties and challenges especially through life’s dangerous waters and against all forces determined to keep them apart, from external •The Voyage of Saints; Marvin Abe; Masobe Books Lagos; 2019;PP. 334 forces. Lami becomes Michael’s pillar and strength, she literally maps out how she would navigate towards achieving his goals and she ensures that he gets to the peak even at her own detriment. Michael on the other hand, is enchanted by her love for him and would do everything to please her so he marries her despite his family’s objections and it seems like this is happily ever after but as they say, good things does not come so easy there is always the unknown voice beyond. They partially achieved, the power from within did not all them to accomplish the rest, as Lami had challenges, she was unable to have a child for him, she battled with many ailment that finally took away her life. Micheal was devastated. The author utilised the use of many ingredients that spiced up the story, example the characters in this book were well built, Lami was lovely, strong and selfless while Michael’s zeal and tenacity were a plus. Another angle was the series of letters Lami and Michael wrote each other at the times they were apart. The author took the readers to the era of letter writing unlike these *A piece by Darlington Chukwumezie days where text messages and email have taken over. Even in far distances, they still expressed their love and commitment to their marriage and dreams for each other. Another angle was their visits to native doctors and seers. Though it might look somehow, but it was in the course of searching for solutions which can happen to any other person in need. In all, the story highlights the limitations of man over certain happenings, one can have the best plans, dreams and aspirations, and worked hard to achieve them, but there are sometimes forces that makes it look as if one has no plan or did not plan well. Overall, it was an interesting attempt by an experienced Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the Maritime and Oil and Gas industries. It is a well crafted piece waiting for a good producer that will turn it to a movie that it is. The Voyage of Saints’ is published by Masobe Books, a Lagos-based publishing house with the primary aim of encouraging reading by making available to the public, books by talented African authors.
Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 — 37 Dr. Charles Oni Dr. Yinka Alawode Dr. Jide Jimoh Unbundling of Mass Communication long over due — Experts RECENTLY, the National Universities Commission, NUC, announced the unbundling of the study of Mass Communication into seven different programmes. Vanguard sought the opinions of some experts on the matter and their opinion was the same - policy desirable. Head of Department, Mass Communication, Yaba College of Technology, Yabatech, Dr. Charles Oni, described the step as a way of securing the future of the industry. He also said it came as result of the concerted efforts of regulatory bodies and various stakeholders in the sector that began some years ago. By Elizabeth Uwandu & Glory Ojojo HOW do you see the decision of the NUC to unbundle the study of Mass Communication? Permit me to say that the unbundling of Mass Communication was a concerted efforts of Mass Communication scholars, industry experts and regulatory organizations in the communication industry, such as the NIPR, APCON, NUJ, BON, NGE, and Nigerian Communications Commission that sat for over two years to brainstorm on the future of the industry and eventually unfolded the unbundling scheme to the NUC in February 2019. The NUC is to spearhead the campaign being the content regulator in the university system. The unbundling is a welcome development as it is capable of further sharpening the skills of future communicators, and enhance human resources development in the university system. As things are, there is none of the seven new courses that is not capable of sustaining stand alone status - Journalism & Media Studies, Public Relations, Advertising, Development Communication, Film and Cinematography, etc. All these are courses that were hitherto taught superficially before at the undergraduate level. Only those who pursue postgraduate studies in Mass Communication have full glimpse of the courses depending on their areas of specialization. Are Nigerian universities prepared for the unbundling? I doubt if any university can start wholesale immediately because of the enormous resources required to put studios and laboratories in place. One good thing is the latitude given each institution to key in when ready. Good enough, they have to invite the NUC for resource and advisory visits before they can fully unbundle. One positive aspect again is the employment opportunity and training inherent in the new scheme. To a large extent, if the road map prepared by the 76 wise men is followed to the letter, the universities would be better equipped, better empowered and funded under the scheme. Otherwise, I am of the opinion, not ••‘Our varsities capable of handling development’ By Elizabeth Uwandu AN Associate Professor, Mass Communication (Broadcasting), Lagos State University, LASU, Ojo, Dr Yinka Alawode, said Nigerian universities are capable of handling the new development. He appealed to the government and owners of universities to provide adequate funding and facilities for the take off of the scheme. What is the timeline for the programmes to start? No deadline, no date. Each university is to decide what it wants and when it wants to start running these programmes. It is just that NUC has made it public and it has sent it to the universities. Are Nigerian universities capable of starting these seven courses distinctively? They are capable. If you go to the University of Lagos, UNILAG today, it has a Film Unit supported by maybe the World Bank. They have mounted Film and Digital Media Studies, so UNILAG was to start like that but people in Nigeria turned it around. What we are saying now is that at the Lagos State University now, we have BSC Mass Communication. But you know we have three departments already existing in LASU, there are: Broadcasting; Journalism and Public Relations and Advertising. The only thing is that we only have that structure under the table. It is BSc Mass Comm, it is BSc we offer and we do not even put the parenthesis in your certificate, saying your specialisation is PRAD or Journalism which we should have actually done. But that was because the design then was that be silent on anything specialisation. So, everyone is a generalisimo, a bit of Journalism, a bit of Broadcasting. A bit of PRAD, a bit of Publishing, a bit of Human Communication, a bit of Digital Communication, among others. But now we are saying let us go back that if you want to specialise in Photo-journalism, stay there, you will still have a bit of all others, but your own area from the time you enter from year one is Photo-journalism. That is specialisation, you will start with BSc Photo-journalism and graduate with that. That does not mean you do not have an idea of journalism or that you cannot function as a Broadcaster. What informed this decision to change the narrative to unbundle Mass Communication into seven courses or programmes? Look at it this way, when our students finish now, they go to National Broadcasting Academy to learn presentation and others. If from day one you are in BSc Broadcasting, all those ones are given. You must know them inside out. But now, it is not possible because the curriculum is so broad and you cannot possibly learn everything within the BSC area. As you are supposed to be generalisimo of everything and shallow in one. Now, we want you to be a generalisimo in one thing, know everything about one thing indepthly and know little in so many other things in Communication. If you are into Accounting, you can put Accounting with other subjects and call it Financial Accounting/Management. So that you learn a bit of Banking, a bit of Accounting, a bit of Marketing etc, but instead of doing it that many universities can unbundle their current scheme in the next two years. When would the directive take effect? There is no deadline set. Both the think tank behind the new scheme and the NUC knew huge resources would be needed to provide equipment, hire teachers, and replace outmoded facilities as well as restructure the faculties hosting the courses before takeoff. So, it is not a scheme that could be established or enforced by fiat. This goes to correct insinuations that Mass Comm has been canceled and similar headlines in the news media. They are farther from the truth. Nobody cancelled Mass Communication as a field of study. What will happen to students currently studying Mass Communication? They will continue with their course of study until their institutions meet the criteria for NUC’s resource inspection. What are the implications of the new scheme? The unbundling demands new curricula to ensure all universities involved are on the same page with regard to courses taught. For long, each university had run its Mass Communication programme as pleased. This accounted for some institutions awarding Bachelor of Arts and some Bachelor of Science, and of course, Master of Arts/Science respectively. With the new scheme, each university would teach the same courses and host the programmes under same faculty. This will enhance inter varsity transfer and put students in same stead. The unbundling will naturally demand human resources rearrangement. Each university would need to improve on their staff development and increase spending on facilities improvement. Students are likely to have deeper insights into the narrow disciplines they have chosen. The Continues on page 30 way, Accounting is a degree programme on its own. As a degree holder in Accounting, you have a bit of Insurance, a bit of Taxation among others. There is no big deal about it. School of Communication, Lagos State University actually started a school with seven departments. But collapsed because of NUC did not have the benchmark. Now, NUC has the benchmark for all of these areas. It has published it and made it public to all of the universities so that they can implement it at their own time and with their own resources. So as a university, if you have resources for one, just take one. If you have resources for two, take two. That is what it is. And when you go abroad, you will see that you do not have a university taking everything. They may take one or two or even three. And for crying out loud, that is not all, there is still the need for School of Entrepreneur in Communication. School of Fashion is also an area in Communication. All of these small areas are there and were not even touched. They will later become an Institute or a Centre.
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