Sally Mbanefo: I Started Painting at 18, Inspired by Peace of Mind

Sally Uwechue-Mbanefo, a former Director General of Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) is a renaissance woman. Nothing could be truer for the career woman of today who is charting unknown territories unabashedly and fearlessly. Be it in banking, investing, IT, administration among others, she is proceeding with gumption and unbridled enthusiasm to make a difference with her ideas, seek solutions that have never been sought and give face to a new paradigm in the Anambra Culture and Tourism ministry. She opened the doors of her home to Omolola Itayemi in a rare interview where she talked about her unknown side as a fine artist among her many callings

She welcomes me warmly to her Ikoyi apartment to the embrace of a Che Guevara painting, which hangs on a mantel. A waft of songs in peculiar percussions of Afrobeat hits the ear; one can easily hear Fela Anikulapo’s furious but mellifluous voice in the background. With various paintings and artistic designs, the house comes alive like a gallery; from stills to silhouettes to landscapes, she says she painted them all over the last three decades and eight years. A worn-out but strong easel, paint brushes and other art materials with her name engraved on them bear eloquent testimony that she has been there, done that. Her collection of books, proudly displayed on magazine racks placed at various points in the apartment spans the genres of art history to biographies and motivational books. Besides the books and paintings, delicately sits a bag – her boxing bag – at her reception. She boxes to ease off stress.

 “I started painting since I was 18 years old in England,” she recounts, walking me through her collection.  “Art is a talent. People will say you are a lawyer, a banker how come you are in the arts. I began to think about it and said: “look at this gift God has given me. I have been painting since I was 18. I will be 53 years old this year, 2018. It is a gift. It is when you recognise what God has given you. You can’t be a musician unless God has given you the gift. You cannot learn to be an artist; I enjoy my company.”

Every piece of art in her living room has a story behind it. Some of them show the trajectory of her sojourn as DG, NTDC in the four years of her tenure and now her new assignment as Commissioner of Indigenous Art, Diaspora Affairs and Culture & Tourism. She has been inspired by her experience travelling through the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria when she was at the NTDC. Some others feature her romance with nature and love for undiluted human form while some recent paintings are from close collaborations with artisans in Anambra State.

“What inspires me is peace of mind”, she says, adding, “If I have peace of mind, you can see the different aspects of art. Love also inspires me. Peace of mind. I do landscapes with still life drawing. You can see from my works that it is not just landscapes but my works are also about my life when I was in Europe.”
In her collection are landscapes of Ondo and Anambra States, Badagary landscape of the first story building in Nigeria.

“I have brought my art into tourism,” she adds. “I have painted tourism sites. In addition to what I have, when I am in love, I paint it. You can see the whole painting on the subtlety of love. Human form is a form of art. What inspired this is that if you go to an art school, they give you a nude image to draw or paint, because we were born nude. We were not born with clothes on. People have to show themselves. It is the innocence and simplicity of human being. You are not hiding.”

Mbanefo’s love for the arts stems from her quiet nature. A nature that involves looking inwards and taking a retrospect on life. “I am a bit of a loner. I am designed like an extrovert but by nature I am happy in my own quiet little space. I don’t drink or smoke. I don’t do anything out of the way that some people get into trouble for doing. But I am happy in my own space and I like to reach out to people if I can be of help to them and add value to their lives. I would not like to meet people to gossip or to just useless my time because our time on earth is short and we must use it judiciously.”

Mbanefo’s comes from a close knit family no doubt. She professes her love for family effortlessly. “I grew up amidst a lot of love. I am from the Uwechue family in Delta State. My father, Owelle George Uwechue, popularly hailed ‘Owelle the Law’ by Chief Arthur Mbanefo, is a past chairman of the body of benchers, member of the House of Representatives, a one-time speaker tempore and is the current head of the Uwechue family. His immediate elder brother was Ambassador Ralph Uwechue, a former Ohaneze President General of the Igbos. Growing up, all I remember to date is that none of my uncles or aunties ever fights. Every sibling is very caring towards the other; they all grew up in Kano, Sokoto and Kaduna States, so they are very cosmopolitan in their outlook. You can imagine the Mbanefo family came twice into the Uwechue family to marry our women because of our pedigree. My father worked with the colonial masters. He was next in line. My parents all went to school in the north. My uncles went to Raimi St. Johns including Ralph Uwechue who was a prefect every year. They grew up not thinking I am Igbo, I am this. They grew up in an environment where everybody was somebody not necessarily where you come from.”

Mbanefo is passionate about the arts. Therefore, her appointment as the Commissioner of Indigenous Art, Diaspora Affairs and Culture & Tourism was not by accident. She has put in some efforts to promote Nigeria as a tourists’ destination, something she is very ecstatic about.
She speaks about Anambra as a tourism destination, highlighting features like security, infrastructure, natural tourist sites and agriculture as magnets for tourists to Anambra state. But first speaks for the warm hospitality she has received.
“Anambra is fabulous and treating me very well. I have been given a lovely green home and I am being pampered and looked after very well. I am popularly known as the ‘Oyibo’ commissioner ‘ so it’s fun all the way and of course work.

I dare say our cabinet is the most sophisticated and achieving a huge success in bringing back so many disapora from out of the country to serve. Our governor is the only governor who has created a ministry for diaspora affairs and we are taking it seriously.
He has appointed SSA on diaspora affairs based in the USA and we are currently recruiting diaspora ambassadors all over the world. This government is taking Diaspora’s Affairs, culture and Tourism to higher places. It’s a homecoming call to serve.  Other commissioners are just very civilized and gentlemanly really have no choice but to emulate their governor who is a gentleman himself and lives his wife so much, professes his love for her publicly anytime he makes a speech. The cabinet is full of young enlightened and vibrant people. He has empowered so many young people and women.
What I love about his government is the transparency and professionalism and I know this comes from his discipline as a banker. We are all workaholics, he inspects projects every day. Your mails are responded to instantly and he always encourages us to think outside the box.

“Anambra has rich tourist attractions like Owere Ezukala Waterfall and Cave, Ogbunike Cave, Aguve Trinity Tree at Enugwu Agulueri, Agulu Lake and Ojukwu bunker. Our state is also known for bronze works, we have many artistically talented youths, we are creating platforms to showcase these talents; we have been engaged in wow-factor exhibitions. As part of our 100 days plans we have  been working in alignment with the governor’s directives. So full force upgrade has begun with our first two major tourism site is Owerre Izukala caves and Ogbunike caves. Being an artist and painter and sculptor the artist community has been excited to have me as the HC because I understand their language and their needs. In addition to all this we are transforming our Minsitry of four ministries into a walk in exhibition Centre. For hotels, we plan to start hotel grading and classification in the next 100 days and will launch a new hotel solely owned by the govt Golden Tulip right by the crocodile lake to be launched by His Excellency.
That we have artistic youths from Anambra is not surprising; remember it is from this our same state that we have the likes of Ben Enwonwu, Professor Uche Okeke, Professor Chinua Achebe, Alex Ekwueme, Laz Ekwueme, Chukwuma Soludo and Dora Akunyili,’’ she explains.

Anambra boasts talents all over the world. “You can see that Anambra State is the only state that has created a Ministry of Diaspora. This is to make sure that we keep all our talents in a loop. Right now, we are going around the world identifying Diaspora ambassadors. We have Diaspora desks in the USA and we are now working with other parts of the world to ensure that Ndi (people of) Anambra are all connected to us.’’
Speaking on her ministry’s focus, she says, “we are focusing on creating and promoting the Anambra tourism brand; making celebrities from Anambra ambassadors, hosting Anambra talent shows, establishing a dance school, creating the Anambra portal, creating a painting club, training and sensitising tourism service providers and sensitising the tourism host communities.’’

She’s quite liberal about her passions. “The best book I have ever read is, ‘The Road Less Travelled’ by M. Scott Peck. It echoes my life philosophy, which imbibes values like discipline, delayed gratification and love for others in my daily life. Discipline has ruled my whole life; if you look at my CV, if you don’t have discipline, you can’t survive the types of jobs I have done. I’ve chosen, for example, not to wear expensive jewellery, except earrings, therefore, if I wear a rope around my neck, I will carry it more elegantly than a lady wearing chopard worth thousands of dollars or a 100-karat gold necklace. Psalm 24 verse 4, captures this very aptly in saying, ‘Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord? The man with clean hands and a pure heart, who does not desire worthless things’. It’s very important that when one is in abundant resources, one does not spend foolishly forgetting that there are others who have nothing. When God blesses you, it is for a purpose. It is not the jewellery and diamond we wear that make us what we are but our actions and how we treat our fellow human beings.”