Justina Uzo
No fewer than 12 diplomats, some tour operators and other high-profile personalities graced the opening of Nike Art Gallery in Abuja last Tuesday.
Some wives of diplomats in the country, led by Mrs. Sulola Onyeama, wife of Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geofrey Onyeama, were obviously impressed with the new space when they visited last Wednesday.
The visit was suffused with music and dance. Tour operators too have swarmed on the modern gallery like bees to honey ready to explore the facility first-hand for effective promotion and marketing.
Guests at the opening of the gallery showered encomiums on the owner of perhaps the biggest art gallery in Africa, Chief Nike Okundaye, for the newly expanded art gallery in the nation’s capital, Abuja.
The owner had invited the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonards to headline the opening of the upgraded gallery located at Airport Road in Piwoyi Village.
The old gallery (at the same location) wasn’t really big enough and so she decided to expand it into a training centre for women and youths.
Leonards was full of praise for the lady affectionately called Mama Nike: “It’s a pleasure in my last week in Nigeria to be part of the Nike Art Gallery, Abuja. It’s a wonderful achievement. I have enjoyed the opportunity to get to know Mama Nike.”
Similarly, Consul General of Nigeria in Atlanta-Georgia, United States, Ambassador Dr. Amina Sumaila, while praising Okundaye who she fondly calls “dear Mummy” said the art gallery is huge. “Nike Art Gallery is the biggest art gallery in Africa and now we have it in Abuja. Mummy has brought the entire world to Abuja.”
Bwari cultural troupe, the locals, were joined by cultural troupes from Osogbo, Ogidi-Ijimu in Kogi and Edo State to entertain guests with their dance moves. These women, no doubt, have passion for art. They understood it was their special day.
Okundaye herself said it was a double celebration and that was the reason she chose March for the opening of the gallery, because March is the international women’s month when women are celebrated. She supports female artists using art and arresting batik images to chronicle her society’s contradictory views towards women.
The Director General, the National Council for Arts and Culture, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, who was also excited, said the new gallery is an edifice that “speaks for Nigeria.”
He said: “This is an edifice of its kind in the history of Africa, it’s the best. The textile museum is special, the structure is special. If you come to Nigeria as a tourist, this is a destination to visit. The gallery was therapy that would provide succour to tourists, the idea is to allow people to grow with the gallery because Nigeria had treasure and the art is the treasure. The Nigeria project is a project that will rule the world soon and that’s why some do not want it to succeed.”
For him, Nike Art Gallery, Abuja will employ more youths and women in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The private gallery has already trained over 3,000 Nigerian women and youths.
“This gallery is going to create jobs, a lot of young people will get jobs from here, we are proud of this courageous move of starting a new thing that will promote Nigeria as a tourist destination. It is a unique brand of developing the economic strength of the country,” he said.
Okundaye assured that the gallery will employ more than 5,000 persons in the first one year because the “artists that we have on ground are 5,000 already and we have 50,000 non-Nigerian artists.
“We appreciate all the encouragement and support towards this project, and we consider it a national symbol, bringing together the soul and spirits of a nation where diversity is its strength,” Nike Okundaye wrote in a recent statement to her teeming well-wishers.
Apart from the Abuja gallery, Okundaye has other art space in Lagos, Osogbo, Ogidi-Ijumu in Kogi State, said to have trained over 3,000 young Nigerians for free in the visual, musical, and performing arts. Due to the success of these galleries, the Okundayes said in 2000, “we went to Abuja and approached the government to give us land to build a cultural centre for Nike Art Foundation, which they graciously granted and allocated. Mummy Nike’s husband, Chief Reuben would always celebrate his wife.
“I celebrate my wife whenever she achieves something big, because whenever Nike decides to do something, she does it well,” he said.
In the same vein, some of the tour operators present said they were pleased Nike Art Gallery, Abuja is bigger and better, saying that tourists would love the modern gallery. One Abuja-based tour operator, Managing Director of Peaceful Sky, Mrs. Peace Oyawveri said she has been selling Nike Art Gallery. “Now it’s spot on, very nice,” she said excitedly.
