Hey Joe... Activism is the Art: Evoking the paths of our Journeys

(Being a note contributed to the brochure of Joe Musa's current exhibition, opened Feb 3, 2008)
Where did I first meet Joe?
In the Street?
In the Gallery?
In those groves where a few artistes and journalists
— outraged and agitated by the philistine attitude of
rulers and ‘ruiners’ of the system to matter of art and
culture — abandoned their studios, writing smithy,
rehearsal halls, newsrooms… and, convoke to deploy
arsenal of activism against the perceived enemies of
their esteemed career… and Beings?
When did I first encounter Joe?
The mid… late Eighties?
The… Nineties?
Forever?
Or maybe in the distant echoes of our past when our paths crossed at the point of making divine choices.
Who knows maybe we met in life before life?
My memory [recollection] of our first contact is now so blurred… I have always crossed his path... forever?
There are some people who just appear to have been part of your life — all your life.
For me, Joe Musa exemplifies this type of people.
He was, has been present in every aspects of my public life; or so it must be.
In the newsroom — he wrote on occasions then for the art pages I edited for 12 years. And he was at the
Channels, almost from the television station’s beginning; where on his Arthouse programme I used to
pontificate (bellyaching really) on art and culture affairs.
In the rehearsal halls – a camcorder in hand, he would sit through a rehearsal session in which I was
an actor, dancer, stage manager or assistant director.

In the streets — we moonlighted in some corners of the city of Lagos, and occasionally when we met at
assignments around the country.
We ate a fat dose of tear gas together, somewhere around Geobi Gallery along Ikorodu Road in those heady days of Abacha, when the kill-an-go(s) were unleashed on the anti-June 12 annulment protesters, or even those who as much as whimper about the rape of our collective weal.
We met… in those groves where we bled action plans to tackle a behemoth culture bureaucracy whose foundation was (is) seemingly rooted in its very death bed…

A quick digression: that Joe is today sitting as a manager of one finger of the culture octopus itself is
an Irony of Destiny. But then this is a testimony to dynamism of the human spirit, especially the one that
could be rightly defined as the strong breed.

So where, when did I first meet Joe?
My faint feeling is that we probably met in the course of a landmark event that I still hold
tenaciously as the very tonic that fired the boom witnessed in the late 80s through the 90s in the
Visual Art circle — the Bernd-Wolf Dettelbach two-week workshop initiated by the Goethe Institut under the supervision of its then Deputy Director, Renate Albertsen-Marton. The workshop held at the National
Museum, Onikan Lagos and it had as many as 30 young, mostly fresh-on-the-scene artists; only a few of them had had some exposure in the exhibition circuit.
As one had had to clarify at some other forum, the boom in the Visual Art scene of the time did not start with this Dettelbach workshop (PROBABLY not), but it was — speaking from a chronicler’s (reporter) perspective now — the singular, most monumental event that kindled fire of the nearly hyperactive creativity that characterised the boom in the gallery and the studios, and the ‘market place’ of that period.
The birth of the boom, as some people have argued, could be linked to the advent of the Babangida
economic restructuring that brought those chunky terms as IMF, SAP, belt-tightening etc. to the
national consciousness. The explanation has been that since the value of the Naira was drastically dented in
favour of other foreign currencies, many Nigerians, especially the then ‘middle class’ had had to invent a
means to preserve their accumulated liquid asset. Ostensibly they had discovered that it was wiser — against the background of widespread conception that many of them especially in the financial sectors
(remember, it was those days of finance houses and other spurious money-guzzling and spinning agencies) -- to expend their money on luxury goods that would not necessarily draw attention to the size(s) of their
purses. And so they picked on art, which though is considered luxurious, is silently so, unlike other
acquisitions such as cars, landed properties or even personal dressing culture.

The Dettelbach workshop, I argue even here, remains a watershed in the shaping of the character of the boom, and by implication the future (now) of Nigerian visual art scene.
Nearly two decades after, the products of that workshop, some of whom also participated in a follow-up workshop in Nsukka the following year conducted by the inventive colour specialist, Arnulf Spengler, also from Germany still on Goethe’s platform.
Here is an excerpt from a report (‘All Hands On Canvas: Artists Parade Fruits Of Workshop Labour) I
wrote on the workshop:
“The promotion of experimentation in styles, media and expression which was the focus of the workshop
conducted by German artist, Bernd-Wolfe Dettelbach has been undoubtedly accomplished. It has also set a new standard of judgment in the Nigerian art circuit.
“Mr. Dettelbach, an acclaimed experimentalist, had earlier painted Nigerian visual arts in deservedly
roseate superlatives. ‘The Nigerian arts is living, vibrant and growing’, he observed. Towards the end of
the workshop, he confessed, ‘I have not only imparted my knowledge of German art into the artists, I have
also learnt immensely from the lively sessions’. He regretted that the workshop had to end so soon.
“The participating artists relating their experiences heaped praises on Goethe Institut for initiating the project, which one of them, Mr. Kunle Adeyemi, termed as ‘a cross pollination process.’ ‘For the first time, Nigerian artists were taken into an unconscious evaluative journey into the cult of German art and were able to critically examine the scene at home’, remarked Adeyemi.
“Mr. Jide Aje, whose discomfiture at being lured away from ‘Animal Farms’, an abstract piece he was
working on, was glaring, submitted, ‘It’s been a rewarding experience! A fulfilling, healthy development; I hope we have more of this’. Sola Ejiun expressed similar sentiment. His enthusiasm was totally infectious.
“Speaking on the response of the artists, Dettelbach described the participants as a bunch of talented
young men, whose industriousness is buoyed by the willingness and eagerness to acquire new knowledge.
‘Despite the fact that artists generally all over the world are difficult to work with, especially in a
workshop situation where you don’t know much about each other, the team work here has been surprisingly
stimulating’, he said.
“However, Mike Omoighe was more sensitively critical of the artists’ response vis-à-vis the generous
disposition of the German instructor. To him, the workshop has been abundantly beneficial in terms of
experimentation but the focal exchange of artistic ideas has been one-sided.
‘There is a stubborn rigidity and introverted-ness in some of the participants. Lots of us do not want to
forsake our egocentric individuality to absorb the gains of the workshop’, he lamented; attributing it to the fear of losing what one has got to get what he needs. ‘This is a perennial destructive attitude, which is stagnating our art scene even among the professionals,’ said Omoighe.
“The scenery at the workshop had a dramatic undertone. The education workshop hall where the sessions were held, was a mayhem of tools, frames, finished and unfinished works. The artists too were seen unleashing their energies and skills on the works. The more inquisitive ones were engaged in a
brain-storming session with the instructor.
Frequently, Dettelbach’s attention was diverted to approve a particular sketch or offer his experienced
intervention.
“Outside the hall, an extra-large board was being attacked by a locust of artists, busy adorning its
surface with splashes of paints and seemingly meaningless stroke to collectively achieve a
particular painting concept or idea.
“Absolutely captivating, every artist was free to pick up a brush and add his own impression to the work in progress.
“According to Mrs. Renate Albertsen–Marton, the Deputy Director of Goethe Institut, who supervised the
Workshop, ‘the proceeds of the exhibition will go into the pockets of the participating artists. My institute
is not deducting anything. Not even for the materials used, which were provided by us’.
“Pressed to give an overall assessment of the workshop, she, unable to hide her apparent
satisfaction, said, ‘It has been terrific! Really positive! The dual target, for which this workshop was
initiated has been realized’. Continuing she said, ‘We are using this medium to enhance the transfer of
knowledge and culture between Germany and Nigeria’.
“On the quality of the works already produced, Mrs. Albertsen-Marton felt they were a marvelous revelation as well as a new dimension to the conceptual base of Nigerian Arts.
“Dettelbach, posing a passing shot on the Nigerian art scene, revealed, ‘There are about 50,000 working
artists and about 20 arts academy in Germany. Every year about 800 artists are turned out of the academics. But only 20 per cent live professionally on their art. The rest have either abandoned art or engaged in other professions to supplement their earnings’.
“Comparing the situation with Nigeria’s, he said that Nigerian art had enjoyed a sporadic growth inspite of her economic and technological status. He chided the artists ‘it is for you the artists to consolidate the growth by not been stagnant in your creation. You must chart the course for national development through the art”.

With this statement, Dettelbach would seem to have projected into the future of the Visual Art scene that
was to flower through the nineties and beyond. Since then the fortune of the visual arts discipline seemed to have overshot the template that the disinterested system had set for the career of an artists.
Noticeably many of the products of the workshop, eventually ended up seeking fresher breathe for their
career. They migrated in droves to Europe and the United States — these included Jide Aje, Ephraim Ekah,
Ishmael Benamasia, Oseha Ajokpaezi, Sola Ejiun, Biodun Oladega. Exemplarily, the rest of the team that
remained at home became the champion of a new character for visual art career. These include Ndidi
Dike, who was the only female participant; Mike Omoighe; Olu Amoda; Kunle Adeyemi; Abraham Uyovbisere; John Onobrakpeya, who later ran a major exhibition cum-photography studio in Benin and then Port Harcourt before, as I suspect, also relocating overseas.
These artistes became the front-runners in studio practice and exhibiting circuit; dictating the pace and redefining the character of public display of art. They established studios and were liberal and confident enough to invite journalists to sit in and observe them at work. This had been nearly impossible with their older colleagues who were mostly teachers (their teachers)… some of whom were like gods who would occasionally emerge from some mysterious holes to show their works in the few galleries and foreign cultural centres in town.
The workshop participants were not alone in the newly founded club of prosperous artists, though; they
had quite a handful of their fellow artists who also must have been fired by the bustle on the circuit. I
recall from my reporter’s notebook, names like Jones Are, Rukeme Noserime, Buhari Shaibu; Paul Ejukorlem, Greg Agbonkonkon, Sola Ogunfuwa; Biodun Olajiga, Tunde Olanipekun; Victor Ekpu; Yinka Kuyatsemi; Sam Ovraitti; Adeyi Ameh; Ini Brown; Ed Inyang; Yisa Akinbolaji; Fred Akpomuje; George
Nwadiogbu; Tola Wewe; Rom Isichei; Akin Onipede; Edosa Ogiugo; Phemi Adeniran; Charles Ike; Livi Onyia… There were also on the scene (or freshly stepping in) artists including Tola Wewe, Lara Ige; Emily Nelson; Marcia Kure; Uche Nwosu; Titi Kolawole; Ben Osaghae; Uche Edochie; Veronica Otigbo; Nkechi Nwosu-Igbo; Hakeem Bello; Tony Ogunde… and tens more such names.
Some of these artists staged shows that revved the nerves of the scene. One recalls the joint show by Olu
Ajayi and Edwin Debebs, which sounded an arrogant note in its statement of mission and, thus enraged some of their elders and colleagues: “As contemporary painters living and practising in Nigeria, we have
taken a critical look at the state of painting in Nigeria and have come to a firm conclusion that majority of what passes as painting today is not painting but craft”. This sort of statement, which I think led to the birth of the Colour Masters and their Colour Particularisation theory, was the texture of the confidence albeit boisterousness of these young artists, most of whom came out of school in the early-middle-late 80s.
There were other remarkable shows of that nature which included Olu Oguibe’s Unbind Me; Morgan
Nwaguma’s Expressions; Tunde Soyinka’s Lyrics of a Troubadour; Kunle Adeyemi’s Panorama of Life; Kunle Filani’s Salute to Patience (1991); Idowu Otun’s Reminiscences; the ABU Alumni series of exhibitions…
one of its remarkable previews held in the Lawanson Surulere-home cum studio of Inyang Abasi, especially Evolution in Arts series 5 of 1990); Chinwe Uwatse’s Phantasmagoria; Ndidi Dike’s Forms in Festivity; Dora Ifudu’s Vibes in Multimedia; Raquib Bashorun’s Cataclytic Experience; Osanhenyen Kainebi and Udu Maduka’s The way we feel; TundeLanipekun/Sola Ogunfuwa and Femi Adesina’s Tonic Embrace…

Aside these newsmaker studio artists there was a legion in public service who were also doing so well…
Bunmi Babatunde, Abiodun Olaku; Idowu Otun; Arije; Chinwe Uwatse… The trademark of these artists was this humongous gut for experimentation both in content of their art and in the character of their practice.
It was in their time that the idea of bold, and loud exhibitions became more pronounced; with some of the
shows having the colors of a social party — plenty of wining, dining and live musical and dance performances. They also remarkably, brought up a new set of collectors — many of whom had never been heard off on the circuit. One recollects names such as Fola Adeola, Kofo Abayomi, Adeyemo Alakija, Adeleke and one of the sons of the late Adeyemi Lawson, who used to stage regular food-and-drink filled display of artworks in the garden of his opulent residence in Apapa. They got mostly banks — Century Merchant Bank; City Bank (later NIB); Chartered Bank; National Bank; First Bank; and a few manufacturing companies such as Tower Aluminium, interested in these shows. This was the time the fore-rooms of most banks and hotels began spotting artworks either permanently or as a space for artworks.
The challenge was thrown directly in the faces of the few galleries existing then, some of which were (rightly or wrongly) frequently accused by the more vocal of the artists of doing sleazy deals on their works and career.
Of course, many observers would remember those ubiquitous so-called Art Salons, which held in many corners of the city, particularly in the lush garden of some young corporate executives and the then
emergent upwardly mobile young men and women. Sometimes, the displays would show up in unexpected places like at public gatherings, market places, or even in the pubs.
Coincidentally, same period witnessed the emergent of a club of graduates of other disciplines in the
humanities, who were writing effusively in the newspapers; it was a time of flowering too for a new
class of young creative writers; they wrote quite energetically in the newspapers… many of these form
the crux of arts journalists practising today in the print media. A few of the visual artists too, aside
active studio practice, got involved with writings previews, reviews and critiques on works of their
fellow artists in the newspapers and magazines. There were Tunde Lanipekun, Kunle Filani, Akin Onipede, Chika Okeke, Tunde Soyinka, Uche Nwosu, Kehinde Adepegba, and many more… These artists, writers helped to keep the fame of Visual Art on the upswing…
Joe Musa was eminent in these groups… as an artists, art activist, writer on the art and… as a rebellious spirit, who took the battle to the court of the gallerists and art managers operating then.
It would be recalled too that with the aggressive, excitingly exuberant marketing strides of these
vibrant young artists came a dislocation in their relationship with their elders or older colleagues.
They were accused of prostituting the perceptibly sacred world of art through the then Salons and high
drive for patron-ship; and the way they mounted their exhibitions as well as the rambunctious campaign they mounted in the media, particularly the prints.
On, here, recalls the press conference held at the National Theatre to announce programmes of the 25th anniversary of the Society Nigeria Artists, SNA, where then President of the body, Wangboje heated up the house as he raged endlessly against the younger artists for, according to him, desecrating the profession. And the more than a grumble response the old man got from the few young artists in attendance. Ben Enwonwu had earlier made a similar statement that drew a robust anger among the young people.
Whereas there was a case to make for the noticeable but inevitable excesses and perhaps exuberances in the practice of these young people, that may have drawn the ire of the elders, it was certain that the daring-and-damning spirit and industriousness of these young artistes were un-putdownable. What they did was in the spirit of the socio-economic circumstances of the time; These were the Nigerians whose parents’ economic power had been recently decimated through the ‘Babangidanomics’ of SAP and Austerity Measures; this is a generation of Nigerians who were minted and weaned at a time the riches of the country had suddenly taken a flight; who were ill-opportune to benefit from the education-with-joy (really aristocratic in comparison to what obtained later) experienced by their elders. It was a popular joke then that the elders were the authentic Nigerian citizens who were schorlashipped, chickened and ice-creamed through schools. These later Nigerians went to school wondering if scared of the world outside of their campuses. This indeed is the hallmark of the differences in attitude, and of course, the tension between the two classes.


I AM certain now that it was at the Dettelbach workshop or AROUND the workshop that I first encountered Joe Musa. Even if he wasn’t a participant in the workshop, I am thinking that he must have first come strongly or fully into my consciousness at that time. I had heard of him before then; he had had some solo and group outings even outside the country, before this time, but it was at, or around the
workshop, that we became so close; and later, at the many fronts our paths were to cross or keep crossing.
They were indeed two, almost like a set of twins. His partner was a pretty, fair-skinned young-man named Hassan Aliyu. I think they even once had a two-man show, which I commented on. I had first noticed them
in the midst of the Ahmadu Bello University ABU Alumni Artists, whose exhibitions were fairly regular
then. Aside these two, I recall this was where I first encountered names such as Jerry Buhari; Jacob Jari; Tonie Okpei; John Onobrakpeya among others. Perhaps, it was the sort of motifs they brought onto the painter’s canvass, usually the northern landscapes and figurative representations of the human and material
cultural particulars of the upland (a critic once called it ‘zaria obsession’)… but there was something
that distinguished them from the regular features of the artists in Lagos, and those coming in from the
East whose overarching identity of Uli and Nsibidi was something of in-your-face.
But of all these, Joe Musa was distinct. I know it has something to do with his multi-dimensional
activities on the scene. He was more of an activist. He was, I suppose, angry at so many things; and he was
very vocal, including taking up some of his teacher and older colleagues.
Take the case of how he came about establishing a studio/gallery; which was more of a reactionary move.
Of the artists that had a huge gut to establish their own studios and galleries at the time, I recall two names, Tunde Olanipekun of Baffles Studio located in the Shogunle-Ladipo part of Oshodi, Lagos. He had
been a graphic artist with a newspaper (who wrote regularly on exhibition matters), school teacher and
then decided to establish his own studio where he held exhibition of works of his colleagues and younger
artists. Though the location of his gallery was not particularly an easy reach for art patrons, his involvement with the media ensured that every show had a remarkable presence of exhibition crowd.
On the other side of town in Anthony Village – on Oyedele Ogunniyi Street, in the neighbourhood of the fiery Lagos lawyer Gani Fawehinmi and the civil activist, Beko Ransome-Kuti, was the Joe Musa Gallery, incorporating a studio. This was a hub for artistic (mostly painters) activities.
At every point in time, you could find as many as 10 artists, mostly 20somethings (Joe was himself about 26 or 27) busy paintings in Musa’s living room, kitchen, garage or just about any available space around the house. They were an odd lot in that somewhat posh environment, but they commanded a large space of
attention.
As a reporter one would hang around the place just to fraternize with the sweaty, often bare-chested and
paint-doused young men while they were at work. As they worked, we would engage in arguments on a wide range of issues — politics, culture, society… just about anything that washed up in someone’s head; it
could be on the process of accomplishing a particular painting task, or simply reviewing the last shows that
we had seen. Joe Musa was himself like the moderator of the informal sessions. He always had a strong
opinion about the work of others, and would in fact attempt critiques… some of such comments he was
encouraged to get published in the newspapers. It was from the studio that I think Joe orchestrated his, to
my mind, first major solo (though, about his sixth show then) — Masquerades, Myths and Symbols(?).
Here is an excerpt of my comment on the show: “As Joe Musa’s framed paintings attract the viewer’s
subconscious appreciation, the unframed oil on canvas ones, numbering about eight, sensitise one to some
measure of overbearing exuberance in the artist’s visual perception and engagement. Whereas the former
invites, the latter sort of raise repugnance in their seemingly unserious forms. Basically, strokes and
splashes of paints done with careless abandonment without due regard for background embellishments spur
questions as to the commitment of the artist to such pieces.
“The finishing, appearing half-measured, especially with the untreated plain white backgrounds, are somewhat unbelievable, having being done by the same artist who did the pieces in acrylic and mixed-media. Perhaps, as a viewer did aver, the works could be a further testimony to the non-static or fixated style of the artist or it could be another attempt at radical experimentation which Joe Musa and some other younger artists in his ilk are wont to attempt. However, the unusualness of these pieces couple with the surprise and suspense element elongate the viewer’s dialogue with the pieces.
“The clue might, however, be in the artist’s statement: ‘I like to be surprised through the painting process and if surprise is lacking, I sometimes cannot finish the work, I look for the mysterious force, vision, or power I know to be there’. That power, one suspects is the instantaneous creative instinct or mystery that beclouds the artist’s mental power in the creative process. Further clues might be deducted from his contention that as an artist, his whole process has always been to free himself from conditions encumbered by external influences. According to him, creative engagement means expressing an emotional equivalent of such experiences”.
I do not think in nearly two decades my opinion about Joe Musa’s works have changed any significantly. I still see those eclectic, effusive and clearly unencumbered style; his themes remain deeply patriotic and committed to recording and celebrating the core values of African cultural experiences, but the technique and style remain also deeply temperamentally experimental. And that for me is the strength of the artist… the activism shuttles between the Being and the Canvass.

Back to Joe Musa Gallery….
All of a sudden, an opportunity to take anexhibition overseas seemed to have come through, surely the result of Joe Musa’s restless pursuit of bigger, more expansive platforms for expression; not just for himself but also for his comrades of the canvass. I suppose he mobilized his comrades at the Anthony Village forge; they went overseas for a campaign. Not much was heard of many of them after that. I particularly miss Ephraim Ekah’s wood burning… I can still feel the cocoa-like aroma of the burnt wood… Some smells never go away!
But when Joe Musa returned some few years after... I noticed him more in another sort of studio — the television studio, presenting a weekly programme on the arts and helping to document cultural activities happening on the scene then.
This was another dimension to the texture of his activist personae. Yet another is his current political engagement as the Director General of the National Gallery of Art, which expectedly has put him on the line of fire from many of us his colleagues; his friends… whereas it is personally a call to service for the artist turned culture bureaucrat, to many of us on he other side, it is a new vista through which one could test the real weight of Joe Musa’s conviction as an Artist, Art Manager, Activist and as a Person.
The jury has just step into town on his case.
Recently on an internet discussion forum, when an issue came up about his activities, especially some perceived lapses in his operation as the Director-General of the NGA, I had cause to write the following about my friend, colleague and reportorial subject, whose career I can claim to have followed assiduously in the past two decades. In the short revue I had had no qualms in claiming Joe Musa, who reckoning with his antecedence, I am very pleased to claim as exemplifying the great potentialities of my untapped generation. I wrote in response to a sharp condemnation of his perceived failings as a culture bureaucrat, which I thought went overboard in stating that Joe was probably a political jobber on the post:
“Strange enough, Joe Musa is one member of my generation I can vouch is driven by dreams; solid quality visions — I recall some of the projects he started even while his fellow painters were contented with mere studio work: he had launched one of the most ambitious galleries in Lagos and thus rescued himself from the claws of shylock Gallerists, who were the bane of the visual art scene then. In fact, many of his colleagues who sneered at him when he opened the studio at Anthony Village -- in the costly GRA neighbourhood of Gani Fawehinmin and Beko Ransome-Kuti — soon found themselves scampering to him to help them sell their works at sustainable terms than the killer-gallerists would have offered.
He had worked his way to the USA to deepen his knowledge of art. Contrary to our fear that he was running away, he promised then that he was not 'brain-draining', that he would return; he did. His mates who also left in that era of fleeing to the borders are still stranded in or lost or dumped or ‘dumbed’ by the tricky bosom of 'Dollar-po' and 'Elizabethian pon-furo'. And when he returned he started a most ambitious project — the NACD (the National Arts and Culture Directory) — designed to do a most comprehensive documentation of the artists of Nigeria. He was faced with odds erected by ‘civilnuisances’ (civil servants) in the culture bureaucracy; but he wouldn't stop the dream.
“He succeeded in getting it (the project) to be adopted by the Presidency. He was still pursuing the project when he was appointed to head the National Gallery -- the youngest ever to be given such a task. That was why I took up my battle dress when some envious colleagues of his and some ‘agbayas’ (older colleagues) in the visual arts circuit were screaming that he ought not to have got the post; that he lobbied and that he was too young (at 40something o), I shouted some of them down and asked them to bring out their track records and let us weigh it against Joe Musa's -- they dropped their 'PhD-ism'; and bowed. But since Joe came in I have had occasion to review some of the fears of some of those ‘cyni-critics’. He has mouthed a lot of dreams but not much seems to be on the table yet. And now to be failing in the simplest task of organising an exhibition — a task that many individual artists even take for granted — is quite infuriating and he should be told so in clear terms by the Ozoluas, the Chukas, the Okechukwus, and all the Visual Arts majors in this house of arts chroniclers. That way we shall be helping him to spend his tenure more accomplishedly”.

This was, is my conviction; and as I have said; Joe Musa by virtue of his current position is in the court of public opinions; in the dock of his friends and colleagues whom I am sure he is aware he is representing in the government of today.
I have not had the occasion to debrief him on what his experience had been all this while, even before I
wrote the response above. But the opportunity presented itself recently at an edition of the quarterly Art Stampede, which I coordinated as the Programme Chair of the Committee for Relevant Art, CORA (Joe was one of the artists present at Toyin Akinosho’s residence at the birth of the Art Stampede in June 1991), where he was billed as a speaker on the theme: ‘What Has Budget Got To Do With Culture Production?’ He had submitted what looked like giving the report of his stewardship in his opening remarks:

Said Joe Musa extempore: “The experience has been, conservatively, very frustrating and that is the truth. Reason with me; you work amongst people who are the best brains the country has but you also find out that there are certain incursions into that sub-sector that tends to run the wheel backwards rather than moving it forward. Now one of the major problems I find in my personal experience is requesting for funds to function in my sector. I have been involved in two budgetary defences, we just finished one a week or two ago, it is not an easy thing because you end up finding out that you are a lone voice; I am there screaming and shouting for more to be added to my parastatals or better yet Arts and Culture together with my colleague, Ahmed Yerima, the Director General of the National Arts Theatre. We had a system on ground before now, and in the old system once a core circular is received, everybody appears before a budgetary committee in the Ministry of Finance, defend why you need X amount and you now lay
out your programs. In the past two years it has changed and they just hand each Ministry an envelope, even if you need 50 billion to run your ministry, you are given an envelope that may contain 2 billion. It is now left for you to take the 2 billion and spread amongst your Parastatals, it becomes even more difficult if the Ministry does not think you are
important enough to even be mentioned in the budget; a
couple of Parastatals we hear have zero allocation.
“Now lets come to my experience; artists, culture workers in the ministry are lacking, we don’t have them and this may be a good opportunity to ask many of us to find out how we can also be involved in policy making because it is so important. Let me not digress, because I was able to defend my budget for last year, from a pittance of 170 million naira recurrent expenditure I got about 84 million naira and that is after defending my case before the house; go to the lower house, go to the upper house, run to whoever to see back you in the programmess you have planned for the year. We do not even have an edifice for the national gallery, a proper one that can match any international standard gallery. In the Louvre in Paris, you have to pay 8 Euros to enter and they receive 80,000 visitors a day that is where you have the work, the Mona Lisa. That is good money.
“Now for the one and a half years that I have been there I have been fighting to see that if we do achieve anything; let’s at have a structure on ground first of all in addition to
designing of the policies that we have been working on; but as I am talking to you, I have not been able to get anybody to listen to me. From the recent envelope we received we have gone back worse than the earlier period I met; less than 100 million naira. I am baring my mind so that when people are complaining (about our being in government); Yerima is there, Joe Musa is there; they are not doing anything, I want you to understand what we are going through. They have given us less than 100 million naira, which give or take we will be receiving just 6 or 7 thousand naira to run the office every month, an office that has 22
branches. I met 8 branches and I increased it to 22 thinking with good funding we can achieve our objectives but what this means is that we should begin to collapse some of those branches, that is the reality on ground.
“Again artists apply for sponsorship and this same budgeting that we are talking about means that I need
to receive applications a year before time so that I can factor it into the next year’s budget, but once they realize that you are not approving their applications, artists get disenchanted and very annoyed. They do not realize that these things have already been programmed and you must run with the programme. Finally if you look at the envelopes handed to all the ministries, you will find Culture and Tourism worse off. Nobody seems to know what to with the ministry and even when they want to pretend that they know, the artists are not there in the corridors of power to push it and force it down their neck. I think that it is a two-pronged thing, if you do your fight here, those of us there will also do our part. Most importantly, we all have to act as the ombudsman for the sector. You exist in an environment at the time when your contribution is necessary”.