Five Nigerians trending in the international media

Nigerians have constantly attracted world attention wherever they are, whatever they do when they do it right, they do it right. Let’s call back some of our citizens that have been doing us proud worldwide. General Motors car designer Jelani Aliyu, the inimitable  J.J Okocha, Noble Laureate  Professor Wole Soyinka and several Nigerians in and […]

Nigerians have constantly attracted world attention wherever they are, whatever they do when they do it right, they do it right. Let’s call back some of our citizens that have been doing us proud worldwide. General Motors car designer Jelani Aliyu, the inimitable  J.J Okocha, Noble Laureate  Professor Wole Soyinka and several Nigerians in and out of politics, in the sciences, in the creative industry, in music and in the academia in  different countries worldwide. I recall a couple of years ago in Keele, Staffordshire in the United Kingdom, a young English friend of mine and a football fanatic who had come to the conclusion that I was the one going to deliver J.J Okocha to Staffordshire kept on saying “…his dribble men, his dribble,  I just want you to bring him to Staffordshire, can you imagine J.J Okocha in Staffordshire?” I was as excited as he was even though he refused to believe I did not know J. J  personally and knew that it was not something that I could do at the time. I was so excited that I wrote a whole column about the entire encounter. That is how good the feeling is when Nigerians are doing well internationally so as part of celebrating Nigeria’s 55th Independence anniversary,  I wish to bring you five Nigerians trending in the international media. Of the five, only one is not such good news but we will write about him anyway.
1) Duro Olowu: Nigerian Fashion Designer extraordinaire, knighted  by the Queen of England for his incredible work in the fashion industry. The fashion giant Duro Olowu has been able to carve a niche for himself that American First Lady, Michelle Obama, wears him. He designed his first dress in 2005 and was named the British Fashion Awards New Designer of the Year in the same year.
Based in London and of a Nigerian-Jamaican heritage, he has been able to convert the ancient Nigerian culture and spirit, converting that uniqueness into a classy, elegant fashion statement. He is mostly known for bright colors, cuts that are highly finished and vintage prints. Duro’s designs have been characterized as colorful, controversial combinations of African prints in a classic seventies tailoring. His creations have gained him clients like Michelle Obama, Uma Thurman and Linda Evangelista, among many top level women.
A lawyer by profession, he has allowed his rich cultural exposure to be the stepping stone to his success. He has received lots of awards and has enjoyed global recognition. Recently the Fashion week for 2015 kicked off, and the London based Nigerian designer showcased his collection for spring/summer 2016. He occupies the number 7 spot of top 10 Nigerian fashion designers and has been tending lately in global international magazines.
2) Theophilus  Danjuma is a young collector in his late twenties whose impressively large and diverse collection amassed over the last six years has a focus on contemporary African art juxtaposing it with conceptual artists of his own generation. He attended Nottingham University and studied History and Politics, but has always been interested in art.
Because of his desire and love for art he enrolled in a foundation course at Chelsea College of Art. His first piece was Antony Micallef prints which came from Lazarides and in October 2014 his collection went on public display for the first time during the London  Frieze festival at 33 Fitzroy Square as an exhibition entitled “One Man’s Trash (Is Another Man’s Treasure)”. 
Danjuma’s project is one within a general trend that has seen African collectors and artists and generally West African countries more visible on the global contemporary art stage which has taking place abroad as well as at home. He has around 400 works and has been trending in magazines in the French Riviera and in Britain.
3) Ben Okri author and magical realism writer: Ben Okri was born on March 15, 1959 in Minna, Nigeria his father was Urhobo and his mother was half-Igbo. Okri spent his earliest years in London and attended primary school in Peckham. In 1968, Okri’s father who moved his family earlier to London moved them back to Lagos where Okri’s exposure to the Nigerian Civil War and a culture in which his peers saw visions of spirits at the time later provided inspiration for his works. At 14, he declined to write claiming that poetry was his chosen calling. He began writing articles on social and political issues, but never found a publisher perhaps because of his critics.
Instead, he ventured into writing short stories based on those articles, and some where later published in the women’s journal. Ben’s critical works attracted death threats during the military era, and this necessitated his departure from the country. In 1970, Okri moved back to England to study Comparative Literature at Essex University. His success as a writer began when he published his first novel Flowers and Shadows, at the age of 21.
He then served the West African magazine as poetry editor from 1983 to 1986, and was a regular contributor to the BBC World Service from 1983 to 1985 and continued to publish throughout this period. It is very difficult to pigeon-hole him into a particular form of writing. Not even his best critics could pinpoint where he belongs amongst the community of writers.
His work has the Yoruba folklore, new ageism, spiritual realism, magical realism, visionary materialism, and existentialism. His reputation as an author was secured when he won the Booker Prize for fiction for his novel The Famished Road in 1991. After his first novel, Flowers and Shadows in 1980, Okri has risen to be an internationally-acclaimed writer. His best known work The Famished Road, which was awarded the 1991 Booker Prizer, alongside the songs of Enchantment and Infinite Riches, make up a trilogy that follows the life of Aazro, a spirit-works narrator, through the social and political turmoil of an African nation reminiscent of Ben’s remembrance of war-torn Nigeria.
For all his enormous and immense contributions to the growth of African Literature, he was made honorary Vice-President of the English Centre for the International PEN and a member of the board of the Royal Theatre. Also, on 26th April 2012 Okri was appointed the new vice-president, Caine Prize for African Writing. Okri is constantly trending in international and local literary magazines and newspapers.
4) Okwui Enwezor is a Nigerian curator art critic, writer poet and educator specializing in art history. He lives in New York and Munich. He was ranked 24 in the Art review list of the 100 most powerful people of the art world in 2014. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political sciences at the New Jersey university.
After his graduation he took to poetry which led him to language based art forms like conceptual art to art criticism and afterwards launching the triannual Nka journal of contemporary art forms. After putting on a couple of small museum shows he had his breakthrough in 1996 as a curator of In/sight, an exhibit of 30 African photographers at the Guggenheim museum.
He has curated for several top level museums including the Art institute , Chicago and many other distinguished museums and exhibitions around the world. In 2013, Enwezor was appointed curator of the Venice Bienale 2015, making him the first African born curator in the exhibitions 120 year history.
Enwezor continues to captivate international media. He serves on numerous juries, advisory boards and curatorial teams including the Hugo Boss prize, Venice biennale, the Carnegie prize and the international centre for photography infinity awards. He has held positions as visiting professor in art history at several universities including the university of Pittsburg, Columbia and Illinois. The Wall Street journal feature on Enwezor in September 2014 is a must read.
5) Finally it’s the turn of senior west London Coroner, Chinyere Inyama is facing investigations after he left a vital case file in a train containing sensitive police information into the murder of fourteen year old Alice Gross. It is felt that he should not have removed the file from the office. Efforts by the police to regain the file said to contain information about the prime suspect Arnis  Zalkan has failed.
It is thought that it may have been trashed as waste. Chinyere is also been investigated regarding claims by people in his constituent work area who claim that it takes too long to get death certificates of their loved ones and when they eventually receive it it’s fraught with mistakes and spelling errors. The complaints against Chinyere also included the fact that the phone number for the Coroners office as advertised is hardly ever answered. Chinyere is sadly trending in all major international magazines and newspapers.
 I leave you with your thoughts.
Happy 55th independence to Nigeria and Nigerians.