Buhari to launch unity photo exhibition

*As Osinbajo’s aide seeks national unity through pictures

Towards overcoming conflicts and other factors tearing the country apart, President Muhammadu Buhari next Monday is scheduled to launch unity photo exhibition in Abuja.

The coordinator of the exhibition under the platform of ANISZA, Novo Isioro, who is the Personal Photographer to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, briefed journalists in Abuja.

She is also the Special Assistant to the President on Visual Communication.

She said “These differences that we have should be celebrated and not become a problem. Why do I have to favour a Yoruba man over Igbo man? Why do I have to favour Hausa man over Yoruba man? Because we have a country before independence when it didn’t matter where you come from.

“Then, even a northerner can contest and win elections in the west without any bias. Then, we all saw ourselves as one Nigeria, where we came together to achieve more. But nowadays, its so sad that when you want to rent just an apartment, the landlord will ask you if you are from Benue State or Kogi State or other parts of the country.

“This is a personal experience and I have constantly been wondering why do I have to be from a particular region to get a house. It is that bad.

“So, I just thought that this disunity has eaten us so deep and we should just do something about it. I personally thought that as a visual artist and photographer, I understand how image tells a lot more than just talking to a group of Nigerians.

“So, I thought we should use pictures to tell the stories. I went into the archives before Nigeria’s independence.” she added

According to her, the plan to launch the project has been on since October 1st last year.

She also said that it has been very difficult to get the images that speaks of oneness of the people as Nigerians.

She said “It is to show to Nigerians that there is really no difference among us, humans are humans, whether black or white or from the north, south, west or east.

“So, we should stop the drama, the agitations and the hate speeches and let’s work together.
It is actually focused on young people because people of my generation, that is 40 years downward, do not really understand the depth of our history. History was taken away from our curriculum, I think it is now optional, in a nation where our youths know nothing about our heritage.

“So, those were the things that were bothering me and we want to do something on, otherwise the young generation and the unborn ones will gradually come to a country where history is zero or dead.

“It is a mobile gallery. The idea of unity exhibition has never been done in this country before. So the plan is to take the containerised structure to other states after FCT. We will focus on schools. We are inviting at least one secondary school from each state in Nigeria. We plan to host them for three days. The first day for exhibition, second day for workshop and third day a small excursion as they travel back to their states. President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to declare the exhibition open next Monday, October 1.

“Then we will now take it to other states, where we will be in a state for up to one month because we want all the young persons in the state to partake in the event.
We are presently collaborating with the Ministry of Information, Ministry of Youths and Sports, and we hope to collaborate with more ministries and state governments.

“Apart from this project majorly focusing on teaching our youths about our fast lost history, in terms of peace and unity that we used to have in the country, it also drawing attention to how we should pay handle our national archives and other related issues.

“We are also drawing attention to the fact that just like English and Mathematics, we cannot take History subject away from our curriculum even up to tertiary institutions. This is the major reason why ANISZA came to life.” she added

ANISZA, she said, is formed from three Indeginous languages in Nigeria.

“We got Anukonu from Igbo, Ishokan from Yoruba and Zamantare from Hausa. So the first two letters from the three formed ANISZA. We are proposing that it is our new unity word showing that we are together.” she said

The Managing Editor of Daily Times of Nigeria, Bonaventure Melah said that Daily Times is partnering with the project because it has existed for 92 years and has records and archives of events that have happened in the country.

He said “There are certain things they want that are not in the national archives but in our archive. There were some stories published and relevant to what they are doing that could only be found in the oldest newspaper, Daily Times.” he said

A Museum and Heritage Consultant, Mayo Adediran, pointed out that monuments are reminders of past history.

He said “The day we will realize the cultural content packaged into this country, everybody will go to bed with the two eyes closed.

“The cultural resources that is locked up in this country is amazing. When you go into the antiquity of Nigeria, there are so many similarities in our differences dating back culturally to the landmarks of Nigeria before 500 AD.

“So where is that love of our first existence? We should begin to ask how do we get back there. We should trace our steps back to where we missed it.” he said

Sadiq Bello, who is providing Technical Support for ANISZA, said “I believe you have seen what we are doing on our site. Hopefully, it’s going to be nationwide.

“We are trying to put up a little structure that can be moved from one location to the other, creating awareness wherever we go and bringing back the whole idea of unity.

“There will be art exhibition on October 1st, 2018 in Abuja. Pictures in containers will take you on a journey from pre-independence to date. The whole concept is to spark all those senses of unity and see that we are actually a great nation.” he stated