The earliest modern artistic public monument in Nigeria, commissioned by the government
is the bronze statue of Emotan, in Benin City. It was built in the
1940s by John Danford, a British sculptor employed by the colonial
Public Works Department. .Although it has now become part of the
paraphernalia of Emotan shrine where daily sacrifices and supplications
are made by priest and some people in Benin, The work was originally
meant to pacify restive group of Benin youths who continued to
virulently protest the felling of a sacred tree dedicated to Emotan, a
historical personae in Benin;
to pave way for a road to be constructed.
Since the 1950s, modern Sculptural pieces as public monuments in Nigeria
have since become a trend and the concern of Nigerian artists in
execution. Benin City along many other Nigerian cities like Lagos, Enugu
and so on, surely prides itself as the home of a number of these
artistic and site public monuments.
Again, history among many factors have made Benin
City, probably the biggest centre, where modern sculptural works are
crafted and transported to many parts of the nation and the world.
Besides, the Benin Igun street bronze casting industry has over the
years, been the succour of many Nigerian artists seeking to realize
their monumental works in cast bronze. Examples abound; The Mandate,
the monument at the National Assembly, is among several significant art
works produced in Benin and transported to their locations outside the
city.
Igbinedion, the artist behind the mandate monument,
works in this rich artistic and cultural environment. It is from Benin
City that the mandate sculpture was crafted and transported to stand on
the sprawling architecture of the ceremonial plaza of the National
Assembly in Abuja.
The sculpture is, no doubt, aesthetically enthralling
.The dexterity of execution; conceit of concept as well as the
monumentality of form is surely absorbing, thought provoking, as it is
intimidating. The sculpture is probably the most formally sizeable of
all the public monuments in the nation if not one of the most enigmatic
considering the spate of time for the completion of the work, from its
design to execution within three months. It is 50 feet height and covers
a space of about 20 feet breadth.
Igbinedion is resident in Benin; he is an
accomplished sculptor, motivational communicator, originator of
Geedtarrws philosophy, and the mentor of the creative group at Duke
Igbinedion Visual Arts Senta (DIVAS), 163 Sapele Road Benin City. He has
established a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) based on his
Geedtarrws philosophy. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, people are largely
either unmindful of national monuments or often less familiar with
heroic works, let alone the artists of national monuments. Most often,
great men and women, who have imprinted on the historic sands of the
nation, could die unsung, despite the ironic phrase in the national
anthem that ‘the labours of our heroes past shall never be in vain’.
He is no doubt a patriotic Nigerian and champion by
deed and at heart. He reveals what is yet unknown about the National
Assembly Mandate monument and his Geedtarrws philosophy. He insists that
Geedtarrws is a movement, hinged on sensitizing the people of Nigeria
and the third world as well as their leaders, towards aiming at getting
an enviable position in the field of Technology and other allied fields.
The mandate sculpture
Igbinedion says ‘with Nigeria having such a broad
spectrum of about two hundred and fifty ethnic nationalities, the
assignment to build the national assembly monument was a task for
serious reflection’. A formal assessment of the work is fascinating and
full of conceits:
First,the granite cast base on which the whole work is mounted has been described by Kizi Ekong in ARTmosphere,
a publication of the National Gallery of Art, Nigeria, as symbolizing
May 29,1999 which he referred to as the date for the ‘reinvention of the
democratic process as well as the legislature’ in Nigeria (Ekeng
(2008,57). He maintains that the hand with a clenched fist represents
strength, unity and oneness of purpose. The inverted semi-circular form
like inverted letter D projecting from the hand with another letter D
form placed on top of the first one; represent the expected durability
of the Nigerian democracy. This explains the reason for their being made
of steel, even as they project from the clenched concrete fist.
Again, between the D forms, there is an obliquely
positioned circular form, and the artist says this represents the world;
and he sees Nigeria with all her natural endowments including human and
natural resources soaring in the midst of the nations of the earth. It
is on these that the mace is positioned, at the apex of the sculpture.
The mace symbolizes the authority to deliberate on matters of utmost
importance to the nation. The mace is the universal symbol of
legislative authority.
At the base of this sculpture, there are twelve major
figures representing the numerous groups of people and political epochs
in Nigeria. The artist notes that on 27 May 1967 the four regions of
Nigeria were dissolved and 12 states created instead. Later, these were
subsequently further divided into 19 states (17 Mar 1976); 21 states (23
Sep 1987), 30 states (27 Aug 1991), and 36 states (1 Oct 1996): But,
Duke insists that he decided to depict 13 instead, thereby using one of
the 13 figures that is, the one with a woman nursing three children to
depict subsequent creations of states in the nation. This particular
piece encapsulates all the nationalities and political epochs of state
creations in Nigeria. The figure, Mother and Children, according to the
artist shows the first birth, the middle and the last birth. Duke
insists, no matter where you are or when your state was created, you
must belong to one of the three categories. Other
figure in the collection of twelve figures at the base of the Mandate
apart from that of the mother and children are as follows; Argungu
festival (Sokoto), Ogbuefi from eastern Nigeria, the Tivi and the Fulani
milk maid. Others are The Yoruba, Bwari or Gwari ,Urhobos, Edo, Efik
and the people from the different groups of the Niger-Delta region. The
Mandate was commissioned and signed into contract on the 30th of January
1999 and the finished work was mounted in April, 1999.
The growth of national monuments
A monument is a natural landmark or structure or site
of historic interest set aside by any government and maintained for
public enjoyment or study. However, artistic monuments are creative
works by artists for the remembrance or commemoration of particular
personages, events or emphasizing ideals of a society, group of people
or corporate body or nation. Beyond the Emotan modern public sculpture
built in Benin, by John Danford, which was commissioned by the Nigerian
government in the 1940s, Lagos until the last two decades had, the
largest distribution of public artistic monuments ever in Nigeria.
Since 1956, when the first academy trained Nigerian
sculptor Ben Enwonwu executed his first sculpture pieces Queen Elizabeth
II, which stands before the former House of representatives in Lagos
and the bronze figure of Anyanwu or the Awakening (1956) attached to the
facade of the National Museum, Nigerian sculptors have continued to be
the dominant executors of major outdoor sculpture pieces in public
places in Lagos. Ben Enwonwu’s pieces adorn mainly architectures
belonging to the Federal Government of Nigeria. Early in the 1950s he
served as the Federal Adviser to the Nigerian Government and with his
position he was able to influence the commission of sculpture pieces
from the government. The Nigerian government mainly, large
organisations, and wealthy private individuals are predominantly the
patrons of this art and artists. Lagos has thus experienced the largest
boost in the interest in artistic public monuments, compared to any
other places in Nigeria. The growth in the appreciation and acquisition
of work of art as well as the application of sculptures to
architectures, on the public squares has since increased as well in
other parts of Nigeria.
More over, it seems that, presently, the long years
of public indifference to the arts in the colonial and postcolonial
periods is gradually deterging. Unknown too, is the roles that Nigerian
Architects as well as foreign architects working in Nigeria have played
in creating opportunities for Nigerian visual artists over these years.
Although in 1960, Ulli Beier in his book Art in Nigeria ,
berated European architects in Nigeria (Europeans were the earliest
architects in Nigeria in the colonial and early postcolonial period) for
failing to ‘play their roles in introducing modern art in Nigeria’;
According to him, ‘while they have created plenty of empty wall space,
they have commissioned hardly any murals’.
This has changed since post-independence. For most
Nigerian art pieces that have become so indelible in our minds are as
embellishments to architectures or as outdoor sculptures. The number is
teeming, including such works as Sango, Nigerian Telecommunication
building on Marina Street in Lagos and Anyanwu sculpture, National
Museum, Lagos, all by artist Ben Enwonwu. Others are in such places as
public squares like the two monuments to the Unknown Soldier built
towards independence to commemorate the Nigerian soldiers who died in
the First and second world wars as well as the one sculptural monument
added to that, commemorating the Nigerian civil war, all formally at the
Tafawa Balewa Arcade (former Race Course), Obalende Lagos, now removed
to the Abuja National Square, Abuja. There are the ever increasing
numbers of murals and mosaic works enwrapping nascent and luscious
building structures everyday in Nigeria, they are all the time the works
of Nigerian artists.
The Mandate monument at the National Assembly was
commissioned by the Federal Capital Development Authority through the
consortium of C and C Construction Company in Abuja. It is to their
credit that Duke’s initial sketch submission for the Mandate was chosen.
The art commission was keenly contested by many known Nigerian
sculptors, but Duke’s design of the Mandate was eventually chosen above
the rest. Thereafter, he was mandated to complete, finish and mount the
sculpture within three months.
Sculptural monuments are very much revered in many
societies of the world such as the United States, Europe and some
countries in Asia especially; Japan .The Mount Rushmore National Memorial,
near Keystone, South Dakota, United States of America is a good
example. The Mount Rushmore National Memorial, a monumental granite
sulpture by Gutzon Burglum(1867-1941), located within the United States
Presidential Memorial , represents the first 150 years of the history of
the United States of America with 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the
heads of former United States Presidents ; George washington
(1732–1799), Thomas Jeffersons (1743–1826),Theodore Roosevelt
(1858–1919), and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). The memorial attracts
approximately two million people annually.
It was Robert J. Koenke, Publisher and
Editor-in-Chief, Wildlife Art and Sculpture Forum Magazine who wrote on
American sculptor Chris Navarro’s and submitted that, ‘sculpture doesn’t
live in a world of flat paint’. According to him, it glows in the
realism of breadth of dimension, shape, form, and detail and artist
interpretation. Commenting on Chris’s work Koenke insisted that his
works seemed to breathe. Chris is best known for his large monumental
sculptures http://www.natureartists.com/artist.asp?ArtistID; Navarro:
Monumental Bronze sculptures
Igbinedion shares many similarities to Chris Navarro
above. Moreover, modern Nigerian art is replete with artists with such
zeal for sizeable works such as Ben Ekanem, Ben Enwonwu, Abayomi Barber,
Isiaka Osunde and a host of emerging artists and sculptors all over the
across the country, including Tony Okonofua, Chris Afuba and Bunmi
Babatunde , among others .
However, Igbinedion conceives of more grandiose
monuments than any of the earlier Nigerian artists. His sculptures in
Benin would dwarf to insignificance all other artistic monuments in the
city and the visage of his Duke Igbinedion Visual Art Scenta (DIVAS), at
no 163 along Benin-Sapele Road, Benin City is an aesthetic cynosure as
well tourist bliss with his super-imposing monuments. Like Abayomi
Barber, another great Nigerian sculptor and artistic polymath, Duke’s
dream is to build national monuments that would compete with the highest
sky scrapper in Nigeria. A cursory view of the artists
numerous sketches of monuments already built and those that yet reside
in the artist’s contemplative plane reveal so much about his dreams.
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