The Luxury Reporter Magazine March 2016 issue

THE LUXURY REPORTER Nigeria’s premiere luxury e-magazine

ISSUE 004 MARCH 2016

Earthlords Townhouses Heaven on Earth

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Editorial Publisher/Managing Editor Funke Osae-Brown Staff Writers Lara Oladunni Beatrice Isola Creative Director Peter Ehigiator Web design Fortune Williams Advisory Board Mrs. Abimbola Wright Mr. Femi Adefowope Mrs. Mercy Omoyeni Mr. Ogbeni-Tope Awe Mr. Julian’s Luxury Mrs. Bola Balogun Mrs. Nkiru Olumide-Ojo Dr. Phil Osagie 4

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The Connoisseur Kayode Martins The Avid Whiskey Collector Growing Up with a Designer Mum

Style

Exquisite Earrings to Have

Fine Living

Master of Form

Features

Earthlords Townhouses Heaven on Earth

Interview

Sally Mbanefo Jewel of the Arts

TLR is published by FTI Communications. D104, Omisore Lane, Oniru Millennium Estate, Lekki Website: www.luxuryreporter.com.ng Twitter: @luxuryreportng Facebook: The Luxury Reporter Advert hotlines: 08033540883, 08116759771, 08023165438

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Editor’s Note

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Marching on in March

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e are excited to present to you the fourth edition of your favourite online magazine, TLR. It has been an amazing journey in the last four months, you’d agree with me. And so, we are marching on this month of March without looking back.

This is a month full of activities. March 3rd of every year has been declared World Book Day. In celebration of the book, we bring to you our interview with Nigerian author, Elnathan John who came out with his debut novel, ‘Born on Tuesday’ in November of 2015.

Elnathan shares his experience writing the novel and how he intends to rewrite the narrative of Northern Nigeria.

Also, March is the month for celebrating mothers.

Our special interview with Sally Mbanefo, director

general, Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation celebrates the another side of this amazing creative woman.

Likewise, foremost visual artist, Victor Ekpuk shares his experience after his residency at the Arthouse Contemporary Limited. Find out more about this ‘Master of Form’.

Our special feature in this edition looks at how premium urban developers like Earthlords Properties are defying the constraints of the metropolis by creating imaginative luxury apartment that is changing the game of modern living.

Don’t miss our style pages to know more about two important accessories this season, the earrings and sunglasses. Turn over the pages for more. See you again in April!

- FOB Follow me on: Instagram: funke_osae-brown Twitter: @funkeadetutu Facebook/LinkedIn: Funke Osae-Brown

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The Connoisseur

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Kayode Martins The Avid Whiskey Collector LARA OLADUNNI

H

e looks every bit himself in his blue coloured shirt as he welcomes me to view his whiskey collection on a hot Sunday afternoon. I could tell he was excited to show me round. As we walked into the spacious room, he pointed at some of his collection arranged on a table nearby. In his collection are some of the most exotic whiskeys I have personally come across: Glenfiddich, Chivas Regal, Ardberg, Glendronach, Hibiki, Yakmazaki, Dalmore among others.

Martins began collecting whiskey a couple of years ago. He wasn’t really a whiskey person at that time. However, a meeting with a long-time friend at an exclusive restaurant on Lagos Island made him find a new passion.

Looking at Martins’ collection, one would have thought he had been collecting whiskey for many years but he just started two years ago with his collection totalling more than forty bottles. “Funny enough if you look at my collection,”, he says, “it has been quite recent. Going to about two years. But I have built such a collection that many people think I have been drinking whiskey forever.”

He isn’t just a collector, Martins understands the language and moods of whiskey. It is for this reason he can’t say which brand is his favourite. “Whiskies have moods,” he says leisurely. “It depends. There are so many different brands. It is difficult for me to pick what my favourite brand is. There is the Japanese whiskey, Scottish, Irish, Canadian. You have the Indian and South African now. For me, it all depends on my mood and how I try to feel at that particular time.

When I am super excited and I basically just want to cool down, my favourite by far is Scottish whiskey. If I have to pick one, I couldn’t but pick two I particularly enjoy a lot. One is the Nikka Pure Malt and the Adberg Uigeadail would be the other. Two particularly different drinks but amazing nonetheless.”

He loves to drink his whiskey without mixing it with any soft drink or adding ice to it. “I always drink

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The Connoisseur

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my whiskey neat but this is not for everybody. I enjoy it this way. But it’s not always a bad idea to add a bit of water or ice to it. You can also mix into a cocktail but I only drink whiskey neat. At the end of the day everyone has his preference.”

With his growing collection, Martins tells me he will continue to explore his taste for whiskey in spite of the misconceptions about whiskey. “There are two misconceptions of the whiskey. One is the more expensive a whiskey is the better it tastes. That’s not correct. There is also the is conception that the older the whiskey, the better the whiskey. There are some really amazing old vintage brands but it does not mean they are better whiskeys.

“A really good whiskey typically should be around 18 years, the moment it is past that age, you have a situation where the cast where the whiskey is preserved begins to dominate the taste of the whiskey. It will no longer be appealing to the palate. You drink it because it is older and it is more expensive, it gives you the feeling of exclusivity but the actual refinement, you are not getting the

optimum value. This is not always the case though. There are several exceptions though but personally I have found out that below 18 years is sort of like the sweet spot.”

Martins says tasting for whiskey in the past used to be about the age but with all the improvement in technology on the brewing process, a three-year-old whiskey that cost less than $20 could be just amazing. “I stumbled across a couple of blends South African malts during my last visit to South Africa and they turned out quite remarkable,” he adds.

He adores Single Malt whiskey out of the two types that exist: single malt and blended malt.

“When a whiskey is single malt it means that the drink is only brewed just one distillery. It gives it that feeling of pureness and exclusivity. Twenty percent of my collection is blended Malt but my personal favourite still remains the Single Malt variants.”

Martins enjoys travelling outside the country as it enables him visit Duty Free shops at airports where he buys more whiskeys to add to his growing collection. “I am the only person I know who loves

stop-overs more than direct flights and that is purely because I get the opportunity to checkout their extensive collections. For every bottle I of whiskey I have, I have them in two bottles. I keep one for drinking, the other for my collection.”

For most people, when you talk about whiskey what comes to mind is usually Scottish, Irish and recently Japanese whiskey. Interestingly, the best whiskey for 2015 was a Canadian whiskey which Martins says he is eyeing next.

“That piece of news shocked a lot of people,” he says. “A brand called Crown Royale and it is Northern Harvest Rye. it is considered to be the best whiskey for 2015 by a renowned gentleman called Jim Murray who publishes a yearly Whiskey Bible. If you consider that is a Canadian whiskey. I have a couple of Crown Royale in my collection. I have a limited edition.

Did you know there is a difference between Whiskey and Whisky? We didn’t know too until he told us about it. You can follow him on Instagram @standman where you will get to see him share pictures of Whiskeys as he acquires and tastes them.

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For Arts Sake

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Elnathan John Talks ‘Born On Tuesday’ In November 2015, Nigerian novelist, Elnathan John debuted his novel, ‘Born on Tuesday’. In this interview, he shares with FUNKE OSAE-BROWN why he has chosen to pen a unique story.

H

e looks taller. His shoulders broader than his picture I had seen online. His physique took me by surprise as the assistant to his publisher introduced him to me that sunny Thursday November morning. He had been in Lagos towards the end of 2015 to take his new novel, ‘Born on Tuesday’, on a book reading tour in Lagos.

Spotting a green T-shirt on a khaki short, a muffler hanging carelessly around his neck, Elnathan is every bit himself. He had been at the Cool FM Lagos studio for an interview earlier that morning. He looks a little exhausted. He was held up in traffic logjam for hours on his return journey to Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja.

He tries to cool down the stress with a bottle of cold beer he ordered from the bar. He pulls hard at the cigarette stick burning in between his fingers. He kills it. We took our seats at the bar table as I placed the tape between us. It starts to purr.

Growing up in the northern city of Kaduna Nigeria must have greatly influenced Elnathan’s perspective of life as shown in his debut novel, ‘Born on Tuesday’.

Most people who are familiar with his short stories know that it took him so long to come out with the long narrative ‘Born on Tuesday’.

“Well, every longer poetic piece requires time for it to, in a way, marinate,” he tells me as soon as our interview began. “Like a chicken, you want your flavour to go in. You keep your meat for twenty-four hours and the flavour comes through, really good. For me, the novel had to grow organically. It was a short story and from the short story I was able to develop a 8

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character into this man. His experiences meeting with others; his physical and emotional evolution.”

The author says he did a lot of research to have a better understanding of the portrayals of his characters, their ways of life, mannerism and religious beliefs. “The novel took this long because of the research that went into the work. It is fiction but research had to go into it because of the subject I was dealing with. It is different hence this kind of research is needed because of the subject.”

‘Born on Tuesday’ highlights the life and beliefs of two Islamic sects in the north. There is an internal debate between two people who belong to the Salafi sect within the Salafi group is another group propagating a different religious view of the Islamic religion. Call it a house divided against itself and you won’t be wrong. It is the origin of the dangerous Boko Haram group that Elnathan seeks to unravel and fictionalise in ‘Born on Tuesday.’

Elnathan borrows largely from history to create his characters and fully develop the plots of his novel. He goes back to immediate history as close as 2007 to create his own little northern Nigerian town, Bayan Layi, where the image of Banda, a street boy looms large. He is a deadly street boy feared by his followers.

Dantala, the narrator, finds himself accidentally under the tutelage of Banda after fleeing his studies at a Sufi Quranic School far away from home.

The thrust of ‘Born On Tuesday’, El Nathan says is to narrate the debate surrounding the emergence of the Boko Haram group in Nigeria. “There is a debate called the Salafi Debate,” he explains, “about people

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who are Muslims but belong to a different sect. Not sect per se but who belong to a different point on the Salafi scale. There are some people who are less liberal. For example, there are a few who some people may call extreme Salafis, like Jihad using physical violent means. Others differ.

“So, we had that debate in Nigeria between Sheikh Ja’afar Adam who died in 2007, who was a teacher of Mohammed Yusuf, who started Boko Haram.

Both of them are Salafis. However, they have several debates between them about how to achieve an Islamic state. Mohammed Yusuf was of the opinion that let’s do it violently, let’s take power by force.

Sheikh Ja’afar was like no I don’t agree. They had that debate back and forth. If you do the research, you will see the debate they had.

“Some of these debates are reflected in the novel.

Sheikh Ja’afar differs with Mohammed Yusuf on Jihad. One of the chief points of argument is that Mohammed Yusuf asked his followers to resign from government because taking part in government is haram, going to school is haram, western education is haram. But Sheikh Ja’afar differs that this is against their teachings and training. Mohammed Yusuf was his student. As a student of Sheikh Ja’afar, he called him the leader of the young people because of how charismatic and bold he was. But Mohammed Yusuf broke away and said: ‘we are going to do it the way we want it.’ All these kind of things take time to reduce into fiction to make it intelligible to others take time.”

Beyond the debates surrounding the Salafis, Elnathan seeks to tell the northern story differently.

He argues that the story of northern Nigeria has previously been told from a prejudiced point of view as the positive side of the culture, food and way of life have not been adequately represented.

Boko Haram and the story that 10 people died today or 20 people died tomorrow is one dimensional story of northern Nigeria. But my idea is to add my light to it as a conversation to say it is more complex than that. Actually, it is not that there is no this kind of crazy band killing people. Before Mohammed Yusuf started Boko Haram there was a conversation going on within Muslims not just an Islamic conversation within Muslims. Nobody captured that conversation, nobody captures the food we eat in northern Nigeria, the culture, what people do. On the national level, nobody is talking about that. We talk about Lagos; we have so many things to say when Lagos is mentioned. We are talking about Biafra because it popular because of the Civil war, oil but we hardly talk about the north in the same details we talk about Biafra.”

Elnathan argues the reasons the northern Nigeria is side-lined is due to an imbalance in Nigeria.

For Arts Sake According to him, as long as the north is concerned there is an educational and development imbalance.

“I am not in any way saying the north is special,” he says, “but saying the highest immortally rate is in the northeast. It is not by development that the northeast has the worst standard of living, worst development, has the worst and lowest levels of education. It looks so natural when people are struggling for the basic things like how do we eat?”

In addition, the author believes the national and social conversation in Nigeria come with the challenge of a language barrier. “We are talking about anything happening, it is on BBC Hausa, all the Hausa stations and channels will stay tuned for the north. But when If you want to put anything out there in the north if it is on these stations, they will listen. That shows there is a conversation, people are taking but the language conversation is English in Nigeria for the main stream. Hence you have to use the language of national conversation. One way around that is to have translation. For instance, nobody talks about Hausa fictions but there are lots of Hausa writers. Nobody is talking about them.

Now you must either translate to people to English to bring it into the national conversation.”

Elnathan has penned an interesting story that seeks to rewrite history for years to come. Why not get a copy?

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Need To Know

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Growing Up with a Designer Mum SEGUN AWOLOWO

M

y mum, Princess Abbah Folawiyo, is a frontline fashion designer in Nigeria who has influenced my activities to uplift the Nigerian fashion industry.

That’s a sentimental thing, and it has been in me for a long time.

I was born into fashion. My mum is a fashion designer as you know and that also has influenced my thinking towards the upliftment of the fashion industry, When I was young, she used to dress me up all the time. I still look at one picture of my 21st birthday, how she dressed me up. My children make fun of that picture till today. I had a jacket, I had a tie made of satin. It’s a very funny picture. When I look at the picture, I tell myself how the hell did I make this woman make me wear this outfit.

Growing up, I saw machines and tailors around me.

Most of the time I was also in her shop at Adeniran Ogunsanya in Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria. She has industrial machines as much as 30 or even more than that. But I was too much in my own world. I didn’t want to be a mummy’s boy. That was why I didn’t learn how to sew. How I wish I learnt sewing, I would have been making serious money now. I would have been bigger than Dakova and the rest.

My mum made me appreciate Nigerian fashion.

She was one of the first that started using Ankara as fabric to make dressy outfits. If you look back, you’ll notice that President Obasanjo was really a proud Nigerian. He likes to dress Nigerian. My mum made most of the Agbadas for him during his 8 years as president. She was always making the Agbadas he wore to functions.

I remembered when President Obasanjo wanted to meet with the designers, and he called all of them, my mum was there. I think it was Mrs Sasore that was heading the Nigeria Export Council Promotion (NEPC) at the time. Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria (FADAN) team, which includes my mum, Mrs Alakija and few others were on that visit.

I have seen what my mum can do as a designer. I tell my mum she came at the wrong time because designers are now more exposed internationally, if they had this opportunity then, maybe Nigeria would have grown higher. That sentimental thing is there.

Nevertheless, we are looking at the future now.

There’s a trillion-dollar business out there in fashion.

Why is Nigeria not part of it? We need to up our game when it comes to the Nigeria fashion industry so that we can earn our foreign exchange. Oil is dropping. That is not the only thing we do. Our man10 The Luxury Reporter www.luxuryreporter.com.ng

agement in Nigerian Export Promotion Council is deliberating on our spill oil plan, speeding up production, agricultural production but we are not looking back on fashion because this is another huge foreign exchange for the country.

The Nigerian fashion industry is amazing. When you see what the young ones are doing, when you go for exhibitions abroad and you take some of our outfits, the kind of interest they generate is huge. People are waiting for Nigerian fashion in Africa. No other country can match us in Africa.

Segun Awolowo is a trained lawyer and currently the CEO, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).

Image/360nobs.com

Style

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Exquisite

Earrings to Have Earrings are important accessory for women. Below, BEATRICE ISOLA suggests a few to make you stand out in the crowd.

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Anabela Chan Earrings

These beautiful cocktail earrings are a nice way to change your look.

They are made from 18ct yellow gold and silver, with two hand-set solitaire lab-grown pink tourmalines and 216 pavĂŠ-set sapphires, diamonds and amethysts.

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Lulu Frost Ortigia Earrings

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Stephen Webster Lady Stardust Earrings

These striking Lady Stardust earrings are set in 18ct white gold with amethysts, sapphires and white diamonds.

They will add a fun bit of sparkle to your evening look. They are a great way to complement your outfit for that great occasion.

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DPP Snake Earrings

This is a stunning pair of gold-vermeil snake earrings with enamel, peridot, amethyst and pearl.

Get that dramatic look with these gold-tone brass Ortigia earrings showcase threepart drops, comprising downward-facing arrows crafted from pyrite, chrysoprase and aventurine with Swarovski crystal pavĂŠ surrounds.

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Style

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Statement

Sunglasses A great way to accentuate your look is wearing sunglasses. LARA OLADUNNI puts together some nice pairs to have.

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Prada Raw sunglasses

These 1970sinspired retro frames are crafted from Malabar ebony and are unique pairs to have.

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Miu Miu sunglasses

These large, square glitter shades are a chic 70sinspired option. Get that 1970s inspired look as they have UV400 protective lenses.

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Larke Veda sunglasses

These handmade unisex sunglasses come with a leather case and are 100 per cent UV protective. Why not add glamour to your face with this pair?

Miu Miu sunglasses

These large, square glitter shades are a chic 70s-inspired option. Get that 1970s inspired look as they have UV400 protective lenses.

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Thierry Lasry Painty glasses

These retro-inspired acetate frames are handmade with gold metal arms and gradient brown lenses. The brown colour will surely stand you out any day.

Fine Living

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Master of Form

Nigerian born but American based artist, VICTOR EKPUK, who just concluded his residency programme at Arthouse Contemporary Limited has a painterly passion to capture the beauty and power of the human head says FUNKE OSAE-BROWN.

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ictor Ekpuk was busy behind a desktop computer when I arrived at the Arthouse Contemporary Ikoyi, Lagos Island, office on a sunny Thursday morning. It was the first time I would meet him although I had encountered his works a couple of times.

He said hello as he took an excuse to quickly tidy up an email he was about to send. After a few minutes, he was done. We walked over to the studio put together for him by Arthouse Contemporary Limited for his residency programme.

Ekpuk was excited to show me round the works he created during his three months’ residency programme with Arthouse. His works adorn the white walls of the large room. They were noticeable as we walked in. I couldn’t ignore them. Their bright colours in hues of blue, black, white and red of the works beckon as I made to join him on seats overlooking the courtyard.

“My experience has been wonderful,” he tells me as we started our conversation around his works and residency programme, “to come here, and to do what I actually wanted to do in the first place. To come here and experience Nigeria again and be inspired by the environment, the people and the culture.”

Ekpuk grew up in Nigeria but he has been away for

about 18 years living in the United States. In 2015, Arthouse Contemporary Limited offered him to return home to do an exhibition of his works. He accepted the invitation but offered to come stay in Nigeria to produce the works rather than ship them from New York to Nigeria.

“With that in mind,” he explains, “I just wanted to open myself up to whatever, how the culture and the society can impact the content of my work. And so far it has been great. I went out to the market to buy some of the materials that I wanted because I wanted that interaction. I went to Orile to get metals for my sculpture and so on. Through that experience I was also picking up street scenes, what people were doing. How they interacted with one another and how I was also interacting with people when I was buying stuff at the market.”

This street experience is what Ekpuk brought to the fore in his collection of abstract art. The experience affected the content of his works in a way; as they highlighted some common place imagery synonymous with walking the streets of Lagos. Albeit produced in abstract form.

“There is a very familiar thing of people putting things on their heads,” he says. “I was born seeing people do that. But coming back after some time and having this experience they just stood out to me. That in itself became like I saw it not just literarily but a metaphor for life itself.

People are always carrying things on their heads.

“In the Nigeria society it could be a little difficult so it just takes me back to what I have always looked to expressing in my work, improving the human condition.

At the end, you see a deeper meaning of people carrying things on their heads. That has come out in some of the works you are seeing here. It is mainly about heads and the deeper meaning of heads. We carry things on it. It talks about our social status, our economy, and all of that.”

Ekpuk in his collection interrogates the concept of the head little wonder why he is drawn in by images of people carrying things on their heads on Lagos’ streets.

“It all comes down to the fact that the issue of heads predetermines who what we are,” he adds. “We are all very different. The idea that head is the state of consciousness for most people. I think it is a determinant of success. What we are determines our destinies. It could also be about our state of mind. When we are carryThe TheLuxury LuxuryReporter Reporter www.luxuryreporter.com.ng

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Fine Living ing things tells a lot about our state of mind. Our thinking, it translates to how we think. In some instances, we believe that it determines our destiny but that doesn’t mean it is final. We can change that.

And as the fact that certain conditions predetermine how we live our lives. And where our future will be depending on some of the circumstances for example where we were born.”

Most of his portraits goes back to the idea of the African philosophy of the head as a serious concept. For him, the eyes are guided by its disposition; portraits are faces carrying expressions of human heads., which he tellingly rendered in his works. He reimagines the face in different ways.

One of his untitled works takes a deeper look at women aesthetics. It is on a whole series that he calls Osiano, the pride of virgin. He says living in America has made him see similar culture of women just taking care of their hair.

“This particular image,” he explains pointing at an untitled painting on the wall, “is actually about these hairstyles that are back in vogue. It is a traditional Ibibio hairstyle that marks a young girl when she is coming into womanhood. The hairstyle is called in direct interpretation in Ibibio language means a young girl’s breast. So that has brought it back here. It still has to do with the head and all the content that is going on in it.”

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In the collection he came up with during the residency programme, Ekpuk revisited some of his old works by creating new versions of them. “In this one, he says pointing to another piece, “I have brought back from another version of a piece I have done before. It is called ‘Head Two’. In it, I am also looking at the state of human consciousness. Here in this piece, I have incorporated metal. Because another aspect of the work I am doing here is to look at I have been flexing with idea of my works as sculptures. Three dimensional aspect of my work, for this residency, I decided not to paint on Canvass but to come paint on objects or carved out objects that look like three dimensional, this one in particular is like that. Although I have added some other elements.”

In his piece titled ‘All Fingers Are Not Equal,’ Ekpuk looks at the theme of equality. “We are all told that we are all equal but some are more equal than others. The truth of the matter is that we are not physically, hereditary equal. We are not socially equal. I was just trying to prove that notion of we are all equal wrong. Equality is really an illusion. If you look at all the works here, everything looks the same at the top but if you look further you will see that one is bigger than the other. So that is how I explore all these things.”

As an artist who enjoys working with metal as a medium, Ekpuk is inspired by everyday things he sees.

“I just wake up every day and the things flying around in my head and I need to get them out. What inspires a writer to write doesn’t have to be anything in particular. Art is just want I enjoy doing. It is what I do easily and naturally without much effort. I tend to see forms and I see my world in very different ways than other people. I want to express them the way I look at them. I go along the street I see something; I think and reimagine that in a different way.”

Ekpuk has returned to his studio in Washington DC creating more works. He is due to return to Nigeria in April 2016 for the opening of his exhibition at Arthouse.

Features

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Earthlords Townhouses Heaven on Earth Premium urban developers like Earthlords Properties are defying the constraints of the metropolis by creating imaginative luxury apartment that is changing the game of modern living writes FUNKE OSAE-BROWN.

“Our intention is to single ourselves out of the crowd and making ourselves visible to our customers that we are the one they have been waiting for, the change”

W

ho would have believed the new Lagos will start its ascent from its boundary into Arepo, that life could now begin there? The hustling and bustling, heavy traffic congestion, pollution that is characteristic of Lagos Island is giving way to a new haven of Comfort which has made it possible for people to know that ‘living long, living safe’ is now the new mantra, hence the reason for the choice of Arepo G.R.A. Located on a large expanse of land is the luxurious Capsule Townhouses being developed by Earthlords Properties, a division of Earthlords Group. The Earthlords Properties Townhouse Capsule is situated within popular Grenadines Citiview Home, also known as Arepo G.R.A., a controlled environment of full of class and exquisite beauty.

No doubt, the Nigerian property market is experiencing a rebirth as many luxury apartments are springing up upscale neighbourhoods like Ikoyi, Lekki, Ajah, and Victoria Island. What stands the move by Earthlords Properties out is creating a luxury apartment at a unique location like Arepo where no one could ever think of. But the idea seems to sit perfectly with the like of Grenadines Homes and Earthlords Properties changing the story of the neighbourhood.

The estate comes with a serene environment away from the highway noise and fully established functioning amenities that belies the surrounding atmosphere.

One could not help but marvel at the simply breathtaking location.

“This is our debut into property development,” says Debo Atiba, CEO, Earthlords Group, “prior to this time our core has been construction support which we have been a part of for many years. Our experience in construction support and strategic partnership has been of immense help in birthing this project.”

According to him, the Townhouse Capsule is one of Earthlords Properties numerous sophisticated designs being brought on board to change the concept of property development in the 21st century.

“Our focus on Townhouse,” he explains, “is to redefine what class and style are in property development. Behind every great development there is first of all great thoughtfulness. There is an adage in Yoruba that says “Aso Igba la n da fun gba” meaning it is the cloth of the season you The Luxury Reporter www.luxuryreporter.com.ng

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Features

wear for the season. For us, it is a redefinition. It is the season of revolution which birth freshness.”

Atiba says developing Townhouses of this nature becomes necessary at an age when the taste of young people have changed dramatically.

“Our entry into the property development market is very Strategic, the Era of the Baby Boomer is gone, you have new set of people born into an age where all they know, feel or touch is sophistication, technology, digitalization you cannot give them less than what they deserve,” he adds.

He explains that the aim is to create a state-of-the-art property that will be a game changer in the Nigerian property market. “Our intention is to single ourselves out of the crowd and making ourselves

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visible to our customers that we are the one they have been waiting for, the change.”

The set of Townhouses is billed to change the concept of modern living. It is not a surprise when Atiba says the target market is the new crop of young professionals “who understand style, who cares for luxury who are keen on excellence and upward looking are our target market. Old people who want to relive their youthfulness are welcome on board also. Your only qualification for our type of Townhouse is your ability to spell class, beauty, excellence and luxury, nothing more. They are our target; market middle class upward.”

Earthlords Capsule Townhouses situated within popular Grenadine

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Homes boasts of modern facilities.

There is an asphalt road networks, underground electrification, good drainage System, CCTV security network including helicopter/helipad services for a total luxury living and comfort.

“Within the estate we have estate bus shuttle services, treated water supply, pedestrian boulevard, paradise promenade/ reflective pools, perimeter fence, street light/ illumination, and estate club house. For those who love sport we have Tennis Court, Basket Ball Court, Swimming Pool, Garden Park/ Picnic Football Pitch (5-aside), Gym, Bar/Salon/Boutique and a place of worship. Locating our Townhouses within such an estate is double blessing.”

Atiba says the unique selling point for the property is the grandeur and the level of creativity that goes into its creation. “This is the part I love the most, I cannot stop talking about it, thinking about it alone excites me.

Little wonder we call it “The Most Exotic Townhouse Capsule in the World”, the appearance is grandeur and pristine, towering in height and frowning menacingly on morbid, outdated design houses with internal beauty of great consequence. Ours is the first with personalised home elevator for each unit of the Townhouse, you can ride majestically all day long in your own palace. Ours is the first with solar power system, which is classic. Ours is the first with state of the art wireless security system plus personalised audio system in each room and many more.”

Finally, Atiba says the first set of Capsule Townhouses will be completed in the last quarter of 2016.

“We are delivering the first set of the Townhouses by November 30th of 2016, Construction is underway already and we are channelling our effort into ensuring that we don’t disappoint our subscribers, they can’t wait for it to finish, but we have assured them that it’s worth the wait,” he says.

To be a part of this call: +234(0)9083512454, +234(0)9083512455

Interview

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SALLY MBANEFO

JEWEL OF THE ARTS SALLY MBANEFO is a woman of many parts who is passionate about the development of tourism. She opened the doors of her home to FUNKE OSAE-BROWN early this year in a rare interview where she talks about her unknown side as an artist The TheLuxury LuxuryReporter Reporter www.luxuryreporter.com.ng www.luxuryreporter.com.ng 17

Interview

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he welcomes me warmly to her Ikoyi apartment at a few minutes past ten on a warm Sunday morning in January. She was just returning home from an early morning Mass.

“I love to go to church early,” she says as she walks me into the elevator. “I would have been back earlier but I stayed back to pray.

Beyond being religious, Sandra Mbanefo, the director general of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (ntdc) is a woman who is committed to God and humanity. Hanging on her apartment door are crucifix and the image of Mary, symbols of her Christian faith. I walked through the The Luxury Luxury Reporter Reporter www.luxuryreporter.com.ng www.luxuryreporter.com.ng 18 The 18

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doors of her home to a posh setting of an apartment full of painting. These are not paintings she acquired, no, far from it. She painted them herself. They number hundreds. A soft number of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, her favourite musician, is playing in the background.

“I started painting since I was 18 years old in England,” she tells me, walking me through her collection. “Art is a talent. People will say you are a lawyer, banker how come you are in the arts. I began to think about it and say: ‘look at this gift God has given me.’ I have been painting since I was eighteen.

I will be 51 years old this year, 2016. It is a free gift. It is when you recognise what God has given you. You can’t be a musician unless God has given you the gift.

You cannot learn to be an artist; I enjoy my company.”

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Every piece of art in her living room has a story behind it. Some of them show the trajectory of her sojourn as dg, ntc in the last two and a half years. She has been inspired by her experience travelling through the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria.

Some others feature her romance with nature and love for undiluted human form.

“What inspires me is peace of mind,” she says. “If I have peace of mind you can see the different aspects of art.

Love also inspires me. Peace of mind. I do landscapes with still life drawing. You can see from my works that it is not just landscapes but my works are also about my life when I was in Europe.”

In her collection are landscapes from Ondo State, Badagary, landscape of the first story building in Nigeria. Landscape of Abuja mosque, Iganmu National Theatre, under it is the Eyo Festival, further to the end on the far left next to a pair of gloves hanging on the wall is a painting on Tinapa in Calabar and Ahumu Waterfalls in Enugu. Close to it is a painting on the famous Osun Osogbo festival and another named ‘Tai Solarin Footsteps’. And next to it is a painting on the outskirt of Abuja and Adamawa.

“I have brought my art into tourism,” she adds. “I have painted tourism sites. In addition to what I have, when I am in love, I paint it. You can see the whole painting on the subtlety of love. Human forms is a form of art. What inspired this is that if you go to an art school, they give you a nude image to draw or paint, because we were born nude. We were not born with clothes on.

People have to show themselves. It is the innocence and simplicity of human being. You a not hiding.

“If you look at my book I published for my 50th birthday celebration, you will see that I put masks before the human forms. To show that today people are wearing masks everywhere. They are covering their

Interview inadequacies. Because the insecurity some it is by wearing excessive jewellery. Some it is extreme make up depending on what you are trying to mask. When you a nude, it is your frailty, your fragile innocence. Like Adam and Eve they were born without any clothes on.

They never saw anything bad about it. As an artist, it is better if you continue to portray the innocence of creation, of our being.”

What I find instructive about Mbanefo is her neatness with her works and work area.

Neatly arranged on a table laid with a white table cover are brushes, tubes of paints in different shapes and sizes, bottles of paints in different hues. There is order. Her little studio created in a corner of her home is not chaotic as it is the case with most artists.

Mbanefo’s love for the arts stems from her quiet nature. A nature that involves looking inwards and taking a retrospect on life. “I am a bit of a loner. I am designed like an extrovert but by nature I am happy in my own quiet little space. I don’t drink or smoke.

I don’t do anything out of the way that some people get into trouble for doing. But I am happy in my own space and I like to reach out to people if I can be of help to them. And add value to their lives. I would not like to meet people to gossip or to just useless my time because our time on earth is short and we must use it judiciously.”

Mbanefo is passionate about the arts.

Therefore, her appointment as the ntc dg was

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Interview

not by accident. She has put in some efforts to promote Nigeria as a tourists’ destination but she has been incapacitated by limited funds.

Part of her effort was to take a tour of the tourists’ destination across the country in 2015.

She believes to better preach the gospel of domestic tourism, she has to experience it first.

This birth some of the pieces in her collection.

“There is culture everywhere!” she exclaims. “There is Eyo festival; we are still experiencing it. These are the cultural heritage of our people. I have been to Badagary slave town. I made a beautiful trip by boat there. It was fantastic I didn’t want to leave. Culture is decadent because people are misplacing their priorities. Every Nigerian race have taken their children abroad.

“Yorubas are the only ones even when their children are brought up abroad they speak their language. That is a very important ingredient of culture. And you find that my family we are not Yorubas but because my family didn’t grow up in my home town they are very cosmopolitan. They grew up in the north. My father worked with the colonial masters. He was next in line. My parents all went to school in the north. My uncles went to Raimi St. Johns including Ralph Uwechue who was a prefect every year. They grew up not thinking I am Igbo, I am this. They grew up in an environment where everybody was somebody not necessarily where you come from.”

A member of the Uwechue’s family from the East, Mbanefo speaks glowingly about 20 The Luxury Reporter www.luxuryreporter.com.ng

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her late Ambassador Uncle, Ralph Uwechue who penned the famous book, ‘Who is Who in Africa’. The book adorns the mantelpiece in her home. It is one of the first books I saw by the door when I entered her apartment.

Before joining ntdc, she has worked in the corporate world for many decades. She at the defunct bank, imb for 17 years. She started her banking career 19 years at Abacus Merchant bank owned by a Yoruba man, Adewunmi, who was from Ondo State. From there she moved to imb where she worked in all the facet of banking.

“I didn’t go there as a lawyer even though I trained as one,” she says, “I moved straight to accounts, from accounts I moved to operations, treasury, corporate finance, human capital, it was a training ground for me. So Lafarge, was my first step out of my comfort zone. If you look at the history of many people if they have been in a company for a very long time they are never able to cope at their next bus stop. I went where I knew no one. You go from known to unknown and it is the courage the Holy spirit gives you courage. Things you can’t do he will push you, do it.

“I got there and it was a beautiful experience for him at Lafarge. I was loved by the staff.

Change management was a job that was something that changed the place. The staff realised that I was working passionately. They saw on my cv, shareholders’ crisis management, media, management and more. The position I was employed for was the highest, reserved for Odua people that is Yoruba people because Odua owns 40 percent of Lafarge. I am Igbo yet I was employed for the role because of my experience as shown on my cv.”

When she leaves ntdc Mbanefo says she will like to be remembered for being “the humble citizen that brought the conscience of Nigerian citizens awake. That awaken the giant of tourism in every Nigerian. That I would awaken the giant of patriotism in Nigerians and in Nigeria. I want to be that person that has made Nigeria that has made Nigeria a name of pride. Already we have a name because the expatriate community have embraced what I am doing. They know my resources are limited but they keep coming to me. All the ambassadors have visited me in the last two and half years and they said we love what you are doing.”

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Art Review

A Moment with Nduka Omeife PETER EHIGIATOR

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hen I first encountered the works of Nduka Omeife, I knew the brain behind them must have an unusual worldview. His perception in his works tells of how deep he is with his representation of everyday objects.

I first met Nduka at the Lagos Business School (LBS), School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos in 2009 at a training in Creative Design and Digital Communication, (CDDC-5). He was the president of the class as at then. Apart from being alumna of LBS, he is also a member of the Society of Nigerian Artists.

Born into the family of H.O. Omeife a retired brewer and late Monica Omeife a retired cook with Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, he hails from Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State.

From a humble background, a hardworking and dedicated young man; who is never afraid of daring to do the seemingly impossible. His love for creative art has been an integral part of his life from childhood.

His early childhood must have had a positive impact of the way he represents the world around him in his works. “When I was in primary two,” he says as soon as our interview began, “my mother woke me up at night and asked what I would like to become. She mentioned the trades trending as at that time. I told her I would like to be an artist. And since then I got all the full support from her and my father. As a matter of fact, my mother was my first pose model.”

Omeife was inspired by Tijani Aigbokhena who encouraged him to become the best fine art student during his days in primary and secondary school. His early knowledge in fine art, earned him a job opportunity at Time Press, the commercial printing department of the Daily Times of Nigeria Limited in Apapa, Lagos.

He later won the Nigerian Breweries scholarship awards to study fine and applied art at the University of Benin, Edo State. He graduated with first class honours majoring in graphics design. Over the years, Omeife has been consulting for banks and corporate bodies on brand identity, style guide and corporate designs.

Nduka is a graphics designer; his knack for water colour painting is amazing. Aside being a graphic artist and water colourist, his zeal for learning and breaking new grounds pushed him to master other skills.

“Sometimes ago, I read a book that said, the human mind can do four billion things at the same time. That motivated me to master other skills like photography, printing, printmaking, shoe making, yoghurt making, frame production, etc. The human mind can do a lot when stretched,” he tells me.

Working in the financial institution has been his greatest experience. Working in the midst of professionals, accountants and much more, has been able to open his eyes to lots of detailing and zero tolerance to error.

“Working to satisfy a lot of management cadets and line managers can be daunting.

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Art Review haviours usually associated with the artists. You have to think as a banker too,” he explained.

Nduka discovered and mastered water colour art in his secondary school days through the help of Tunde Aweniya, his class teacher.

“Water colour is a medium I have grown to love and cherish.

Depending on my mood and the mood I want people to see on the painting. I employed almost all the techniques of water colour; wash, wet on wet, glazing, dry brush and drop in colour effect.

With this medium, you keep discovering, keep learning new things from papers, media and pigments.

“On my way to and from work, anywhere I go or travel, I see hardworking people, the lazy ones, and those merchandising. I always want to document all I see by capturing them in my paintings. I want my paintings to showcase what I see, what I want you to see and feel with me, what I felt when I saw them. I use mostly earth tones in my paintings. And my paintings are realistic,” he explains.

Nduka first registered his artwork in an exhibition organised by Society of Nigeria Artist in 2013, at Nike Art Gallery, Lekki, Lagos, an exhibition that attracted several indigenous artists across the country.

He is currently putting his work together for future exhibition.

For Nduka; Nigeria is blessed with dynamic artists both home and abroad. They range from graphic designers, painters to sculptures and more and their

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artworks are priced very high in the international market.

With the dwindling oil price in the international market, Nduka calls on the government to shift focus by investing in the art industry.

“Take the case of Ben Enweonwu’s sculpture, ‘Anyanwu’ that sold for a whooping £74,500 and his ‘Africa Dances’ painting for £68,500 at the Bonhams, London. Nigerian

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artworks have come of age and it is time for the government to tap into this worthwhile venture.”

To boost and enhance art literacy in Nigeria, Nduka calls on government and private organisation to sponsor art competitions in schools of lower and higher learning, sponsor and equip the art teachers and lecturers, fund art projects for environmental beautification, improve on the art curriculum to match international standards and acquire artworks to beautify government and corporate offices. “Private organisations can also be involved by sponsoring art exhibitions” he said.

Modern technology has introduced tremendous change in the industry, particularly the digital design and this has further boosted and improved the various brands in and out of the country. Nduka recalled his early experience: “When I was with Times Press in the early 90s as a graphic artist, we thought we had it all. Letraset; IBM typographic machine; bromide; cow gum; lighter fluid; drawing board with T-square, etc. I remember vividly we would spend months working on diaries, annual report, calendars. Artworks had to be couriered thousands of kilometers for separation. With the introduction of computers and modern printing technology, you cannot fathom what the modern day technology can do. Once you can think it, it is possible. It has made things a lot easier with simple processes. It is a welcome development.”

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