Statue of Chief Nyong Essien, by Ben Ekanem

after snapping this photo, my cousin told me that my grandfather--late chief paul bassey okon--was great friends with chief essien. in fact, he added, there is a street named after your grandfather not far from here. somehow i'm not surprised that i never knew this. the street is not marked with any signs, except for the one outside an apostolic church, and filled with dusty old buildings and houses. except for a solar power conversion company, which makes me feel as though things are really moving forward there.

in a town where seemingly so few appreciate art (although there's a branch of the national gallery here, which I'll have to check out soon), it's ever astounding to drive by the public sculptures centered at most roundabouts. so i took a short roundabout tour of uyo today with camera in tow, hoping to find out the identities of the sculptors.

unsurprisingly, most sculptures have no attribution. and they are regularly covered up with political banners and slogans that literally wear away the paint, so that future akwa ibomites will not have the pleasure of enjoying their beauty. so let me preserve at least one here for posterity, commissioned by babangida in april 1991. my apologies, but it's difficult to get a clear picture of how impressively tall this thing is with my meager camera! enjoy. --AL.


Untitled sculpture at Babangida Circle, Secretariat Junction, Uyo