By Sheddy Ozoene
After many postponements, I decided to visit the Nike Art Gallery off the Abuja airport road, today. The roadside signage, imposing though, does not quite give you a good impression of the large edifice inside and the hundreds of neatly arranged artwork and sculpture displayed inside.

Of my kids, Ezinne is the art-loving one, so I took her along. Was she wowed? Yes, right from the gate where she observed that the gate man was dressed like an atilogwu dancer. Everything in this expansive compound was artistic, the door and even the foot mat. Every worker, and she has many, was in local adire fabric.
The proprietor, Chief (Mrs) Nike Okundaye was on hand to receive us. She took time to explain to us everything about the gallery before the tour. She has spent all her life, literally, in the arts world and is today the proud owner of three other galleries in Oshogbo, Lagos and in her native home of Ogidi, Kogi State.
The artworks, in all shades and types, are mind-boggling in numbers, varieties and sizes. They range from the normal photograph-like paintings to the esoteric imagery, to representations of famous and powerful men and women.
Among the recognizable faces represented in different artworks are Nelson Mandela, Barrack Obama, Queen Amina, President Bola Tinubu, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Nasir el-Rufai and his wife.
You want to know how much those artworks cost? Well, I fancied one large painting of a forest with exotic tall trees and exotic shrubs. One young lady said matter-of-factly that artworks don’t necessarily have price tags; it all depends on how one appreciates it, but that one I fancied would not fetch anything below N12 million. Next time I saw a painting of a mermaid, smaller in size, so I asked again. She told me they could give it away for just N8.5 million. I stopped wasting everybody’s time by asking.
Nike, who has a sculptors’ workshop behind the gallery, introduced me to Smart Owie. Smart is from a popular Benin family and told me he has been carving since he was born. What joy does he derive from the business? Smart, who has five cowries weaved into his long beards, said he has always desires to be different and to stand out in all he does.
He sure stands out.
Outside the gallery is a large field filled with iron works of many sizes, from birds to an elephant.
We thoroughly enjoyed our day. I never knew that such an hour or two in such environment could be that fulfilling. I left after feeding my eyes and enjoying the peace that comes with gazing at those creative works.
I promised Nike that I would return, and it’s a promise I intend to keep. We still have an unfinished topic: she insists that her Ogidi town in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi is one and the same with the one in Idemili South LGA of Anambra State. When next we see, we will sort out which of the two left the original homestead to its new location.
*Veteran journalist, Sheddy Ozoene is publisher/Editor-in-Chief, People and Politics magazine