Abulu
I’m Tony Abulu. I was born in the commercial city of Onitsha in Anambra State. I’m from the family of Mr. Joseph Agbon and Mrs. Patstella Chinemogo Abulu. We used to live together in Zaria as a family with my three other siblings until my parents travelled to London for studies. While my father went for Engineering, my mother was studying Architecture.
After one year at Ibadan Poly studying Physics, Chemistry, and Maths, the Art lecturers were able to convince me to switch to Art instead of my dream Architecture, convincing me that I would do Nigeria a major disservice. That was how I joined Graphics Design and Illustration class at the Ibadan Poly.
I started a graduate degree programme in Art at the City University of New York but dropped out for lack of finance, and then continued my magazine with a study in Afrocentrism, which had earlier been influenced in Nigeria by my mentor, Fela Anikulapo Kuti. In 2005, we organised the first copyright conference with the US and Nigerian governments in the US. In 2010, FAN, USA organised a raid of all Nollywood copyright infringers in Brooklyn, New York with the support of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
What is the current state of the Nigerian creative industry viz-a-viz indices, monetisation, banks, government and private sector support, among others? The government may mean well, but without knowing, it subjugates the industry’s opportunities. Nigeria should first create a separate ministry for the creative industry with a talented and knowledgeable director or a minister. The industry requires specific knowledge and skill to monetise it. The minister must be able to establish symbiotic relationships with the Central Bank of Nigeria and commercial banks.
The required licenses cost maximum of $50 million in the United States. Even $10 million can mobilise it in specific symbiotic relationship with the Nigerian creative industry which provides the attraction of the eyeballs and earlobes to a global digital monetisation platform, which, by the way, has already been built.