The Chief Executive Officer of Evagrin Concept, Hakeem Adenekan, speaks on how the outfit built the Oodua Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame for the Oodua Group of Companies, AKEEM LASISI writes
The past 10 years have been very eventful for entrepreneur and arts and culture promoter, Hakeem Adenekan. With his team at Lagos-based Evagrin Concept Ltd, he first made a major statement on his vision to promote Yoruba values when, four years ago, he developed visual art works that carry Yoruba songs, poems and other related forms.
In 2011, Evagrin Concept had also finished work on the production of Yoruba rhymes – the type that legendary writer, J. F. Odunjo, published in the Alawiye series – into CDs and videos. The outfit, however, came out more dramatically last week, when it was revealed as the executor of the dream that became the just inaugurated Oodua Museum and Hall of Fame.
The museum located at the pent house of the Cocoa House, Ibadan. The Oyo State capital, is significant in many ways. It marks the first major intervention by the Oodua Group of Companies, which many people regard as the business heritage of the Yoruba people, in safeguarding the tribe’s cultural legacies. It also seems to pave the way for the reinvention of Ibadan as the good, old cultural capital of the country.
As a result, Adenekan gives kudos to the Managing Director of the Oodua Group, Alhaji Adebayo Jimoh, saying the fact that he (Adebayo) envisioned the project and made the conglomerate to fund it shows that he is a true son of the race. The Abeokuta, Ogun State-born Adenekan, notes that Evagrin Concept found it easy to develop the concept and build the museum because it shares the vision with Oodua.
He says, “It is to the glory of God and all of us that a world-class museum is domiciled inside the Cocoa House, which is the first high rise building in Africa, built by the late legendary Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his political associates. So, while Oodua is the owner of the dream, we were very excited to work to bring it into reality. Because it is the first of its kind, we had to put in everything we had to get it right. I am happy that at the inauguration, everyone, including the Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, expressed satisfaction with what it has turned out to be. ”
Adenekan adds that while veteran artist and curator, Muraina Oyelami, was charged with the duty of collecting artefacts and other art works in the museum, Evagrin handled all other aspects of the job. According to him, all he and his team had to do was to think globally but act locally, adding that there was no foreign input in it.
Noting that the “multi-million naira project” is to be managed by a curator already appointed by Oodua, the culture promoter says Evagrin has already opened discussions with some other corporate organisations who are interested in similar projects. The success at building the museum has also further inspired it to develop other product lines in terms of language and content development, archival material protection and fixing missing elements in the country’s identity.
Part of the brief the outfit worked on was to make the facility bear articles that will represent or conjure up the past and give visitors to the museum an indigenous feel. For instance, Evagrin had to replace the marble on the wall of the hall with plank; while mat, rather than carpet, is on the hallway. In the Hall of Fame are Yoruba legends who recorded firsts in their various disciplines. These include Awolowo, Hubert Ogunde and Rasheed Yekini (the first player to get Nigeria a goal at the World Cup).
In the museum are artefacts, traditional materials or utensils; traditional dresses and things that remind visitors of the technological adventures of Yoruba people.