I, like many creatives working out of Nigeria, have had to make do while dreaming and striving to deliver world-class results.
I designed and shared the blueprint for a fully scripted production for a 2Face Idibia concert for the first time in 2004. He loved it. The idea looked great on paper, but the platform to bring it to life simply didn’t exist.
The document gathered dust in my filing cabinet until 2016, when an opportunity came with the album release concert of his sophomore solo album, “Grass 2 Grace”.
The venue was Planet One. It was a top-tier event venue circa 2006, but structurally, it was criminally inadequate for the production envisioned in my script. However, we made do. “Chapter 2” was a blast. The audience thought it was fantastic – going by the real-time response and post-event reviews. I knew it was at best, twenty-five per cent of the scale we had on paper, but it made an impression.
Flytime’s Cecil Hammond either witnessed “Chapter 2” first-hand or was told about it. Because in 2010, we met up to discuss a collaboration to reenact that Planet One magic at the freshly minted Eko Convention Centre.
My team and I did a venue recce. The prospects were super exciting. Compared to Planet One four years prior, I had enough back and main stage space to hold our 80-man cast and crew. Props and special effects bits posed a challenge, but hey, we had to make do.
One month of strenuous rehearsals and diligent preparations, and we were primed and ready to rewrite the playbook. 2face Live: Buckwyld ‘n’ Breathless delivered unprecedented outcomes and unforgettable moments. It set the standard for live experiences and transformed 2Face Idibia from a king to a god.
Everyone was ecstatic. For me, it was a significant achievement to be honest, but I knew that once again, we had to make do. Yes, the size, space and splendour of the Eko Convention Centre added significant gloss to the experience, but we were constrained and scaled the original plan down by about thirty-five per cent and literally had to perform miracles to deliver the magic the audience experienced that night. We celebrated what was indeed a big win, but deep down, I knew that with all the fine details on point, it could have been much better.
Fun fact! Buckwyld ‘n’ Breathless was inspired by my witnessing of the West End production of The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre in London a few years prior. It was an indescribable experience, and I set for myself and my team the task of creating and delivering a fully-scripted concert of that quality.
We had to make do. Ironically, it was something to be proud of and ashamed of, at the same time.
The event was scheduled for a Sunday evening. House on the Rock ran church services at the same venue on Sunday mornings. Our entreaties to be allowed to begin rigging our gear on Saturday, way before their service, were turned down, so we accepted our frightening fate and made do.
Edi Lawani and the technical crew pulled off the first miracle. Post-church service teardown and setup was executed at a dangerously frenetic pace. Then followed line checks, sound check, staggered dry runs, dress rehearsals, prep break, security sweep and bang, showtime! If, as a guest, you were held up considerably longer than anticipated at the red carpet area, well, my sincere apologies once again. We had to make do.
In an ideal world, at least, the last ten days of rehearsals and prep would happen right on the main stage of the Eko Convention Centre. Musicians, background vocalists, dancers, headliners, guest acts, extras, stagehands, sound engineers, lighting engineers, video production team, props and costume handlers, hair and makeup and every last personnel will get to run the cues over and over again to get every detail inch perfect.
In our reality, Eko Convention Centre is near impossible to block-book for ten days of rehearsals and prep. If the dates were available at a stretch, the cost would be straight up, prohibitive within the context of a ticketed one-off concert experience. With our backs to the wall, against crippling odds, we made do and squeezed cool, refreshing water out of burning, rough-edged stones.
Friday, June 5, 2026, I sauntered into the majestic main arena of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and Creative Arts for the first time since the long-awaited restoration and voila! I find on Nigerian soil a creative director’s wet dream. The first facility that ticks all the boxes and presents the best available backdrop for the staging of a Buckwyld ‘n’ Breathless production, where, finally, we would have absolutely no need to scale down on anything. For the first time since 2004, I find a suitable venue to stage this truly special production and deliver a spectacle we can proudly sell to a global audience.
“How liberating and inspiring it would be to design and deliver magic without having to make do”, I fantasised aloud. Then came the bad news.
I made enquiries, and it appeared our dreadful days of having to make do may linger yet. I was reliably informed that the operations here is apparently under the control of the Bankers Committee and it’s firmly and fully commercial.
The expectations that the facility was being refurbished as a gift to Nigeria, the expectations that it would serve as a spiritual hub for arts and culture development, are up in smoke. The business model is cold and brutal.
The Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and Creative Arts is prime real estate, plain and simple. No consideration for culture development or creative arts promotion, no accommodation of culture-forward collaborations. Straight up buying and selling. ₦48m per day booking fee, flat.
My mandatory ten days of prep, rehearsals, dress, tech and D-day will cost N480m, with maybe a gracious 10 – 15% volume discount. That would be at least ₦400m for venue rental alone. No talent fees, equipment hire, technical personnel, promotion, marketing and sundry costs. The dream of delivering a full-scale, artistically excellent and technically flawless Buckwyld ‘n’ Breathless experience in Nigeria appears to be depressingly still far-fetched.
Except, of course, a brand decides to splash the cash or our friends at the bankers committee choose to see the sense and profitability in a more nuanced approach by balancing their aggressive recoupment play with a strategic long game approach with select flagship productions capable of elevating the culture and attracting international audiences.
Until the much-needed shift happens or other alternatives pop up, for BnB and other big productions like it, creatives across the board would have to keep making do and keep working needless miracles.
That’s how we created and delivered Afrobeats to the world, na, abi?
This article was written by Efe Omorogbe, Chief Executive Officer of Buckwyld Media Network. Views expressed in this article are stictly the writer’s and do not represent The Netng’s
