Sola Osofisan: You recently bucked the immigrant trend by returning to live mostly in Nigeria. It has given you a unique perspective, straddling both worlds – the West and West Africa. Share with us some of the drama or trauma of fitting in...to the system in Nigeria?
Victor Ehikhamenor: Fitting back into the system was not that difficult for me. As a village boy, you can pretty much fit into any situation. Before leaving America I was mentally prepared to accept whatever Nigeria had in stock for me. The first shock was when my soft landing at NEXT newspapers became too rocky to be referred to as "soft". But I was already determined to take whatever my country has to offer and give back what I can in any small way. When you have that mindset, even when armed robbers take your laptop and hard drive full of images – fifteen years worth of work – chase you down a dark alley and breath down your face to surrender your phone, or have flood destroy some of your valuable artworks or have politicians lie and watch the country go to the dogs, you keep the faith. The beautiful thing for me in Nigeria, especially Lagos, is the abundance of communal spirit and hardworking Nigerians who mean well for this country, especially in the art sector.
Victor Ehikhamenor: Fitting back into the system was not that difficult for me. As a village boy, you can pretty much fit into any situation. Before leaving America I was mentally prepared to accept whatever Nigeria had in stock for me. The first shock was when my soft landing at NEXT newspapers became too rocky to be referred to as "soft". But I was already determined to take whatever my country has to offer and give back what I can in any small way. When you have that mindset, even when armed robbers take your laptop and hard drive full of images – fifteen years worth of work – chase you down a dark alley and breath down your face to surrender your phone, or have flood destroy some of your valuable artworks or have politicians lie and watch the country go to the dogs, you keep the faith. The beautiful thing for me in Nigeria, especially Lagos, is the abundance of communal spirit and hardworking Nigerians who mean well for this country, especially in the art sector.
- Ikhide
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