DUKE IGBINEDION is a Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, trained artist, sculptor and games inventor. Igbinedion, who has many artworks, including ‘The Mandate’ at the National Assembly, to his credit, believes that sports in Nigeria could go beyond football. In this interview, he speaks extensively on the alternative sporting events or games he has invented and their potential to create jobs and change the narrative on Nigeria’s struggling economy. CHUKA UROKO reports.
Many believe that name is just a badge. So, beyond the badge, what else would you like the public to know about you?
I am a product of the Auchi Polytechnic (now Federal Polytechnic), Auchi. I was trained at the School of Art and Design Department of the Polytechnic. I am a sculptor by profession but have grown, over time, to become an artist with multiple and vast areas of incursion.
When you say, ‘multiple and vast areas of incursion’, many people out there many not understand what you mean. How would you say this differently?
Yes. The mind of the artist is always at work hence the multiple and vast areas of incursion. It is not enough to stay solely as a sculptor. If you are really a sculptor worth the onions, you put your brain always to work and think every day how to improve things, how to create things, how to make things better, and how to leave the world a better place than you met it. That is the spirit behind the multiple and vast areas of incursion.
Taking you by your words, what have you done or created that tells you that, truly, at the end of the day, you are leaving the world a better place than you met it?
Beyond reeling out a list of my works, which could be unprofessional as some of those works are in private homes of individuals and corporates, one that readily comes to mind is the 50-feet sculptural work at the Ceremonial Plaza of The National Assembly, Abuja. My signature is there as DIVAS (an acronym for Duke Igbinedion Visual Arts Scenta). That job is called The Mandate. You cannot claim to have gone to the National Assembly complex if you have not seen that work.
Besides The Mandate, what other great works can you point back to and which ones are in the pipeline?
It is not just one project; it is a lot of projects that involve games invention. Yes, I am now into invention of games.
What kind of games are you talking about?
Games invention because that is where my talent takes me to and besides, there have to be alternatives on how people recreate and enjoy themselves. We seem too boxed in by the existing games and when you talk of games, what readily comes to mind is football, football and football, especially in Nigeria where there is a bundle of talents that need to be given diverse opportunities. That is why I came up with the game QWIVAS.
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What does QWIVAS mean in a lay man’s language?
QWIVAS is a nine-person versus nine-person game played on a Canvas with the instrument called the Rhombo which is Blonged through a Forte to score a Qwivoo. Among the Qwivandos (players of the game) are the Pallo, Philosofas (Eagles), Stallions (Horses), and The Basers (The Lions), with the Pero as the central umpire.
All these sound as interesting as they are strange. How did you come about these terms and the meaning you have given to each of them? Could you, in a layman’s language, describe this game the more for clearer understanding? What are the benefits somebody interested in the game can get?
The game being introduced here is a game packed with action that elicits mobility; a game that creates great excitement and entertainment, a game approved by the learned and the noble, a game that improves intelligence, a game for all ages, a game that is played with the Rhombo.
This is the most dynamic game instrument in the world, a game that pierces the long-known games and sets its own marks, a game that is played with the precision of divinity. It demands the aero-dynamism of the eagle and the aggression of the lion, a game that elicits boldness, agility and the spirit of a conqueror. It is a game from the ancient city of Benin, the cradle of black civilization, a game for Nigeria, Africa and the world.
It is common knowledge that artists celebrate creativity and the next masterpiece. But what was your vision in going into games invention; what other games do you have?
The concept, design and registers of the game are all exclusive to me and I am passionate about this invention as well as its potentials to alter the universal sporting firmament, as well as give the economy of Nigeria the needed push to international reckoning. If you talk about vision in its true concept, I have the vision that one day, there will be a national festival of all invented games in Nigeria, and this can happen, and it should happen.
Can you imagine the quantum of resources that will be tapped into the national economy if such a festival happens when we can actualise a dream of making Nigeria in particular and Africa in general a hub of games invention and development, games equipment manufacture and games personnel development and export? It is instructive to note that at the last National Sports Festival hosted by Edo State, almost 90 percent of the games on parade were foreign.
Do you envision the enormity of resources that go to those countries from where those games originated? We play a lot of football in Nigeria but do we manufacture any of the equipment used for playing the game?
And is it not instructive that even until we have a foreign coach for football, Nigerian fans don’t consider the government as serious about developing the game? Shouldn’t we benefit more by trying local alternatives which we can develop and export? That is my vision with QWIVAS!
I don’t know the source of your confidence in this game and its potential, but one could guess that before you came this far, you must have done a lot of home work. What did you find?
Oh yes, for the avoidance of doubt, the unique selling points of the game include the game having a popular appeal to both males and females; it attracts high target audience; the game is loved and played mostly by the youths; it is a novel game that is attracting attention and has lots of positives for schools, colleges and sports development-individuals and organizations. The game, if well managed and handled, could serve as a new discovery to international sporting events. And beyond that, the game has the potential to engender a giant industrial complex in Nigeria for the production of the equipment, kits, among others.
As a games inventor, besides QWIVAS, do have any other invention?
Yes, I have another which is called is Di-Mobile Quantum Stadium. You can call it stadium on wheels. It is a platform on which as many as a hundred games can be played. Some of the games are Quantum Ballusticks Bronze, Geedtarrws etc. The purpose of Di-Mobile Quantum Stadium is to provide an alternative for sporting, especially for organizations and entities including private schools, hotels, gymnasium and private residences that have space constraints but can still enjoy the same privileges as those that have ample space.
Looking at the QWIVAS game and Di-Mobile Quantum Stadium, it is obvious that you must have invested much resource into getting this far. How have you been coping with funding?
Investing much resource, to me, is an understatement. I can say I have invested my life because it takes a lot of sacrifices to get from where we are to where we really want to be. As a matter of fact, everything I get from friends, relatives and from the work I do as a sculptor and painter, go almost hundred percent into perfecting these games.
If you think of me inventing the game, developing the equipment, training the players, going to schools and organizations to exhibit what I have invented and putting teams together to play against themselves, then you appreciate the enormity of resources being invested into what has come to be a game changer in the Nigerian sporting firmament.
So, what are you looking at now?
I am looking at the future; I am looking at the potential of these games as game-changers for the Nigeria economy; I am looking at giving Nigerian youths another opportunity to be useful to selves and country; I am looking at the giant industrial complex that these games could engender if corporate entities key into this vision by adopting a team and making this game competitive; I am looking at the quantum leap these games could give the Nigerian economy and image when these games become competitive and when some Nigerian youths are flown abroad to showcase these games to the international audience.
Apart from inventing games, is there any other thing you do?
Games invention is the new passion but beyond that, I do a lot of painting and hope to be able to exhibit some of them someday, and it is a new area I am venturing into which is called digital painting. However, I cannot stop being passionate about my games because one painting goes into somebody’s private collection and that ends it. But these games cannot be hidden for too long and a lot of people will be involved and positively impacted when they get out of obscurity.
QUOTE: This is the most dynamic game instrument in the world, a game that pierces the long-known games and sets its own marks, a game that is played with the precision of divinity
