It has been said that Rivers State’s biggest asset is beyond oil/gas but in the reservoir of talents everywhere; plus human capital development.
Chief executives of the state that realise this, act differently to reveal this and develop it, and the state vibrates, scholarships abroad, training schemes, ICT schemes, industrial attachments, SME loans, etc.
Next is agriculture; both in crops and aquatic resources. In talents, the entertainment industry has produced world beaters, but it can do much more if the state’s leaders are intentional about it. Many would easily mention Mercy Johnson, Hilda Dokubo, Yibo Koko, Julius Agwu, Duncan Mighty, Sam Dede, and of late, Burna Boy. The biggest of this could be locked out in the Government House. It is the ensemble in the womb of power, the Brick House. Yes, power oozes from there but something greater than power booms in there.
Many may ask; what is stronger than a lion; what is sweeter than honey? Source of power, source of melody! It may depend on who pulls the strings.
This writer found himself Sunday evening after many gates and screenings at Government House Chapel. After two doors, behold, men and women seated in eerie silence, almost unmoving; in all-white.
Welcome to the Government House Choir, the Ensemble, ready to perform in a special edition to install their first-ever patron, the Mayor of Housing, My-ACE China. Welcome to ‘an evening of grand musical performance in praise of God; appreciating excellence in human capital development projects and conferment of Patron and Honorary Member to My-ACE China’. It is the Chapel of Everlasting Grace.
By the time the Music Director, Enitoun Ezekiel Iyalla, and the Chaplain, Joseph Joseph, opened the performance, it was ice water in the form of choral classics.
The surprise of the night could be the soprano solo by Cameroon Ayebatari, a vision-inspired talent, who also played the organ. He is being compared with the greatest sopranos in the world.
The highlight of the songs was “Peace, Be Still” which was dedicated to the affairs of Rivers State.
Then, the conferment. Those who talked to this writer from the choir said they were shocked to discover his versatility, academic brilliance (best-graduating student in both secondary schools in Jos with 9 As and at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), generosity, and above all, his fire-burning spiritual life.
The object is to promote the choir beyond being an ensemble in an enclosure. It must escape to the world. The coming of the Mayor of Housing may ensure this because he is a born marketer who does not believe that good should hide for evil to outshine.
Words have never been enough to describe songs. So, it would need to hear from the ensemble to know what resides in this state beyond oil.
The choir began as choral music found in Ancient Greece and in contemporary European choral settings. David employed it in the Bible to calm a troubled king?
The Government House Choir thrilled the small audience with George Frideric Handel’s classical of the Alleluia Messiah droplets.
The Mayor made pledges and the hope to excel and explore returned.
The night ended pleasurably with hopes that the hiding was over and that this great asset would escape from the walls of the Chapel to the world in need of peace. This is what the Mayor of Housing has vowed to ensure. After all, he is a United Nations Peace Ambassador.
