WORK/PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

WORK/PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

BFA did his mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) primary assignment at the Programmes Department of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Enugu (1983-1984). Subsequently, he had a stint at Professor JP Clark’s PEC Repertory Theatre, Onikan-Lagos, in 1985. He later joined late Bassey Effiong’s ANANSA Playhouse, then based at the National Council for Arts & Culture (NCAC), National Theatre Annex, Iganmu-Lagos, where he functioned as the Assistant Director and helped to train young school leavers, who were interested in the practice of theatre.

It is on record that some of such artists include: Segun Aina (Segun Arinze), Flora Onwudiwe, Ebiere Ofeni, Josephine Onwochei, Francis Onwochei, Austine Mbanefo, Mike Odiachi, Sunday Ebek, Chris Omozokpia, Ehi Omokhuale, Bami-Jones Osuhon, Lookman Sanusi, Cecilia Iyaha, Jenkins Ekpo, Clementina Kezie, and Helen Ogban. Others were Rowland Henshaw, Archibald Etikerentse, Abdul Abu, Segun Remi, and Yemi Remi. ANANSA Playhouse was also home to trained Thespians like Richard Mofe-Damijo and Zulu Adigwe.

In search of greener pastures, BFA later took up appointment with Rivers State Television (RSTV Channel 55 UHF, later Channel 22 UHF), Port Harcourt (1986-1992). He was among the pioneer producer/directors of the television station. While at RSTV, he held various positions, such as, Operations Supervisor, Head of Programmes, and Head of News & Current Affairs.

In October 1992, BFA went fully into the academic turf as an Assistant Lecturer, at the then Department of Creative Arts, University of Port Harcourt. During this period, he was appointed Consultant with Living Earth Nigeria Foundation (LENF), Port Harcourt, where he pioneered the Bayelsa Community Theatre Programme. His collaboration with Arikpo Arikpo (his course mate at the University of Calabar), produced three collections of plays: Our Forest, Our Future and Other Plays; All for a Canoe and Other Plays (including “All for a Canoe,” “The Golden Goose” and “A New Dawn”); and Inebha (Endurance) (including “Inebha,” “A Farm for Two,” and “Fishing in Muddy Waters”). He also collaborated with Arikpo Arikpo and Professor Emmanuel Emasealu of the Department of Theatre & Film Studies, University of Port Harcourt, to execute an MPP3 Enlightenment Campaign programme through drama. The project was under the Consultancy of LENF. The play, Once Upon a Letter, which the trio scripted, was performed in many communities in Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers States.

On Monday, 26^th August, 2000, BFA started another phase in his life, as the first Executive Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha, JP appointed him the Executive Director of the Bayelsa State Council for Arts & Culture. As the chief executive of the Arts Council, he contributed immensely to the development of the artistic and cultural development of Bayelsa State. He has the credit of redesigning the Ultra-Modern Gloryland Cultural Centre (now Dr. Gabriel Okara Cultural Centre), located at Ovom-Yenagoa, in line with global standards. Today, the Dr. Gabriel Okara Cultural Centre, which hosted the maiden edition of the prestigious Africa Movie Academy Award (AMAA) in 2005, and many other later editions, stands as an iconic edifice, and a reference point in Nigeria’s culture sector.

His nine years’ tenure as the Executive Director of Bayelsa State Council for Arts and Culture transformed the Bayelsa State Troupe, as he opened several international doors for cultural troupes in the State. He was the Leader of the Bayelsa State Delegation, when the Egbelegbele Cultural Troupe of Amassoma participated in the 2002 edition of the World International Children’s Festival of Culture and Art in Tianjin, China. He also led the Bayelsa State Cultural Troupe in performance tours to London, Paris and Algiers, among other cities.

It is pertinent to note that BFA made history by designing a website: www.artsbayelsang.com, for Bayelsa State Council for Arts & Culture, the first website in Bayelsa State. He also published a quarterly in-house newsletter, Owoye: A Newsletter of Bayelsa State Council for Arts and Culture, as well as Abalabala: A Journal of Bayelsa State Council for Arts and Culture. To accommodate music talents in the Arts Council, he formed a musical band, The Glory Beats, and groomed such talented artists. The band recorded three albums at Beat-On Studios, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria, namely, Auntie Maria, Unity and Life Partner. His sterling performance made a way for him as he was part of a Ford Foundation-sponsored Study Tour on the Arts in America in 2008, led by Margie Reese. Others on the team include veteran arts journalist, Jahman Anikulapo, and Bolanle Austen-Peters.

The immense contributions of BFA, as an astute cultural administrator at the state level, did not go unrewarded. He was appointed the Executive Secretary/CEO of National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Abuja-FCT, by then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, on Monday, 3^rd November, 2009, due credit to the then Vice-President, His Excellency Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCON. On the expiration of his first tenure, then President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, approved the renewal of his tenure, with effect from 28^th November, 2013.

With his strong guiding principle of “Excellence in Execution,” (and what he called, The Barclays Force), BFA succeeded in lifting NICO from relative obscurity to a critical agency in Nigeria’s culture sector, positively repositioning it for effective service delivery. As an expert on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) programme, he led the Nigerian Delegation to the UNESCO Conference on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 28 November to 2 December, 2016. His adroit networking with African and other Member States Parties actualised the inscription of the Argungu International Fishing and Cultural Festival on the Representative List of the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH).