…charges creatives on perfection
By Onwa Ekor
Co-founder of Peter Kayode Foundation, Mrs Thelma Kayode Bello, has called on youngsters with passion for creative roles to always attend trainings and be ready to be mentored if they must excel.
Bello stated this at a one-day seminar on opportunities for creatives in Cross River, organised by Peter Bello Foundation, tagged, “Calabar Photo Walk 2026,” and held at Prof Eyo Ita building, Marian Road, Calabar.
“Don’t give up, try a little better, you can carve a niche here but first find out what you can do and perfect it.
“Go for trainings, be mentored and ready to burn the candle when you have to and you will excel,” she advised.
On the essence of the event, the Foundation’s co-founder, informed that it was in memory of her late son, Captain Bello, who though spent 26 years on earth, achieved various feats as a photographer, an actor, chemical engineer and pilot before the ill-fated aircraft that claimed his life.
According to Bello, the Foundation seeks to encourage young ones to live their dreams as the deceased did in his lifetime.
Travel journalist, photographer and media entrepreneur, Obaji Akpet, enjoined participants to always position themselves, package and present like global creatives.
Akpet who doubles as the founder of Africafixers, a body that provides logistic services to journalists, corporate organisations and independent filmmakers across over 40 Africa countries, also encouraged creatives to be reliable and deliver on deadlines, if their patronage must soar.
Urging participants to ‘think global and shoot smart,” Akpet who revealed that he only succeeded in three out of nine business ventures he attempted in his early days, stressed the need for creatives to take advantage of vistas of opportunities aimed at enlarging their scope instead of depending on civil service jobs and politics.
Cross River Commissioner for Information, Dr. Erasmus Ekpang, averred that the creative sector remains apt in the socioeconomic development of any nation with vast opportunities that are capable of harnessing the creative habits in youths as well as transforming imagination to real industries.
Director-General Cross River Microfinance Entrepreneur and Development Agency (CR-MEDA), Great Ogban, while applauding the Foundation for keying into the vision of the state, affirmed that the governor, Prince Bassey Otu, has continuously demonstrated his passion for job creation and enterprise development.
“As an Agency we do that with the opening of our Entrepreneurship Development Centre in the state where we let you know that talent is not enough, you need education, knowledge to fine-tune it, right network to get the platform you need and we also provide access to finance which the governor has made funding easy in the state.
On his part, Community Lead of Wiki Niger Delta, Michael Diala, reasoned that a lot of time, the region’s history and culture are under represented globally, hence the need to take ownership of stories of the region while galvanising young people to start creative contents.
“We need to create stories that project our rich cultural heritage and specifically for Cross River creatives, we want to see that they own their stories and project it to the world using our platform,” Diala said.
A photographer, Otome Onoge-Kajogbola, who spoke on “Creating the intentional image,” argued that there is a difference between taking pictures and creating an image, maintaining that in order to create an image, you have to put a lot of visual elements into it.
According to her, intentional image is created with purpose, emotion and direction, makes your work stand out, answers a question, sparks conversation and addresses issue.
The event which featured talks by some alumni members also provided the exhibition of photographs taken by the late Colonel Bello.
governor, Prince Bassey Otu,
