Beyond the suffocating air of Nigerian politics, which gets far more problematic by the day, with its unending twists and turns, there are more sober happenings within this same polity, which while politics depresses the soul, uplift it, reminding us all too plainly why we are human. Over the weekend for example, the 12th edition of the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMCVA) was held at the Eko Hotels and Suites in Victoria Island, Lagos. It was a phenomenal event: a tribute to the African spirit of innovation and creativity. The Met Gala had been held earlier in the United States, May 4, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city, with the theme “Costume Art” and a dress code – “Fashion is Art” and there were impressive, energetic spectacles in terms of how the celebrities turned up. But coming just about a week later, the AMVCA 2026 properly established itself as the MetGala equivalent in Nigeria and even surpassed the show in New York where celebrities like Heidi Klum, Kylie Jenner, Beyonce, SZA, Cardi B, Tyla, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Anna Wintour, Teyana Taylor, Venus Williams, Naomi Osaka Lena Dunham gave us a bold-eyed look at fashion as art.
The equivalent in Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos, Nigeria took the game of fashion and art a notch higher. The organizers of the Met Gala can learn one or two things from the creatives that the AMVCA brought together on Saturday, May 9: sculptural gowns, shimmering fabrics, heavily theatrical designs, a show of spectacle. Viewers and spectators would be struck for much longer by the dress worn by reality TV star, Queen Mercy Atang, made by Toyin Lawani of Tiannah’s Empire out of over 100 loaves of bread, a simple case of Atang, also a baker, wearing her business for the world to see. Nana Akua Addo, Ghanaian fashion star, arrived dressed like a Cathedral, a design looking like the Cologne Cathedral in Germany. Osas Ighodaro, actress, wore a dress designed by Veekee James, a silver corset, flowing dress, bedecked with stones and crystals, looking glowingly beautiful as if she just stepped out of God’s forge. Nigerians have a talent for making everything seem achievable and extraordinary and in a much better manner than elsewhere. I wondered however what could happen if any of the well-decked celebrities needed to answer the call of nature. How, for example, do you access a bathroom with 100 loaves of bread tied to your dress?
