Stunts and fashion showcase in Nigeria's Lagos, puts luxury cars to the test

The thrill, the rush, fun, music and dance was what kept audiences spell bound at the recent Revs and Runway event held in Lagos. I'm sure you are wondering like I was when I first heard of it.... Revs and Runway????? Yeah, a motorsports event that has cars doing dangerous stunts....what we do not normally see in this part of the world. All thanks to the Lebanese folks who seem to have 100 percent love for drifting.
Over a hundred people were entertained with heart stopping car stunts earlier this month in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos as fierce Lebanese drifters thrilled them with their performances. The Abuja based drifters, DarkKnight Motorsport Limited which has been in existence for 10 years brought their cars and motorbikes to the controlled environment where adrenaline activities were carried out to the delight of the audience. Motorsports is gradually becoming popular in football obsessed Nigeria with events being held yearly in various cities across the West African country.  Organised by Mach Motorsports and Mastermindz Motoring, this year's Revs and Runway event was the second edition. The organisers plan to hold motorsports events in the country to draw audiences who travel out to enjoy such activities. The drifting technique comes into play when the driver intentionally turns the vehicle sharply with loss of traction in some or all the tyres while still in control when turning a corner. One of the daring drifters, Anthony Sandu says he is looking to open a club for drifters in Nigeria. A variety of cars were on display as drifters set the ground on fire with their revving skills leaving spectators in awe of their moves. Many Nigerians still do not understand the concept of motorsports while others are excited over its debut in Nigeria. The organizers say they are hoping to grow the motorsports industry so that Nigeria can become a choice destination as well for such sports.

Pictures courtesy: Sharon Ogunleye

 

NIGERIAN ARTIST "WRITES WITH FIRE" TO CREATE MASTERPIECES

On one of those days I spend hours searching for story ideas and convincing myself not to give up the search for that day, some images caught my attention. Wow was the first thought that came to my mind..... I could not stop staring for some seconds. I was in love. This artist was..... my goodness! There are absolutely no words but his works are stunning. I quickly shared the Twitter link to my colleagues. That was in September. And then I completely forgot about it. Like really. I got caught up with other stuffs and here was this idea buried deep in weeks of messages. Until a month later when the urgency for story ideas reached a peak I could barely sleep. I decided to scroll up on ideas I had shared and I found it. Yaay! Forgive my excitement but it's great to tell stories from Nigeria. So I kickstarted the process of an interesting story of this young man Alex Peter, a pyrography artist who does "amaaaaaazing" work. Pyrography means "writing with fire" and believe me this has been around since the dawn of recorded history. Creating images on wood via controlled heat. My super colleagues jumped on it and the process was easy thankfully. For Alex Peter, a trained accountant; art was like some hobby that he started when he was younger until a light shone and he thought hey, I could actually do something with this and that led him to fully kick off his art journey in 2016. So here is how the self-taught artist does it. He gets a board then uses a pencil, sketches his subject on the board, goes on to burn the image with a blow lamp after which he uses a razor blade or sand paper to carve out the patterns. The process ends by spraying with a fixative to stop the colours from running. Voila! Check out the art works below and tell me if it ain't the work of a genius. Nigerians forever making us proud with their talent. The 25 year old is only just beginning even after two exhibitions. We can't wait to see him on the world stage. *Smile*. He already is. He has done some work on famous African personalities. His future plans? He wants to open an art school where he can put up a gallery and promote pyrography.

Pictures courtesy: Alex Peter and Angela Ukomadu