5th June, 2024
By Nehru Odeh
Ms Tomike Layi-Babatunde is a lawyer with a difference. Her pedigree notwithstanding, she exudes passion, confidence and originality. Though educated at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom and the scion of two distinguished lawyers, Mr Layi Babatunde, SAN and his wife Barrister Mrs Adejoke Layi-Babatunde, Tomike has decided to toe her own path and carve out her own future. And armed with an entrepreneurial spirit as well as creative and artistic skills she is doing so with gusto, determination and panache.
Tomike represents a new crop of detribalized professionals, young, brave, smart, and well-educated whose entrepreneurial spirit has made them not only take risks and break new grounds but also put them in the driving seat of Africa’s search for a competitive space in the global market.
Her professional training as a lawyer notwithstanding, Tomike, is the founder and creative Director of Acacia Studios, the leading name in innovative Afro-contemporary designs. A very distinctive feature of Acacia Studios is that its products, the raw materials of which are sourced and produced locally are so designed beautifully to compete in the global market and earn the much-needed foreign exchange.
Tomike is a go-getter and also a team player. She proved she represents the new crop of swashbuckling African creatives taking their rightful place on the local and international scene when her brainchild, Acacia Studios, launched Nne Endearment, its latest state-of-the-art homeware collections on May 24 and 25 at Windsor Castle Gallery, Goriola Street, off Adeola Odeku, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Nne Endearment? That Tomike, a Yoruba, uses Nne, an Igbo word signifying affection and motherhood, indeed speaks volumes about her pan-Africanist bent and how she has broken ethnic and racial barriers and gone beyond borders to reach out to the global market.
The event, which lived up to expectations, was creativity and aesthetics at their best, as it showcased a stunning range of homeware products including furniture, tableware, decorative accents, textile pieces etc exquisitely designed.
The two-day exhibition was a huge success as it attracted a seemingly endless flow of guests, including the creme-de-la-creme of society, who thronged the exhibition to see the aesthetically built homeware collections which, drawing inspiration from the rich tapestry of African heritage, blends traditional aesthetics with modern design sensibilities. And the fact that they have a touch of both the traditional and the modern makes them unique and very competitive.
Participants in the exhibition included Mr Lai Mohammed, former Minister of Information and National Orientation; Mr Muiz Banire, former Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress, APC; Mr Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika; Prof. Abiola Sanni, SAN, Prof. M.T Abdulrazaq, SAN; Mr Olopade SAN and his wife; Mr Kayode Enitan, SAN, to mention a few.
Mr Layi Babatunde, SAN, and his wife, Barrister Adejoke Layi-Babatunde were also on hand to give support to their daughter of whom they are very proud.
Asked why she decided to start the business seven years ago, despite the fact that she is not just a lawyer but has parents who are distinguished lawyers, Tomike said: ” It was about six, seven years ago that I started to think about creativity and what that meant for me, and the kinds of things I could produce.
“I actually started with making scented candles. Then I diversified into making other soft furnishings And with the rate Nigerian culture has been promoted recently with our music, its culture currency is increasing. So I was like you know what? It’s time to actually take this to the outside market.”
Still, a very interesting feature of the homeware collections on display is that they are one hundred per cent Nigerian. Not only are they produced in Nigeria, the raw materials are sourced here and produced with the export market in mind.
Tomike herself buttressed that fact: “Everything you see was made here. So we can promote Made in Nigeria production. This is pure mahogany, Nigerian mahogany. This is Benin brass. So all of these are made with the export market in mind. And we are trying to create things that are very much Nigerian and African but which still appeal to a foreign market as well,” Tomike said at the first day of the exhibition.
Mr Layi Babatunde, SAN, also corroborated her daughter’s statement, adding that the homeware collections can compete favourably with similar products across the globe.
“It is about traditional craftsmanship and what our local artisans are capable of doing. Everything you see on display here is produced from local materials and done by our own people, who have exhibited so much skill and passion for what they are doing. And that tells me that to a very large extent, we can look inward. These are very beautiful homeware collections. And they are as competitive as you can get anywhere else in the world, ” he said.
Mrs Adejoke Layi-Babatunde, while commending the giant strides her daughter is making also emphasized the salient roles the creatives are playing in the music, arts, Information Technology and entertainment industries as they bring the much-needed foreign exchange to the country through their works, which are exported abroad.
“Creatives bring to life a lot of ideas that ordinary eyes cannot see. And then because it is Africa’s time, a lot of these designs were made with aso-oke, adire etc. I think we should encourage them so that we can even have a lot of foreign exchange when it is exported. I tell you Africa is the next best thing to happen. And if our children have gone this way, we should appreciate and support them. And by so doing, bring foreign exchange and glory to our nation.
“We have a lot to offer as Africans. That is the bottom line. Rather than spending money to import lamps and furniture from everywhere, why don’t we put the money back into the system so that Nigerians can be great again? Seeing our young people travel abroad, come back and say they want to showcase Africa, there is nothing that should be more joyous than that. We must all be creatives and do things that children have never seen, ” Mrs Layi-Babatunde maintained.
Asked why she named her organization Acacia Studios, Tomike enthused; “It’s a funny story. When I was about to start the business seven years ago, I wrote several names. Acacia was one of them. At the time I used to worship at Daystar every Sunday. Then one Sunday, while Pastor Sam Adeyemi was preaching he just kept reading Acacia Wood for about three times from some verses in the Bible. And I looked up and I said ‘Okay, okay we have the name.’ So that was how Acacia Studios came about.”
Then why tag the exhibition Nne Endearment, considering the fact that she is Yoruba?
“Nne is a general term for endearment. If you meet an average Igbo or any person from the Southeastern part of Nigeria, even if they don’t know you and they are trying to communicate with you or trying to make you feel a little bit more familiar than a stranger, they will say, ‘Nne please help me bring that thing.’
“It is just a way of saying you are my guy. One of my best friends is actually Ibo. Her name is Obianuju. And from like 2014, she just used the word in all her messages to me. … I loved it. So I was like ‘Okay I am going to keep that name. And I kept it. Though the name is Southeastern, all the other pieces of the collection are from everywhere, ” Tomike maintained.
Mr Layi Babatunde also emphasized his daughter’s pan-Nigerian/Africanist bent “We should learn that working with one another we can achieve a lot. As you can see, Nne Endearment is a kind of friendship. Tomike is Yoruba. But if she has started to christen her exhibition with something from the East, that tells me that it’s a great country and we can build some measure of brotherhood and sisterhood across the Niger and anywhere, ” he said.
Any challenges so far? The lawyer cum entrepreneur replied in the affirmative, adding that they are legion. “Running any business in Nigeria is challenging,” she said. “No matter the kind of business, it is challenging. We face challenges in form of rising cost of fuel/diesel, irregular electricity, not getting supply of materials, making sure that things are checked properly and the quality is up to a certain standard.
“Standardizing quality is a big issue with Nigerian artisans because we don’t really have an artisan school, where people go and train: and they check that these people know how to do this to a certain standard. So any artisan that you hire you are literally going to train them from scratch to how things are supposed to be finished.”
How then can government come in in this regard? “The present administration seems to be really interested in promoting manufacturing, art and culture as well as investment in things that we can easily market and sell. So I know that the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Arts and Culture exist and they are all trying to focus on attracting the export market and supporting local manufacturers, ” Tomike averred.
Still, Tomike is also appreciative of the huge support her parents have given her. When asked if there has been any pushback so far, she said; “My parents have been really supportive about everything that I do and intend to do. So I have not really had any pushback in that manner or in that regard.”
Tomike’s parents are indeed proud of the giant strides their daughter is making and the successes she has recorded so far. Their countenance and body language at the exhibition showed how proud they are of her accomplishments.
“When she came and said ‘I’m passionate about this. Of course, as parents, we said no no no. And she’s been doing this for six, seven years. But today we have said ‘Okay as parents we support you. We are proud of what you are doing. And just go ahead, “Mrs Layi-Babatunde, mother of the celebrant, enthused, beaming with smiles.
The two-day exhibition, which was held at Windsor Castle, 5 Goriola Street, Adeola Odeku, Victoria Island with its cool and serene ambience was indeed a huge success as the large number of guests that participated in the exhibition testified to that. Tomike, the Creative Director of Acacia Studios was on hand to take guests round as she introduced the products to them and respond to their questions.
