Eighteen speakers, one room, one Friday: the Centrum Creators Summit lands in Port Harcourt

Seki is an Ijaw word. It means to dance. It comes from Okrika, and for most of its life it was something people did rather than something people watched. On 26 March 2016 Yibo Koko put it on a stage at Eko Hotels in Lagos with more than ninety performers on it, commissioned by Heritage Bank, and narrated it himself. CNN African Voices later called it the dance about the Niger Delta people.

On Friday morning he is in an amphitheatre in Nkpolu, telling a room of young creators how that happened.

What is actually on

The Centrum Creators Summit 2026 runs from 9AM prompt on Friday 11 September at the Rivers State University (UST) Amphitheatre, by the basketball court, Nkpolu, Oroworokwo. The theme is From Passion To Portfolio: structuring a creative idea into a monetizable brand or business. Tickets are ₦10,000 for the Idea Pass and ₦20,000 for the Income Pass.

Eighteen speakers, counted by primary discipline. The largest group on the bill is not performers: it is business, brand and law.

That chart is the argument the summit is quietly making. A third of the room does not perform for a living. There is a lawyer on the bill, two brand strategists, a talent manager, a fashion business convener and a magazine awards founder, sitting next to the comedians and the photographers.

Yibo Koko is the guest speaker, on maintaining originality, creativity and profitability. He is a filmmaker and Creative Director of Seki Dance Drama, and since January 2020 the Director General of the Rivers State Tourism Development Agency. Before that he was Head of Production for Africa Magic Nigeria and a judge on Nigeria Got Talent. He is a voting member of the Nigerian Oscar selection committee.

Thirty five years, five steps. The premiere in 2016 is the one everybody remembers, and it came twenty five years into the work.

Around him sit seventeen others. Kobaba Jornsen, comedian and MD of Talkaholic Unlimited. Lawrence Paul Esq, entertainment and corporate lawyer. Boma Grace Ogidigben, fashion designer and convener of Fashion Experience. Faith Abassah, film and television producer. GSN, comedian and actor. Olumati Isaiah and Austin Okolo on workshops and business development. On the panel: Benny Odumu, Hanita Harry, Chizinum Goodluck Azunwena, Kendrick A. Christian, Benjiszzy Zaakii Omale, Shola Abegunde (Sholadance), Akpan Okon, Roy Clintson, Hillary Maduba and Godwin Awaji-Iriso Adiodun (Shegz).

Why this one is worth the morning

Most creative events in this country are a room of people telling you to believe in yourself. This one has picked a narrower and more useful subject.

Originality is the part you already have. Nobody in Lagos or London can make Seki, because Seki is from Okrika and they are not. What most people lack is not the original thing. It is the structure that carries the original thing to a stage, a screen, a budget line, a commission from a bank.

The three rungs. Almost everyone has the first. The summit is about the second, which is the one that opens the third.

Koko did not make Seki more marketable by making it less Ijaw. He made it bigger. Ninety two performers is not a compromise, it is a scale decision, and scale is what got a bank to write the cheque and CNN to send a crew.

The third word in his title, profitability, is the one Nigerian creative conversations usually skip past quickly, either out of embarrassment or because nobody in the room knows the numbers. His route to it did not run through virality. It ran through institutions. A bank commissioned the work. A broadcaster hired him. A state government put him in charge of tourism. None of that happens to a person who is merely good. It happens to a person who is good and legible to an institution, which means they can describe what they do, price it, deliver it on a date, and be found again afterwards.

If you are going

Nine in the morning prompt, in an amphitheatre, means the good seats are gone by half past.

Two suggestions, since the room will be full of people asking the same three questions.

Ask about money, specifically. Not how they got started. What they charge, how they price a job they have never done before, and what they do in the months when nobody is booking. Those are the answers nobody puts on Instagram.

And go early. The doors are the difficult part.

The Centrum Creators Summit 2026 runs Friday 11 September from 9AM at the Rivers State University (UST) Amphitheatre, Nkpolu, Oroworokwo, Port Harcourt. It is presented by Centrum Creators Summit and listed on CelebIsland here. For tickets, contact the organisers on Instagram, Facebook or X at Centrum Creators Summit.