The Sun News On-line|Abuja Reports

Maria Cecilia Toledo De Schmillen is the German ambassador’s wife who, in spite of the specs of office, chose to put down her pride in service of Nigeria and Nigeria’s arts industry. As a world-acclaimed artiste and an organiser of human and material resources, she discovered a large number of untapped talents in Nigeria and decided to turn them around for Nigeria’s use. She has not only sent a number of them to Germany for training, she has also set up a musical ensemble called Operabuja for Nigerians.

Notwithstanding that her husband’s tenure as an ambassador terminates in 2009, which means she has a temporary stay in Nigeria, she wants to leave something that can bring her back to Nigeria soon. "I want to be part of this country in many ways. I am an artiste. So, I feel that it (Nigeria) is also part of myself. If things are working the way we expected, I will love to have a little place here and supervise something that I hope will also run on its own.

Our (Operabuja) Board of Trustees are Nigerians. I did it on purpose because I know that when I leave, they have to keep running it. And they are very interested. We have great people there. And the choir is growing. That means they will be able to be autonomous when I leave. But do you think that I will leave my baby here alone? Well, I will love to be here. I love to even stay here," she said. Against the backdrop of her achievements in Nigeria and to the extent that she loves this country and wants to be identified with it, she hates to be referred to as Oyinbo.

"I am very much in love with your country. It is real love. I don’t feel like Oyinbo. I feel part of everything. I could be Chinese. But I am a human being, an artiste who is at home in Abuja and Nigeria. I feel absolutely at home. So, if somebody calls me Oyinbo, I really feel angry. I may be wrong, maybe, but I really feel angry because I am not different. I am part of the artistic community of the world. And I feel at home," she confessed.

Starting Operabuja, a multi-million naira project and a brainchild of Abuja Metropolitan Music Society (AMEMUSO) has the backing of German and French embassies in Nigeria. About 60 to 70 Nigerians who passed audition tests are receiving lectures in music, singing and acting while a number of them would soon travel to Germany for further studies on the bill of German Embassy.

But how did this start?
"The first step was to form a choir and to see if it worked. So, we started a choir (not only me, a lot of Nigerians) and the choir was working. The choir was great. Now we have 60–70 people. So, the best idea was to go to some music society to ask them. We created the first music society in Abuja called Abuja Metropolitan Music Society.

“We wanted to see if it would work or not and it was working. And then we started to dream to make a beautiful event that everybody will feel super-proud about, that everybody will be dedicated to Abuja, with the people we have in the choir. We said ok, let’s try it. So, we created a concept called Operabuja. Since I was 16, I did it in my country. I am from Chile and I am married to a German. So, I did it in Chile. And I knew it will function with this kind of energy in Nigeria."