Organisations who have performed well during the course of the year will be honoured with special awards at this year’s Central Association of Nigerians in the UK (CANUK) annual gala dinner taking place on December 14.
In a first such event of its kind, Canuk has decided to hand out awards to its members in recognition of the hard work they do in the community. Canuk currently has 154 members, many of whom work flat out dealing with a host of problems including immigration matters, housing, social services, education, healthcare, etc.
All of these associations are staffed by unpaid volunteers who go out of their way to assist Nigerians in the UK who need help. To show some appreciation for the hard work those associations do, Canuk has chosen to introduce an awards element to this year’s annual gala dinner awards.
Flora Njoku, Canuk’s vice chair associations said: “We have decided to start off with five categories, so for this year, we will have the regional association of the year, state-based association of the year, cultural association of the year, professional association of the year and the Canuk member association president of the year. We have three nominees in each category and on the night, the winners will be announced.
“For the regional association of the year, out three nominees are the Nigerian Yorkshire Community Network, the Nigerian Community in East London and Nigerians in Community Essex, while for the state-based association of the year, out three nominees are Ekiti Parapo, Kwara State Association and the Anambra State Union. For the cultural association of the year, out three nominees are the Igbomina Descendants Association, the Mutual Union of Tivs UK and the Itshekiri Congress.
“For the professional association of the year, out three nominees are Professionals in Accounting and Commerce, the Engineering Forum of Nigeria and the Association of Nigerian Healthcare and Socialcare Workers UK. For the coveted award of Canuk member association president of the year, out three nominees are Jayes Kolawole of the Nigerian Yorkshire Community Network, Bola Atoloye of the Nigerian Community in East London and Mary Adekugbe of Nigerian Community Association Rochdale.”
Rose Graham, Canuk’s publicity secretary, added that the whole idea behind the awards ceremony was to encourage people to do more in the community and to appreciate those who go out of their way to help others. She added that maybe next year, other categories like student organisation of the year, sporting organisation of the year and Nigerian business of the year could be added to the event.
Toyin Solaru Balogun, Canuk’s social secretary, said: “this year’s event is going to have everything with top music from DJ Seyi Chicago, cultural displays from the Tiv Union, Atilogwu dancers and Eyo masquerades and a sumptuous cuisine. We are aiming to make this the best Nigerian gala dinner ever in the UK.
“To get as many people as possible to attend, we have intentionally kept tickets at £50. Fortunately, Canuk has managed to attract a wide array of sponsors to back this year’s events and their generosity has meant that we have not had to increase ticket prices to market levels.”
Victor Aleva, Canuk’s financial secretary, urged everyone who wants to purchase tickets to attend the gala dinner to do so by paying directly into the Canuk bank account. He added that they should make payments into the association’s Lloyds Bank account with the sort code of 301553 and account number 00224400.
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