It is with pleasure and a great deal of pride that we are able to announce that our esteemed Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Mike Abiola, is to receive the Nigeria Centenary Award, honouring him as one of the top 100 Nigerians to have lived in the UK in the past century.
Mike gave birth to African Voice in 2001 and has nurtured and supported it towards its current position of Britain’s premier African newspaper. Yet Mike has multiple other strings to his bow. He is not only a publisher and journalist of note, he is by training an aviation professional, specialising in aircraft auto-pilot systems and a respected film producer.
Mike was instrumental in the development of a nascent Nigerian film industry that had begun to flourish buoyed by the success of straight-to-video releases, such as 1991’s Living in Bondage, by Kenneth Nnebue and Nneka the Pretty Serpent by Okechukwu Ogunjiofor (1992).
The bright future he envisioned for the Nigerian film industry led Mike to support the structures that would expose Nollywood films and practitioners to the UK, Europe and America. His vision in recognising its potential has seen Nollywood transformed from the relative obscurity of a niche genre to global recognition within two decades. Nollywood now provides content to six TV channels on the UK Sky digital network.
As far back as 1991, Mike started a 40-page full colour publication dedicated entirely to Nigerian film, culture and the arts. Nigerian Videos was distributed monthly in Nigeria, America and the UK to popular acclaim in the Nigerian press, which in turn publicised the industry and its practitioners beyond the nation’s shores.
Nigerian Videos’ success sowed the seeds of an idea to publicly recognise those practitioners’ achievements. To this end, Mike instituted the first ever awards ceremony inaugurated by a Nigerian in the UK to celebrate film, arts and culture. The Afro Hollywood Awards, first held in1996, has grown to become the most prestigious of awards in Europe for practitioners in the African film industry. Now in its nineteenth year and restyled the African Film Awards, the ceremony affords actors and film-makers vital exposure in their quest to display their talents beyond the bounds of the African continent.
The Afro Hollywood Awards gave Jeta Amata, a Nigerian film-maker, the opportunity to collaborate with British producer/director Nick Moran to produce documentary film “Game of Life” for the BBC in 2003. Jeta has since worked with the likes of Academy Award winner Kim Basinger, Academy Award nominee Mickey Rourke and celebrated music industry stars Akon and Wyclef Jean.
Mike has helped secure international film roles for Nollywood actors, such as in his recommendation of Joke Silva to UK casting directors for her eventual role in ‘Secret Laughter of Women’ shot in the South of France.
As a respected and influential name within Nollywood, Mike has forged and facilitated partnerships between UK and African film industry practitioners, providing support and backing to many actors, film producers and script writers. He has helped to support the training of students at the Nigeria Film School in Jos through the supply of library books and provision of qualified British training personnel on attachment from the British Film School. UK trainers went to Nigeria to provide training on film techniques for four consecutive years from 2007 – 2010.
Mike has been the recipient of several honours prior to this latest accolade, including the Nigerian Achievers Awards Institute’s Media Personality of the Year 2007, and a listing on Black 100+ Legacy Book of Achievers at the Lewisham Black History and Heritage Archive. He was named Culture Ambassador for the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) in 2011, and received the Association of Nigeria Theatre Arts Practitioners’ International Theatre Day Meritorious Award for Deserving Nigerians in 2013. He has also received several commendations, including one from the British Film Institute for initiating the African Film Awards UK.
A passionate and focused achiever, Mike says, “The most rewarding things of all human exploits on earth are consideration for others, honesty and hard work. Be passionate and focused on your areas of interest; ensure that you discover your talent early, and contribute positively to make the world better than you met it. Be thankful.”
Mike lives in the UK with his children and formidable, supportive wife, veteran actress Golda John, a famous face on Nigerian television soaps and theatre in the 90s.
The 2014 Nigerian Centenary Awards ceremony will be held at Waltham Forest Town Hall on Friday 27th June and will be attended by Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the UK together with assorted diplomats, captains of industry, media personalities and other celebrities. Compères on the night will be multi-award winning author and motivational speaker, Dayo Olomu and broadcaster, BEN TV’s Pricilla Nwikpo.
Others who will be honoured along with Mike Abiola as one of the top 100 UK-based Nigerians in 100 years include Debbie Ariyo OBE, who is the founder and chief executive of Africans Unite against Child Abuse (AFRUCA); community leader and former CAN(UK) chairman, Mark Abani; local Lambeth councillor and lecturer, Mayor (Cllr) Ade Aminu; former professional footballer and Africa’s first qualified coach, Teslim Balogun (posthumous award); Paralympian and TV personality, Ade Adepitan; and philanthropists and entrepreneurs Olu and Yemisi Aiyegbusi.
I congratulate Mr Mike Abiola on this occasion of the award as one of the 100 most influential Nigerians in the UK in the past 100 years. This is a well deserved award considering his enormous contribution to the development of the ethnic media and Nollywood industry. His effort has contributed to the globalisation of the industry which has expanded in leaps and bounds to every nooks and crannies of the world. African Voice itself which has been a pace setter in the UK ethnic media has continued to make impacts despite the global economic crunch which affected the newspaper industry.
More grease to your elbow as you receive the award on Friday.
Emma
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