The Future Awards Season 6 Launches Today!

#TheAuthenticCelebration with 50 of Nigeria’s most influential young leaders.

After weeks of excitement, the 6th season of Nigeria’s biggest youth event, The Future Awards will finally be launched at an invitation-only media and VIP event in Terra Kulture Lagos on the 30th of September 2010 at 5.30pm.

The event, anchored by Tinsel’s Gideon Okeke, and radio  on-air personality Omalicha, will be a fine evening of music – from Mo’Cheddah, Waje, Skuki, Bez and others – and comedy it will be a fine celebration of youth and of Nigeria and of the potential for the next 50 years of Nigeria’s future. Media partners and others for the season will be unveiled at the event.

The Future Awards is an annual series of events that last an average of six months, kicking off in October every year and lasting through the awards to the post-awards school seminars. According to designer Ohimai Atafo, who heads the Central Working Committee, “it kicks off with an official launch event, and then town hall meetings across the country and outside (last year: Ghana, South Africa and the United Kingdom). Then there is the Nominees Reception and the Get Your Green On! style campaign – it’s always an exciting period.”

“This year it’s special,” says Debie Mangut, the awards’ External Relations director. “The Future Awards is passing its 5th year in the same year that Nigeria is passing its 50th. For both, it’s the beginning of a new era, and to mark that era, we are doing a special event called Face of the Future. Here, we have selected 50 of the past winners of The Future Awards who have made continued impact and are relevant at the moment and we are celebrating them. The old rank of leaders has had the last 50 years. These young people are icons for the thousands who will chart Nigeria’s course for the next 50.”

The 50 young leaders will be unveiled to the media a few days before the event and, according to the organisers, the list will unveil the true legacy of TFA, parading a crop of achieving and inspiring young people that the awards team has found since 2006 – scientists, engineers, pioneers, entrepreneurs, and from all over the country. These 50 will be honoured and celebrated at the event.

“That celebration is themed #TheAuthenticCelebration,” Atafo says, “because we believe that any celebration of Nigeria@50 that does not have the youth at its centre and at its core is not legitimate. Our country is defined by many problems, however the fact that young people have managed to excel in spite of the many problems is what we should be most proud of. That faith that the young people have retained in the country is most responsible for its existence and most responsible for the hope that we have in the nation’s future – and what we are doing is celebrating that hope.”

Also at the launch event, the 20 categories for this year’s awards, the judges, the cities to be visited with Town Hall Meetings and other details will be unveiled. The media campaign for this season, which is always highly anticipated and drives all the season’s activities, will be unveiled. The #IamNigeria campaign, which is driven by stars including 2face Idibia, Stephanie Okereke, Tara-Fela Durotoye, MI, Denrele Edun, Banke Meshida-Lawal, Ify Aniebo and others will also be unveiled at the event. Just like the very successful #Iamthefuture and @IRepresentNaija campaigns, we can’t wait for this to berth!

More info on the awards and this year’s event is on www.thefuturenigeria.com