Asa, Gyang, Tigidam Tara, others nominated, honoured as Best 100 young Nigerians *The Future Awards Africa 2013 holds in Rivers State today

 

Asa 

Gyang

Tigidam

Tara

ADA DIKE

Young Nigerians in the art world have continued to shine like stars and exhibit outstanding excellence in their performance and dedication to their careers.
At Africa’s biggest youth leadership platform, The Future Awards Africa (TFAA) that kicked off a week of celebration on Sunday, December 15, 3013, with a formal launch of events by the Nigerian Federal Government, the TFAA Best 100 which comprised some of the best young leaders that have been nominees of the awards since its inception in 2006 were celebrated and honoured by the presidency. The launch was led by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo at the State House, Abuja.

 “We are grateful for the support of the Nigerian Federal Government in honouring its achieving young people. These are young people who, over the past decade and more, have blossomed and risen by themselves, in spite of the difficulties of living in this country and the challenges of leadership. The least our nation can do therefore is recognize them and honour them, so they can do even more and sustain this movement,” Director of Operations for the awards, Mr. Adebola Williams said.
Dignitaries at the event among others included Minister of Finance; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Agriculture; Akinwumi Adesina, Secretary to the Federal Government; Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, Chief of Staff to the President; Mike Oghiadome, Minister of Sports and Youth Development Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, Chairman of Heirs Holding; Tony O. Elumelu, Chairman of Sokoa Chair Centre; Ibukun Awosika, Chairman of Silverbird Group Ben Bruce, Chairman,  Channels TV; John Momoh, Publisher of TW; Adesuwa Onyenokwe, Toni Kan and Director, Microsoft; Kabelo Makwane.
Speaking at the event, Vice President Namadi Sambo said: “This government has seen the importance of the youth and places serious value on them. Through our transformation agenda, we are creating job opportunities for the youths; my administration is committed to increasing access to education. As Nigerians, we know there's more to be done, but yet, there's plenty to celebrate.”
Also speaking, Ibukun Awosika, Founder and Chairperson of The Chair Centre Ltd said: “I salute the young people who will make my dream for Nigeria come true. What you can’t be today, you can’t create value for tomorrow, You force the system to respond to your creativity. I am also very proud of Adebola and Chude, the organizers for how far they have come."
Below are brief profiles of Asa, Tigidam, Gyand and Fela-Durotoye:

Asa

Nigerian born international soul, pop and reggae star, Asa has been singing from childhood.

Born in 1982 in Paris as Bukola Elemide, she attended Peter King’s Music school and learnt how to play guitar. In 2002, she travelled to France on a Jazz project with Nigerian musicians and went back to Paris in 2004 to start her career.

Some of her hit songs among others include: Eye Adaba,
Fire On The Mountain, Jailer,  No One Knows. Peace and So Beautiful.

Kenneth Gyang

Kenneth Gyang is a prolific writer and film director who directed a feature film, Confusion NA Wa which hit the cinemas in Nigeria in October this year.

Born in Barkin Ladi, Plateau State, Nigeria, Gyang studied Film Production at the National Film Institute in Jos and Screenwriting at Gaston Kaboré's IMAGINE in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. He started working in film and television in 2006 where he has worked as a director for the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Wetin Dey and also directed Finding Aisha for SoundCity, for which he won Screen Producer of the year at the Future Awards.

Perez Tigidam

Documentary photographer, brand marketing and communication guru, Perez Tigidam from Rivers State has been doing documentary photography for about five years. His first work was done in 2008 at a village where the Nigerian civil war began. That is, a boundary between Cross River and the North. From there, he discovered that he could use his camera to record developmental works and he does it as a hobby when he is not busy with work. His work was recently selected in the Alliance Francais sponsored Life in my City photo contest.   

The graduate of University of Port Harcourt also studied photography under Kelechi Amadi Obi. He also got trained at the Orange Academy School of Brand Innovation, where he emerged the best student for the use of logic in branding.  He did a creative enterprise development course organised by the British Council and Pan African University. He is a trained film editor from the New York Film Academy and a passionate tourism promoter. He is an associate member of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and convener of Open City Africa Innovation conferences.

His work, Borderline Study 1 and 2 (2012), depicts poverty juxtaposed with wealth. “What divides the poverty and prosperity is a fence. The borderline is more or less, a picture that showed that those on the wealthy area cannot cross over to the poverty stricken area and vice versa. I spent some days in the poor community to feel how life looks like to them, but found out that they are living happily. My heart broke when I was leaving there. I wished I had the kind of money that can raise their standard of living. Some of them don’t have the opportunity of playing in gardens or with beautiful toys or some of the technologies children in the city enjoy.

“In this community, wild animals including hippopotamus lived here but as a result of pollution from these oil companies, all of them died.  The work is very subjective. It leaves the viewer with questions to ask: “Are we only exploiting our environment and enriching one side?” It calls for environmental consciousness,” said Tigidam

Tara Fela-Durotoye

One of Nigeria’s best makeup artists, Tara Fela-Durotoye, is known as the pioneer in the bridal makeup profession in Nigeria.

Born on March 6, 1977, she launched the first bridal directory in 1999, set up international standard makeup studio, and established the first makeup school.

The Chief Executive Officer of House of Tara International studied Law in the Lagos State University, Lagos. Through her craft, she has bagged many awards and was recently named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Other young Nigerians who made the list of The Future Awards Africa 2013: Best 100 are: Kola Oshinowo, Abdulkareem Baba Aminu, Bright "Basketmouth" Okpocha, MI Abaga, Ali Nuhu
Uti Nwachukwu, Noble Igwe, OC Ukeje and Ohimai Amaize.

Others are: Denrele Edun, Stephanie Linus, Teju "Babyface" Oyelakin, Tolu Ogunlesi, Tolu ‘Toolz’ Oniru, Ndidi Nwuneli, Banke Meshida-Lawal, Steve "Yaw" Onu, Peter and Paul "Psquare" Okoye
and Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde
The next stop for The Future Awards Africa after events in Lagos, Addis Ababa and Abuja is Port Harcourt, where this year’s edition of the awards will hold today. This will be followed by School Seminars where students will be mentored and coached in practical sessions on career and talent, first in Port Harcourt and then in secondary schools across Nigeria.
"We are glad to welcome The Future Awards Africa to Rivers again and to be a key partner for its week-long celebrations," said Ibim Semenitari,  Commissioner for information.

"We look forward to continuing our work building the capacity and showcasing the immense talent of Port Harcourt's youth."

The awards are hosted by the Rivers State Government and held in partnership with Microsoft, the British Council, the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, Access Bank and the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

We also gathered that Microsoft will also be launching its jobs and employability portal, Aiki.ng at the awards.