Shadow justice secretary and minister for London Sadiq Khan backs Nigerian Centenary Awards UK

Shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan has praised the Nigerian community in Britain for its industrious nature and has pledged to attend  the Nigerian Centenary Awards UK gala dinner due to take place in London on June 27.

Mr Khan, who met up with members of the Nigerian community in Waltham Forest during a Labour Party fundraising dinner, said he was always full of the tenacity, professionalism and seriousness Nigerians showed in whatever they did. Former Waltham Forest mayor Councillor Anna Mbachu, who is up for re-election in the forthcoming local government elections, invited the Nigerian community to come out and support her, where they met up with Mr Khan.

Particularly impressed with the colourful outfits the Nigerian community showed up in on the night, Mr Khan paid special tribute to the diasporans. He pledged to attend the Nigerian gala night in June during which 100 outstanding diasporans in the UK over the last 100 years will be honoured in recognition to the contribution towards society.

"Nigerians are very tenacious and industrious people and if you look at the UK community, they have produced a lot of professionals in all sphere of life. They are very ambitious and right through from Nollywood to the academia, they are proving that they can compete with anybody and everybody," Mr Khan added.

Promising to attend the Nigerian Centenary Awards UK ceremony which is taking place at Waltham Forest Town hall, Mr Khan pointed out that the Nigerian community symbolises the new multi-cultural Britain. Apart from being shadow justice secretary, Mr Khan is also the shadow minister for London, where most of the 2m Nigerians in the UK live.

Seeking to woo the Nigerian vote ahead of the forthcoming local government elections, Mr Khan joked that it is only at a Labour Party gathering that such an array of different, wonderful and colourful clothing would be found. He later posed for pictures with the members of the Nigerian community present at the event, who totalled about 20 in number.

Ronke Udofia, the chairman of the Nigerian Centenary Awards organising committee's awards sub-committee, added that getting the endorsement of Mr Khan was a big boost for the event. She urged anyone wishing to nominate anybody they considered worthy of an honour to visit the website www.nigeriancentenaryawardsuk.com and make their nomination.