SK Johnson’s account of The Future Awards Africa Nominees Dinner which took place in Lagos

On Thursday the 11th of July, The United States Consulate hosted the nominees of The Future Awards Africa 2013 to an exclusive dinner. The invitation-only event was held at the Consular-General’s residence in Ikoyi, Lagos and hosted by Bennie Uche and Rubbin’ Minds host, Ebuka Obi-Uchendu.

 

Arrival of guests took place between 5 and 6 pm during which times cocktails and small chops (all particularly delicious, I must say) were continuously served.

Guests showed up at the red carpet dressed in various styles from the laid back to the glamorous to the “show-off-y” all causing various degrees of flurrying from photographers and press men in general.

Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde’s entrance in particular caused quite a stir despite what appeared to be an attempt to keep things low-key on her part. Ah, the life of a star.

The show itself kicked off at exactly 6:00 pm as advertised, hosted by Benny Uche and Ebuka Obi-Uchendu. The keynote address was delivered by the co-founder and Director of The Future Project, Adebola Williams, who also announced the introduction of a special category, The British Council and The Future Awards Africa Prize for ‘The International Young Media Entrepreneur of the Year’.

Dinner was, of course, served and then came the presentation of certificates to the nominees in the some categories, before a musical performance by fast-rising alternative artiste, Ese Peters. The raspy-voiced singer-songwriter who performed with nothing but a guitar and a mic seemed to struggle a bit with his first performance; then again Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” was never an easy song to sing. He was clearly a lot more in his element for the second song, his own “Omote,” which visibly went down well with the crowd.

The food

Call me a glutton or whatever, I accept it, heartily; as heartily as I ate on Thursday night. So heartily that I just had to make special mention of it. Apart from the taste-bud-igniting small chops (shout out to Tunmi Chops – as their shirts said) and cocktails, the main course was even more fantastic. What was even more fantastic was the fact two guys were responsible for it all; twins, Titus and Tobias Igwe, the brains and culinary muscle behind Speed Meals might as well have been the stars of the night, in my opinion.

As host Ebuka Obi-Uchendu said, “they say, whatever a man can do, a woman can do better. Well the reverse seems to be the case here tonight,” and it certainly was.

The outfits

Pretty much everyone looked stunning (which means there’s no one for me to spew out my vitriol against – sad) even Toke Makinwa – who was looking even whiter than the Caucasian guests at the events, but we’ll just blame it on the make-up – looked cute in her baby doll dress, flashing a bit of side-boob.

Ms. Latasha Endowed (clearly a more fitting surname) clearly had no issue showing off her assets and boy has she got some indeed.

 

Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde wore a fairly conservative outfit but that figure and that widely popular Africa Magic are just too much to hide. She isn’t called ‘Omosexy’ for nothing.

 

Mr & Mrs Jeff Hawkins and  Omotola Ekeinde
Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey Hawkins and Omotola Ekeinde

Stay tuned for a winners and losers post on the evening, and in the mean time, you can check out more pictures from the event HERE and the list of nominees HERE.

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