Welcome to The Future

What’s up!

The Future “Do Something” Pre-Awards Conference is here!
As we introduced last year, plans are seriously on ground in preparation of the next pre-awards conference and this happens a day before the event – on the 6th of February. Where else would you get under one roof the Managing Director/Chairman of Shell Nigeria, Mutiu Sunmonu Chairman of Access Bank, Gbenga Oyebode (MFR); Member of the House of Representatives, Abike Dabiri amongst very many others? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. All for 500 naira only! Registration starts on January 11, 2010. Only 1000 seats available!!!

We have prizes for you on our website!!!
We want you to visit our website, and get new updates, find out what’s hot for young people in Nigeria, read our blogs (our bloggers include TV presenter Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, Abuja City Crawler Ijeoma Okeagu and the sensational Nki’ru. Njoku), take part in our hot, hot polls, and do the other fun stuff! So we have designed a competition to make it worth your while! Just go to the website, go to the ‘Fun Stuff’ link, answer the SIMPLE questions, and then you win a t-shirt or sticker every week, tickets and invitations to the hottest events around the country, and more! www.thefuturenigeria.com!

Tell us how The Future Awards has changed your life!
Every day we get stories of young people who have been motivated or inspired by The Future Project/The Future Awards. Those stories encourage us, and we want to hear more! So if The Future Awards or any of our projects or winners have renewed your faith in Nigeria, inspired you to finish or start a project or business or idea, helped you practically in any way etc, we want to get your story, and if you want, we would put it on the website! But mostly we want to know those whose lives have changed! Send us a mail right away at thefuturenigeria@yahoo.com or info@thefuturenigeria.com or call our Communications Coordinator on 08022226712. It doesn’t have to be well written or long – just tell it the way you feel it!

Voting has been extended by one week – and one week only!
Voting for The Future Awards has been extended by one week! The major reasons for this extension, the organisers reveal, is first, because short profiles of the various nominees have just been uploaded on the website www.thefuturenigeria.com. Also, after the two week complaint period, certain minimal challenges have been made on the Nominees List.

Therefore, people who wanted to vote for nominees in specific categories but were unable to do so because they did not know anything about the nominees or their achievements can now make informed choices and vote to reward achievement in the various categories. And if you already knew who to vote for, then you have a greater opportunity to make sure that your candidate gets more votes! Remember you can vote as many times as you want! 

To vote: sms TFA (space) Name of nominee (space) Category

To vote in Nigeria, sms to 33120
To vote in the UK, sms to 81696
To vote in the US, sms to 97605

The voting ends at 12 midnight on Friday the 7th of January 2010. There will be NO more extensions after this one.

Grab this opportunity…. NOW!!!!!:-)

We need your help!
We need you to help us spread the word! Help us spread the word on Facebook and Twitter for people to join the movement on www.thefuturenigeria.com. So help us plug the nominations info on your Facebook and Twitter updates for at least a week. Don’t forget to also add #irepresentnaija. You could have a general message like: “I am Eyitayo Aiyejumoh, and ‘I represent Naija’, visit www.thefuturenigeria.com to get all the latest info,” and please get your friends to join the group The Future Project! Just add 5 friends to the group and we’ll be fine!  Spread the word also through your blogs, websites, and forums.

Get branded “I represent Naija” tshirts and blazers!  
Have you seen the coolest young people ROCKING them??! Our ‘I represent Naija’ tees and stickers have sold widely across Nigeria. The first batch t-shirts are SOLD OUT! And now a new batch of the t-shirts from Clemas are out! They are branded ‘I represent Naija’, ‘I represent Nigeria’ and ‘I am the future’. We also have the new t-shirts from Ouch! You can also get the customized blazers that are beeeeaaauuuutiful. All these can be delivered to you at home or work for a small extra cost. Just call our Communications Coordinator on 08022226712 NOW or send a mail to info@thefuturenigeria.com!

Catch us on radio and TV!
In the past month, more media partners joined the train! Now we have Kiss FM, BusinessDay, Ovation, LTV, TV Continental and Radio Continental. We are officially the event with the most mainstream media partners, and we have enveloped the airwaves!
Our promos can be seen on these partners as well as on our other major partners: STV, HiSoccer, HiNolly, Nigezie, Channels TV, Moments with Mo (NTA Network), Views & Tunes and Excite TV. The radio promos are on Rhythm Fm, Inspiration FM, Cool FM, Wazobia FM, Beat FM, Kiss FM and Hot FM. Other media partners include NEXT, Encomium, Genevieve, TW, Bellanaija.com, Ladybrille.com, Notjuskok.com, Exquisite, The Applause, nigezie.tv and Acada!

Become a project partner!
If you belong to any fellowship, club, association, youth church or youth religious group, campus group or any other gathering of young people and you want us to come talk about The Future Awards or you want to partner with us in any way, please send a mail tagged ‘Partner’ to thefuturenigeria@yahoo.com or info@thefuturenigeria.com or just call our Communications Coordinator on 08022226712.

Join our database – give us feedback!
In our quest to build a network of young Nigerians who have a burning desire to bring about change to our great nation, we would love you to continually send us comments/advice on how to push this cause a step further. We would definitely get back to you. Join our database, give us your feedback!

What went down!

Our site is Top 200!

Our website, which has always been one of the top Nigerian websites for young people, has become one of the top 200 sites in the country! It’s just amazing! What’s even more impressive is that – it is one Nigerian website with more than 60% of the hits coming from within Nigeria; so tell us those people who said Nigerians in Nigeria are not passion interested in the future of this country? With amazing presence on Twitter and Facebook, this is without doubt the number one youth platform in the country – no other platform comes even close!

The Future of Fashion
 A project that has been in the pipeline for some time now. In our bid to project our rich culture by bringing back that national heritage which has for so long been sidelined, we would be bringing together from time to time , established/upcoming fashion designers to come showcase their stuff. As we celebrated 160 Nominees – marking the nominees reception for the 2010 Awards – at the Nominees reception tagged, ‘Get Your Green On’, this project was formally introduced.

The Town Hall Train comes to a grand stop!
We promised that we were coming, you waited, we came and you weren’t disappointed. We visited every state and every country that we promised to visit. It afforded us the opportunity to meet with young Nigerians home and abroad, discussing issues of national interest and how best to forge ahead. The last set of Town Halls were in the UK, Johannesburg, Ile-Ife and Benin.  The acceptance of The Future Awards in these places was tremendous: everyone is excited! Check the RedSTRAT profile on Facebook for pictures or check the website www.thefuturenigeria.com.

TFESS internships have started

We are indeed pleased to inform you that the first set of The Future Enterprise Support Scheme (TFESS) training has been completed and the trainees placed for internships at firm where they will be able to put in what they have learnt to best use and also see how they can tap from the wealth of experience of these organisations.

The ‘I Represent Naija Creed’!

Call it a call to patriotism or nationalism, but in December we unveiled the ‘I represent Naija creed’, which encapsulates some of the key values of the new Nigerian in simple terms. We read it at the end of every event we are a part of and at all our town hall meetings across the country and outside and the energy is unbelievable!

THE I REPRESENT NAIJA CREED:

*     I will not steal government money!
*     I will not collect a bribe!
*      I will not cover up fraud!
*      I am not corrupt!
*      I love my country!
*      I truly believe Nigeria can work!
*      I will do my bit to make change happen!
*      I will vote in election!
*      I am the future!
*      I represent Nigeria!

You can find it on the website and download it from the RedSTRAT profile as a screen saver or anything else, but even better, all of those at the conference and the awards get a physical copy free! You’ll love it!

The HiTV official signing

One of our main sponsors HiTV, under HiMedia, one of Nigeria’s proudly Nigerian brands that has become a major force in such a short time called The Future Awards for an official signing at their offices that the media fell over itself to cover.:-). We are proud of the giant strides that HiTV, with it chief executive, the inspired Toyin Subair have made in the past few years and we are excited to work with them. Get your HiTV now!!!

The Nominees List is out – and then the reception!

Yes!! It’s finally out. 160 young Nigerians who have been brightest and best in the past one year, from music and the movies to business and technology. You can view the list our website – www.thefuturenigeria.com. They were celebrated at the Nominees Reception, which held 18 December at Terra Kulture, which was a night of stars, fashion and great entertainment, You SHOULD see that list – it will renew your faith in Nigeria! The Nominees Reception was held with support from Yvent Kouture, Tremor Perfect, 12 Baskets, Diamonds and Pearls, Liberty Media, Cocktails in and Out and TechnoTainment. You can also see pictures from the spectacular fashion show – House of Nwaocha, Toni Clothing, Kashogy Consults, S&D Clothing, and others – on our website www.thefuturenigeria.com

Supporting enterprise!

As a way of supporting young people in industry, The Future Project bought 50 tickets for ‘Facing the Giants’ – A two days seminar/training with speakers like Fela and Tara Fela Durotoye, Toyosi Akerele and a host of other great initiators of change. “God bless you for doing this. You cannot imagine what those two days did for me,” one of the participants said and it warms our hearts. More to come under our The Future Enterprise Support Scheme (TF-ESS) programme!

Celebrating volunteers

On World Volunteers day, 5 December 2009, we gathered our almost a hundred volunteers who are giving their time and talent to work for the future, and we celebrated them; and thanked them for their commitment. Unfortunately, on the same day we stopped accepting volunteers. But you can be part of the event in other ways. Check the website www.thefuturenigeria.com!

Judging has begun!
Below, again, is the process through which The Future Awards winners are decided:
1)      Nominations are launched in October and are collected online over a period of two months. Anybody can nominate anyone they think deserved the awards.   2)      The Central Working Committee reviews ALL the nominations, conducts independent research and selects 8 nominees per category; which is the long list. 3)      There is a 2-week period when this long list is published online and in the media so that people can formally make complaints about age, false claims, and public policy concerns amongst others. 4)      During this period, nominations forms are sent to ALL nominees to get details of their work and achievements. We also the offices of certain nominees, especially in the entrepreneurship categories, to inspect and confirm claims. 5)     The Board of Judges, made up of 25 young journalists – drawn from The Guardian, Thisday, Daily Trust, The Punch etc – assesses the profiles and then and prunes down from the long list of 8 to a short list of 5 nominees per category. (Note that when any member of the board of judges is made a nominee, he/she immediately steps down from being a judge).    6)      This short list goes to the Independent Audit Committee made up of 30 distinguished Nigerians, some of whom are mentioned above, and chaired by Dr. Reuben Abati, who is the chairman of the editorial board of The Guardian. They look at the profiles, thoroughly vet it from their professional distance, and select 3 nominees per category; those are the finalists. 7)      This list goes back to the board of judges one week before the event – because we want young people to be the ones to make the final decision – who then decide the winners for each category.
The board of judges has done their first stage, and once the voting has concluded on January 8, the results will be added and the journey hots up!
Thank you very much for connecting with this vision to inspire and empower a new generation of Nigerian leaders. You can get any information on any of the above, including plenty of pictures, on www.thefuturenigeria.com.

For any enquiry, information or anything else, send us a mail on info@thefuturenigeria.com or thefuturenigeria@yahoo.com and we’ll get right back at ya!

Compliments of:
The Future Project, Nigeria
Aspire. Strive. Achieve
www.thefuturenigeria.com