Eyo, Atilogwu and Tiv Swange dance to grace Canuk's gala dinner again this year

TRADITIONAL cultural displays will once again be the centrepiece of this year's Central Association of Nigerians in the UK (Canuk) gala dinner as due to popular demand the organisers have opted to entertain guests with a rich array of African culture.

This year's end-of-year gala dinner is taking place at Mayfair Banqueting Suite in Chadwell Heath on Saturday December 14 and is expected to be attended by about 500 guests. Among those who will be present will be Nigeria's high commissioner to the UK, along with other senior high commission staff, as well as dignitaries from both the UK and Nigeria.

Last year's event featured cultural displays from three parts of Nigeria with the Mutual Union of Tivs in the UK performing a Swange dance, the Anambra Women's Association performing an Atilogwu dance and the Lagos State Union providing an Eyo masquerade. Due to popular demand from delegates, Canuk's executive committee has decided to bring all three cultural displays back this year.

Toyin Solaru Balogun, Canuk's social secretary, said: "Last year, we had all three of them perform for us and they succeeded in getting everyone off their feet. Our guests have told us that they like the way all three troupes performed and were particularly impressed with the way Canuk managed to get groups from different parts of Nigeria to entertain them on the night.

"As a result, we have opted to go for more of the same and all three cultural troupes will be backed up with music from DJ Seyi Chicago and a live performance from our resident saxophonist Kakaki. Our aim is to make it a night of immense pleasure whereby everyone is entertained and nobody leaves the venue not contented."

Rose Graham, Canuk's publicity secretary, added that with Canuk's incessant growth in membership, this year's gala dinner is going to be bigger and better than originally planned. She pointed out  that several dignitaries have been invited from Nigeria and hopefully, there will be an impressive array of VIPs on the night.

Ms Graham said: "Canuk is hoping to make this the biggest, brightest and most entertaining gala dinner ever held by the Nigerian community in the UK. To get as many people as possible to attend, we have intentionally kept tickets at £50 but be rest assured that the menu will be sumptuous, with an unprecedented assortment of Nigerian food and guests will be spoilt when it comes to drinks.

"Fortunately, Canuk has managed to attract a wide array of sponsors to back this year's events and their generosity has meant that we have not had to increase ticket prices to market levels. It is thus no surprise that we have had traditional rulers from Nigeria contacting us to tell us they will be attending and Canuk has made adequate provision for this."

Victor Aleva, Canuk's financial secretary, urged everyone who wants to purchase tickets to attend the gala dinner to do so by paying directly into the Canuk bank account. He added that they should do this pay making payments into the association's Lloyds Bank account with the sort code of 301553 and account number 00224400.