The Future and beyond

On Sunday, February 7, the fifth edition of The Future Awards took place at the Shell Hall of the MUSON Centre in Onikan, Lagos. The event organised by RedSTRAT to celebrate young Nigerians (aged 18 – 31) was a success but only after some ‘technical difficulties’. Here, in reverse order, is the good, the bad and the ugly of year five of The Future Awards.

The ugly

The Future Awards is an annual event that is now five years old. Like a young child, you cannot treat a five year old like a baby nor dress him in baby’s clothing. This child has grown but it appears his minders either underestimated his growth rate or got carried away by his cuteness to notice and adapt accordingly. Though rhetorical, a response to Naeto C’s ‘Kini Big Deal’ could be “The Future Awards” because that is what it is – a big deal!

The Future Awards is (hopefully) trying to take advantage of the present to correct errors of the past to create a better future for Nigeria. This is why it was rather disheartening to see staples of the past and present – awful time keeping (African time), inadequate seating, poor sound, lack of continuity in proceedings – marring the prospects of The Future. The green carpet opened about an hour and a half late and the event kickoff was delayed for close to two hours. After standing outside for an hour or thereabouts, guests were finally ushered in to at least be seated to continue the waiting game, ‘VIP’ invitees were treated anything but, press personnel were badly positioned, sitting areas (for those lucky enough to get seats) were cramped and the list goes on.

This goes back to the ill fitting clothes analogy with the Shell Hall of the MUSON Centre being the guilty garment in this instance. The past success of The Future Awards (pun unintended) has facilitated growth and this baby needs to change clothes. Crowd control is one of the issues the future needs to address and until we (yes, we) get it right, an event like The Future Awards needs a bigger sized wardrobe!

The bad

Not to sound like a broken record but the idea is to move away from the current way of doing things, at least, doing away with the unnecessary (annoying) aspects of the ‘Naija’ way of doing things. Recognizing the presence of person X, Y and Z is all well and good but should not be a fixture on the programme. If a compere or award presenter chooses to do so (as D’banj did for Dele Momodu), that’s his prerogative but organisers involving this in proceedings is one of the things we need to wave bye to. It’s like the Grammys or Oscars taking time out to recognize the presence of Elizabeth Taylor, Jimmy Iovine, Berry Gordy, etc. They are there because they were invited! When you receive them, thank them for coming and let it end there.

Reading out winner profiles while the winners stood awkwardly waiting to make acceptances speeches was not a good look either. These profiles were available in the programme shared out and also online, so this was unnecessary, not to mention time consuming for an event that was already running way behind schedule. When the Young Person of the Year criteria was being read, presenters Toyin Subair and Chimamanda Adichie stood awkwardly and Adichie quipped “Finally!” once the reading was done. That pretty much sums up the feeling of everyone who had to wait for these profiles to be read - including the audience.

The good

Understanding the vision of The Future and looking beyond all the hiccups of Sunday’s event, there actually is hope for the future. The dedication of the organising committee was evident as they scrambled to make the best out of a very bad situation. Also, the clamour for invites (which played its role in the inadequacy of seats) shows a belief and passion for what RedSTRAT has set out to do. The impressive (even if suffocating) turnout validates this, regardless of if a handful of people just wanted to be ‘among’. The response from young celebrities and future makers (for lack of a better term) was inspiring as well, as the former are known to be erratic with public appearances.

Honouring ‘regular Joes’ alongside the ‘who’s who’ of entertainment remains a commendable initiative as we have a tendency to beam the spotlight on those who already dwell in it permanently. Though all eyes were still on the celebs, other young people working equally as hard were given their time to shine.

Message for The Future

I’m no expert (balancing professional and private lives is my biggest challenge) but judging from Sunday’s event, I think the organisers have underestimated themselves and not fully captured the magnitude of what they have created.

The Future Awards has outgrown the MUSON Centre and needs to relocate to a bigger and better venue, possibly a marquee. Securing the future we all desire is no walk in the park so we need to challenge ourselves and go beyond the norm. Live broadcast... why not? Crowd control? It is achievable.

The effort is there and the creativity is evident but all loose ends need to be tied up. Sunday’s ceremony was a success but it stretched Murphy’s Law to its limits. Five years on, this is unacceptable and does the organisers reputation little good. The present is a gift which needs to be unwrapped and carefully examined before we can step confidently into the future – our future.