The Notting Hill carnival has been a permanent feature on the social calendar of London for a quite a while and the Nigerian community in the United Kingdom has always used it as an opportunity to reunite. After the disappointment of losing out on the Nigerian carnival, the Nigerian section of the Notting hill carnival was bound to attract attention of the many Nigerians across the United Kingdom. And it did not disappoint, when amebor got there at 1pm the Nigerian corner was buzzing with loud music.

Notable people in the house were Banky W, Kenny and D1, 9ice, Femi (New Kennis music signing), Jaywon, Funke Akindele (Sulia Omo oko), Abike Dabiri and a host of other famous Nigerian personalities. It was a bit disappointing that the sound system was very bad and one wonders why this was the case considering the fact that the Nigerian corner has been a regular feature at the carnival for more than ten years. The Crowd did not warm up to the stage performance until the Nigerian Based artistes came on stage. If there was evidence that Nigerians in the UK don’t really warm up much to Nigerian UK based artistes, this was it. At one point, the crowd were calling out for the names of the Nigerian artistes that were back stage.

Despite the horrible sound set up, Banky W, Femi, Jaywon and 9ice managed to pull off fantastic performances. Although I must say that they struggled with their vocals because of the quality of the sound system. The Nigerian Reformed Group head by Johnson Agagbo flew in from Nigeria to publicly express their support for current Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan. They used the opportunity to let the world know that they were backing the current Nigerian President to run for the 2011 Presidential election. The group’s UK leader, Sunny Ideh was also seen talking to the BEN Television crew about their support for Goodluck Jonathan. The group also gave out T-shirts and their contact information to the crowd.
In all, barring the bad sound system, the event was a good one (forgive my repetitive stance here, this one got to me). I am looking forward to attending again next year.

Tagged as: 9ice, Banky W, Femi, Goodluck Jonathan, Jaywon, Johnson Agagbo, nigeria, Notting hill carnival, Sunney Ideh