How time flies, or at least that is the way it feels for me this year. So it is now time for the Autumn 2008 edition of the CANUK newsletter. Why has time flown I hear you ask? Well in the March edition I set out a few of the highlights as we planned for the next couple of years, but at that time little did I know how hectic the year would become. The June update gave an idea of where we were going but now I have a handle on the sheer amount of work that still needed to be done.
This newsletter covers the following topics and if you are viewing this electronically or on the website you can click on any of the headlines to go direct to the full story.
· So what has happened so far this year?
· Committee reports
· Planned events 2008 - 2009
· Finance & Dues
· Welfare
§ Law
§ Charity
§ Other
· Business:
§ National Vision 2020
§ HM Revenue & Customs/CANUK Events
§ Non- AGM meeting
· Membership
· Youth Corner
So what has happened so far this year?Well we have held the 2008 Annual General meeting, held elections, co-hosted the President of Nigeria’s visit to the UK in May and held our 3rd Annual Family Fun and Sports day on Sat 26 July at the Linford Christie Stadium. In addition we have been sworn in by the President of Nigeria at Aso Rock in Abuja as a member of the Steering Committee of the Nigerian National Vision 2020 (representing the Nigerians in the UK). In that capacity we have forwarded many CVs of Nigerians to become members of the Technical committee. Your executive have visited many CANUK members’ meetings and events from the British Nigeria Law Forum and MANSAG fundraising dinners, through the LNRFC Awards Dinner, the LNCC family picnic, to the Nigerian Council of Elders 18th Anniversary party. It is not all parties and celebrations as we were also members of the Lord Mayor of London’s Team that visited Nigeria to promote the mutual opportunities for investment in both London and Nigeria. We participated in the EFN 5th Annual Conference which this year was topically about the Nigerian Energy situation (see more below). We also attended were the ICONS conference held in Hull, We were on hand to Welcome our New High Commissioner, HE Dr. Dalhatu Sarki TAFIDA, OFR and to share his joy upon being granted the unprecedented honour by the Queen of being allowed to operate as full Ambassador even before he formally presented his papers to her at an exciting event. We have participated in the honouring of successful Nigerians in the UK including the honouring of Sandra Omo among others. We have attended a number of police enquiries where Nigerians have been involved. and promoted and protected Nigerians in many capacities.
Committee Reports:
Joint CANUK/NIDO (UK South) committees
· The closer working between CANUK and NIDOe (UK South Chapter) continues as we work for the common good of Nigerians in the UK especially with regard to the seeking of a vote for those of us abroad. We have presented a joint paper to the legislature in Nigeria calling once again for the vote to be extended to those of us outside Nigeria and we will be following this up in the coming months. If you think we can work together on this issue please let me know so you can join the committee we will be setting up to take this forward.
· We continue to work on the issues connected with getting land for Nigerians in Diaspora through the Land Committee headed by Dr Enamiti.
· We are working with NIDOe to help launch their Diaspora Fund in Late Sept.
· We continue to explore welfare issues with NIDO (UK South) Colleagues including Mrs Sanusi.
CANUK Action Committee:
· This committee has arranged the Family Fun Day in July and is preparing with the High Commission the Independence Day celebrations in October. This is our core committee and while it has many volunteers it still needs many more to make things work well. We have recently welcomed Mike Ndukwe (President Ebonyi State Union and Nkechi Abani – Ebonyi State Union Youth to the committee). Please volunteer.
CANUK Committee on Nigeria @50:
· As you should know our great country will be 50 in October 2010 and we plan to have a great series of events to mark this in the UK. To that end we need to start planning now as we would like to have exhibitions in the National museums, plays in the west end and great events in the major UK cities. That means that we need to start right now to prepare for this along with members of the Nigeria High Commission. We are setting up a committee to start the preparations and are looking for more volunteers. Please join us. 2010 is just round the corner.
Welfare Committee:
· Last year we launched the concept of a CANUK welfare helpline. We would now like to work towards making that a reality. But to do so means that we must have more members contributing their ideas and actively supporting the concept. To that end we would like to invite those interested to indicate their interest to the Welfare Secretary (Mrs Olowo) at welfare@canuk.org.uk as we will soon be calling a meeting. It is important that we support Nigerian families that are the victims of crime and other misfortunes while in the UK. This is not to supplant that roles of the Nigeria High Commission nor the UK’s social security and other services but to provide a familiar voice and offer a caring hand along with those other providers. Do you want to be part of this? Let us know.
Planned Events for 2008/2009
As you know CANUK is an umbrella organisation and so does not want to compete with our member organisations for events. To that end we will be holding our traditional two events (one in summer and the celebration of our independence with the Nigeria High Commission. Over the next year though we will also have at least one joint event for charity purposes.
We would also welcome some joint events with our members leading such as conferences, seminars and fun events – Manchester unions is having celebratory events in October on the premises of Nigeria House, Manchester – we’ll be there. And you will see below CANUK in the person of ICAN (UK Chapter) and NIM (UK Chapter) are holding a series of events with HMRC explaining the new Tax Rules and providing reassurance.
CANUK MAIN EVENTS:
· Nigerian Independence Celebrations (1st Week of Oct 2008) Venues to be announced.
· AGM Sat 7th FEB 2009
· 4th CANUK family fun and sports day (Sat 8th AUGUST 2009)
Linford Christie Stadium, West London, W12 10am to 5 pm
CANUK/NIDOe Events:
· Charity fun run and fund raising for Nigerian Charities with a focus on the UK.
· Joint Conferences to include Workshop in support of NV 2020 – Mobilising Nigerians for Nigeria
Finance and Dues
Mrs June Douglas the new Treasurer has written to remind you to pay your 2008 dues and earlier dues where applicable. Please do not wait for this letter if you can pay up. This is your organisation and it needs your commitment. Remember it is still £50 one –off registration for each Delegate and £50 annual dues per delegate (Max 2 Delegates per Org).
As usual full accounts will be available at the AGM but we are doing our best to fund raise for all our activities. If you can help us with this it will be much appreciated.
· Law: We are working with the Nigeria High Commission and a group of Lawyers including the BNLF to set up a panel of Lawyers working towards supporting Nigerians in need of Legal advice. More information including a launch date to follow…
· Charity: We have set up a Charity Page on our website www.canuk.org.uk/charities to promote the work done by the many Nigerian Charitable organisations. We shall be profiling one a month – should your charity be there? We are also looking to how we can fund raise for charities (see our joint plans with NIDO (UK South) above. – Afruca is looking for a trustee/treasurer – see their advert on our website.
· Other: We have continued to work with the Metropolitan Police in the cases of Nigerians mistreated in custody and while we cannot talk freely about that work it remains important.
The Welfare committee is still looking for active members – can you join?
Business:
· National Vision 2020: The following (in italics) is a copy of the update from the NV2020 secretariat. I can confirm that all the CVs received have been passed on and I am sure that many will be given a chance to join the Technical Working Committees. And we are planning a CANUK/NIDO (UK South) workshop with the help of AfriRecruit to give all of you based in the UK a chance to fully participate.
Dear Members
Please find below a brief report on the status of work.
1) FUNDING FOR NV2020
There have been some difficulties in obtaining funding for the visioning process. The budget was not included in the 2008 budget of the National Planning Commission primarily because it is not a Ministerial project. The Presidency funds projects of this nature. However we are at the last phase of securing the funds from the Presidency.
2) BUSINESS SUPPORT GROUP
We have received approval for the inauguration of the Business Support Group. The President has approved the appointment of Alhaji Umoru Mutallab CON as the Chairman of the Business Support Group. The Tentative Date for the inauguration is mid September and we anticipate that we will raise 50% of the budget from the Private Sector.
3) NATIONAL TECHNICAL WORKING GROUPS
We received 750 expressions of interest from experts and professionals to serve in the National Technical Working Group. We have grouped them into the different thematic areas. We intend to place adverts in National Newspapers to inform the successful experts. They will commence work immediately via the NV2020 Portal.
4) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
There are a number of Vision Documents, for several countries which may be useful in gathering our thoughts and setting the scene for the development of our Vision plan. The Honourable Minister has requested that all members review and provide insights which may be useful for our purposes. The Countries are India, Malaysia, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Singapore and Trinidad & Tobago. The links to the Vision Document will be posted on the NV2020 website.
We sincerely apologize for the delay and we will continue to keep you abreast with developments.
Please accept the warmest regards of the Honourable Minister & Chairman NSCNV2020.
More details to follow….
· HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)/CANUK Events:
DO YOU KNOW HOW NEW UK TAX RULES MAY AFFECT YOU? Avid Budget Watchers will have spotted that the tax rules are changing for UK residents who are not domiciled in the UK and who have non-UK income and/or gains. A non-domiciled person is broadly someone who has a foreign-born father and who does not intend to remain permanently in the UK. The key message is do not panic. But do understand that you may have to report to HMRC your income and gains from outside the UK where these exceed £2000 in the tax year or where you bring any foreign income or gains into the UK. To help you understand these rules and how they affect you CANUK is organising a services of events where HMRC will come and explain these rules. If you want to be part of the planning team for these events email non-dom@canuk.org.uk.
The CANUK Executive has asked Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN - UK Chapter) and the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM - London Chapter) to consider leading on making these workshops happen and to include all of you who are interested. Watch this space and register your interest at the above email address
Non- AGM meeting: It has been suggested that CANUK delgates need more opportunities to get together and discuss outside of the fairly regimented Annual General Meetings (AGM) and to that end we had planned an event for summer then for Sept but these did not hold for all sots of reasons outside our control. However, we do want to have such an event before the AGM in January 2009 if we can. Or failing that build in meetings now for May & Sept of 2009. What do you think? As usual those who can speak for sure (and who can vote at such meeting if the need arises) will be delegates only but all Nigerians can attend as long as they indicate before the date so we have a handle on numbers.
· Membership: I am pleased to announce that our membership has continued to grow and that many hundreds have indicated via the website their interest in getting news from CANUK. They will be getting this newsletter for example. Many new organisations have paid up their membership and they are all welcome. Please play an active role – this Association is yours so make it what you want. We also pleased that we have extended Honorary membership to the High Commission Staff posted to the UK in the last 12 months and to others such as the top management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (UK office) among others. You are all most welcome. Please introduce this website to others.
· Patron: For followers of our website news you will already know that HE Dr. Dalhatu Sarki TAFIDA, OFR has graciously agreed to be our Patron and he joins Dr Christopher Kolade as Patron of CANUK. Your Excellency you are most welcome.
Youth Corner: It has become clear that one of our main challenges has to be how to harness our youth to support and engage with Nigeria and how to address the issues caught up in the new Knife culture etc which has already taken the lives of Nigerian Youths. World ofHope is a charity working with the disaffected youth in Southwark and is being run by a Nigerian Florence Emakpose World of Hope is the charity of the Month of October 2008. If you want donate to their work please do so at WORLD OF HOPE -Southwark office, (Family & Young People Support Service), C/O Cambridge House, 131 Camberwell Road, London SE5 0HF, Mobile number: 07949590341
We also welcome the All Youth Association of Nigeria (AYAN) which is a youth org recently joined up. We want to promote the positive that our youth do. So please pass on your great stories to us and make us proud to be Nigerians. Send your views on Youth matters to Youth@canuk.org.uk
Please get in touch and tell us what you think we should cover. And please volunteer to work with us, we need your input.
Yours in the service of Nigeria
Dr Mark Abani
Chair, CANUK
PATRONS:
HE Dr. Dalhatu Sarki TAFIDA, OFR Nigeria High Commissioner UK;
HE Dr C Kolade, CON
CANUK EXECUTIVE:
Dr Mark Abani (Ebonyi State Union - Chair);
Mr Omusa Ohyoma FCCA (Nasarawa State Association - 1st Vice Chair);
Mr Ibrahim Igbo (Lagos State Union - 2nd Vice Chair);
Dr Peter Ozua (MANSAG - Secretary);
Mr Yemi Soile (Nigerian University Students, Greenwich Uni . - Asst. Sec.);
Mrs June Douglas (Association Of Rivers Communities - Treasurer);
Mr Yusuf Tockan FCA (Kaduna State Union - Fin. Sec);
Ms Alache Ode (Benue [Tiv] Union - Publicity Sec.);
Dr Michael Gabbay (London Nigerian Cricket Club - Social Sec.);
Mrs Gladys Olowu (Nigerian Council of Elders - Welfare Sec);
Prof Oba Nsugbe QC SAN (British Nigeria Law Forum - Legal Adviser)
More photos of events, info, news and contact details at www.canuk.org.uk
