Celebrations are planned this weekend when the Greater Moncton Nigerian community recognizes its independence.
Spokesperson Fisayo Adetoye says they’ll start Sunday afternoon with a flag raising at 2 pm in front of Moncton City Hall, “The essence of this is just to share Nigeria’s diversity and to celebrate Nigeria’s independence and to show gratitude to the Greater Moncton community through donations and volunteering.”
After the flag raising, the group will march down Main Street to Harvest House Atlantic to donate food, clothing and other items. From there, they will move their celebrations to Victoria Park, where they will showcase their culture, food and music.
“We chose Harvest House because we can see the incredible work they’ve been doing supporting the homeless and vulnerable in Moncton, and we are using the Nigerian spirit of unity, of togetherness to help them out,” Adetoye stated.
Nigeria gained independence from Britain on October 1, 1960.
“Every year we mark a celebration to show our freedom from colonial rule and also to show the world that we’re able to govern ourselves and excel and succeed,” Adetoye said.
He told our newsroom that there are over 4000 Nigerians living in New Brunswick, with a large number of them in Greater Moncton.
“Moncton is actually a place that is filled with diverse culture, and people from different places in the world, so it’s actually central for us. This is actually a coming together of Nigerians living in Greater Moncton who have become Canadians, and it’s a way of also showing the culture we’re bringing from Nigeria to our new home, sharing love and also giving back to the Greater Moncton community,” Adetoye added.
He told us that two of the most popular Nigerian dishes are the jollof and puff puff.
“Nigerian jollof is rice mixed with a lot of spice, tomatoes, onions, pepper, and it’s cooked in a way that makes it really, really delicious. It’s popular worldwide. There’s actually a lot of competition as to which country does the best jollof in Africa. We always pride ourselves in Nigeria as having the best prepared jollof rice,” Adetoye stated.
Puff puff is a deep-fried dough that contains ingredients like nutmeg, cinnamon or even pepper.
