Nigerian expats in South Africa too often feature in bad news, but the Nigerian Community Excellence Awards have proven that there's been, at best, unbalanced reporting. The second edition of the awards featured a range of achievers, from cool, sun-glassed musicians to a 10-year-old author.

"We may be loud, but we are intelligent," Akinloye Anthony Bamigboye told the mostly Nigerian audience in the small auditorium at Old Mutual's headquarters in Sandton as he received the Platinum Award of Excellence on Saturday night. It summed up the ceremony well, minutes before he was shouted down by an enthusiastic audience for making too long a speech too late in the evening.

By that time the awards ceremony had been on for more than three hours, and those who had arrived at the 17:00 starting time stated on the invite had been there for more than five.

The man next to me whispered that Ekiti state, where the professor is from, is known for its bookworms. It showed.

Bamigboye, who practises in Bryanston and who has three decades of experience as a gynaecologist and obstetrician on three continents, eventually raised his pack of speech notes in surrender, but said Nigerian expats could take...