Nigeria’s vice president, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, is expected to chair the 14th edition of the LEADERSHIP Conference and Awards ceremony slated to hold on January 31, 2023 at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
The annual event is a familiar terrain for the nation’s number two citizen who has always graced the occasion either as an awardee or Keynote speaker.
In 2021, Osinbajo jointly won the LEADERSHIP Person of the Year award with director-general of World Trade Organisation, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Receiving the nomination letter in Lagos last year, Osinbajo had described the LEADERSHIP Person of the Year 2021 conferred on him as a great honour, adding that he had always seen public office as an opportunity to serve.
“I am humbled”, Osinbajo said, adding that his “modest contributions under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari is being acknowledged and motivated to do even more.”
In 2020, he was the Keynote Speaker at the 12th edition of the annual conference where he spoke on the theme: “National and Regional Security: The Role of Political and Non-Political Actors in Stabilisation and Consensus Building.”
While Prof Osinbajo will chair this year’s edition of the conference and awards, Kenyan former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, has already confirmed his participation as the Keynote Speaker.
Odinga who is currently the leader of Kenya’s main opposition party, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), will speak on the theme of the Conference, “Credible Elections and an Economy in Transition”.
The LEADERSHIP Conference and Awards is one of the two-legged activities with the other being the presentation of the Newspaper’s awards to some deserving Nigerians and organizations.
It would be recalled that the newspaper had in November last year unveiled its 2022 awardees with the trio of the president of AfreximBank, Prof Benedict Oramah; the chairman/CEO of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig- Gen Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd), and world athletics champion, Oluwatobiloba Ayomide Amusan, clinching the newspaper’s Persons of the Year award.
A statement by the Management said Prof Oramah jointly won the coveted award for his numerous noble accomplishments across the world, standing him out as an extraordinary ambassador of Nigeria, in his career and service to the country and the continent.
NDLEA boss, Marwa, who is currently a nightmare to drug barons in Nigeria, was also awarded Person of the Year along with Oramah for his giant strides in the war against drugs, particularly for making the biggest drug busts in the history of the country and repositioning a government agency that had been long moribund.
World athletics champion, Amusan, also made the prime honours roll for breaking Gail Devers’ 22-year-old record to defend the Diamond League 100 metres hurdle title in a winning time of 12.29secs, with her latest tittle, the Diamond League, adding to the plethora of records and titles she achieved in 2022.
“The defining criterion for this category is rewarding person(s) who have made extraordinarily positive impact on our lives through achievements that inspired and continue to inspire the country,” the Management statement said.
Rivers State governor and arguably the most controversial Nigerian politician at the moment, Nyesom Wike, emerged the Politician of the Year while the trio of Governors Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu state; Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state and Dapo Abiodun of Ogun state are the Governors of the Year.
The governors earned the award for “programmes that significantly transformed lives in their communities and for relatively transparent public records and proven interest in infrastructural development and business.”
Governor Ifeanyi Ugwanyi clinched the Governor of the Year 2022 award for putting the state on the path of economic independence and driving significant infrastructural development across the state, in spite of the security challenges in the region.
Governor El-Rufai, who was a nominee last year, jointly won the award for his leadership, especially his effort to transform Kaduna State by delivering a strong economy, unprecedented infrastructural development and reforming the state public service and institutions into a lean but effective civil service.
Governor Abiodun also won in the Governor of the Year category for his focused and audacious efforts at infrastructural development and his strides in expanding the business profile of the state.
The LEADERSHIP Public Service Person of The Year was jointly won by chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Mamman Nami; director- general of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Joseph Ari, and Controller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Jere Idris.
The award, according to the statement, was for “public servant(s) whose service delivery record and responsiveness made significant outcomes in the sector.”
LOTUS Bank clinched bank of the Year for its innovativeness and returns on shareholder value; LEADERSHIP Social Impact Person of the Year went to the proprietor of the Home for the Needy Foundation, Pastor Solomon Folorunsho, for his impact on the community in spite of very limited resources and Tunde Onakoya.
The Banker of the Year Award went to the Managing Director/CEO of Fidelity Bank Plc, Mrs. Nneka Onyealu-Ikpe, for the bank’s outstanding commitment in supporting small businesses and under-funded sectors; while the Managing Director/CEO of Mojec International Holdings, Ms. Chantelle Abdul, won the Business Person of the Year.
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) won the Government Agency of the Year 2022 for the significant strides made by the corps in the last one year.
Other winners are Company of the Year, won by Bua Foods, adjudged “the company with the best performing stock on the Exchange this year”; Brand of the Year, Coleman Cable and Wire; and Telecoms Company of the Year won by MTN Nigeria, for its outstanding value proposition, and leading edge in product and service experience.
Mama Pride, one of the fastest-growing brands of household rice, won product of the Year.
The CEO of the Year went to the Group Managing Director/CEO of Zenith Bank, Ebenezer Onyeagwu, for his audaciously entrepreneurial spirit and also the dominance and resilience of the bank’s brand.
LEADERSHIP Oil & Gas Local Content Champion of the Year was clinched by the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Mr. Simbi Wabote; while and the E-Commerce Company of the Year, which went to Pocket Money.
This year, the Artiste of the Year award went to Afro Pop RnB hip-hop music rave of the moment and Buga crooner, Kiss Daniel.
The LEADERSHIP Sports Persons of the Year award went to FIFA Under-17 female world cup team, the Flamingoes of Nigeria who recently won several medals for Nigeria in the August 5-24, 2016 Summer Olympics Games held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; while a 13-year-old primary 4 talented boy from Borno, Musa Sani, who redesigned Maiduguri flyover using mud, won the LEADERSHIP Outstanding Young Person of the Year award.
