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The crème de la crème of the nation’s public service will this evening gather at the exquisite Shehu Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, as 16 public and civil servants who have distinguished themselves in the performance of their duties will be honoured at the prestigious annual BusinessDay Excellence in Public Service Awards.
Umaru Kwairanga Sarkin Fulanin Gombe will chair the annual awards/dinner which is the second in the series of the awards aimed at recognising ministers and heads of government departments and agencies in Nigeria who have recorded remarkable achievements in executing the mandate of their individual institutions. Red carpet starts at 6pm.
This year, BusinessDay Awards Committee has extended the awards to members of the National Assembly who have also excelled in their duties both as lawmakers and representatives of their individual constituencies.
The 2018 awards ceremony, which was earlier scheduled for December 10, 2018, was postponed to today “due to unavoidable circumstances”, according to the Awards Committee.
The 16 awardees’ emergence followed a painstaking selection process involving over 100 top public servants.
The Awards Committee which is made up of eminent Nigerians reviewed the performance and the commitment the awardees brought into the management and execution of the mandate of their respective institutions backed by a well-researched report prepared by BusinessDay Research and Intelligence Unit (BRIU).
On November 30, 2017, 19 public officeholders including six ministers and 13 heads of federal parastatals received similar awards at a grand dinner chaired by Abdulsalami Abubakar, a former head of state and retired army general.
The 2017 awardees were Kayode Fayemi, former minister of mines and steel development and now governor of Ekiti State; Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources; Audu Innocent Ogbeh, minister of agriculture and rural development; Enyinnaya Okechukwu Enelamah, minister of industry, trade and investment; Babatunde Raji Fashola, minister of power, works and housing; and Adebayo Shittu, minister of communications technology.
Also, Godwin Emefiele, governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); Aliyu Abdulhameed, managing director, NIRSAL; Maikanti Baru, group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); Uche Orji, managing director, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA); Yemi Kale, statistician-general of the federation; and Patience Oniha, director-general, Debt Management Office (DMO), bagged the awards for their exceptional performance.
Other awardees included Sharon Ikeazor, executive secretary, Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), and Yewande Sadiku, executive secretary, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC).
The annual Excellence in Public Service Awards was staged by BusinessDay Conferences, an arm of BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay and BDSunday newspapers, as part of its leadership thought initiative and commitment to the development of the nation to recognise, reward and encourage some distinguished ministers, heads of departments and agencies for their selfless services to the nation. This year, members of the National Assembly were added to the list.
The management and staff of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), led by Hadiza Bala Usman, also won the excellence award.
John Osadolor, Abuja
