By Seyi Odewale
President Bola Tinubu will today be awarded the ‘Man of the Year’ 2024 by ThisDay newspaper. About three weeks ago, the newspaper chose President as the Man of the Year 2024, an award that all Nigerians seemed to agree with.
According to the newspaper’s Board of Editors, the President was considered fit for the award because of his resilience and toughness in making daring decisions and taking audacious steps toward reforms.
Others considered tough and resilient, going by the ThisDay award coming up today, is the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, as the Minister of Year. Wike arguably is one of the most visible and active ministers of the Tinubu administration since assuming office some 18 months ago, and he has given the FCT a major face-lift.
Also, the satellite towns have begun to benefit from his massive infrastructural revolution, which has transformed a major part of the city into a huge construction site.
One of his achievements was convincing the President to remove the FCT from the Treasury Single Account (TSA), a move considered pivotal to his successes in delivering on infrastructure.
He was also instrumental in the FCT’s recent huge revenue generation profile by encouraging the FCT Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS).
Wike beat other ministers such as the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Health, and his counterpart in the Interior Ministry, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, to clinch the ward.
There are others, such as Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was chosen as the ‘Woman of the Year.’ At the same time, those in the category of Titans of the Year include the richest Man on the African Continent, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, for establishing the largest oil refinery company in Africa, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited for restoring the nation’s moribund refineries, Mike Adenuga Jnr. for revamping oil production and a rights activist Dele Farotimi for the trial and criminalisation of Freedom of Speech.
Others include Jim Ovia, Segun Agbaje, Samad Ishaku Rabiu, Tanimola Obaro, Donald Bero, Aig-Aigboje Imuokhuede, and Mohammed Indimi.
