Daily Trust newspaper is calling for nominations of exemplary personalities for the African of the Year 2020 Award. Nominations are open from August 24 to October 24, 2020.
Acting Chief Executive Officer of Media Trust Limited, publishers of Daily Trust, Nura Daura, stated at the weekend that ideal nominees should be ordinary Africans who made extra-ordinary contributions to humanity in any field from any part of the continent.
The award was inaugurated in 2008 by Daily Trust in fulfilment of the newspaper’s commitment to African unity and sustainable development.
According to Daura, with the annual award, the newspaper hopes to entrench the culture of selflessness among Africans with the aim of creating a pool of role models.
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He disclosed that the award consisted of a permanent plaque, a certificate of merit and a cash reward in aid of the awardee or his/her chosen charity project.
Valid entries for the 2020 award will be for works, events or activities undertaken by the nominee between October 1, 2019 and September 30, 2020 and nominations are to be made online at award.dailytrust.com. A seven-member committee chaired by former President of Botswana, Festus Mogae, will select the eventual winner.
Other members of the committee are: Ambassador Mona Omar (North Africa), Amadou Mahtar Ba (West Africa), Ms. Gwen Lister (Southern Africa), Pascal Kambale (Central Africa) and Professor Sylvia Tamale (East Africa).
Chairman, Board of Media Trust Limited, Kabiru Yusuf, represents the award promoters.
Daura emphasised that a winner would emerge, strictly based on the selection criteria and not the number of entries submitted on his/her behalf.
He added that the presentation ceremony would hold in Abuja in January 2021.
The maiden award was presented to a Congolese gynaecologist, Dr. Denis Mukwege, in recognition of his exemplary humanitarian offer of free re-constructive surgery to victims of rape in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, which is 10 years after Daily Trust recognised his remarkable humanitarian gesture.
Last year’s award was won by popular South African humanitarian, Rosalia Mashale, for her commitment to welfare of orphans from Khayelitsha, a community afflicted by the severest cases of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in the world.
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