Former head of state and elder statesman, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, has confirmed that he would be attending the Annual Conference and Awards Ceremony of LEADERSHIP, scheduled to hold on October 6, 2016, at the Abuja Transcorp Hilton Hotel, where he will also present the Persons of The Year awards to the winners.
The Etsu Nupe and Chairman, Niger State Council of Chiefs, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, will be the royal father of the day at the event.
The theme of the conference is: ‘Democracy, Political Transition And The Challenge of Leadership in Africa.’
The board and management of LEADERSHIP Newspaper Group Limited, in a statement, yesterday, said Abdulsalami was chosen to present the award because of his role before, during and after the 2015 general elections, particularly in the National Peace Committee, where he, together with other statesmen, got the presidential candidates of the major political parties in the election to sign peace accords.
The management noted that Abdulsalami was largely instrumental to the peaceful conduct of the candidates, a role he played using his experience in 1999, when he midwifed the peaceful transition of power from the military regime to a democratically elected government. Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello is to co-host the annual event.
In a letter of confirmation signed by his chief of protocol, Sani Musa Daura, the minister said he would personally grace the event.
The board and management of LEADERSHIP had earlier stated that the venue for the event was chosen in view of the high-powered guests who would be attending it.
The board assured that all logistics had been put in place to accord the event deserving honour and prestige.
The Presidency, earlier this month, confirmed that President Muhammudu Buhari will personally attend the event.
Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, confirmed to LEADERSHIP, that the president will grace the occasion as guest of honour.
Similarly, LEADERSHIP also confirmed that former president, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, will be attending the annual awards.
The former INEC chairman had also confirmed that he would attend the event.
The trio of Buhari, Jonathan and Jega were nominated as LEADERSHIP Persons of the Year 2015.
Their selection followed a critical review of their various contributions to the growth and development of democracy in Nigeria and the peaceful and seamless manner in which the three eminent Nigerians handled the 2015 democratic transition without derailing the country’s democracy to the admiration and commendation of the global democratic community.
The LEADERSHIP Awards, which is an annual event, would be honouring President Muhammadu Buhari “for making history by being the first opposition candidate to defeat a sitting president after three attempts.” In the case of former President Goodluck Jonathan, he would be recognised by the newspaper “for achieving the improbable and for conceding defeat in an election in which he was a contestant – a first for Nigeria.”
The former INEC boss is to be honoured “for his courage, doggedness and fairness even in the face of threats to his life in the conduct of the 2015 elections,” to global acclaim.
Explaining the criteria employed by the newspaper’s Board of Editors in arriving at the choice of the trio LEADERSHIP said: “It always seems improbable until it is done. We may now take for granted the watershed of the 2015 presidential election but who could have thought it would come to pass? It was far from being so before it was done. When Nigeria held her presidential poll on March 28, 2015 – the fifth since civilian rule was restored in 1999 – it had all the elements of a do-or-die affair.
“Providence and three key personalities – Jonathan, Jega and Buhari, turned the tide. They jointly midwifed and protected the people’s mandate and the nation’s democracy from the pernicious machinations of contending interests. In choosing the LEADERSHIP Person of the Year, the Board of Editors could not separate the three central characters who defined 2015. We celebrate these icons of democracy for their role in the nation’s proper initiation to true democracy.”
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