The Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Education, Barr. Tokunbo Wahab, has emerged the Most Outstanding Thought Leader in education at the just concluded maiden edition of The Freelanews Leadership & Entrepreneurship Awards, TheFLEA Awards, in Lagos.
The awards, which was an initiative of Freelanews, a general news magazine, was held at Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja.
According to the organisers, Barr. Wahab’s selection was reached after a careful review of a couple of nominees identified to be worthy of the award.
“True transformation starts from the stomach of a dreamer, gets birthed on lips of the courageous, and find live in the hands of committed. Of all these three, the dreamer is an inextinguishable party. The life we live today was the picture in the mind of some people. This actuality is the reason why the most developed economies of the world are led by ambitious dreamers and the reason behind TFA Organizing Committee’s decision to create a category for Outstanding Thought Leaders in key sectors.
“In our consideration of suitable candidates in Education, we made deliberate effort to review the roles of several non-mainstream political figures – elected office holders, whose major projects are often powered by behind-the-scenes think tanks. Our very vast team indexed quite a number of public servants who fit into our model and after several considerations concluded on awarding it to you based on the following reason:
“Eko Digital Initiative: if there be any project of this present government that holds a great potential for a critical mass of the Lagos residents, it is the Eko Digital Initiative. The project is a future-forward intervention to economic and security future of the state, building pathways to a guaranteed future for young Lagosians. Though initiatives like this do not provide immediate political gains like infrastructural development, which quickly promote brand development for the officer holders and their political parties. Eko Digital Initiative is a selfless investment in the future without the adorning glory of commissioning and press photo splash. The design of the program itself is worth celebrating, reaching young ones between ages 8-18 and above, its Skill Gap Challenge – Training – Follow-up model ensures that all the instructional, role-modeling and mentoring of the millions of Lagos pupils/students are achieved, setting Lagos State up for a future where it will hold competitive advantage over major cities across the globe.
“Overall Transformation of Lagos Education: great leaders are often surrounded by great advisers and this not farfetched thinking about the successes the Sanwo-Olu’s administration have recorded in the past few years, despite the adverse economic reality of the world. The results in the education sector is overwhelmingly obvious. The two state-owned tertiary institutions’ steady rise in world rankings, the refurbishing and equipping of over 1000 schools and several giant strides in the education sector are the babies of your well baked, bold and visionary advisory services to Mr Governor, and the grit to follow through with proper implementation.
“Silent Achiever: Will Rogers once said do not miss a good chance to shut up. This maxim seems to be a reflection of your character. Unlike the average politician, who is better given to self-adulation and clout chasing, the achievements of your office have been left only for discussions and acknowledgments within the inner-court governance in the state, with only a few gleaned by watching stakeholders in the education sector, who are often amazed to always trace all great educational projects back to your office. Like most great achievers, you are driven by the result and impact far too much than the honour and rewards PR.
“Based on the aforementioned grounds, the organizing committee is obligated to include your story among the other 19 top Nigeria change makers, leaders driving ideas, projects and operations that will be relevant to the sustainable development of Nigeria in the next ten years,” the founder of the prestigious awards event, Victor Ojelabi said.
On the reason for TheFLEA awards, Ojelabi explained that the event was a child of necessity which arose from the need to encourage hardworking entrepreneurs especially and intending ones in the country for spending their hard-earned funds in an unstable economy like ours, which is beset with multi-taxation, policy somersaults and lukewarmness on the part of government in protecting its citizens’ investments.
“We recognise that the government can’t do everything for us, especially in terms of flattening the unemployment curve. Hence, we came together and decided to encourage willing entrepreneurs making positive impacts in the lives of ordinary Nigerians despite the pandemic and other business threatening economy policies. And our criteria are very simple to attain; as a brand, you need to have a business making impacts in the lives of over 500 Nigerians with a projection of 10years, and as a public servant, your impacts in the lives of the citizens must be astounding and verifiable. Then you’re a candidate,” he explained.
Speaking further, the Freelanews boss said:
“And as you could see from the event, these individuals received a symbolic gift to remind them of what our collective futures hold because of what they do.
“The vision of TheFLEA Awards is to reduce the awards itself to a symbol of remembrance of what our collective future holds if they persist in their good works.”
TheFLEA Awards is an initiative of Freelanews and through its website, www.Freelanews.com, the newspaper strives every day to make the lives of readers better by keeping them informed and advocating on their behalf.
The awards event plans to hold annually in encouraging creative, wealthy and selfless Nigerians in the acts of making positive impacts in the lives of average Nigerians.
Source: Read more at channelstv.com
Freelanews is the editorial byline of Freelanews.com, used for staff reports, news updates, press releases, and collaborative stories produced by the Freelanews Editorial Team.
