Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum, the executive governor of Nigeria’s Bornu State has been announced as winners of National Infinity Magazine’s Nigerian of the Year 2020.
According to a release signed by Olajide Ige, Editor-In-Chief of the magazine, Prof. Babagana Zulum, who took oath of office in 2019 as Governor of Boko Haram infested Bornu State, in North East of Nigeria, stood out, by plunging himself into the service of a people already dejected and overwhelmed by the insurgency that has ravaged the ancient people for years, and has become a true templateof a servant leader, not limiting governance to the elites but averring to the grass root where, along the line, he suffered first hand, the plight of the common man in the hands of its common enemy, Boko Haram.
Prof. Zulum, ahead of others also listed, was chosen in recognition of his contributions to peace and development of Bornu State and Nigeria, by identifying with the plight of the Internally Displaced Peoples and preferring solutions to a permanent solution to a problem that has left the masses of Bornu and the entire North East Nigeria confounded.
In a year dominated by COVID-19 pandemic, its attendant recession and the internal strife; #EndSARS, Prof, Babagana Zulum’s giant strides in Bornu State made impactful headlines.
The magazine described Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum as an exemplary leader and servant of his people who is redefining leadership and service to the downtrodden people of Bornu, even at the risk of his own life and comfort of his office.
Also of note is the massive strides of Herbert Wigwe, the Group Managing Director and CEO of Nigeria’s financial sector’s emerging dominator, Access Bank Plc. Under his leadership, at a time others are shrinking, the bank acquired another leading bank in Kenya thereby increasing its footprints outside Nigeria.
So also, civil rights activist and the ‘amazon who did us proud’, Aisha Yesufu shone like a diamond in the dark during the #AntiSARS protest. She erased every doubt about the age long dictum; what a man can do, a woman can do it better.
The award presentation will hold during the annual Babatunde Jose Lecture on Media and the Society on a date to be announced later.
Past winners of the Nigerian of the Year are Alhaji Aliko Dangote (2010), Rt. Hon, Aminu Tambuwal (2011) The Nigerian Mases (2012) Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (2013), Ebola doctor, Late Dr. Stella Adadevoh and Ahmed Abdulfattah, Gov. Kwara State, (2014) Sen. Aisha Jumai Alhassan (2015) as well as Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja ll, Ooni of Ife (2017).
Policeman, DCP Abba Kyarri, won in 2019, while the ‘the bullet-dodging governor’ Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum won in 2020.
