Leading People of 2021…

COVER/POLITICS

The year 2021 has been politically tumultuous just as many will think it disappointing depending on which side one was most touched. However, there are personalities that defined the perception and effect which may either be positive or negative, in no particular order, writes Ahamefula Ogbu

Muhammadu Buhari

Being the captain of the Nigerian ship, every buck stops on his table. Unending killings and economic pressure on Nigerians continued throughout the year, which placed him on the front burner. Buhari’s inability to tackle the security and economic challenges left Nigeria in tatters. Cries about his endless lopsided appointments, gifting the nearby Niger Republic a standard gauge rail line with a loan from China, refusal to sign the Electoral Reform Bill and rampaging terrorists kept Buhari persistently in the news in 2021.

Yemi Osinbajo

The stacked political cards in his favour on taking over from his boss in 2023 has pitched him against his political benefactor whose eye and desire has never left the seat of power. Though, he is yet to openly admit challenging BAT to the contest, his body language and surreptitious setting up of structures, added to the possibility of President Buhari favouring Osinbajo. This made him prominent in political affairs of 2021.

Ahmed Lawan

He has remained a man of his words as Senate President. He had promised to cooperate and work with the President which his leadership of the Senate has religiously kept to. Under his watch, all requests by President Buhari received dutiful approval leading to allegations that he has weakened that arm of government and thereby subsumed it in the presidency. Loans approved under his watch have mortgaged the future of unborn Nigerians while rationalising such docility as ensuring harmony and stability of the country.

Hope Uzodinma

He has been in the news mostly for the wrong reasons since being foisted on Imo State by an incongruous Supreme Court decision. Scores are killed daily in the state by “unknown gunmen.” 2021 saw him battling his immediate past governor, Rochas Okorocha from who he has seized various prized property including a university. He is reputed to be the first governor of the South East to in a short while, after assumption of office to have pulled President Buhari to the restive region. He has however started paying salaries and pensions to the extent he is even pledging to pay 13th month salary bonus in an effort to warm his way into the heart of the people.

Chukwuma Soludo

The former Central Bank governor, who after some failed attempts at being the governor of his state, finally had mother luck on his side in 2021 where Governor Willie Obiano chose and rammed through his election under a very violent set up that saw killings across the state.

Bisi Akande

The release of his autobiography, “My Participation” has been controversial to the extent that he was accused of releasing a “cocktail of lies” to brighten the chances of Bola Ahmed Tinubu clinching the Presidency in 2023.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Adjudged the most prepared and hungry for the position of president in 2023, he had deep pockets, connection and reach. Tinubu has been consulting to the point of dividing the party. Being a major enforcer of the amalgamation of parties in the alliance that took power from Goodluck Jonathan, Tinubu is well positioned to make a mark though he is coming across as desperate for power and “not clean” in how he came about his wealth.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Babajide Sanwo-Olu

He has constantly been in the news in his management of COVID-19 and infrastructure development in the state. This man that was favoured against Akinwunmi Ambode has been performing.

Iyorchia Ayu

He has been around in the nation’s political space but seemed to have gone on recess till the opposition Peoples Democratic Party threw him up as their National Chairman, a job he has set about lending his vast experience. He has been jabbing the ruling APC and speaking of plans to take over power in 2023.

Mai Bala Buni

He is the Governor of Yobe State who has doubled as the interim Chairman of the party even after the Supreme Court indirectly hinted that such was out of constitutional order. He courted some governors to abandon their party to join his and has promised that he was going to ensure that they retain power in spite of the poor performance of the party in all fronts and the fact that the coalition of parties has started pursuing disparate interests.

Nnamdi Kanu

The leader of the Indigenous people of Biafra noted for his vitriol at the president, who he had made unprintable claims against. He became more controversial with the formation of the Eastern Security Network. The effort morphed and spiraled out of control, leading to crack operations and retaliations by security forces. They were alleged to be responsible for killing security personnel and stealing their arms and ammunition. Kanu, hauled back to Nigeria from Kenya, this year, is in jail, facing treason charges. The involvement of prominent people and groups from the South East region pressing for his release has placed his case politically and otherwise on the front burner.

Sunday Adeyemo

Also called Sunday Igboho, he came to limelight when he moved to sack criminal herders from his town, Igboho. Thereafter he transited to advocating for the independence of the Oduduwa nation from Nigeria which pitched him against agencies of the state. They soon attacked his house at night, killing some people and destroying his property. When he felt the heat was much on him, he took a “NADECO” route and found his way to Benin Republic where he attempted with his wife to flee to Germany but was intercepted. He is still in detention there while efforts are on to extradite his to Nigeria.

COVER/Business and economy

Nigeria struggled with its economy in 2021, with dwindling revenue and forex crisis. Notwithstanding, some businessmen were impactful, nudging the economy

Aliko Dangote

All eyes remained focused on Aliko Dangote, the chairman and CEO of Dangote Group, as he prepares to deliver his multi-billion Dollar refinery in Lagos. He made appreciable progress in this regard in 2021, with prominent Nigerians visiting the complex. The fertilizer aspect of the project is already up and running. Of course, he also continued his dominance of the cement, sugar and flour market, with massive expansion.

Mike Adenuga

Michael Adenuga’s Glo brand continues to tickle with innovations and expansion, thus retaining its position as Nigeria’s second-largest telecoms operator.

Femi Otedola

Femi Otedola, billionaire businessman and philanthropist shook the nation’s financial landscape with his acquisition of controlling shares in FBN Holdings, the parent company of First Bank. He became the single largest shareholder with his 7.25 per cent acquisition, at over N48 billion.

Abdul-Samad Rabiu

Abdul-Samad Rabiu’s venture into refining of petroleum products is giving him special attention. Construction is on at a massive complex in Akwa Ibom State. The BUA Group boss is clearly out to compete with Dangote in this field. For most of 2021, BUA competed aggressively with Dangote in the supply of Sugar, Cement and Flour, with massive expansion in his facilities.

Tony Elumelu

Tony Elumelu’s Heirs Holdings remained a major force in Nigeria’s economy, powerfully playing in banking, oil and gas and hotel. Heirs Holdings expanded its Oil and Gas portfolio, with the acquisition of 45% of OML 17 from Shell Nigeria. The company acquired the asset through TNOG Oil and Gas Limited (a related company of Heirs Holdings and Transcorp).

Elumelu is still empowering new generation of African entrepreneurs with the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF). He remains Africa’s leading philanthropy, with this huge project. TEF, $100 million Entrepreneurship Programme, launched in 2015 aims to empower 10,000 entrepreneurs over 10 year.

Oba Otudeko

Oba Otudeko, founder and chairman of the Honeywell Group, had it really rough in 2021. His non-performing loans with First Bank weighed him down. He also lost out in the control of the bank. Otudeko was kicked out as the chairman of FBN Holdings. A troubled Otudeko had to sell his Honeywell Flour Mill to tackle his debt crisis.

Cosmas Maduka

Cosmas Maduka, President and Chairman of the Coscharis Group, remains a key figure in Auto business. He now has an auto assembly plant in Lagos. Coscharis Motors is the sole representative of premium foreign motor vehicles in Nigeria, including Rolls-Royce, Jaguar LandRover, Ford Motor Company, Renault, BMW, among others.

Musibau Bashir

Alhaji Musibau Bashir is the Chairman, Mafab Communications. Little was known about him until his firm emerged a winner of the keenly contested 3.5 GHz spectrum auction for 5G deployment in the country. He would have to pay $273.6 million.

Benedict Peters, Aiteo

Benedict Peters, founder of the Aiteo Group and Nigeria’s largest indigenous oil producing firm was in the news for all the wrong reasons in 2021. One of the firm’s oil wells in Nembe, Bayelsa State experienced a blowout, leading to the biggest oil spill in the history of Nigeria. For weeks, the well spilled oil, destroying the environment. Aiteo battled to shut the well. Peters also had to battle the bad press that came with the tragedy.

Allen Onyema

Allen Onyema’s Air Peace remains the dominant force in Nigerian aviation in 2021. His fleet remains the biggest and fastest growing. As at the last count, there were 40 aircraft in his fleet. Onyema is also the biggest employer of labour in the Nigerian aviation industry. The Airline is fast expanding its international routes. Air Peace has returned to South Africa. Also, it now has seven slots to Dubai. Durin the year, Onyema rescued stranded Nigerians abroad by providing free flights.

COVER/SPORTS

Augustine Eguavoen

With just few weeks to the Africa Cup of Nations, former Super Eagles defender Augustine Eguavoen was announced as interim coach of the senior national team of Nigeria after the sacking of erstwhile manager, Gernot Rohr. This is Eguavoen’s third stint in charge of the Super Eagles, after managing the team from 2005-2007 prior to another stint as caretaker coach in 2010. As a player, the 56-year-old represented the Super Eagles at the 1994 and 1998 World Cups.

Gernot Rohr
After several calls for the sack of Super Eagles Franco-German Manager, Gernot Rohr, the Nigeria Football Federation finally bowed to pressure to do away with the service of the 68-year old.
Rohr departs as Nigeria’s longest-serving manager after taking charge in August 2016 before leading them to the 2018 World Cup and a third-place finish at the 2019 Nations Cup.

Amaju Pinnick
After taking the back seat for many years, Nigeria’s Amaju Pinnick secured a seat in the FIFA Council moments after he emerged as the fifth Vice President of the Confederation of African Football at the 43rd Ordinary General Assembly in Rabat, Morocco. Pinnick also enjoyed a smooth ride in the management of Nigerian football in 2021. Super Eagles ended the year fifth best in Africa based on FIFA ranking.

Ahmed Musa
Super Eagles Captain, Ahmed Musa became Nigeria’s most-capped player after getting his 101st international cap in the team’s 2-0 victory over Central African Republic. FIFA shared Musa’s picture with the caption, “Ahmed Musa, most capped Nigerian player, 101 appearances”. FIFA’s post puts to an end the controversy over the number of caps won by Musa.

Blessing Ogborodudu
Blessing Oborududu won Olympic Games’ silver medal in the women’s freestyle 68kg, at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the first by a Nigerian wrestler in history. The 32-year-old won the medal in her third appearance at the Olympics since 2012 in London. Oborududu announced herself to the wrestling world in 2007 when she was invited to join Nigeria’s team for the African Games.

Victor Osimhen
After a not too impressive first season blighted by injuries and COVID-19 19 issues Victor Osimhen has taken the Serie A by storm this season and has become defenders nightmare.
Osimhen came back from a disappointing start to the 2021/2022 season in August after being sent off in the opening match against newcomers Venezia. Since then, the Super Eagles striker has become a nightmare to opposing defenders, scoring seven goals in eight matches for Napoli in September alone.
The Super Eagle is one of the Partenopei’s trio of Africans so far overachieving and already making Neapolitans dare to dream.

Aruna Quadri
Few days after his historic feat in Houston Texas, United States, where he emerged as the first African player to make it to the quarter-final stage at the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships, Quadri set another record by placing 13th which is the highest ever attained by an African player.
The Nigerian was ranked 17th in the world before the tournament in Houston but Aruna gained four steps up in the ranking to be rated 13th in the ITTF ranking being the first by an African.
Being the biggest mover among the top 20 players in the world, Aruna has continued to raise the bar for other African players to emulate with his superlative performance at major competitions.

Efe Brume
In a summer Olympics in which Nigeria was in the news for all the wrong reasons – from some of the country’s athletes marching without a face mask to athletes protesting in the streets of Tokyo, Efe Brume was one of the shining lights for Team Nigeria. The 2019 African Games champion gave Team Nigeria their first medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games with a bronze medal in the women’s long jump event.

Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi won a record seventh men’s Ballon d’Or after the PSG forward was presented with the award in Paris after another record-breaking 12 months for club and country. He saw off competition from Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski and Chelsea midfielder Jorginho.”

Anthony Joshua
In spite of losing all his belts to Ukrainian challenger, Oleksandr Usyk, Anthony Joshua remains a news maker in the year ending. Having seen a fight with fellow Briton Tyson Fury collapse last summer, Joshua opted to face his WBO mandatory challenger and former undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk. The Ukrainian put on a masterclass in front of 65,000 fans inside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, outclassing Joshua over 12 rounds, and hurting the champion.

Kamaru Usman
Kamaru Usman is the first African-born champion in UFC history and wants to bring the UFC to a continent which is continuing to produce incredible champions. Usman defeated Colby Covington by unanimous decision to retain the UFC welterweight championship. Usman subsequently proclaimed himself the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Covington “the second-best guy” in the division.