THISDAY Awards: Winners of Lifetime Achievement Award

FORMER PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN

Former President Goodluck Jonathan wrote his name in gold in the history of Nigeria’s democracy when he conceded defeat to the candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 presidential election.

As the incumbent president, Jonathan had the opportunity to manipulate the election and dare the consequences but he not only introduced electoral reforms to ensure free and fair elections, he also conceded defeat before the declaration of the final results.

Many political analysts believe that Jonathan was a victim of the electoral reforms he introduced to promote democracy in Nigeria under his Transformation Agenda.

Since he left office in 2015, he has been working tirelessly with his colleagues in ECOWAS to resolve political crises and stabilise democracy in the sub-region.

BIODUN SHOBANJO

In the field of advertising and marketing communications, the Chairman of Troyka Group, Nigeria’s largest marketing communications conglomerate, Biodun Shobanjo is the undisputable kingmaker.

He established Nigeria’s first Public Relations Consultancy, The Quadrant Company; Nigeria’s first media independent, All Seasons Mediacom, and a second media independent, Media Perspectives.

Under his conglomerate are specialist organisations such as Optimum Exposures, an Out-Of-Home company; and Halogen Security, Nigeria’s No 1 security and risk-mitigation company, which employs over 20,000 people nationwide.

In 2015, Shobanjo turned Troyka into a global giant, when he established an equity partnership with the world’s third largest marketing communications group, Publicis Groupe.

This union created Insight Redefini Group, the communications arm of Troyka Holdings, among others.

AMINU BELLO MASARI

The Chairman of the Board of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Aminu Bello Masari was the Commissioner for Works, Housing and Transport in Katsina State from 1991 to 1993; Speaker of House of Representatives between 2003 and 2007 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Katsina State Governor from 2015 to 2023 on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He was appointed as the Chairman of the Board of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund in August 2024 by President Bola Tinubu.

Having climbed the ladder from commissioner in Katsina State to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and governor for eight years, Masari has a wealth of experience in public sector management.

OLUSEGUN OSUNKEYE

Osunkeye started his career as an Accountant with Akintola Williams and Co before joining Nestle Nigeria Limited where he rose to become the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer from 1991 to 1999, and Chairman in 1999 until 2013 when he voluntarily retired.

Other positions he held include: Chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, GSK; Chairman of Lafarge/WAPCO; Chairman of  International Chamber of Commerce, Nigeria; Chairman of Institute of Directors, IoD; National Vice President of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN); President of  Nigeria’s Employers Consultative Association (NECA); President of  International Accounting Standards Board, Nigeria; President of Society for Corporate Governance, Nigeria; and President of  Omnibus Business Solutions Limited and Pilot Securities.

ATEDO PETERSIDE

Peterside is the founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Anap Business Jets Limited, and Atedo N. A. Peterside Foundation.

He founded Investment Bank and Trust Company (IBTC), which later metamorphosed into Stanbic-IBTC Bank after a series of mergers over the years.

Peterside founded the bank in 1989, at 33, and resigned in 2017 after running the affairs of the bank for years leading it to the path of profitability and also ensuring the bank lived up to his expectations.

He established Anap Jets Ltd in 2015, and also sat on the boards of The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited and Standard Bank Group Limited.

Peterside announced his exit from the banking business with effect from June 10, 2024.

FOLA ADEOLA

Fola Adeola is a Co-Founder of Guaranty Trust Bank GTBank Plc, a member of the Commission for Africa, and Founder and Chairman of the FATE Foundation.

Adeola, who is currently a director at the bank, had served the bank as the pioneer Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for 12 years.

Before founding Guaranty Trust Bank Plc in 1990, he was the Deputy General Manager & Divisional Head, Financial Services Division of the Continental Merchant Bank Limited. He also served as a manager of the NAL Merchant Bank Plc from 1982-1986. Prior to this experience, he served as a senior auditor at D.O. Dafinone & Co.

Adeola and other co-founders of the bank changed the face of banking in Nigeria with technological innovations.

UDOMA UDO UDOMA

 The Chairman of Board of Seplat Energy, Udoma Udo Udoma was founder of Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie, a multi-specialisation full service corporate and commercial law firm where he retired from in 2019.

Udoma, an accomplished lawyer and seasoned board administrator, was elected Senator in 1999 and he served for two terms from 1999 to 2007.

He was the first Chairman of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and has also served as the Chairman of the Nigerian Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). He was the Special Adviser to the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources from September 1993 to March 1994

He was Nigeria’s Minister of Budget and National Planning until the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s first term in office.

DAVID MARK

David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark GCON is a retired Nigerian Army brigadier general and politician.

He served as the 12th president of the Nigerian Senate from 2007 to 2015 and was the Senator for Benue South senatorial district from 1999 to 2019. He is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Before his senatorial career, Mark was the military Governor of Niger State from 1984 to 1986 and is a one-time minister of communication. He is the longest-serving president of the Nigerian Senate.

CHRIS OKEKE

Chris Okeke, an Independent Non-Executive Director of Seplat Energy, co-founded a major Nigerian commercial Law firm, Ajumogobia & Okeke, in 1984, where he served as the managing partner until his retirement in 2009.

He has served on the boards Cadbury Nigeria plc, SO & U Saatchi & Saatchi, Indorama Petrochemicals Nigeria Limited, Asset and Resource Management Limited, ARM Pension Managers (PFA) Limited as Chairman.

 Okeke was Ambassador of Nigeria to Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay 2017-2020.

He has served as the Honorary Legal Adviser to successive British High Commissioners and as Legal Advisor to the Embassies of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Royal Kingdom of the Netherlands, Austria, Australia, and Canada in Nigeria.

He acted as counsel to the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the British Council and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

HAKEEM BELO-OSAGIE

Osagie is the Chairman of Metis Capital Partners, which is focused on brokering and delivering large-ticket transactions in Africa to select blue chip international investment partners.

An accomplished Nigerian professional and entrepreneur, he was the Special Assistant to the Presidential Adviser on Petroleum and Energy and also Special Assistant to the Minister of Petroleum and Energy.

These positions put him in a position to close on a few oil deals from where he made his first fortune.

He was the chairman of Etisalat Nigeria, Nigeria’s fourth largest mobile telecom network, until he resigned in 2017.

He is a senior lecturer at Harvard Business school, sits on the board of  blue-chip organisations, and was listed by Forbes Magazine as the forty-first richest man in Africa in 2014.

YEMI OGUNBIYI

Yemi Ogunbiyi is a founding Chairman of Tanus Communications, and once served as the Managing Director of Daily Times of Nigeria.

He received his secondary education from the Ibadan Boys High School and later went to the University of Ibadan where he studied English Literature. He then went to New York University for his Masters degree.

Together with notable scholars like Kole Omotosho, Biodun Jeyifo, and Wole Soyinka, Mr Ogunbiyi was part of the Drama and Literature Department of the University of Ife, later renamed Obafemi Awolowo University by the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida.

He has served as an Executive Director of the Guardian Newspapers in Charge of Public Affairs and Marketing. He also served as a Member of the Global Advisory Board of Repro India Limited.

Ogunbiyi was also a Lecturer at Brooklyn College in the United States after his university education. He would later lecture at the University of Ife (OAU), where he also later became a Pro-Chancellor.

MARTIN LUTHER AGWAI

Martin Luther Agwai CFR, FSS, MSS, DSS, is a retired Nigerian Army general who served as Chief of Defence Staff and Chief of Army Staff. He was the 13th Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Calabar.

He was the best-graduating student in the Nigerian Defence Academy in 1972, from where he rose to become the Chief of Army Staff in 2003 and Chief of Defense Staff in 2006. He led one of the largest peacekeeping missions in Darfur, Sudan, in 2009, from where he returned home and retired from the Armed Forces.

In his honour, The Martin Luther Agwai International Leadership & Peacekeeping Centre (MLAILPKC) was instituted after his retirement, by General TY Buratai. The Mission of MLAILPKC is to deliver realistic qualitative training packages on Peace Support Operations to potential United Nations and regional peacekeepers to prepare them for the complex and multidimensional challenges of modern Peace Support Operations.

MUSTAFA CHIKE-OBI

Mustafa Chike-Obi, the Chairman of Fidelity Bank Nigeria in July 2020, a First Class Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Lagos and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, began his banking career at Chase Merchant Bank (1980–1982) as Head of the Treasury Department, introducing this concept to Nigerian banking.

 Chike-Obi later held senior roles at Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns and also founded Madison Park Advisors, a financial advisory firm in New Jersey. He also served as Managing Director at Shoreline Group.

 From 2010 to 2015, he was the inaugural Managing Director and CEO of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), established to resolve non-performing loan assets in Nigerian banks and before joining Fidelity Bank, he was Executive Vice Chairman at Alpha African Advisory.

Under his leadership, Fidelity Bank has demonstrated resilience and stability, focusing on providing capital to African entrepreneurs, particularly SMEs and startups.

Chike-Obi also serves as President of the Bank Directors Association of Nigeria (BDAN) and Chairman of the Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency (ANSIPPA). In August 2020, he was appointed as Special Envoy of Nigeria to the United States on a special mission on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

ANGO ABDULLAHI

Prof. Ango Abdullahi, CON, is an accomplished academic, administrator, and elder statesman. The former vice-chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, in Zaria, and convener of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, has been on the political horizon for over six decades, contributing his quota to the development of Nigeria.

In one of his decisive contributions, Professor Abdullahi, who had been a strong opponent of calls for restructuring of the country, recently made a U-turn, saying that the North is ready for restructuring. Specifically, he said the current presidential system of government is useless and must be dismantled and replaced with a parliamentary system.

HERBERT WIGWE

– POSTHUMOUS

Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe CFR (15 August 1966 – 9 February 2024) was a Nigerian banker and businessman. He was the group managing director and CEO of Access Bank Plc, one of Nigeria’s top five banking institutions, after succeeding his business partner, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede.

Wigwe started his career at Coopers & Lybrand and Guaranty Trust Bank before joining Access Bank in 2002 as the company’s deputy managing director. He became the chief executive officer of the company in January 2014.

He died in a helicopter crash on 9 February 2024 in the United States on his way to attend Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII championship in Las Vegas.

EMMANUEL IWUANYANWU

– POSTHUMOUS

Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Iwuanyanwu was a Nigerian politician, businessman, and philanthropist who left an indelible mark on the country. Born on September 4, 1942, he was considered one of the richest Igbo men in Nigeria. After the Nigerian civil war, he resumed his studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, graduating in 1971.

He began his career as a pupil engineer at the Nigerian Construction and Furniture Company, quickly rising through the ranks to become a site agent. His innovative design for producing a barge using empty engine oil drums earned him recognition, and he became a registered engineer in 1972.

Iwuanyanwu’s business acumen led him to partner with two Americans, Messrs. Harper and Delano, to establish a construction company, Hardel. He later acquired the company and renamed it Hardel and Enic Construction Company, which grew into a conglomerate of over 20 companies.

Some of his notable business ventures include Enic Advertising Ltd, Magil Industries Limited, National Post Newspapers, Sunrise Insurance Brokers, Oriental Shipping Lines Limited, Paradise City Hotel, Calabar, Oriental Airlines, and Daily Champion newspapers amongst others.