On March 6, 2024, Dr. Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina, the president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), is scheduled to receive the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership 2023.
The Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership was initially presented in December 2012, and on March 6, 2013, the formal award ceremony took place.
Lagos Continental Hotel is the planned venue for this year’s event.
Three other notable individuals were given the prestigious honor before Adesina was revealed as the fourth recipient: Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka; former South African President Thabo Mbeki; and Aare Afe Babalola, the founder of Afe Babalola University.
The late politician, in whose honor the prize was established, has a birthday on the same day as the event.
The Obafemi Awolowo Foundation established the prize in April 1992 with the goal of maintaining Chief Awolowo’s leadership and intellectual legacy.
The foundation was founded as an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization with the goal of perpetuating Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s democratic and development-focused values.
“A prestigious, biennial, international prize structured to follow a rigorous process of nomination and subsequent screening by a Selection Committee consisting of some of the most outstanding Nigerians,” is how the award’s organizers describe it.
They added that the award gives the winner a great deal of honor and recognition and acts as a powerful motivator for people to strive for leadership and good governance excellence.
Speaking about the selection procedure that resulted in Adesina being named the recipient for 2023, the foundation stated that numerous nominations from distinguished individuals were received by the end of the call for nominations, which was advertised for several months in 2023.
Following a thorough, meticulous, and demanding screening process, Adesina was declared the clear winner of the 2023 award by the Selection Committee due to her exceptional qualifications for the honor.
“I am delighted to have been selected as a recipient of the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership,” Adesina stated, expressing his happiness about the honor and being among the prior distinguished honorees. It’s an enormous honor to be among the previous recipients of the medal, which include Nobel medal winner Prof. Wole Soyinka and former South African President Thabo Mbeki.