Governors Godwin Obaseki, Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya, Mai Mala Buni, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, and Dapo Abiodun of Edo, Gombe, Yobe, Kwara and Ogun states respectively were crowned winners of the prestigious BusinessDay 2022 States Competitiveness and Good Governance Awards held on Thursday, May 4, in Abuja.
While Obaseki won the Most Improved State in Youth and Women Development award category, Yahaya who was represented at the award dinner by his deputy, Manassah Daniel Jatau, won the Most Improved State in Ease of Doing Business and Socio-Economic Development award. Buni won the Most Improved State in Infrastructure Development award.
Governors AbdulRazaq and Abiodun clinched the Most Improved State in Youth and Women Empowerment and Most Improved State in Housing Development awards respectively.
The States Competitiveness & Good Governance Awards aims to recognise state governors who have delivered to the people of their states the dividends of democracy.
The awards are in twelve categories comprising Award for Excellence in Governance (highest award); Most Improved State in Transparency in Governance Award; Most Improved State in Education; Most Improved State in Urban and Rural Infrastructure Development Award; Most Improved State in Healthcare; Most Improved State in Housing, and Most Improved State in Agriculture. Others are the State with the Fastest Growing State Economy; Most Improved State in Tourism; Most Improved State in Easing of Doing Business; State with The Most Improved Security, and Youth and Sports Development.
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Other winners at the colourful event attended by heads of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as well as state government officials are Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment; Mohammed Hassan Abdullahi, minister of the environment; and Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), minister of communications and digital economy. They were all winners of the BusinessDay Excellence in Public Service Award (PSA).
Musa Shuaibu Nuhu, director-general, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Samson Duna, director-general/CEO, Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI); Hassan Doko Ibrahim, director-general/CEO, Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC); Muhammad Nami, chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Bello Abubakar, managing director/CEO, Galaxy Backbone; Kashifu Abdullahi, director-general, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA); and Nnenna Nnannaya Oti, vice-chancellor, Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), bagged the BusinessDay Excellence in Public Service Award (PSA).
Similarly, Chioma Ejikeme, executive secretary, of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD); Ali A. Rabiu, president, of Council for the Regulation of Engineering (COREN); Lawal Magaji, managing director, of Abuja Property Development Company (APDC); Akin Olateru, commissioner, Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB); Lanre Gbajabiamila, director-general, National Lottery Regulatory Commission; Yakubu Mohammed Baba, registrar, Council, Environmental Health Council of Nigeria (EHCON) were also awardees of the highly coveted BusinessDay PSA.
The 2022 BusinessDay PSA is the sixth in the series of awards, aimed at recognising ministers, heads of government departments and agencies in Nigeria who have recorded remarkable successes in executing the mandates of their individual institutions.
Every year, over 100 top public servants are pre-selected and the list is subject to a further painstaking selection process by a committee of highly regarded Nigerians.
