The race to select and celebrate Nigeria’s community development and human rights heroes has intensified as voting commences for the nominees of the 2021 Community and Human Rights (CAHR) Awards, organised by CSR-in-Action.
Members of the public can visit www.cahrawards.org/vote to select their preferred candidates before September 24, 2021.
CAHR Awards is Nigeria’s first initiative dedicated to celebrating outstanding individuals and organisations that have performed excellently in engaging their communities creditably through inclusion, equity, environmental awareness, poverty alleviation, education and general promotion of human dignity.
Now in its third year, the annual awards have been extended to cover the entire African continent, and voting action is for citizens within the geographical landscape of the African continent to allow for the selection of deserving recipients for the various categories.
Dedicated to celebrating late historically prominent personalities, the award features seven categories from which nine individuals and corporate organisations will be honoured.
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Available categories include: the Ken Saro-Wiwa Environmental Management Award, MKO Abiola Community Engagement Award, Hajiya Gambo Sawaba Community Impact Award, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti Human Rights Award, Mallam Aminu Kano Award for Leadership, Josephine Nkemdilim Equal Rights Award, and Apostle Hayford Alile Humanitarian Award.
“Through the CAHR Awards, we aim to recognise and publicise the good works of those who have contributed selflessly to engendering social justice and inclusion, and promoting human rights in our communities,” said Bekeme Masade-Olowola, chief executive of CSR-in-Action and host of the CAHR Awards.
According to Masade-Olowola, the awards have been extended to cover the rest of Africa to expand recognition for these icons.
The voting stage follows a process of nomination of individuals for suitable categories after which there is an internal review process of sieving multiple entries, verification of persons and their qualification for the category entered, and selection of the most impressive/suitable profiles based on available resources online.
In the final stage of selection, the CAHR Awards Jury will scrutinise information provided by the awardees and judge based on a set of criteria. The winners will be presented their awards at a colourful ceremony later in October 2021.
“We have an array of individuals and organisations to select from under each award category, but we want the public to be the ultimate decision maker,” said Emem Okon, community organiser and award jury team member.
“We, therefore, call on individuals across Africa to visit the CAHR Awards portal and vote their preferred heroes in all the categories. Help us select them so we can celebrate them and spotlight their courageous contributions in inspiring a better society,” Michael Ugochukwu Stephens known as Ruggedman said.
Other members of the jury for the awards include popular rapper, Ruggedman; radio personality and musicologist of Classic FM, Sola Mogaji; renowned communications expert, Tokunboh George-Taylor; chairman/council member, Mining Solid Minerals Group, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Babatunde Alatise, and community development specialist, Mina Ogbanga.
Popular names that have been nominated for this year’s awards include IHS Nigeria Limited, Total Nigeria plc, Child Shield İnitiative, Guaranty Trust Bank, Amnesty Nigeria, Access Bank, Chevron, Nigeria, Reckitt Benckiser, DHL Express, among others.
