Recently, His Imperial Majesty (HIM), Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi rewarded 100 young Nigerians doing excellently in their chosen careers and impacting greatly in the progress and development of the country, at the maiden edition of the Royal African Young Leadership Forum under the Operational Director, Tomisin Olawale, a fantastic personality with incredible passion with unquenchable drive for the transformation of Africa through its abundant human resources.
According to Olawale, the award, which was bestowed to celebrities including, actor Adedimeji Lateef, Woli Arole, Pamilerin Adegoke, and Sujimoto, among others, stands as a pillar of transformation for young Nigerian and Africans populations to be able to stand up and remain focused despite the several challenges of life.
Speaking on the criteria for the selection of the 100 awardees, Tomisin disclosed that although the entire process was tedious, the Ooni of Ife personally manned that responsibility by not just looking at the success stories of the selected awardees, but taking notes of behaviours, attitude of recipients in ensuring they follow through with the recommended guidelines and foreseeing if they would be worthy ambassador of the cause.
It is pertinent to note that the 100 awardees, drawn from across various sectors will earn maximum support of the Ooni to break boundaries and use the impact of the awardees to create opportunities for the less privileged to start up and become success stories.
He revealed that the award ceremony will be held yearly with the focus on Nigeria, while there are plans to move into other African countries, just as he noted that the 100 awardees would be embarking on mentorship training programmes with some of the brightest minds in Nigeria, with the sole aim of building transformational leadership and modern entrepreneurial culture which are the benchmark of the award as created by Oba Ogunwusi.