Daily Trust African Of The Year Award 2023

Daily Trust invites nominations for African of the Year  Award 2023!!

The African of the Year award initiative was established in 2008 with the goal of annually honouring an outstanding African who has made an extraordinary contribution to the advancement of humanity in any region of the continent and across all fields of endeavour. Africans who have excelled in a variety of fields or carry out charitable endeavours in their close-knit communities that benefit the populace. Shortlisted candidates for the award are chosen from a pool of nominees whose biographies and contributions have through a thorough screening procedure.

A six-person pan-African committee led by His Excellence, Mr. Festus Mogae, a former president of Botswana and recipient of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Leadership, chooses the award recipient. He recently succeeded Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, a former Tanzanian prime minister and OAU (Organisation of African Unity) scribe who served as the prize committee’s first chairman. Ambassador Ms. Mona Omar (North Africa), Mr. Pastor Rigobert BINANI BIHUZO (Central Africa), Ms. Gwen Lister (Southern Africa), and Mr. Amadou Mahtar Ba (West Africa) are additional members of the advisory board/prize committee. We are represented by Kabiru Yusuf, Chairman of Daily Trust.

Dr. Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynaecologist and humanitarian surgeon, received the inaugural prize for 2008. This was in honour of his courageous activism against the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) pervasive use of mass rape as a weapon of war. Additionally, Dr. Mukwege provided free reconstructive gynaecological procedures to rape victims in the conflict-torn nation of central Africa. You might find it interesting to note that Dr. Mukwege received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 ten years after receiving our honour. He was awarded the “Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought” earlier in 2014—the highest honour in the field of humanitarianism bestowed by the European Union Parliament.

The late Dr. Tajudeen Abdulraheem, the former director of the UN Millennium Office for Africa, Mr. Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the Local Organising Committee for the 19th FIFA/Coca-Cola World Cup hosted by South Africa, Mrs. Fatima Bazeye, the former judge and head of the Constitutional Court of Niger, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, and others have received the award in succeeding years. Dr. Donald Kaberuka, a former president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), won in 2013. Mr. Ahongbonon Gregoire, a social service activist from Benin, received the honour in 2015 for his work rehabilitating and reintegrating numerous people in Africa who suffer from mental illnesses.

Mutaru Mumuni Muqthar was named the 2017 African of the Year. After his family was a victim of the horrific Nanumba-Konkomba conflict in 1994 in Northern Ghana, which resulted in roughly 1,000 deaths and tens of thousands of internal displacements, he was motivated to resist terrorism. In order to de-radicalize vulnerable youngsters and assist them in reintegrating into society, education, or the workforce, Muqthar now works across West Africa with a team of specialists he has hired. Musu Bakoto Sawo, a dedicated fighter for women’s rights and a Gambian changemaker, won the prize the previous year for her unwavering dedication to reducing violence against girls and women, including child marriage and female genital mutilation.