The Akwa Ibom State governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, has been voted NewsAfrica Leader of the Year 2014.
He is the second person to be so voted in the 14-year history of the magazine.
Kofi Anan, a one-time Secretary-General of the United Nations, was the first person who won the award in 2002.
A press release issued Tuesday in London by the publisher of the magazine, Moffat Ekoriko, said Chief Akpabio was voted for showing uncommon leadership in a country where leaders see their success in office in terms of personal wealth; for taking initiatives others are shy of, and for giving hope of a greater future for Nigeria, a key country in Africa.
Mr. Ekoriko noted that Akpabio’s feat in transforming Akwa Ibom State, which was once a backwater into Nigeria’s fastest developing state has made him the “the poster boy of the Nigerian political class, so much so that the performance of other office holders is measured in relation to his.”
To emerge as NewsAfrica Leader of the Year, the publisher said Akpabio scored higher than presidents, business leaders, and religious leaders with multi–million congregations.
As NewsAfrica Leader of the Year 2014, Akpabio is expected to deliver this year’s NewsAfrica Global Lecture on “Delivering the Dividends of Governance: An African Experience.”
The lecture, which will hold in London in May 2014, will be attended by political, business and civil society leaders from all over Africa and the Caribbean as well as selected European ministers.