From KEHINDE ADEWOLE
The Africa Hall of Fame Awards, (AHFA), an event earlier scheduled to hold in April, 2020, has been postponed indefinitely due to the Covid 19 pandemic currently ravaging the world.
Chairman of the Awards, Ooni of Ife, Oba Ogunwusi Adeyeye, made this known in a statement signed on his behalf by the CEO of Africa Hall of Fame Awards, Mr. Rupert Ojenuwa and made available to newsmen on Tuesday in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
The AHFA is an initiative of the Hall of Grace Magazine whose publisher and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is Deltan State born banker and journalist, Mr. Ojenuwa, before the Ooni bought into the project having discovered its importance in encouraging selfless, meritorious and enduring service to humanity being rendered by special Nigerians to ensure that the nation becomes a better environment for all.
Former Minister of Youths and Sports, late Chief Alex Akinyele was the Chairman of the Hall of Grace Awards before the Awards platform morphed into the African Hall of Fame Awards and got the royal endorsement of the Ooni as its Chairman.
The platform has in its Hall of Fame many distinguished Nigerians who included Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Minister for Power and Housing, and former
Governor of Lagos, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, former Managing Director of The Sun newspapers and current Special Assistant to President Mohammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the Ooni of Ife himself as well as one of Africa’s richest and business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote among others.
It also has garlanded other distinguished Nigerians such as the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwunmi Adesina, Governor Udom Emmanuel, former Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo, former governors of Ogun, and Kwara, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Ahmed Abdullahi, Senators Musa Kwakwanso, Ben Bruce, Shehu Sani and Hip Hop star Tuface Idibia among others.
The statement from the office of the Ooni reads in part: ” This is to, with regret but a sincere sense of responsibility, announce the inevitable postponement of the African Hall of Fame Awards scheduled to hold in April because of the apparent reason of the Covid 19 pandemic which has equally forced every other events across the world postponed in order to prevent the spread of the deadly virus and save our world.
” While we regret any inconveniences this might cause all invitees, we urge you to stay safe by following religiously all the preventive medical measures and prescriptions against the pandemic. We also pray that the Lord Almighty will protect and preserve our world from every evil that rears its ugly head and earnestly give the medical experts tirelessly working on finding a permanent and potent cure for the Covid 19 pandemic an urgent breakthrough.
” We equally assure Nigerians and our highly esteemed awardees that a new date will be announced once the Civid-19 Pandemic has been successfully put behind us.”
