The founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, on Thursday bagged the 2024 Best Nigerian Patriot Award for his outstanding performance in humanitarian activities, peace promotion and provision of quality education.
The award was bestowed on the legal icon at an induction ceremony and technical workshop for the inauguration and certification of UN Ambassadors for Peace in Abuja.
The event was organised by the Association of UN Ambassadors for Peace (ASUNAP) in collaboration with The Mighty One Empowerment Foundation (TEMOEFA) to support the United Nations efforts in promoting global peace and ethnic tolerance.
Thefrontrank reports that about 10 people were also inducted and certified as UN Ambassadors for Peace.
A former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, while receiving the award on behalf of Babalola, said the association had done considerable research to come up with the nomination.
Said he: “It is one thing for individuals to be playing some roles, but it’s another thing for these roles to be recognised and to be appreciated by society.
“As a scholar and a researcher, I know that when you do a thorough research into what individuals have contributed in this particular area, one would see that it would be difficult to find someone who has contributed more than Are Afe Babalola.
“This is quite evident from his forays into different areas of national life and continental life of Africa.”
He advised Nigerians to key into the humanitarian gestures carried out by Babalola.
According to him, if more Nigerians embrace peace and conflict resolution, a lot will be achieved for the country and for humanity.
In his remarks, the Global Director of Interfaith for ASUNAP, Emmanuel Emeka, said the event was aimed at recognising Nigerians to promote peace in society.
He said the association holistically and comprehensively took the data of Babalola’s performance, his impact in Nigeria and beyond and found him worthy of the award.
He said that voting was conducted across the nooks and crannies of the country, adding that his name came up with the highest number of votes among nominations.
He said the newly inducted ambassadors would be involved in conflict resolution and peacemaking.
” You can hear the reports of wars everywhere, indecent dressing everywhere and conflict everywhere. We need people whose integrity had been proven and we should bring them on board globally for peace,” he said.
The Guest Speaker, Prof. Casmiar Obialom, charged the ambassadors not to give war a chance.
He noted that the cumulative effect of not implementing a marshal plan action to abate cases of impunity had been the root cause of conflicts in society.
Some Nigerians inducted into the association were Brigadier General Nuhu Milah (retired), Commandant Anthony Nwegbo (retired), Prof. Abiodun Ajibade, Maxwell Abubu, Comfort Arinze and Dr Raphael Gajere.
