Our Correspondent|25 January 2017
In what could be described as a harvest of awards, 50 Civil Society Organisations under the aegis of Civil Society National Lectures And Awards (CISNALA), has named Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State, as its Man of The Year.
The latest award as the CSO Man of the year by the coalition of the nation's civil society organisations is coming on the heels of similar recognitions by three of Nigeria's frontline newspapers, Vanguard, Business Hallmark and the Authority newspapers respectively.
The conferment of the CSO Man of the Year on Governor Ayade, according to CISNALA, "is for his recorded milestone in good governance, democracy dividends, people's oriented policies and programmes, transparency and accountability, as well as infrastructure and human capital development."
In a joint statement issued on behalf of CISNALA, Comrade Innocent Ebirim Okadigbo, Convener of CISNALA and National Coordinator of COCMEP; Malam Umar Farouk, Convener, Transparency Centre Network, among others, the group said the exercise, which the governor had no inkling of and leading to his eventual "emergence of Governor Ayade as the CSO Man of the Year, was a product of a keenly contested and due process compliant selection system."
The statement further stated that the award will soon be conferred on the governor Ayade in Abuja, on a date yet to be announced.
According to CISNALA, other considerations for the conferment of the award on the governor include "his strident green life advocacy, construction of the largest garment factory in Africa, construction of multi-million dollar rice city project, completion of Calabar International Convention Centre, prompt and regular payment of workers’ salaries, ongoing construction of his signature projects, namely, the Bakassi Deep Seaport and 260 km Digital Superhighway, among others."
