A former President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Anyim Pius Anyim has been named Chairperson for the 2024 edition of the annual leadership lecture and Award event, slated for August 22, 2024 in Abuja, in honour of the Right Honourable Dr, Michael Iheonukara Okpara, Premier of the Eastern Region of Nigeria, 1959-1966.
The event is a leadership and development promotion program annually organized ‘’to encourage and celebrate quality leadership, good governance, development at all levels of society, philanthropy and integrity in service delivery among Nigerians: core attributes and achievements which made the person and government of Dr. Michael Okpara as an iconic leader and father of industrial and agricultural revolution in the Eastern Region of Nigeria.
A statement issued during the weekend by organizers of the program, the Michael Okpara Foundation and Verbatim Media Group, explained that Anyim will preside over and supervise key activities of the event, comprising of a public lecture on issues of leadership and development in Nigeria, unveiling of prototype designs of Okpara Leadership Institute, and an investiture ceremony for the presentation of the Premier’s Prize (special award and certificates) to men/women in Nigeria and in the diaspora, who have demonstrated credible leadership and contributed to development to their community, state and the Nation.
Anyim was described in the statement as a ‘’towering personality, with experience and expertise in parliamentary activities, public service and politics, and ‘’a great Nigerian endowed with great capacity to coordinate national discourse on the personality and philosophical underpinning of Dr Michael Okpara and his accomplishments in the art of governance’’.
Uzodinma Okpara, a businessman, politician and son of Okpara who signed the press statement alongside Tobs Agbaegbu, news magazine publisher and member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, announced also that Anyim has already accepted the request to chair the occasion.
Anyim, a lawyer and politician from Ishiagu in Ebonyi State served as the 9th President of the Nigerian senate, 2000 – 2003. He later served as Secretary to the Government of the Federation, May 29, 2011 to May 29, 2015, during the Presidency of Goodluck Jonathan.
The Okpara Leadership program will feature, ‘’a lecture on contemporary issues of leadership in Nigeria; the unveiling of architectural design for Okpara Leadership Centre, and investiture ceremony for presentation of The Premier’s Prize (gold plaque award ) to a cross section of Nigerians at home and in the diaspora who distinguished themselves in various categories of leadership positions in the public and private sector of the Nigerian society, and in business and philanthropy,’’ according to the organizers.
The event is a leadership promotion program which ‘’seeks to encourage and celebrate quality leadership, good governance, development at all levels of society, philanthropy and integrity in service delivery: the core attributes and achievements that stood out the person and government of His Excellency, Dr. Michael Okpara, great politician, former member of the Eastern House of Assembly, and Premier of the Eastern Region of Nigeria, 1959-1966’’.
Okpara was among the finest of his generation who modelled good governance ‘’as was evident in the power of his example, the breadth of his vision, the thrust of his developmental strides and the shining example of his personal integrity’’. it was on account of the Okpara “magic,” (what he himself called Pragmatic Socialism), agriculture and industrial revolution took center-stage in the region.
‘’This attracted the attention of the international community, with Harvard University Press (HUP) describing the Eastern Region as one of the fastest growing economies in the world at that period’’ the organizers said.
