THISDAY Awards: Best Governors of 2008 emerge
12.31.2008

THISDAY Board of Editors has named seven governors as winners of the 2009 THISDAY Awards for Excellence. The winners in the six categories under “Governor of the Year” are Gabriel Suswam (Benue) and Peter Obi (Anambra) who emerged joint winners of Best Governor in Fiscal Mana-gement; Liyel Imoke (Cross River) Best Governor in Tourism; Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Education; Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Healthcare; Bukola Saraki (Kwara), Food Security and Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Infrastructure.


Under the new format for this year’s awards, the overall “Governor of the Year” will be named from among these seven governors at the awards ceremony scheduled to hold at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, on January 14, 2009.

Peter Obi (Anambra State)

Obi, the governor of Anambra State, has established a reputation for transparency and budget discipline, a development that is believed to have saved the state treasury substantial amounts of money in the awards and execution of contracts. Obi is known for his tight scrutiny of contracts being awarded by his government.

Gabriel Suswam

(Benue State)

Suswam emerged the joint Best Governor in Fiscal Management because of his budgetary discipline and his internal revenue generation drive which has seen the IGR move up from a total of N900 million last year to N3.6 billion in the first 11 months of 2008. The former member of the House of Representatives was chairman of Appropriation Committee, a position that must have adequately prepared him for the financial management of his state. Projects being executed by his government are generally believed to be within budget and proving value for money.

Liyel Imoke (Cross River)

Imoke, who succeeded tourism savvy Donald Duke, has enviably carried on with the vision of turning Cross River to the favourite tourist destination in Nigeria. He has maintained and expanded the Obudu Cattle Ranch project, completed the Tinapa project as well as added more glamour and international touch to the yearly Christmas Carnival.

Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta State)

The Delta State governor, a medical doctor, has worked relentlessly to improve healthcare delivery in the state. His initiative, D3 (Delta Diaspora Direct), is rejuvenating the health sector in the state. The state is proving free maternal healthcare, in addition to bringing back the state’s medical exports to come and help improve service delivery in the state. The state is also about to take delivery of medical equipment which it sourced from the United States to turn around its healthcare system.

Sule Lamido

(Jigawa State)

In education, Lamido was picked as the best even though the state faced a stiff challenge from Kano, Zamfara, Kwara and Lagos States. Lamido’s initiatives, which include a comprehensive rehabilitation of classroom facilities for conducive learning and retraining of the teachers both at primary and secondary school levels, were considered to be far-reaching and worthy of emulation.

Bukola Saraki

(Kwara State)

In Kwara, Saraki has continued to consolidate on his agricultural programme with the production of milk and yoghurt by local farmers who are benefiting directly from the expertise of Zimbabwean farmers in the state. Kwara has also entered into partnership with a Syrian company to produce about 10 million chickens in a year, while its rice project in Lukulade has continued to empower local farmers and boost foot productivity.

Babatunde Fashola

(Lagos State)

The governor of Lagos State, Fashola, has been widely acknowledged for his articulated approach to governance, but his strides in infrastructural development have drawn attention from far and wide. His efforts at giving the state a facelift through the beautification project as well as road construction are also widely acknowledged.



Best Governors 2008: All the Nominees

Best Governor in Education

Winner – Sule Lamido (Jigawa)

Top Contenders – Aliyu Shinkafi (Zamfara), Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Bukola Saraki (Kwara), Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers), Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano)

Best Governor in Fiscal Management

Winners – Peter Obi (Anambra), Gabriel Suswam (Benue)

Top Contenders – Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Bukola Saraki (Kwara), Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina)

Best Governor in Food Security

Winner – Bukola Saraki (Kwara)

Top Contenders – Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Gabriel Suswam (Benue), Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Namadi Sambo (Kaduna)

Best Governor in Healthcare

Winner – Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta)

Top Contenders – Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers), Gabriel Suswam (Benue), Namadi Sambo (Kaduna), Saidu Dakingari (Kebbi)

Best Governor in Infrastructure

Winner – Babatunde Fashola (Lagos)

Top Contenders – Danjuma Goje (Gombe), Gabriel Suswam (Benue), Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), Peter Obi (Anambra), Sullivan Chime (Enugu)

Best Governor in Tourism

Winner – Liyel Imoke (Cross River)

Top Contenders – Gbenga Daniel (Ogun), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), Olagunsoye Oyinlola (Osun), Saidu Dakingari (Kebbi)

http://odili.net/news/source/2008/dec/31/204.html

Best governor for doing what?
Were these not the same awards that were given to Ibori, yerima, egwu, fayose and co during the times they were busy stealing their states into abject poverty?

when will all these charade stop and reality step him for all this buffoon that the awards for today are only recognised in years to come.

The owner/publisher of ThisDay needs to sell the newspaper. I truly don't believe he is interested in real journalism. His constant sponsorship of Awards/Festivals is getting boring - his worship of Americans rappers is shocking (pictures still on the website a year after).

And I am sure he spends a lot of money to get the likes Kofi Anan and Bill Clinton. What are the benfits of the these Awards/"Festival of Ideas"! I am sure he is rich and probably have donated "things/buildings/" to his community, but he can do more charitable contributions rather then spend money on rappers and "past" world leaders that care more about their pockets than the plight of poor Nigerians!

Enough of these stupid awards. Hire more journalists for real investigative articles. For online presense, I think ThisDay is beginning to lag many of the other newspapers in terms of web layout and quality of news!

Best Governor in Food Security

Winner – Bukola Saraki (Kwara)

Roflmao; Because they imported 800 cows from south africa. Milk is brekete in kwara now to an extent that it runs from their taps.

Hmmmm

earTHMama:

Roflmao; Because they imported 800 cows from south africa. Milk is brekete in kwara now to an extent that it runs from their taps.

hahahahahaha, . Nunu don full every where.

, and boost foot productivity

Yes, foot productivity my foot! U know Kwarans were never having milk and nama before the arrival of "the chairman of Gulpnors". Milk flows aflenty in all gutters and drainage of kwara, so is food so secure you need a life coverage against hunger from LLoyds!

U see all these reporters and publishers for naija are sick. Anybodi remember Bolaji Abdullahi and Olusegun Adeniyi with their rants against politicians and polical leader on Thisday Editorial at the back page? They are the same chaps now "oiling" the egos and images of their master "Gulpnor" and "fresident" now, respectively.

Thisday should pack up and leave our shores. Nduka Obaigbena, u dey hear?

I dey berry berry angry now!!!

Sai Anjinma

Where is the article about how we as a people love to over celebrate underachievement or something of the sort?

This is nothing short of embarassing and would have been more embarassing if the "nominees" actually turned up for the event. If i remember correctly Peter Odilli got awards for best governor during his tenure too, how hilarious. You would think you were watching trash TV like the grammys or something of the sort. Can't wait till they do the "most evil leader" edition too. Of course you won't put it past Abacha to come back to life for one night only just for the occasion, strutting it out on the red carpet to the media fare with IBB, Obasanjo, Ibori, Odilli and co also vying for the camera spot too while they get asked "who are you wearing?". LOL. They are public servants, so what is this? Sure this isn't really a euphemism for "who has stolen the least"? 

all these wayo awards! Only Fashola deserves to be merited.

That can not be true. You see it is one thing to make noise about yourself , it is another to perform. I am not saying fashola is making noise dont get me wrong. But your statement can not be true.

I have done some search myself and even see video , I think Osun state governor should be on the list and may be agagu. Why do I say so. Osun state governor have vision. He as built several dams in osun state. I saw them in a video i watch and in future they can use them to transmit electricity.

while agagu is building village road, if you look at ondo state on satellite picture there are alot of villages in ondo state more than anywhere I think in the south west. And ondo state is a problem.

By God grace when Yorubas join the republic of benin, we pray that there shall be akure state, there are too many towns and villages in ondo state. Small villages that you need to view well , because of cocoa production. And I think the Olukola project is important to the develop of the state.

Hmmmmm let's c hw d best overall governor will turn out.

When awards like this come up, i begin to wonder if it were not the same Naija we reside in?
I question the criteria This Day uses in giving this awards. The use of the word BEST Governor really
pisses me off. This awards is just a ticket to enable them run the poor masses who are already
down, into the ground.
Pls gimme a break, ThisDay,

Osun state guvnor??

No way!!!

Wat u've seen in dose videos is propaganda!

Am frm osun state, hv got folks in osun nd i visit quite often.

And i cn tel u categorically dat oyinlola hasnt done anytin spectacular in almost 6yrs!!

Hes govt wd spend years in buildin/repairin major roads, and shortly afta d roads ar done- they begin to spoil again!!

(e.t.c)
Puhlease, i dnt knw abt d oda guvnors on dat list xcept fashola
but i cn assure u dat This day wuz rite by nt puttin oyinlola on d list!

@post
did anyone here remember that Fayose was once declared as the best governor by the same newspaper, and about 3months later the guy went underground as he was been chased by efcc for looting money meant for poultry farm project in the state.

Thisday's owner is a business man, a showbiz man who is exploiting vainglory corrupt politician to make money in Nigera. Those awards did not come with any evidenced based criteria rather by how much the benefactor can offer, I was told by a journalist friend that some of them offered as much as 50m to 100m for various categories of these awards.

Why can't we have such awards as best student in Nigeria, best school, best police officer, best entreprenural, etc that can not pay millions to get this award.

Men, thisday is in this for the pay, I think all this spurioous awards need to be regulated one way or the other, they insult our sensibility and common intelligence.

When will Nigerians stop all these their madness? lookin on the craterials listed above for the award there is nothing extraordinary perfumed by this governors to merit the so called award.Wht they did is jst the primary aims and reasons why we elected them and that is exactly wht the masses expected from them. I learnt that awards goes to those who did or does an extraordinary and outrageous performance but the case of Nigeria i dont think so.

SegzyJoe:

@post
did anyone here remember that Fayose was once declared as the best governor by the same newspaper, and about 3months later the guy went underground as he was been chased by efcc for looting money meant for poultry farm project in the state.

Thisday's owner is a business man, a showbiz man who is exploiting vainglory corrupt politician to make money in Nigera. Those awards did not come with any evidenced based criteria rather by how much the benefactor can offer, I was told by a journalist friend that some of them offered as much as 50m to 100m for various categories of these awards.

Why can't we have such awards as best student in Nigeria, best school, best police officer, best entreprenural, etc that can not pay millions to get this award.

Men, thisday is in this for the pay, I think all this spurioous awards need to be regulated one way or the other, they insult our sensibility and common intelligence.

I totally concur with the bolded point,I think the word should be more like commendation not AWARD.AWARDS are meant to be used to reward OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE or service.and most of what they have done is part of their job description, not outwith so for me they deserve no awards,the same way an employee who does ONLY what he is paid to do deserves no special recognition or awards.cos that is what governors are;EMPLOYEES of the people.

princekevo:

When will Nigerians stop all these their madness? lookin on the craterials listed above for the award there is nothing extraordinary perfumed by this governors to merit the so called award.Wht they did is jst the primary aims and reasons why we elected them and that is exactly wht the masses expected from them. I learnt that awards goes to those who did or does an extraordinary and outrageous performance but the case of Nigeria i don't think so.

next we will get governor we never had. shameless people. why are there no awards for best governor mistress, PAS, drivers and houseboys