UN honours Obasanjo with global leadership award

The UN has conferred on former President Olusegun Obasanjo the South-South Awards for Global Leadership. The ceremony, held in New York, was part of the 2nd Annual South-South Awards which took place at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel during the High-Level Segment of the 67th Session of the UN General Assembly.

A statement on Tuesday by Vitalis Ortese, spokesperson for the former president, said: "This year, the 2012 South-South Awards ceremony celebrates with heads of state and government, UN ambassadors, top UN officials and other distinguished guests from the private sector and civil society e-governance, and ICT infrastructure, while looking ahead to the future of sustainable tourism, and initiatives that are successfully helping to advance the Millennium Development Goals".

These year’s awards were at the instance of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Other recipients of the awards include Zambian President Michael Chilufya Sata, Prime Minister of Lesotho, Thomas Motsoahae Thabane, and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini-Zuma, who were present at the event.

The Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, was also at the event.

“Following the success of last year’s event, which saw the award going to the President of Tanzania and other recipients; this year, the award focuses on e-government and tourism,” the statement said.

“The United Nations MDGs High-Level Summit recognised that progress toward the MDGs had been mixed in the past 10 years. World leaders stressed the need to accelerate the pace of progress if the MDGs are to be achieved by 2015. The South-South objective is to accelerate the pace of development by creating an enabling e-environment for governance, education, health, entrepreneurship and job creation in the push to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.”