The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity (Office of the Vice President), Mr Laolu Akande, has bagged the University of Ibadan Alumni Group’s 2022 Special Recognition Award.
The convener of “World of Uites”, organisers of the awards, Mr Tobilola Ogunbajo, assisted by a member of the group, Mr Onele Peter-Cole, made the presentation to Vice President’s spokesman on Friday, 27 January, 2023, in his office at the Presidential Villa.
“The World of Uites – a virtual gathering of the University of Ibadan alumni, affiliated with the Lagos Chapter is recognising Mr Akande for his selfless service to the nation and a worthy ambassador of the institution,” according to Ogunbajo in his remarks at the presentation.
Mr Akande received his award in Abuja on Friday, 27 January, 2023, due to his inability to attend the awards event held last December in Ibadan because of other pressing official engagements.
Accepting the Award on Friday, Akande said “coming from an affiliate group of the UI Alumni made up of younger upwardly mobile members, I find this recognition refreshing and certainly fulfilling. I thank the organisers for finding me worthy of this honour. I welcome representatives of the group, themselves successful professionals- a notable banker and lawyer, to Aso Villa.”
Akande, a news journalist with over three decades of active experience was named the official spokesman to the Vice President in 2015 when he relocated back to Nigeria from the US where in the course of his professional career he had interviewed among several eminent news-makers a sitting US president, George W. Bush and reported from the United Nations headquarters in New York as an international correspondent for several years.
Other distinguished recipients of this year’s award include: the Oyo State Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Hon Seun Fakorede; Founder of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Nigeria, Dr Saheed Ayoola; and House of Representatives member, representing Kosofe Federal Constituency, Hon. Rotimi Agunsoye among others.
In the maiden edition of the Awards, the National President of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Hon. Kolade Alabi; Chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of the UI Alumni Association, Mr Dauda Salau, and SA to Oyo State Governor on Youths and Sports, Mr Fisayo Soyombo were all honoured by the group.
