The magnificent COSON House in Ikeja on Friday February 23, 2018 played host to several students from around the African continent as COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji was bestowed with the prestigious ‘‘Africa’s Patriotic Personality Award’’ by the League of African Development Students (LEADS Africa) – an umbrella body of democratic Students Union from different countries in Africa .
The 6-member team of LEADS Africa consisted of Njoku Obioma Daniel from Enugu State University, Abayomi Okuwoga from Lagos State University, Okafor Obiageli from the University of Benin, Benin Republic, Osisiogu Osikenyi from the Institute of Technology, Accra, Tagheli Jean Bedel from the Universite De Yaoundé and Morgan Gabriel from the University of Professional Studies, Accra, Ghana.
Addressing the audience on the reason behind the award, the General Secretary, Osisiogu Osikenyi said, ‘‘It is noteworthy to say that we are here to honour Chief Tony Okoroji an erudite and proven authority in Africa’s creative space per excellence as ‘Africa’s Patriotic Personality of the Year in recognition of his outstanding contributions to Africa’s development via Copyright Advocacy, Human and Nation Building, True Democracy, as well as his meritorious service to God and humanity, and also COSON with ‘Corporate Mandate Delivery’ Merit Award the for the corporate commitment towards achieving the mandate for which it was set up. It is important to also emphasize the extent to which the mandate of COSON is enabling the continuous growth of Nigeria. We as an organization in the past 2 – 3 years have paid attention to the issue of non – oil revenue and that coinciding with the nose dive of oil prices that has been experienced, we have come to the realization that apart from Agriculture, the Entertainment sector and especially Intellectual Property, must be paid attention to by all as it is the next oil.’’
In his response, Chief Okoroji said ‘‘I want to commend you all for your efforts at integrating different countries in Africa at such a critical age for the development of our continent. I believe that the division we have in terms of countries are artificial. We are one people and we have one destiny. For the countries in Africa to work, people must build them. We need to begin to make sacrifices to build our nation even if it entails giving up our lives. That is a price we must pay for the youths of Africa so that the youths of Africa will no longer be risking their lives in the Mediterranean trying to get to Europe and then end up being sold as slaves, and our young girls will not have to sell their body on the streets around the world to make a living, because we have what it takes to build our continent.’’
‘‘I want to thank you all exceedingly on behalf of my family and on behalf of the management, staff and members of COSON for the honour you have done to us today. We say Thank you.’’ He concluded.
On hand to receive the team were the COSON General Manager, Chinedu Chukwuji, COSON Consultant, Prince Biodun Eguakhide, COSON Head of Finance and Administration, Bernice Eriemeghe, COSON Head of Corporate Affairs, Chibueze Okereke and COSON Head of New Media, Tolu Balogun.
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