A former National Assembly member in France, Victor Hugo once said: “No force on earth can stop an idea whose time has come”. After nurturing the dream for about eight years, the Chief Executive Officer/ Managing Director of Leaders Consult International, Shina Phillips finally unveiled to the media in Lagos his vision to see that deserving minds and brains of African descent at home and in the diaspora are celebrated by honouring them with the LAMPS Award.
The LAMPS Awards, which is an acronym for Legends of Arts, Management, Music, Politics, Sciences, Sports and Security, is targeted primarily at combing the world to reward the best of African men and women of knowledge that have impacted not just Africa but also the world.
Phillips, who is expanding the frontiers of rewarding distinguished Africans having organised the Nigeria Pitch Awards, the longest-running football awards in Nigeria for a decade, is conscious of the process that throws up the awardees.
“The integrity of any award platform rests primarily on the availability of explicitly stated criteria to guide voters and on the credibility and transparency of the award process. Wherever these requirements are missing, the process becomes compromised and the integrity of the award process is directly and indirectly impaired “, he explained.
Nominees and winners will be decided by a collegiate of voters comprising top editors and journalists from all 54 African countries. “It is important that the media who collectively report the totality of all human endeavors be at the centre of the award process,“ he added.
The inaugural ceremony is planned for Nigeria or Rwanda as Phillips envisions the Africa LAMPS Awards to become a global platform that will inspire African leaders to invest in research, development and technology.
“The Africa LAMPS Awards is a brand which can become a major global attraction like other award brands across the world. Africa is due for an award platform which unites the continent in such a manner that African leaders will individually and collectively be inspired to commit more resources and investment to research and development, technology acquisition ,agriculture and the economy”, he said.
Winners will be recognised in 14 categories including African Music Personality of the year, African Movie Personality of the year , Africa’s Media House of the year and African Entrepreneur of the year.
President of the Nigeria Guild of Editors, Mr Eze Anaba, who was present at the media parley, commended the inactive while calling on the media to give the organisers all the support that they need to make the award a success.
