FOUNDER Galaxy Television Chief Steve Ojo was among those honoured by Eyegate Media Limited for their contributions to national development.
Others were Mrs Oluremi Adesola Openibo, an engineer and politician; Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Augustine Chime, the second in command, Area ‘E Command, FESTAC, Lagos, Toriola Abudulafiz, director, Vehicle Inspection, Ministry of Transportation, Lagos State and Chairman/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), G. O.D., Dynamic Company Nigeria Limited, Mr Godwin Ikechukwu Nwaenyi.
Eyegate CEO Edward Ndukwe said the awardees were honoured under the firm’s Community Pillars Awards for their commitment to improve lives, adding that the ceremony should have been held last year but for logistics.
He cited Ojo, who said, boosted broadcasting by introducing computer editing and graphics into television, adding that he set up the first broadcasting station in the country with licence number 001. Ojo, a graduate of Communication, an ex-staff member of Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), he is reputed to have pioneered the use of a 300,000-pounds editing vehicle in motion in the media industry.
Gbolahan has established 25 workstations in the ministry to boost its services to Lagosians. These have helped to reduce the lingering traffic problem in the state.
Ndukwe said Chime is ‘a super cop’, who started from the mobile unit of Nigeria Police Force, where he made his mark before he was redeployed to regular policing. Though he joined the Force as a youth with a mere secondary school certificate, he had since honed his skills at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), where he studied Criminology. Like a rolling stone, he gathered moss, along his long career. He rose through the ranks over the years to become an ASP.
Nwaenyi’s story was that of grass to grace. As a boy, he abandoned school to learn trade. Upon graduation, he set up his business and soon hit gold. As an importer, one of his product, a water heater, manufactured in Germany, is the best in the market. He also has his tentacles in other areas and sits atop a conglomerate.
Guest speaker Mrs Joy Anizoba, a lawyer in a paper entitled: Corporate community action: An essential tool for societal development urged organisations to have vision for their host communities, saying that their success depended on this. She listed empowerment programmes as areas firm owners could train their periscopes, adding that they should ask the people what they really wanted and not what they felt they should offer them.