When Arewa Agenda Feted 30 Emerging ‘Northern Stars’
By Lawal Dahiru Mamman
Epoch-making victories and sterling achievements have always been celebrated, long before now.
In our contemporary times, the Grammies and Nobel Prizes, together with our National Honours Award, among others, are rewards for exceptional feats by celebrated entertainers, legendary artistes and accomplished public servants.
In the Northern part of the country, also called Arewa, are a plethora of innovative and enterprising youths, making waves in the entertainment, business, ICT, activism, politics and creative art industry, among other fields of human endeavour.
But it was on Saturday, December 3, in the ancient city of Kano, that about 30 of them were feted by Arewa Agenda at its ‘Arewa 30 Under 30 Awards’ event, in collaboration with the Daily Nigerian newspaper.
Organized to celebrate the groundbreaking achievements and landmark innovations recorded by young Northern stars, the maiden edition was indeed colourful, regal and auspicious.
Arewa Agenda, is one of the media subsidiaries of Image Merchants Promotion (IMPR) Limited, publishers of PRNigeria and Economic Confidential, among other titles in collaboration.
The 30 honourees, drawn from the 19 northern States, have ingeniously been impacting thousands of lives in their communities. In the realm of arts, technology, entertainment, public health, social media, sports, and politics among others, they are presently blazing the trail, among other Nigerian youths.
The 30 superstars were selected from over 300 nominees by a team of judges led by Dr. Kabir Sufi and made up of scholars, senior journalists, business leaders, and tech icons assembled by the organisers.
Speaking at the colourful ceremony, the Chief Host and Managing Director of IMPR, Yushau A. Shuaib, said that the essence of the event was to honour young, talented, and productive professionals and individuals who are making positive impacts not only in the country, but beyond.
Read Also:
“Arewa is occasionally underrated and underreported on many giant strides undertaking by young minds. This is, therefore, to recognize outstanding contributions and promote excellent performances by these roles models from this part of the world”.
In his remarks, the PRNigeria‘s Head of Investigation and chairman of the organising committee, Mohammed Dahiru Lawal, told the audience that the essence of the ceremony was not only to honour greatness and inspire Arewa youths, but also to create a point of convergence for potential mentors and mentees of northern origin so that more young people can find their ways to the top.
The event also witnessed a presentation by Aisha Bashir Tofa, the founder of Startup Kano, who spoke on Convergence of Technology for Youth Enterprise.
The event also witnessed musical and comedy interludes, together with an interactive panel discussion that focused on how to elevate the thinking capacity and living standard of the Arewa youth.
Mustapha Abubakar Gajibo, a Borno-born tech prodigy was honoured as Innovator of the year for blazing a trail in producing electric vehicles; Dr. Khalid Sunusi Khani on Public Health category for championing the implementation of Tertiary Institution Social Health Insurance Program and hosting medical outreaches in rural communities and Sagir Koki on Engineering, for running a successful engineering firm in Nigeria as the founder of Forte GCC Innovative Solutions.
Fintech: Abdulrazak Rogo on Fintech as an accomplished Creative Designer, Software Developer behind several startups; Bello Ahmed on Interior Decoration for his Deco Studio, one of the best interior companies in Kano State and Salim Yunusa for Social Activism through literature.
Other winners include Usman Usman on Arts and Printing, Ahmed Rufai Maiyaki on Legal Profession, Amina Umar on Event Management, Adnan Muktar Adam on Politics, Zainab Bala as Media Personality, and Dr. Naima Idris as Social Media Influencer and Salahudeen Muhammed as Sports personality of the Year.
Others are Josiah Innoccent on Entertainment, Ibrahim Datti on Architecture, Lawan Mu’azu on Education, Yusuf Dauda Kargi on Entrepreneurship, Aishatu Alhaji Kabu on Humanitarian, Sulaiman Musa Daitu as Fashion Designer, Aminu Dauda Barau as Craftsman (Handcraft) and Zulaihat Ibrahim (Zpreety) as Actress of the Year.
