By Ochereome Nnannah, Chairman, Editorial Board

THE year 2020 was unlike any other in the living history of most people, not only in Nigeria but also all over the world. It was the year that the deadly coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19, born in Wuhan China, hit the entire world.

It crippled the best healthcare systems the world could boast of and forced the nations to lock in their citizens and suspend most economic activities.

It has led to well over 73 million infections and 1.7 million deaths, though almost 50 million have recovered. Mercifully, many vaccines are already on the way.

The pandemic came into Nigeria from Italy through a foreign air traveller on February 25, 2020. It was not until March 11, 2020 that the Director General of the World Health Organisation, WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus, officially declared it a pandemic.

Lagos State, the home of the index case, was the first to invoke the Infectious Disease law and impose a seven-day limited lockdown on March 25, 2020, followed by President Muhammadu Buhari on March 30, 2020.

From that moment on, our gallant struggles to contain the pandemic were on. It was declared a “war against an invisible enemy”. But instead of being fought by soldiers with conventional military weapons, it was led by medical professionals and scientists who bravely fought day and night, putting themselves at great personal risks to save the rest of humanity.

Many of them paid with their lives, but some quickly returned to the battlefield after overcoming their on-the-job infections.

Leading the battle from the front were three notable Nigerians: the Director General of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, and member of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu; the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi (Lagos being the epicentre of the pandemic led the way and carried the bulk of the national burden); and the Coalition Against COVID-19, CACOVID. CACOVID is a body of corporate patriots who rose to raise dozens of billions of naira in private funds to support government efforts at all levels in terms of medical supplies and palliative support for the most vulnerable Nigerians.

These constitute the Vanguard Personality of the Year 2020, for the obvious reason that their efforts symbolised the largely successful response of Nigeria to the pandemic despite the odds. As of December 13, 2020, Nigeria had officially recorded 73,175 out of 848,194 test samples with 66,090 discharged. Even though a “second wave” has set in according to health experts, Nigeria had only 5,888 active cases (down from a peak of over 12,000 around June/July) with 1,197 fatalities.

READ ALSO: Nigerians react to Fashola’s tollgate camera discovery

The doomsday prediction that “dead bodies will be picked up from the streets of Africa” did not happen in any part of the continent, least of all Nigeria, despite our abject health-care system that even our leaders shun. It was all largely due to efforts of the teams ably lead by our Personality of the Year 2020 winners.

Apart from COVID-19, the year 2020 was also shaped by the paroxysm of the post-#EndSARS protest burning and looting, continued insecurity hitting the foundations of the country and the onset of another economic recession, the second within five years. Through it all, CACOVID again reared its patriotic head in offering a lifeline to businesses. And behind all these wonderful endeavours stood out Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and the brain behind CACOVID and other ideas aimed at boosting the Muhammadu Buhari government’s ability to impact directly on lives of the ordinary people.

He picks up our 2020 Public Sector Icon. It should also not come as a surprise that Governor of Lagos, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the Governor of Borno State, Professor Babagana Zulum, are the winners of the Governor of the Year category for their leadership roles in grappling with Nigeria’s major challenges of the year.

Our Businessman of the Year, Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu of the BUA Group, is one of the most prominent champions of the fight against COVID-19. Apart from the role his group played in helping to keep the economy afloat by operating almost nonstop during the lockdowns, he was a frontline palliative provider who went from state to state with gifts of food, medical supplies and ambulances to state governors.

Our editors did not find it difficult to isolate these prominent Nigerians who answered the call of patriotism when we needed them most in a year when a pandemic, anarchy, insecurity and recession rendered the nation and majority of its citizens vulnerable.

These, along with our Lifetime Achievers, make our Personality of the Year 2020 Awards an event to look forward to. We wait to receive you all!

Vanguard News Nigeria