Otaloro, Right, being congratulated by a facilitator of the award on behalf of Maxima Vanguard, Mr Karim Kazeem
Otaloro displaying the award
By Banji Ayoola
The Director of Media and Publicity of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ondo State, Mr Steve Otaloro, has been named Man of the Year for his outstanding skills in his chosen career.
He was honoured with the award by one of Nigeria’s socio political organisation, Maxima Vanguard also for his service to humanity and his immense contributions to the Maxima Vanguard group during the year 2020.
Speaking at the occasion, Otaloro delivered a speech titled “2021 Is The Year To Find The End To The Deadly Virus.”
He described the outgone Year 2020 as “a dark year, a year that nobody will forget.”
According to him: “The year was, unusually, peculiar in the sense that it was the year that the whole world encountered the disruption of its norms by the unexpected emergence of the dreaded Coronavirus pandemic.”
Shedding light on the dreaded Coronavirus, he commended the quick intervention of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, the governor in containing the virus in the state.
“This, outrightly, is the reason the state recorded the kind of low rate of affected people in mortality rate”, he said.
His words: “Though the effort of the government of Ondo State in the resultant economic lockdown and closure of public life in the bid to contain the spread of the virus affected businesses and way of life, bearing negative consequences on mankind, we are, however, grateful that in all of these difficulties, we are alive to tell the story, compared to what happened in certain parts of the world where a large percentage of their population never live to tell the story.”
He was confident that “soon the people of the state will overcome the setbacks caused by the pandemic and forge ahead with great expectations.”
Otaloro said: “I thank the people who considered me worthy of this award and others who were, equally, shortlisted for it, based on their display of great spirit of sportsmanship.”
He said the ‘Man of the Year Award’ is so much big for just one man to contain, noting that the “award is about the inherent good that lies within humanity.”
He expressed his gratitude to receive the award on behalf of those heroes of 2020, while he dedicated the award to mankind and to the fallen heroes occasioned by the pandemic.
He said he would cherish the award for the rest of his life.
He appealed to “every man of substance to join him in trying to carry on the struggle that health workers and other medical volunteers who lost their lives while trying to help those affected by Covic-19 left behind, to wit, leaving this world better than we met it.”
He stressed that he has “a great feeling about 2021 as the year to find the end to the deadly virus.”
