WELCOME ADDRESS BY
Professor Emeritus Umaru Shehu, CON, CFR, HLR
Chairman, Board of Trustees,
Hallmarks of Labour Foundation
Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem.
Your Excellency, the chairman of this occasion and a worthy recipient of the Hallmarks of Labour Role Model Award, Chief Eleazer Emeka Anyaoku, Your Lordship, former Chief Justice of the Federation, Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, My Lords, spiritual and temporal, respected awardees, members of the press and distinguished ladies and gentlemen.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, management & staff of the Hallmarks of Labour Foundation, I heartily welcome you to our 20th Anniversary Celebration and I thank you most sincerely for coming to rejoice with us today. May we always have cause to celebrate.
The Hallmarks of Labour Foundation is twenty years old, and as I look back at these past twenty years, it occurred to me that the Foundation has done quite well, particularly in our quest to re-orientate Nigerians from a culture of crass materialism and primitive wealth acquisition, to that of honesty, integrity and commitment to service of our community and the nation in general.
To this end, we have identified several great men and women who are worthy of emulation and whose records constitute a great inspiration for future generations. In other words, we have been able to give our younger generation, an opportunity to make a choice on which way to go as we continue to provide them with worthy inspiration.
From our role model awards, we successively ventured into the publication of the Hallmarks of Labour book series [now in its 8th volume], scholarship scheme for secondary & tertiary students, youth & women empowerment programmes, community development, and excellence awards for deserving individuals & institutions.
Our modest attainments have been made possible largely with the active support of quite a number of individuals and corporate bodies, some of them are represented here today. We thank you for believing in our vision and for your continued demonstration of solidarity.
Today’s programme is not only designed to mark our twenty years of operations, but also to celebrate another set of role models who have distinguished themselves in their fields of endeavour and strengthened our resolve that our country, Nigeria is far from being a lost case.
We congratulate them all, they are indeed worthy ambassadors for Nigeria and Africa. I have no doubt that the people of Nigeria are indeed fortunate to be blessed with all of them within this same generation.
It is our earnest expectation that it would be worth your time and energy to spend this evening with us, and we wish you all God’s blessings and a safe journey back to your destinations.
You are all most welcome.