...TODAY, WE LOOK AT AWARDS AND HONOURS THAT HAVE MOTIVATED OUR LIFESTYLES TOWARDS
PERFECTION OVER THE YEARS
Great achievements are accompanied by great
results. Sometimes they are accompanied by rewards too. Prizes are
given to top achievers in fields ranging from sports to politics, and from
science to writing. Though they take different forms, all of these prizes are
meant to highlight and celebrate those individuals or institutions that have
ascended to the top of their game.
Award initiatives around the world have become of deep interest,
basically because of what they represent. Awards given in recognition of
sterling performance are known to make clear statements about specific
achievements of outstanding people or organizations that stand out based on
predetermined parameters. Our world may
have become more innovative and glamorous,
but the desire to continually recognize achievement and appreciate such honours
under-score an integral part of being human.
Going back in time, awards or trophies
for victories or achievements in ancient times often took the form of
magnificent statues, columns and arches. Following a successful battle, Greek
troops often constructed trophies from the arms and armour of captured opponents. Whatever their form, such ancient
trophies were generally dedicated to gods. At the original Olympic Games in
Greece, victors were crowned with twisted olive branches. Simple as it was
then, this was symbolic and highly valued because such awards were only for
winners as runners-up do not receive
awards at all.
Currently, awards categories can be classified globally into the
following areas: Business
and Management, Entertainment and Arts, Fashion, Food, Games and Sports,
Humanitarianism, international relations, and service; Hobby and special
interest, Humanities, Military and patriotic honours, Science and Technology.
There are top 10 global awards categories worth noting and they include
the following:
The Nobel Prize: This
prestigious award is named for Alfred Nobel, who created dynamite. The first
Nobel Prize was presented in 1901, and the number of fields in which it is
presented has since increased to six. Prizes are awarded in chemistry, physics,
literature, medicine, economics and peace. In addition to receiving a diploma
and a gold medal, winners in each category also receive a monetary prize.
The Booker Prize: Now known as
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, this is Britain’s most prestigious literary
award. It’s handed out every year to one author whose outstanding novel was
published during the previous 12 months. Being shortlisted to receive a Man
Booker Prize is considered an honour in
its own right.
The Academy Awards: Perhaps the
most well-known award in American cinema, the Oscars are handed out every year
to actors, directors, producers and film professionals who worked on the
previous year’s best films. The Academy Awards ceremony was inaugurated in
1929, and the event’s broadcast now draws more than a billion viewers
worldwide.
The BAFTA Awards: These awards,
handed out by the British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA), are the
U.K. equivalent of the Emmys. The annual awards honour
achievements in both film and television. Many popular actors have won both
BAFTA Awards and Academy Awards.
The Palme d’Or: Among film
festivals, Cannes is the giant. The Palme d’Or is its most prestigious prize,
and it’s the most widely coveted on the festival circuit too. The award was
created in 1955 and is given to the outstanding film’s director. Among the
dozens of notable films that have received the award are Taxi Driver,
Apocalypse Now, Pulp Fiction and The Pianist.
The Pulitzer Prize: America’s premier prize in journalism, literature and musical composition, Pulitzer Prizes are awarded yearly in 21 categories. In addition to receiving a certificate and medal, winners also receive a $10,000 prize. These prizes have been awarded since 1917. In recent years, categories have been expanded to include online journalism.
L-R Ex Chairman of Pearl Awards Alhaji A. Abdullahi and President of Pearl Awards Mr. Tayo Orekoya
The Golden Globes: Honouring achievements in film, the Golden Globes are considered the party
girl sister of the more reserved Academy Awards. Actors, directors and other
film professionals gather to recognize each other. Dinner and drinks are
standard at these awards.
The BRIT Awards: Launched in
1977, the BRIT Awards honour
achievements in popular music. They’re similar to the Grammys, and many of the
artists who win awards are top-sellers on both sides of the pond.
The Grammys: Awarded in a
variety of classical, jazz, country and popular music categories, the Grammy
Awards were launched in 1959. Stevie Wonder is among the most notable winners
with a total of 22 Grammys as of 2015.
The MTV Video Music Awards: It might be
hard to believe, but the MTV VMAs have been handed out since 1984. They honour the very best in music videos in a
variety of categories. Madonna has won the most VMAs to date with a total of 69
nominations and 19 wins.
Coming back to our
home front, Nigeria, the idea of conferring of Awards and honours here can be
traced back to the National Honours Act No. 5 of 1964 passed into law during
Nigeria’s first republic to honour Nigerians and her friends every year who
have rendered service to the benefit of the nation.
The national
honours in descending order are:
Grand Commander
of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR), Grand Commander of the Order of
the Niger (GCON), Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR), Commander
of the Order of the Niger (CON), Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic
(OFR), Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), Member of the Order of the
Federal Republic (MFR) and Member of the Order of the Niger (MON).
The GCFR and
GCON are bestowed on former occupants of the office of the President of Nigeria
and the Vice President of Nigeria including former military heads of state of
Nigeria and chiefs of general staff. The GCON is also bestowed on the chief
justice of Nigeria and the president of the Nigerian senate during their first
year in office, while CON is customarily bestowed on justices of the supreme
court of Nigeria.
Others such as
the CFR, MON, OFR etc. are awarded to members of the public for great
achievements, these include public
servants, political leaders, traditional leaders, and distinguished persons in
various fields of work.
Although this
national Awards and Honours ceremony followed the British example in form and structure of the Order, other
events ceremonies have been instituted to
recognize and celebrate outstanding performance in other categories. The
following awards ceremonies are landmark events that catch the attention of
stakeholders in the respective industry:
Nigeria Prize for Literature is a Nigerian
literary award given annually since 2004 to honour literary erudition by Nigerian authors. The award rotates
among four genres; fiction, poetry, drama, and children’s literature, repeating
the cycle every four years. The process and judging are administered by Nigerian Academy of Science with
an advisory board made up of members from
Nigeria Academy of Letters and Association of Nigerian Authors.
The
Headies are awards
established in 2006 by the Hip Hop Magazine of Nigeria to recognize outstanding
achievement in the country's music industry. Hip Hop Magazine is a weekly
Nigerian music magazine established in 1995.It has sponsored The Headies award
since the award's inception in 2006. The magazine's publisher is Nigerian
journalist and music promoter Ayo Animashaun.
The Nigeria Prize for Science is a
Nigerian science award given annually since 2004 for excellence achieved
in scientific breakthroughs. It is the
country's highest scientific award. The award is sponsored by the Nigeria
Liquefied Natural Gas company. The prize describes itself as
"bringing Nigerian scientists to public attention and celebrating
excellence in scientific breakthroughs".
The Nigerian
National Order of Merit Award (NNOM) is an academic award
instituted in 1979 and conferred on distinguished academicians and
intellectuals who have made outstanding contributions to the academic, growth
and development of Nigeria. The award is often conferred on its recipient
by the government following a
nomination and approval of the Governing Board of the Award. It is the highest
academic award in Nigeria.
The PEARL Awards
Nigeria,
an acronym of the “Performance, Earnings And Returns Leadership Awards”, was
instituted in 1995, followed by an endorsement by the nation’s apex capital
market regulatory authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) eight
years later in 2003, to annually reward outstanding performance of companies
listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and stakeholders that have contributed
towards the development of the Nigerian capital market.
The Nigeria Entertainment
Awards established in New York City in 2006 to
serve the growing African population in North America. It recognizes the
contributions of African entertainers to the entertainment industry. The event
aims to promote the image and culture of Nigeria. This has increased the
awareness of a new style of African entertainment that has helped promote
Nigerian acts in the world.
The Nigeria Media Merit
Award established in 1990, a foremost and
most prestigious annual celebration of the best in the media industry in
Nigeria. The objective is to recognize,
encourage and reward excellence in media practice in Nigeria while fostering
the mutual symbolic relationship between the media industry and the larger
society. Over the years, NMMA has evolved to become Nigeria’s most powerful and
influential platform for an Annual re-union of Media Veterans and Practitioners
with the crème de la crème of the society and other eminent stakeholders
nationally and internally.
The City People Awards has come up with various Awards over the years that cut
across different sectors and stakeholders of the Nigerian economy. These
include City People Music Awards, City People Movie Awards, City People
Entertainment Awards and City People Award for Excellence. The set objectives
of these Awards are to stimulate high performance within the targeted sectors and
ultimately add value to the national economy.
The Future Awards Africa: is a set of awards given to celebrate young people between
the ages of 18 and 31, who have made outstanding achievement in the year under
consideration. The award ceremony is a brainchild of the Future Project, a
social enterprise communications firm. The awards are given to winners in ten
categories and this was trimmed down from the initial 21 categories when the
awards ceremony started in 2006.
Nigeria Pitch Awards: These awards are presented to Nigerian former and present
sports people, administrators and journalist in recognition of their positive
role and contribution to sports development in Nigeria. Initiated in 2013 by
Matchmakers Consult International and endorsed by the Nigerian Football
Federation. The awards were started with 16 categories and by 2016 6 more
categories were subsequently added.
The Africa Movie Academy
Awards: Been a subsidiary of the Africa Film
Academy which was founded on the best film tradition and geared towards
research, training and propagating filmmaking in Africa. AMAA was established
in 2005 with the aim of providing a reward and recognition platform for
filmmakers on the continent.
Nigeria Health Care
Awards is an annual event instituted to
celebrate and recognize distinguished personalities and organizations who have
contributed immensely to the growth of the Nigerian Health sector. The awards
ceremony is an initiative of Global Health Project and Resources in partnership
with Anadach group. The awards started in 2014 and have become a high profile event in the healthcare industry gaining
widespread acceptance from other
stakeholders in the healthcare community.
Nigerian Broadcasters
Merit Awards: These awards are presented annually
to recognize excellence of professionals in the African/Nigerian broadcast
industry who have distinguished themselves as role models, mentors, and
propagators of social change in the society. The maiden edition was held in
October 2010 and is an initiative of the Reality Entertainment, a
showbiz/entertainment firm established in 2005.
Nigerian
CFO Awards: Now in its 4th year,
Nigeria CFO Awards is an annual event recognizing and celebrating the
accomplishments of both financial executives and organization for their
leadership contributions to their companies’ growth. The annual awards, which is the first
of its kind in Nigeria, recognizes success, growth and innovation the CFO and
their team bring towards organizational development.
It is worth
mentioning that quite a number of the awards ceremonies initiated and
instituted in the country have either gone extinct or are being absorbed by
other more vibrant initiatives. However, some have stood the test of time and
are still weathering the storm in spite of various national socio-economic
challenges. Benchmarking global standards for adopting criteria meant to nominate
and select awards recipients, it is observed that the following are widely used:
Online or
offline voting by fans or clients, selection by designated judges on a review of performances, nomination or selection
of award recipients through technical committee, nomination from stakeholders
or the general public to an awards committee, distinguished or landmark
achievement in a specialized field of endeavour.
The history of awards ceremonies in Nigeria will certainly not be complete
without giving a most deserved recognition of one of the most prestigious,
credible and respected recognition initiatives in the country that has stood
the test of time, for more than two decades now.
The PEARL Awards Nigeria, is a recognition initiative that stands out having been rewarding excellence in the corporate world for well over the past two decades.
The PEARL Awards Nigeria, is a recognition initiative that stands out having been rewarding excellence in the corporate world for well over the past two decades.
Following the Nigerian National Honours and the Nigerian National Order of Merit
Award no other recognition event has flourished sustainably
like the PEARL Awards and for this reason,
we shall be paying attention to the activities of this landmark initiative
recognizing and rewarding corporate excellence with finesse and credibility.
Going the
memory lane, the Performance,
Earnings And Returns Leadership (PEARL) Awards was instituted in 1995 to reward
companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange for outstanding operational
performance and excellence; thereby enhancing the vibrancy, growth and
development of the capital market.
The maiden
edition of the Awards Nite was held on May 27, 1995 at Eko Hotel & Suites,
Victoria Island, Lagos where Nigerian Breweries Plc carted away the Overall
Highest Award (PEARL of the Nigerian Stock Market) among other laurels won by
this company at this edition.
Instructively, Dangote Cement Plc, remains the
only quoted company to have won same most prestigious Award (PEARL of the
Nigerian Stock Market) back to back in 2012 and 2013.
Since inception
over two decades ago, the PEARL Awards has recognized and rewarded over eighty
(80) companies in different categories of the Awards based on their sterling
performance.
Awards Categories: The PEARL Awards are in three categories. These are the Main
Competitive Awards Category which has Sectorial
Leadership Awards, Market Excellence
Awards and Overall Highest (The
PEARL) Award. Then comes Special
Recognition Awards Category which has Non-Listed Securities Award, Stockbroking Firm of the Year Award, Issuing House of the Year Award and Good Corporate Governance Award.
Afterwards comes the Honorary Awards
Category, and this has CEO of the
Year Award, Capital Market
Development Award, Capital market
Correspondent Award of the Year and Media
Award for Capital Market Development.
The Methodology
of the Awards is simple. The winning companies in the main competitive
category emerge through rigorous data analysis and evaluation. The Sectoral
Leadership Awards rewards a company for out-performing other companies within
the same sector, based on aggregate points garnered from all the ten indices
utilized for ranking.
The Market
Excellence Awards is based on consideration of the entire market leadership in
respect of each of the ranking indices. For each of the indices, points are
awarded in order of performance to the top ten companies ranging from 10 points
to 1 point. Companies with 10 points win each of the Awards.
The Overall
Highest Award considers companies that have emerged as Sectoral Leaders of
their sectors and have performed most outstandingly in the market excellence
category. The Sectoral Leader with the highest points in the market excellence
is therefore awarded the PEARL of the Nigerian Stock Market.
The uniqueness
of the PEARL Awards is in the Awards process being based on verifiable facts
and figures obtained
from the companies’ financial reports, NSE daily listing, and NSE 52-week
trading reports. The parameters utilized
are credible and globally acceptable parameters for data evaluation. These
parameters include Turnover Growth, Earnings Yield, Dividend Yield, Return on
Equity, Profit Margin Ratio, Net Asset Ratio, Share Price Appreciation etc. It
is worthy of note that PEARL Awards remains the only Awards in this part of the
world that is based on objective criteria and empirical data.
One of the
factors that stand the Awards out is the composition of the Awards Board of
Governors over the years. Since inception, the Board has been peopled by
time-tested and first class professionals as well as highly respected capital
market experts with unquestionable integrity. The Board gives broad based
policy guidelines on the activities of the Awards.
The integrity
of the Awards has remained impeccable over the decades. The PEARL Awards does
not charge any fee from companies nominated for the purpose of winning the
Awards as part of efforts to maintain its impartiality and ensure objectivity
in its assessment of quoted companies and other stakeholders’ institutions at
its yearly Awards.
The Securities
& Exchange Commission, the apex regulatory body in the capital market in
appreciation of the shared value of corporate excellence promotion in Nigeria, which
PEARL Awards exemplifies, endorsed the PEARL Awards Project in 2003. The
Commission also supports the institutionalization of PEARL Awards Africa, a
continental version of the Awards in Nigeria.
In terms of
innovation, the PEARL Awards in its 23 years of existence has come up with
various initiatives aimed at deepening and enhancing capital market development
in Nigeria. These include: the hosting
of PEARL
Awards Annual Public Lecture for Capital Market Development instituted
in 2005 to provide a forum for seasoned experts and technocrats (national &
international) from the public and private sectors to brainstorm annually on
germane, contemporary and emergent issues in capital market development with
the view to enhancing investors’ protection, strengthen shareholders’
confidence and ensuring market integrity and stability.
And then also,
the publication of the Nigerian Stock Market Annual (NSMA), a
research compendium which covers contemporary issues in the Nigerian Capital
Market, the Nigerian economy and the global economy. Published since 1995, the
publication has helped to impact knowledge on numerous readers that cut across
the private and public sectors of the nation’s economy.
The main objective
of the publication is to strengthen the knowledge base of shareholders and
investors alike on the salient issues concerning the capital market, the
Nigerian economy and the global economy among others.
The
comprehensive analysis of the PEARL Awards Report culminating to the emergence
of winning companies is usually published in this annual publication, and
publicly presented at each year’s Awards nite.
Another
publication of the Awards Project is the book, “Winning Strategies of Nigeria’s
Corporate Giants”, designed to positively project quoted companies in Nigeria
who have demonstrated consistent outstanding performance, leadership,
resilience and sustainable growth and by so doing have emerged consistent winners
in their different categories of the PEARL Awards over the years.
A prominent
feature in the book is the incisive interviews where CEOs of market leaders share
their wealth of experiences and give insight into the various strategies that
have kept their companies on the winning edge in terms of policies, people,
products and services.
The PEARL Awards over the years has no doubt remained a reference
point for investment decisions by shareholders and investors alike. The
direct consequence of the Awards on the quoted companies is the upward trend in
the share price of winning companies at the stock market which positively
impact the investors’ values.
Similarly, the resolutions
and recommendations from the annual PEARL Awards Public Lecture are forwarded
to capital market regulatory authoritites for consideration and possible
implementation. It is gratifying to note that both the Securities &
Exchange Commission and the Nigerian Stock
Exchange have intensified efforts on investors’ sensitization, which the
PEARL Awards hadhitherto canvassed for at different fora.
Generally, Awards
ceremonies are a celebration of talent, success and achievement while carrying
a connotation of reputation and expertise. Beyond that, they are employed by
all sorts of sectors as showcased earlier to celebrate the success of an
individual, a team, or an entire organization.
From educational awards right through to the Grammies and Oscars, it is usually
an endorsement of people’s abilities and rewarding those achievements.
The
PEARL Awards can aptly be described as the PEARL of Nigerian Awards in recognition
of its invaluable positive contributions to the nation’s economy and sustained long
years of rewarding corporate excellence thereby promoting
value enhancement to shareholders’ wealth.
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