Director, Media & Publicity of the All Progressives Congress in Ondo State, Steve Otaloro, has described the year 2020 as annus horribilis, a dark year, a year that nobody will forget, occasioned by the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
Otaloro said: “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.”
He spoke while being honoured as “Man Of The Year”, by the Maxima Vanguard, a social political organization in Nigeria, for his outstanding skills in his chosen career, his service to humanity and his immense contributions to the Maxima Vanguard group during the year.
Otaloro took the opportunity of the occasion to shed more light on the dreaded Coronavirus, as well as to commend the quick intervention of Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, the governor of Ondo State, in leading effort to contain the virus in the state.
According to him: “This, outright, was the reason the state recorded the low rate of infections in the State and in mortality.”
Otaloro said, “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 people, 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 high percentage of their population never lived to tell the story.”
He said that soonest the people of the state would overcome the setbacks caused by the pandemic and forge ahead with great expectations.
“However, when speaking of one of the worst years recorded in human history, there are many to choose from.
“While the year 2020 will be counted as one of them, we can, much so, say it is not all doom and gloom.
“It is on record that it was that same year that the vaccines were discovered and rolled out to combat the virus and save mankind serious depletion of its population.
“This said year 2020 is the year I became considered for an honour that would not be forgotten in my life and times.
“I am humbled to be here before you this moment, having been identified as one of the positively minded people in our society of today that, in a way, honours wealth more than hard work.
“The ‘Man of The Year’ award coming from a group where everyone is a champion is, no doubt, something to be, highly, treasured.
“I can assure you that the same shall be done by my family and friends, including my humble self. I thank you so much.
“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.”
The recipient of the “Man Of The Year” Award of the Maxima Vanguard group applauded the facilitator of the award, High Chief Olatunji Oshati, the Balogun of Idoani, Ose LGA of Ondo State, for his foresight, resilience and creativity in making the organization a very vibrant one.
He said the seed he just sowed with this award would, one day, grow to become an oak tree that would bear acorns like the Oscar Award by the grace of God.
“This award,” the recipient said “is tagged ‘Man of the Year Award’, but it is so much big for just one man to contain or receive. This award is about the inherent good that lies within humanity.”
He said: “In 2020, daily, we saw people stepping up to help out their fellow humans when they needed help most. Whether it be something as big that endangered their lives or not ; or as ordinary as sending a token of money to someone to survive the prolonged lockdown ; or by donations of money to charitable causes, time and again in 2020, we had seen how beautiful and generous the human spirit could be and in today’s world, more than ever, it is that spirit that we need to promote more.
“That was the spirit that guarded us to survive year 2020, a year like none before it.”
Otaloro expressed his gratitude to receive the award on behalf of those heroes of 2020.
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 besought 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 COVID-19 left behind, to wit: leaving this world better than we met it, even as he emphasized that he had a great feeling about 2021 as the year to find the end to the deadly virus.
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