Airtel Nigeria’s Director of Corporate Communications & Corporate Social Responsibility, Emeka Oparah, has been honoured with the “Communications Practitioner of the Decade Award”.
Oparah, who was honoured during the Communications Industry Evening, was described as a master of crisis management and one of the longest-serving communication practitioners in a single organization in spite of several brand and ownership changes.
The event, which held at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, last Friday, was attended by advertising and communications practitioners drawn from different agencies as well as corporate and multinational organizations.
According to a citation read during the event, “Oparah became well-known during his days in Cadbury Nigeria even before joining Econet Wireless Nigeria currently known as Airtel Nigeria. A number of young practitioners today actually read Emeka Oparah as a book to manage crisis in their workplaces.”
“Indeed, no one currently in the industry today deserves this accolade more than Oparah. The category was therefore one of the easiest for the committee to deal with. Congratulations for winning this year’s Communication Practitioner of the Decade Award. In fact, you probably can also win it for the century”, it further stated.
Reacting to the award, Oparah, commended the award organizers and communications practitioners across the country for bestowing on him such a huge honor, saying that he was humbled by the gesture and greatly inspired to continue to contribute his quota to the development of the communications practice in Nigeria.
He remarked: “Communication is the heart and soul of every human interaction and must, therefore, be purposively and professionally managed to achieve desired outcomes. I am committed to sharing my knowledge and experience with other practitioners, especially the young and upcoming professionals, so we can properly position the industry for its role in Corporate Leadership and National Development both now and in the future.”
Currently at Airtel Nigeria, Oparah leads activities pertaining to public relations, internal communications, corporate social responsibility, corporate events and sponsorship. His career spans the full scope of the communications industry, with over 29 years spent in journalism, advertising and public relations.
After graduating from the University of Nsukka in 1990, where he edited the famous campus newspaper, “The Record”, he spent the next four years working in Imo Newspapers and three other communications agencies namely Patike, a PR Agency as well as Candid and Richland, both Advertising companies.
He moved to Cadbury Nigeria PLC in 1994, where he spent eight years as Media Relations Manager before moving to Econet Wireless Nigeria in 2002. Oparah who graduated top of his class in the Department of Mass Communications, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, also holds an Advanced Diploma in International Public Relations Management from The Management School, London.
EiE marks decade with ‘One Person’ campaign
In 2010, with nothing but a cause and technological tools – Facebook, Twitter, Email and BB Messenger, the collective voice of a loose network of individuals and organisations whose said “Enough is Enough!” will change the face of active citizenship in Nigeria. A year later, their ‘voice’ will birth the operations of Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria, an organization whose impact has been felt in Nigeria and on the African continent.
From the several historic citizens’ protests over the last decade – the 2010 protests on Nigeria’s missing President, killings in Jos & fuel scarcity; #OccupyNigeria in 2012, #OpenNASS in 2013 & #OneVoice in 2017, EiE has walked its talk, demanding accountability from public officials to the citizens they represent.
Ten years later, EiE is celebrating this milestone with a series of events with the theme ‘FOOTPRINTS’, driven by a media awareness campaign tagged ‘ONE PERSON’.The ‘ONE PERSON’ campaign kicking off EiE’s tenth anniversary (#EiEat10) will spotlight the organization’s footprint over the last decade and reiterate its belief that it takes the action of ‘ONE PERSON’ to make a difference. The campaign will feature sixty people who will record and share individual videos stating how, as ‘ONE PERSON’, they have changed lives and impacted their communities.
Speaking on the campaign and what EiE hopes to achieve with it, the Executive Director, ‘Yemi
Adamolekun said, “Sixty people were chosen to reflect Nigeria’s sixtieth year since independence. Like the few people who received the first email that started the movement that became EiE, we hope our sixty role models will inspire a thousand who will inspire thousands more to take action and share their stories until the voices of the governed, echo everywhere with the simple message that the Office of the Citizen is the HIGHEST office in the land! We must never forget that demanding accountability in governance is a right, not a privilege.”
When the #OfficeofTheCitizen campaign launched in 2015, EiE began the transition from being the main driver of citizens’ action to supporting citizens to walk their talk! Over the next decade, EiE is committed to supporting citizens to occupy their office, take more action and amplify their stories.
How Amstel Malta heightened AMVCA
The Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) took a more interesting turn this year.
Aside from the anticipated wins, all eyes were on the red carpet as celebrities outshined one another with a mixture of dramatic, outlandish, elegant and smashing looks. For the first time in the history of the AMVCA, a special non-film awards category was created for the best dressed attendees at the event. And this category indeed spiced up the event’s seventh edition.
In line with its promise to give consumers front row seats to the awards, Amstel Malta, Nigeria’s premium malt drink and official sponsor of the AMVCA, sponsored the ‘Best Dressed’ category at the awards ceremony, which held on March 14, 2020, at Eko Convention Centre.
Mike Edwards and Mercy Eke, stars of Big Brother Nigeria 2019, bagged the first ever best dressed award at the AMVCA as best dressed male and best dressed female. In recognition of their outstanding appearance, they were rewarded with a shopping voucher worth N500,000 each from any Nigerian designer of their choice.
This announcement was made by Onyinye Elochukwu, Brand Manager, Amstel Malta and Mai Atafo, Creative Director, ATAFO, after the collation of online voting polls from the fans and viewers of the AMVCA, who were the sole deciders of the winner of the best dressed category.
Mike wore a custom velvet embellished tux by ‘The Way It Fits’ and boots by David Wej while Mercy wore a blue dress by Donamatoshi.
This winning duo sure blew the minds of many.