TPP honours The Guardian Publisher, others at inaugural festival

The Publisher of The Guardian, Lady Maiden Alex-Ibru, was recently honoured as a Peak Performing Woman 2024 by The Peak Performer (TPP) Africa.

The publisher received the award during the Women in Leadership Summit, which was part of the inaugural TPP Festival held from October 2 to October 4, 2024, in Lagos.

Speaking at the event, Lady Alex-Ibru highlighted the crucial link between social and emotional intelligence, emphasising that human interaction is key to understanding emotions. 

At the grand finale of the festival – TPP Awards and Dinner – held at the Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos, the organisation also conferred Legacy Awards on the Chairman of Troyka Holdings, Dr. Biodun Shobanjo; Chairman of SmartCity Resorts, Sir Ademola Aladekomo; adire textile designer, Mrs. Nike Okundaye-Davies; Founder, Phillips Consulting, Mr. Foluso Philips; Chairman of Channels Television, Dr. John Momoh and CEO of Coscharis Group, Dr. Cosmas Maduka, among others.

According to the convener of TPP Festival, Dr. Abiola Salami, the award was created to celebrate successful business owners and corporate to inspire the younger generation of Africans.

Salami said: “We celebrate them to be inspiration to the young. These days, a lot of young people know a lot about businesses that were founded in America; they know a lot about businesses in Silicon Valley; but they don’t know as much about businesses in cities around Africa. And I am not talking about start-ups; I am talking about people who started their businesses 20, 30, 40 years ago. Their stories are much needed by the young of today; their values are much needed by the young of today. They serve as inspiration to the young people of today. And we created the awards to bridge the gap between the older generation, who have succeeded in their own ways by creating multiple businesses, and the young who are looking at succeeding.”

Salami further said: “Whatever you appreciate grows. If you don’t appreciate something it will not grow. So, if somebody has delivered a level of success, not because the person is perfect, but the person has done one thing well, let us tell him or her.”

Let us not hide it; let us not only complain when things are not going right. Let us also applaud when things are going right. There are a number of things going right in Nigeria and on our continent. It is not all gloom and doom.”

Salami noted that TPP festival is not an event but a movement, assuring that the conversation would continue on other platforms of the organisation to ensure that “together we can build a culture or peak performance in Africa.”