Traditionally, influential newspapers and magazines around the world select at the end of every year a distinguished personality and honour him or her as the Personality of the Year.
To be named as the Personality of the Year by even our own The Gambia News and Report Weekly magazine is a big honour.
When the magazine honoured the late Deyda Hydara, the slain managing editor of The Point newspaper posthumously as the Man of the Year then in 2004, it said Hydara deserved the accolade because of his evident enormous contributions to the growth and development of journalism in The Gambia, and for paying the supreme sacrifice for the ideals of journalism.
Different newspapers and magazines have different criteria for their selections, but one thing is common to all of them, that is, it is to honour people who have left their footprints in the sands of time.
Indeed, such accolades are for men and women who refuse to be derailed by obstacles in their quest to make this world a better place for their fellow human beings.
For the past 20 years, The Gambia News and Report Weekly has been singling out for praise prominent Gambians who have made significant contributions to the nation.
The recipients of this prestigious award cut across all spheres of life, including politics, education, business, journalism, medicine, philanthropy, etc.
Some prominent Gambians, such as President Yahya Jammeh, Dr Lenrie Peters, Mrs Harriet Ndow, Vice President Aja Dr. Isatou Njie-Saidy, Muhammed Jah, Dr Ebrima Samba, among others, have also had their names inscribed in the magazine’s hall of fame.
The editor-publisher of The Gambia News and Report Weekly, Mr Swaebou Conateh, has just named another prominent Gambian as winner of the 2012 Personality of the Year award.
The lucky winner is The Right Reverend Dr Solomon Tilewa Ethelbert Willie Johnson, Lord Bishop of The Gambia, who was last November installed and enthroned as the 1st Archbishop of the Internal Province of West Africa in the Church of the Province of West Africa (CPWA). He was also enthroned as the Ninth Primate and Metropolitan of the CPWA.
He no doubt needs no introduction as he is today a household name not only in The Gambia, but throughout the world.
This is a man who has through diligence become somebody in society whose life is an inspiration to young and upcoming Gambians and Africans, in general; that if you back up your desires with energy and honesty, you will get to the mountaintop of your ambition.
If Gambians, especially our Christian brothers and sisters, are still rejoicing about the installation and enthronement of The Right Reverend Dr Solomon Tilewa Johnson as the 1st Archbishop of the Internal Province of West Africa in the Church of the Province of West Africa (CPWA), then it is only fitting that he should be honoured for this great achievement.
“A few honest men are better than numbers.”
Oliver Cromwell
