Abimbola Adebakin, one of the country’s foremost purveyors of medical solutions has emerged popular vote winner in a poll conducted by YNaija.com; Africa’s foremost youth-centered web and social media platform, for its 2021 Person of the Year.

The development follows the close of polls on Wednesday, 29th December 2021 after voting for the recognition had opened earlier in December, for the public to choose among ten outstanding nominees who they consider more impactful, charismatic and influential than anyone else in the country this year.

The YNaija Person of the Year is awarded annually to the individual who has most visibly influenced the Nigerian society for good in the past year, breaking new boundaries or consolidating on gains – and driving the advancement of the public, especially young people.

Running for the eleventh year, previous winners include Aliko Dangote, Jason Njoku of iRoKO, Oby Ezekwesili, Josephine Ugwu; the airport cleaner who returned the sum of N12 million to its rightful owner, the Nigerian Paralympics team, Ayo ‘Wizkid‘ Balogun, Segun ‘Segalink’ Awosanya, Omoyele Sowore and the #EndSARS Protesters who won the 2020 award.

And so, for the better part of December, our esteemed readers and admirers of the ten worthy nominees had to do the hard job of ‘watching and praying.’ It’s been days of suspense to see who clinches the popular vote in yet another year of tough choices for the voting public.

This year’s nominees included Dr. Akintoye Akindele [Investment], Kamaru Usman [Sports], Ayo ‘Wizkid’ Balogun [Entertainment], Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala [Public Service] and Mo Abudu [Entertainment]. Others are Hon. Justice Doris Okuwobi [Public Service], David ‘Davido’ Adeleke [Entertainment], D’Tigress [Sports], Abimbola Adebakin [Health], and the Nigerian Youth [Citizenship].

Garnering 1,535 votes (61.6%) of the 2,491 votes cast, Abimbola Adebakin; a highly innovative health practitioner who has taken a tech-driven approach to addressing some major health concerns within the country, emerged winner of the poll.

She was closely followed by music superstar, Ayo ‘Wizkid’ Balogun who secured 660 votes (26.5%), alongside fellow music star and philantrophist, David ‘Davido’ Adeleke who scored 7.6% of the votes cast.

READ ALSO: Profile of Abimbola Adebakin | YNaija Person of the Year 2021 Nominee

The Nigerian Youth and Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) garnered 1.3% and 1.0% of the total votes respectively.

A full breakdown of the votes by percentage are shown below:

The 2021 popular vote winner is the Chief Executive Officer of Advantage Health Africa, an organisation described as a direct-to-consumer Health Technology Group and has devised a technology-enabled pharmacy franchise model (myPharmacy) to address the problem of a limited access to genuine and affordable medicines.

Congratulations to campaigners for the various nominees across social media, our readers, as well as admirers of Ms. Adebakin who voted and engaged with the YNaija Person Of The Year poll this year.

In keeping with tradition, our overall winner (Editors’ Pick) will be announced to the public by the editors on Friday, 31st December 2021.

Temidayo Taiwo-Sidiq

Temidayo Taiwo-Sidiq is a Journalist, Political Analyst and Satirist with major interest in Nigerian Politics, Governance and Sports.