National honors – the Nigerian version

National honors – the Nigerian version

14^th November, 2011, 355 Nigerians were decorated with national honors by the President, himself a GCFR. There have been many that have taken issues with the way and manner and the caliber of people that the award committee chooses for such awards. Some have been known to refuse such honor in light of the many ills still besetting our country.

I want to lend my voice to those who fault the National Awards process as well as the choice of awardees. I want to stand with those who have vehemently declined to accept the awards. Nigeria is a nation that is still held by the jugular by a cabal and they continue to try to portray that all is well.

Thank God for technological advancements so far and for the numerous Reality TV shows that abound. I would have expected the Award committee to take advantage of technology by publishing the names of the nominees and asking Nigerians to vote via SMS, let me leave the result to your imagination. Let me quickly say though, that this is Nigeria oh and anything is possible, who knows the extent to which some people will go just to become an OON. I mean, it is not impossible for someone to pay people to vote for him or her.

That’s by the way o jare, let me ask the award committee a few questions.

1.     Did you care to publish the criteria used for nominations?

2.     Did you care to ask for suggestions from Nigerians?

Let me stop there.

Now to Jonathan, you claim that the award is not given as a result of the position that the awardees hold or held then please explain how IGP Hafiz Ringim came to be on the list. Is it because he is the current Inspector General of Police? If you say the awards are based on a person’s contribution to the nation, can you kindly highlight some of those achievements? Let me supply you a few that readily comes to mind, is the fact that the Force Headquarters of the Police was bombed and Ringim survived the attack that was counted for him as an achievement? Or is that till now, we still do not see an end to the issue of insecurity in Nigeria therefore we reward cluelessness. What high profile case did he solve? Has he unearthed the killers of Bola Ige and co?

To the case of the former Governor of my state Ondo, who stole the mandate of the people and was duly booted out of the office by the court. How did he merit such an award? Oh, I forget. I am guessing his contributions when he was a Deputy Governor and as a Federal minister merited him the honor. Maybe I’m missing something; he may have contributed to the academic field right? Help me out please.

Is it the tears shed on Benin – Ore - Lagos express road by former Minster of Works, road and transport now Minster of Petroleum resources, the longest serving minister so far having served starting from the Time of Obasanjo till date in the person of Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke. Is it that she has served for soooooo long that she is being awarded or that she contributed her tears to the blood that have wet the Benin – Ore –Lagos road due to the many accidents and robberies on that stretch of road due to government neglect that she is being awarded. Or is it that our refineries are now fully operational, or the impending oil subsidy removal dangling on our heads?

I can go on, but suffice me to say, the process of nominating people for the National Honors is hugely skewed. A lot of the people being given these awards are not positive role models and such do not deserve such honor. Some of the awardees may be deserving of such honor but I regret to say that the entire process has become laughable among well meaning Nigerians.

In fact, as a general studies question, ask anybody on the street if they know what any of the awardees have done and how the person has affected his or her life, I won’t be surprised if the person you mentioned is not known to them.

I stand with the Late Gani Senior Advocate of the Masses, Prof. Chinua Achebe and Honorable Gbajabiamila. I lend my voice to what they stand for. I lend my voice to a better Nigeria. We should be careful the kind of legacies we leave behind. We should be mindful of how the future will remember us. We should fear God. We are not deceived. We are not blind to your antics. We are not influenced by your gimmicks. There still remains a breed without greed in this nation and we are gathering momentum. It’s a matter of time, and that time is upon us. The time is now…