By Sonnie Ekwowusi
The national honours award has indeed become a complete national embarrassment. The award has become synonymous with disrepute and abuse. Every year all sorts of names especially names of serving public officers including names of their friends and benefactors whose credentials and character are seriously questionable are churned out for a national award. As a result, the award has completely become an all-comers affair.
Instituted by the National Honours Act No. 5 1964, the national honour awards was originally aimed at rewarding Nigerians who have rendered special and outstanding services in their various areas of human endeavour to the benefit of the country. It is immaterial if the meritorious candidates are not members of the political class or connected with members of the political class.
But regrettably, over the years the national honour awards in Nigeria have become an instrument of political patronage. For example, perusing the 2009 National Honours Awards list, we find it difficult to understand why some political office appointees who have barely cut their teeth in office should be conferred with the 2009 National Honours Awards. Equally, we cannot understand why a former political office holder who was heavily involved in a large-scale public fraud should make the list of candidates to be conferred with a national award. Is fraud now a virtue in Nigeria to be rewarded with a national award?
There is no doubt that the Nigerian National Honours has lost its meaning and charm. Perhaps that explains why notable national figures like Supreme Court Justice Niki Tobi, former Petroleum Minister Tam David West, and former Director of Military Intelligence Haliru Akilu who got the 2009 national awards did not even bother to show up for the awards let alone send any representatives to the venue of the awards. A few years ago Professor Chinua Achebe also publicly rejected a national honours award for almost the same reason.
The most regretful aspect is that there are many unsung heroes and heroines in Nigeria who ought to be conferred with the national honours awards but their names are always excluded probably because they have no Godfathers in government to push their cases.
Therefore we agree with President Jonathan that the bar for selection of candidates for national honours in Nigeria should be raised. In a country in which the lowest common denominator of acceptable behaviour in public life keeps falling over the years, the national honours ought to be conferred only on a few distinguished citizens who would act as true role models for the Nigerian young. Bloating the national honours list in order to favour some friends of the government or promote party patronage or affiliation is, to say the least, a complete ridicule of the very purpose for which the National Honours Awards was originally set up. In the United Kingdom and other countries national honours are only conferred on a few distinguished citizens.
More importantly, we call for transparency and integrity in the processes of vetting and screening of candidates. The selection of candidates must not be left at the whims and caprices of a few State governors or political office holders. It is important that the government makes the selection criteria known to the public to allow inputs from willing members of the public. We urge the House of Representatives to fast-track the present member Bill pending before the House seeking that national honours nominees in Nigeria should be screened by the National Assembly and that past awardees who have been found unworthy of the awards should be stripped of them.
As originally conceived, the national honours award is an honour bestowed on a citizen for his/her achievement in any area of human endeavour. When the President confers the award on a citizen, he does so on behalf of the people of Nigeria. Therefore if the selection criteria for the awards are bastardized, then we are indirectly affirming that we are a people without honour and dignity.
