Giving honour to whom it is (not) due
Honour must be earned if only to preserve the value that goes with it. The recognition done to Prophet Yusuf (AS) explains the concept of honour in Islam. Honour or recognition should serve as reward for some form of positive contributions to the development of the individual’s community, country or humanity. Elsewhere, this is the […]
Honour must be earned if only to preserve the value that goes with it. The recognition done to Prophet Yusuf (AS) explains the concept of honour in Islam. Honour or recognition should serve as reward for some form of positive contributions to the development of the individual’s community, country or humanity. Elsewhere, this is the basic code that traditionally underlines the ethics of reward. But in Nigeria, national “honours” rather than being for services rendered are rewards given for work in progress, or work not done at all or work done but in disservice to the nation.
Recognizing serving public office holders such as governors, ministers, ambassadors, and permanent secretaries with national honours simply amounts to reward for work that is still in progress, which though stands the risk of being completed criminally. Recognizing politicians who have no other qualification for receiving national honours besides being what they are, politicians, only amounts to reward for no work done. Similarly, recognizing individuals whose companies were indicted in fuel subsidy scam depicts reward for work done adversely which consequences are inimical to the development of the country. This present pattern of recognition portrays “national honours” as “national celebration” of failure or corruption or both.
President Jonathan, on Monday September 17, 2012, conferred 149 Nigerians with national honours. The list of recipients includes six serving Supreme Court judges; Inspector General of Police M. D. Abubakar; serving Governors of Benue, Delta, Ebonyi and Taraba States; seven Senators; Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Senator Bala Mohammed; some serving and retired military officers; civil servants; politicians, businessmen; traditional and religious leaders.
This year’s list, like the previous, is not without the usual hullabaloos that have characterized the exercise over the years. The mere fact that names of undeserving recipients find their way in to the honours’ list ridicules the award as much as it trivializes our national worth. At this year’s investiture, Chief Mike Adenuga received the nation’s second highest honour, Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON). Only three weeks ago was Adenuga’s company, Conoil Plc, indicted along with 22 others in fuel subsidy scam. The companies are currently being investigated for fraudulent activities in the fuel subsidy regime. The GCON award, traditionally, used to be the “exclusive preserve” of vice presidents, senate presidents and chief justices of the federation but President Jonathan broke the tradition last year when he awarded it to another businessman, Aliko Dangote.
In 2010, former Speaker of the House of Representatives Patricia Etteh who was forced to resign in the wake of corruption accusation in 2007 received the CFR award in 2008. Awards are bound to lose the utility they were made to serve as long as national honours are given to whom they are NOT due. This would dissuade other Nigerians toiling in their respective fields of endeavour from aspiring for greater achievements that could earn them national recognition. Truly, lumping the very deserving with those that do not deserve the honours does not only undervalue the award but equally provoke some credible recipients to decline such recognitions. Professor Chinua Achebe, for instance, has twice rejected the national honour offered him.
As it is now, the criteria for awarding national honours do not seem to recognise any performance-based profile. Instead, loyalty to government and holding a political appointment are two qualifications which more than any other determine recipients. The contribution to national development of some serving public officers and politicians recently honoured is so hazy to deserve their investiture. Honours’ lists in recent years appear to suffer much from undue political interferences and influences.
State governors who have a great deal of weight in recommending nominees plus members of the Award Committee who work on the list of awardees all seem to have been overwhelmed by political trivialities so much so that personalities worthy of recognition are left out. There is a handful of Nigerians, I believe, in different parts of the country that should have been honoured but have not been recognized; maybe because they are or were not politicians. Leaders and those who have access to nomination should fear Allah (SWT) and ensure that people who deserve national recognition are honoured even if it were posthumously.
In my home state, Niger, for instance, I find it amazing that a diligent civil servant, Alhaji Sulaiman Liman, was never recognized with a national honour. With a career record of having served as Registrar Institute of Administration (now ABU) Zaria 1957-58; Asst Recruitment Secretary for Northern Region, Nigeria High Commission London 1960-63; Provincial Secretary in Adamawa and Benue 1965-66; Permanent Secretary North Western State 1970-76; Secretary to the Military Government and Head of Service of Niger State 1976-79; Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council of FUT Owerri 1986-90 and University of Maiduguri 1990-1993; he died in 1998 with no national award. Perhaps those who should have recommended him never felt obliged because he refused to steal public funds, which is fashion of the moment!
The entire procedure and administration of national honours need to be overhauled. There should be a mechanism for withdrawing honours from any awardees who after investiture is implicated in criminal offences. Is it not embarrassing that Femi Otedola (recipient of CON in 2008) who is incriminated in a bribery scandal with Rep Faruk Lawan is still moving about with the honours? May Allah (SWT) guide those in positions of authority to appreciate that honours should be for the very deserving, amin.