National Honours and Hoaxes

What has not lost its value in Nigeria today? In fact, even the depreciation of the naira seems to have taken a cue from the fact that life itself has lost its value in Nigeria and has instead become as cheap as salt.

The road Nigeria has taken to this point of no return where everything has taken a hit and lost most of its value and validity has been a long and rough one. It is a road that has witnessed all manner of feet and stampedes along the line. The Giant of Africa was always supposed to be a country of giants.  However, no sooner did independence come than the Lilliputians came in their legion and seized control of the levers of power.

   It began with the military, those men who took leave of their professionalism and barracks to launch themselves into the corridors of power they were ill-equipped to traverse.

 Of course, with the staggering struggles that quickly followed on the heels of Nigeria`s independence in 1960 came the notion that independence had come too soon for Africa`s most populous country.  However, as with new beginnings, Nigeria`s struggles between 1960- 1966 could well have been teething problems. If they were, then the military had no business intervening. The elected leaders of the people should have been allowed to abide global best practices in a bid to iron out the many challenges that convulsed and confronted the country at that point. But as it stands, the military intervened, and in the process hacking open a wound that has simply refused to heal.

  For many years, Nigeria has struggled to grow as a country. In this time, many national values have been lost. Nigerians have remained the enterprising bunch they always have been but as corruption has grown in size and scale and patriotism shrunk, Nigeria has become a country where anything goes.

 Because there is honour even among thieves, it has become a tradition in Nigeria that every few years, national honours are conferred on individuals deemed deserving of such honours by the president whose prerogative it is to decide whom to honour. Many Nigerians have been honoured over the years for their contributions to the country.

 The federal government recently released a list of those it intends to honour at a ceremony at the State House Abuja on October 11, 2022 and while some Nigerians were conspicuously missing like in the case of former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, the inclusion of the Minister for Education, Adamu Adamu, on the list of proposed honourees even as the strike embarked by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) enters its eight month has drawn curious glances.

 The question of those deserving of national honours in Nigeria remains as does the gravity of such honours. For optics, the awards may amount to something in a country where whitewashing graves has been elevated to an art. However, beyond that, there is nothing much to excite discerning observers. 

 For this year, over 400 Nigerians are set to be honoured. While some of those who have made the list are eminently deserving of the honours, many others are not for the simple reason that for many years they have been active contributors to the problems currently hampering Nigeria`s development as a country.

 The irony of the entire exercise is that while some of those who should be honoured can only dream of being honoured, many of those who should be shamed are about to be honoured. There have been several notable rejections of the honours in the past few years. Those who offered such poignant rejection undoubtedly saw the honours for what they really and truly are: hoaxes. 

  Kene Obiezu,

 @keneobiezu