Board Chair: All 32 Nominees Screened for 2022 National Merit Award Failed to Meet Requirements

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

A total of 32 nominations that were received in four fields namely Engineering/Technology, Medicine,

Humanities including Arts and Culture and Sciences failed to meet the required criteria needed to be awarded the 2022 Nigerian National Merit Award.

Addressing newsmen yesterday, Chairman of the governing board, Prof. Shekarau Yakubu Aku, revealed that four of the nominations were received in the field of Science, nine in Medicine, five in Engineering Technology and 14 in the Humanities.

He said after the tradition of the nominations going through specialised committees which may use external assessors, when the need arises, before their recommendations are considered by a committee of Chairmen and then the Governing Board before approval by the Mr. President, none of them was considered worthy.

“The nominations go to specialised committees which may use external assessors, when the need arises, before their recommendations are considered by a committee of Chairmen and then the Governing Board and Mr. President gives his approval.

“This year, a total of 32 nominations/applications for the NNOM Award were received by the NNMA, four in the field of Science, nine in Medicine, five in Engineering Technology and 14 in the Humanities.

“The nominations went through standard assessment process, however, after going through the rigorous process of assessment exercise, none was

adjudged to have merited the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) Award for this year 2022.  So in this year’s exercise, no winner emerged.”

He said another activity of the NNMA was the hosting of the annual forum of laureates of the NNOM which is organised annually to deliberate on salient issues of national interest, thereby affording the body of laureates

an opportunity to channel views in policy making, thereby contributing to national discourse.

He added that it was also to promote networking opportunities between the government, industries and the private sector and to enable other Nigerian intellectuals, Academia and Research Organisations both

in Nigeria and in the Diaspora to share ideas and to summarise the ideas generated in each Forum in its Communiqué and Proceedings and help foster national development.

The Forum, the 13th of its kind, was expected to be declared open by President Muhammadu Buhari and with the theme “Building Nigeria Through National Integration” to be discussed by Professor Babagana Zulum, the Executive Governor of Borno State who would serve as keynote speaker.

The NNMA was established by ACT No. 53 of the 1979 and was amended by Act No. 96 of the 1992 now LFN 122 of 2004.