DISHONOURING THE HONOURED: Achieving a widespread celebrated National Honours System

INTRODUCTION: 

This is the second part to the series; DISHOURING THE HONOURED which is primarily written to serve as a benchmark to guiding countries and its government to rightly confer National Honours on its citizens and exceptional foreigners.

To have an insight to the background of this work, please click the title below;

DISHONOURING THE HONOURED

However, in as much as the call for stripping the National Honours conferred on convicted individuals, as discussed in the introductory article to this series, the norm of the National Honours should be one that entails dignity. Dignity in the sense that individuals conferred with National Honours are people that are widely exemplary to all others in the nation irrespective of the field and career path they belong to. Due to this, they are meant to be people devoid of criminal records. 

If the National Honours system is to enjoy a widespread commendation by the citizens of a country and beyond, arriving at a credible National Honours Selection System is a call that needs urgent attention.

I believe that the following 2 broad terms could be instrumental towards guided the National Honours System towards a widespread commendation.

i.          Pre National Honourees Selection Process and

ii.         Post- National Honourees Ongoing Character Check.

i.          Pre-National Honourees Selection Process: This entails the way through which the National Honours awardees are chosen. It serves as a guide or blueprint that is directed towards the efficiency of how the individuals to be conferred with National Honours are conferred. 

This process is a more rigorous process than the Post – National Honourees Ongoing 

ii.         The post National Honourees Ongoing Character Check: Simply put, this is the close eye of the government on recipients of the National Honours in a country. Such ongoing check is necessary to avert the possibility of the National Honours system being dragged to the mud due to an act of embarrassment by any recipient. 

Also, this is imperative due to the role-model status the National Honourees have on the general populace, especially the youth. 

GETTING THE NATIONAL HONOUREES SELECTION RIGHT

Getting right the National Honourees Selection is a process that requires fair ‘play. It should be devoid of nepotism, tribalism, god-fatherism, favouritism and what I call politicalism (making selection based on party membership, alliance, support and financial aid).

With a fair ’play approach in mind, the following steps must be taken to ensure that the National Honours system is efficiently carried out.

1.         The use of an open nominating system

2.         The options scale

3.         The existence of a well-grounded honours committee.

4.         The follow up.

1. The employ of what I call “an open nominating system.” Having researched getting equitable the National Honours System, there is no better extract with on how efficient the National Honours selection system is than that of the colonial Masters of Nigeria, the United Kingdom.

Since 1993, the United Kingdom has had a nominating system that is opened to the public. In this regard, the public upon the collection of what the UK calls “Nomination Forms”, they are allowed to select the individual they would love to see conferred with such honours. This form serves as a guide to what the National Honours is all about and also how best it should be filled so as to ensure that those interested in nominating people for the honours, rightly nominate.

Also, the United Kingdom recommended some very key questions. These questions are pivotal towards the nomination by the nominator or member of the public as it serves as an intrinsic guide towards making the right choice.

The questions are as follows;

Has my nominee…

• made a difference to their community or field of work? 
• brought distinction to British life and enhanced its reputation?
• exemplified the best sustained and selfless voluntary service?
• demonstrated innovation and entrepreneurship?
• carried the respect of their peers?
• changed things, with an emphasis on achievement?
• improved the lot of those less able to help themselves?
• displayed moral courage and vision in making and delivering tough choices?

Studying these questions are putting myself in the shoes of a nominator, I believe that these above questions advantageously get people to listen to their inner mind with the objective of ensuring that sentiments are put aside in the nomination. 

This is because having asked oneself all questions above, it will make the nominator to know that putting forward a name entails a name that would deserve the honour and not just a name that should receive it.

2.         The options scale: This is a reverse to the open nominating system. By the options scale, rather than members of the public made to put forward their preferred names for the committee to make the final selection, the government puts forward the name to the public. These names are put forward by the government directly or through a committee.

In doing this, the public are made to vote electronically or whichever means deemed necessary. 

For fairness, there must be the existence of an independent body charged with the responsibility of compiling the result based on the vote by the public.

This done, the candidates with the highest votes are nominated subject to the slots available.

*NB. This serves as an alternative to recommendation 1. 

3.         The existence or formation of a well-grounded honours committee: By a well-grounded honours committee I mean a group of individuals that are professionals. These professionals should comprise people from the major fields, discipline, career path or sectors in an economy. These sectors range from the entertainment, political, sports, economic etc.

Moreover, upon receiving the forms comprising the choices made by the public, the committee will be tasked with the responsibility of screening the nominees which primarily will be to investigate the nominees in order to ensure that they are devoid of criminal records.

In addition, what I call “a performance or contribution check of the nominees” should be carried out. This entails having a thorough check of the contribution of the nominees to the nation or chosen field or career path with a view to knowing if their contribution is worthy of public emulation.

The selection should not be rushed and the committee members should not be under any kind of pressure to fix names that are not on the list.

4.         The follow up: This is a probation for the National Honourees lasting their lifetime from the day of being conferred the honours. The prupose of this is to ensure that recipients are well behaved and don’t bring to disrepute, the National Honours System. 

In a similar vein, here is a quote from http://www.direct.gov.uk in the United Kingdom, “an honurs Committee normally conducts its business by correspondence.  It considers cases where an individual who has been honoured is judged to have brought the honours system into disrepute, for example if he or she:

• has been found guilty by the courts of a criminal offence and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of three months or more, or
• has been censured, struck off etc by the relevant professional or other regulatory authority for action or inaction which was directly relevant to the granting of the honours.”

From this points stated above, the call for stripping off the various categories of Nigeria National Honours conferred on individuals found guilty of wrongdoing is highly commendable.

The concluding work of this series can be found through the link below;

http://taiwokehinde-mymind.blogspot.com/2012/09/dishonouring-honoured-advantages.html

Reference:

“The UK Honours System” Directgov 1 Sep. 2012. <http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/UKgovernment/Honoursawardsandmedals/TheUKHonourssystem/index.htm>

DISHONOURING THE HONOURED

The Checkmate:

In every nation, there are individuals in all fields and sectors of the economy whose work, activities and achievements are widely celebrated by the whole country or perhaps the field or career path to which they belong to and greatly influence thereby achieving a symbolic status of being “indispensable figures” to reckon with in the country, career path or area of influence.

These individuals in no time get identified by the head of state or/and government of the nation to which their contribution was/is widely felt courtesy the conferment of National Honours.

The National Honours conferment being a ceremonial function is carried out by the head of state of that Nation. It is pivotal to point out that the parliamentary system of government has an individual as a head of state and the other, head of government. In the case of the a parliamentary system of government, for example the United Kingdom, the National Honours is conferred by her Royal Majesty, the Queen while in the case of a Presidential System of government, it is conferred by the President whom doubles as the head of state and government.

What is National Honours? In my words, National Honours is a distinguished identification of an individual’s immense, most times unprecedented influence and achievement in their chosen career path which influences people in that career path and beyond thereby extending to individuals, irrespective of age and gender in all works of life at the National and International level. 

According to Wikipedia, “Nigerian National Honours are a set of orders and decorations conferred upon Nigerians and friends of Nigeria every year. They were institute by the National Honors Act No. 5 of 1964, during the Nigerian First Republic, to honour Nigerians who have rendered service to the benefit of the nation.”

But I believe that in as much as the conferment of National Honours on these people deserves commendation from the general public, it is paramount for every nation to ensure that the individuals conferred with such honours truly deserve it and the National Honours conferment is guided by an open, efficient and stringent process. The reason for this is attributed to the fact that I believe that the conferment of National Honours on individuals goes a long way in influencing the actions and approach to daily living by the general populace, especially the “ascending generations” which I refer to as the future leaders of tomorrow. 

Ideally, I suppose that conferring a National Honour on a criminal or a convicted individual will go a long way in influencing the youth to be criminals due to the facts that these individual are models to the youths. For example, in Nigeria, corruption is on a high with many corrupt individuals having National Honours conferred on them. This gets the ascending generations negatively influenced to be corrupt, no thanks to the free-flowing corruption by the leaders. 

For example, in the primary schools, one meets kids that want to be politicians, ask them why and one gets a bemusing response as thus; “I want to eat from the National Cake”. Being a non-Nigerian one may wonder what such means but as one (a Nigerian), it simply entails illicitly and wickedly benefitting from the treasures of the country through corruption. It is for this reason the present approach to National Honours got checkmated.

The Purpose:

The bedrock to writing this work is due to the headline of Punch Nigeria Newspaper on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 which read; “Ibru, George, others to lose National Honours.” 

This headline got me saying wow to myself. I said this because I was of the opinion that at long last the government is taking the right measures to dissociating itself from corruption and other ills in the society. 

That said, in my opinion, the ability of a government to be conscious of the individuals conferred with National Honours with regards to their personally history (crime free, etc) and contribution to the Nation and people in general will build the following mindsets to the general public and those conferred with National Honours;

1.         Rendering service to the nation and being exemplary in ones career path entails being clean at all times. This is because law breakers and convicted individuals harm their countries irrespective of the nature and level of crime committed and as thus will be deemed ineligible to receive such honours. 

2.         Having received such honours, the recipients will be very conscious of their lifestyle because they know they are the mirror of the society and if found guilty for a wrong act that will bring to disrepute, the National Honours system, they will be stripped off such honours. This mindset will get these recipients more conscious of their lives and will also get the general public to take a cue from the good and exemplary lifestyles of these honourees. 

3.         A strong message will be diffused that the country does not identify with criminals.

Back to the bedrock of this work, as reported by the Punch Newspapers, among those to have their National Honours stripped include the ex MD of Oceanic Bank, Mrs Cecilia Ibru; and her once upon a time Intercontinental Bank counterpart, Mr. Erastus Akingbola. Also, a former chieftain of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George and a former Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun make up the list. These four individuals were found guilty of perpetuating economic terrorism (corruption).

Irrespective of what the reason behind such swift move by the government is after many years of public outcry, the dissociation of government from these once upon a time National Honours recipients is a welcome development. But the big question entails how best the government can appropriately ensure that “pre-National Honours investigation” and “post-National Honours ongoing crosscheck” gets the National Honours System more credible.  

For example, on November 4, 2011, Sahara reporters had an article with the headline; “National Honours List: A Perfect Roll Call of Looters and Destroyers. This article had the extract “Like everything else that has gone awry in the nation, the national honour now has acquired a new symbolism. It is no longer about selfless contribution to service, or promotion of good government and welfare for all Nigerians. As the national honour acquires new symbolism, its solemn essence – inspiration – is acquiring a new, albeit conflicting dimensions.” 

Also, a comment in the Nation Nigeria on the topic “Given the criticism of this year’s National Honour Awards, how can the Federal Government make the awards more credible?” is as thus; “when pen robbers, conscienceless kidnappers of our nation’s wealth are now rewarded by the government, watch out, doom is lurking around”.

Another comment says; “how can you and I expect something credible from vampire government? You can certainly not expect something good from PDP. Next year you will see more 4i9, tyrants, blood suckers, corrupt people that have milked Nigeria dry begin to line up for the highest honour in the land.”

These three comments which are among the many questions marks and disappointments that greeted the 2011 National Honours List can have a turnaround and no doubt the National Honours system in Nigeria needs a holistic panel beating in order to bring respect and widespread commendation to it.

These said, this work is guided by the following links which are its subsequent series;

a.         Achieving a widespread celebrated National Honours System

b.         The advantages achieved from a well panel beaten National Honours System.

*NB: Please click either links to read the subsequent series to this work.

From the comments above, one message is clear; anyone found guilty of criminal activities should not be honoured by ones country and in the case of committing a crime sequel to being conferred, such conferment should be stripped off. The reason for this is straightforward, these are people in the eyes of the public and as thus stripping them off such honours will go a long way in sending the right message to the general populace that every individual irrespective of class in the society is closely watched by the country and must at all times live an exemplary life worthy of public emulation.

References

“Given the criticism of this year’s National Honour Awards, how can the Federal Government make the awards more credible?” THE NATION 27 Nov. 2011. 30 Aug. 2012. <http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/sunday-magazine/have-your-say/27620-given-the-criticism-of-this-year%E2%80%99s-national-honour-awards,-how-can-the-federal-government-make-the-awards-more-credible%3F.html>

“Orders, decorations, and medals of Nigeria” Wikipedia 29 Aug. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders,_decorations,_and_medals_of_Nigeria>      

Ramat, Taofeek. “National Honours List: A Perfect Roll Call of Looters and Destroyers” Sahara Reporters 4 Nov. 2011. 31 Aug. 2012. <http://saharareporters.com/article/national-honours-list-perfect-roll-call-looters-and-destroyers>

THE FUEL SUBSIDY SAGA IN NIGERIA: A drawback resulting from government inefficiency (The Turnaround)

In the beginning

This is the final part of the series; “THE FUEL SUBSIDY SAGA IN NIGERIA: A drawback resulting from government inefficiency”. So far this work has had 4 parts published on the 4^th and 18^th of April, 25^th of May and 6th of June 2012.

In Part 1, the history of fuel subsidy in Nigeria is discussed. Also, the weeklong strike that kicked off on Monday, 9 January, 2012 was highlighted with the impacts it had on the nation underscored.  

Part 2 stresses the fact that subsidy on a product with a high level of patronage should be encouraged. In addition, Venezuela, Malawi, China and the US served as practical examples on why subsidy on such products should stand.  

Part 3 focuses on the 12 OPEC member nations. The focal point of attention on these countries was having an overview of the effects of their individual local oil prices on the average living standards prevalent in these countries. Secondly, what I call the National Economy Performance of these countries was examined. 

Lastly, Part 4 discusses the excuses that have overtime been put forward by past governments in Nigeria on why subsidy is important. As against this, it was noted that these excuses due to its repetition lost its taste of truthfulness and purity. 

Bringing to history the fuel subsidy brouhaha

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala once said “The important thing is that we cannot continue on the way we did in the past. It would be plunging our future into crisis.” No questioning the credibility to this statement but paying close attention to the angle to which the statement was made and directed towards, it only fits for a half standing. Scintillatingly, she is right because the government cannot continue to do what she did in the past and the removal of subsidy would be widely celebrated when a 100% refining of our local oil is achieved. 

Corruption thriving in the oil sector is not and should not be a reason for the removal of subsidy from PMS. This is because removing subsidy on fuel due to corruption only leads to a shift in corruption to other areas that the funds meant for subsidy would be spent on. 

Since the government argues that corruption is a reason for the removal of subsidy on petrol, the following questions come to mind;

• Is corruption bigger than the nation and perhaps a nut so difficultly impossible to crack?
• Can’t the so-called cabal ruining the downstream sector and the Nigerian economy as a whole be brought to book?
• With the corruption experience in Nigeria, isn’t it obvious and expected that ‘removing’ subsidy from the oil sector and transferring the money to other sectors of the economy added to the newly established SURE, would lead to a shift in corruption from the oil sector to other areas of transfer as earlier pointed out?

 This predicament Nigeria has found itself is not because she cannot get herself out of it but rather because of the selfishness of her leaders over the years and their desire to keep Nigeria in the glitch she is in due to their selfish interest and the fact that they one way or the other benefit from such quandary.

According to Rose Oko, a member of the House of Representative in Nigeria, in 2002, a total of 18 licenses were issued for the construction of new refineries. But as she rightly noted, 9years after the first set of licenses where issued, none of them has commenced actual refining of petroleum products. 

She further observed that the 1.3trillion spent on subsidy removal yearly should be appropriately diverted in the provision of 2 new refineries. To this respect, this is the most reasonable defense anyone can put forward for the removal of subsidy on petroleum.

Many Nigerians have come up with lots of suggestions on how to put the subsidy on fuel and the importation of refined petroleum for local consumption behind the self-acclaimed giant of Africa.

However, with the following recommendations I will put forward, I hope there would be no need for me or anyone to visit this issue again.

At this juncture, the following are pivotal to be employed by the government in order to have a turnaround in the fuel subsidy brouhaha that has lingered over the years;

1. A no to corruption: The government should endeavour to have an ugly face on corruption, thereby being utterly practical and glaring for all to see that indeed the fight for corruption is not a sitcom. 

No doubt, the primary reason for the dwindling nature of the Nigerian economy with regards to poverty level, per capita income and inflationary rate is due to the geometrically transmission pace of corruption from preceding government to succeeding government. Dealing with this will no doubt propel the economy of Nigeria in an astonishing manner. 

2. Nigeria must drive towards the local refining of crude oil. Rather than spend funds on the so called infrastructures and embarking on the “palliative” that would avert the sufferings of Nigerians, the best activity the government can embark on is to divert the funds form subsidy removal into the provision of new refineries. The provision of these refineries would contribute more to the economy in two folds; 

a.         Nigeria would be able to meet the local oil needs of her people and also, 

b.         She would be able to meet her export needs, thus not just exporting oil in its crude form but also in its refined form. Most notable, the Nigerian crude is of a very high demand in the world. The high patronage of the Nigerian crude oil is due to its quality and nature of being the sweet crude oil which is known to contain less than 0.5% sulfur and is of high quality. Also, it is commonly used for processing into gasoline..

This would make the downstream more fairly competitive and opened as against the irregularities in the course of shamefully importing refined oil. Added to this, the creation of jobs will be achieved.

3. Somewhat away from fuel, it is high time the Federal Government of Nigeria granted every State of the federation a freehand to have a total control in its resources due to the fact that it would aid the economic security of the States added to bringing about competition among them. A great advantage to be noted from this is that it would foster development and avert the backwardness of some states in the federation, notably a handful of the northern states which have over the years slowed down the pace of development of the other regions that are more productive which go to any length to think outside the box. 

This point is due to the endless agitation of mostly the Niger-Delta states for a full control of its resources.

The Niger-Delta states are adversely hit by oil spills and I opine that the government close to them (respective state government) will be at the best position to adequately cater for her people.

Though the Ministry of Niger Delta and the Niger Delta Development Commission were statutorily founded to cater for the immediate needs of the people, thereby meeting their needs and complaints of environmental pollution and deprivation due to oil exploration, there is no way they will be able to meet these needs efficiently. The reason, these bodies are federal government inclined bodies or institutions that are far from the people as against a state founded institution that would be more efficacious due to its closeness to its people. 

In achieving the control of resources by states, the role of the federal government would be to check the activities of the states thereby litigating their excesses in order to bring to justice the governors and state government officials found culpable of corruption and illicit activities. 

4.         The Federal government should set up a committee that would be responsible for saving the country from the sin of refined petroleum importation.

This committee should be given a free hand to work with no form of interference from the government. In achieving this, the committee should be made to officially go to at least 2 of the following countries which are also OPEC member countries; Kuwait, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia or Qatar. These countries are all synonymously known to have an efficiently managed oil industry. For more information on the efficiency of these countries with regards to their economy and oil prices, Part 3 of this work explains further.

The purpose of this official visit to either of these countries would be to know how best to manage the Nigerian oil industry and gain knowledge of how they “did it and are still doing it right” thereby bringing the gained knowledge back to Nigeria and deal with the putrefied oil sector, thus ensuring Nigeria does it right too. After-all bilateral relationship among countries should also be targeted towards the exchange of ideas that should foster economic prosperity of one another.

5.         I will like to refer to the recommendation by a group of Anti Corruption Network led by Mr. Dino Melaye in a report by the Punch Newspapers, which proffered that the consequent probe and investigations currently being undertaken by the EFCC should not be restricted to the regime of President Goodluck Jonathan but all regimes, even as far back as 20years ago. 

I believe that the reason for this bright recommendation is guided by the need to ensure transparency and efficiency in investigations because disentangling just the ills in only the regime of Goodluck Jonathan would entail a cut of a branch from a tree with a spoilt root. 

Having appropriately effected all these and adding other approaches as deemed necessary, Nigeria would be ripe for a full removal of subsidy from its petroleum products which would geometrically lead to the government deservingly receiving the necessary support from Nigerians.

Among the many advantages this would have on Nigeria are;

• It would ensure the independence of Nigeria in the efficient management of its resources.
• An assuage of corruption in the downstream sector
• A avert of imported inflation due to the importation of refined oil from countries that may be inflation-risk countries.
• An economic strength propeller of Nigeria due to it aiding a change in the status of Nigeria from a richly blessed but economically impoverished country to a richly blessed and economically buoyant country 

All these said, I preach that the level of necessity that would lead to the effectiveness in the removal of subsidy is dependent on the readiness of Nigeria not to import refined oil anymore. 

Dear President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigerians are watching closely and are highly expectant of you to truly govern in the messiah way which widely accounted for the reason why you were the choice of the people in the 2011 elections.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

THE END!!!

“Environmental issues in the Niger Delta” Wikipedia 28 Aug 2012 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_in_the_Niger_Delta>

Iferi, Bennie. “Reps probe licenses to private refineries” Daily Times 10 December 2011. 28 Aug. 2012 <http://dailytimes.com.ng/article/reps-probe-licenses-private-refineries>

Taiwo, kehinde. “THE FUEL SUBSIDY SAGA IN NIGERIA: A drawback resulting from government inefficiency (Part 1)” My Mind Always 4 April 2012. 28 August 2012. <http://taiwokehinde-mymind.blogspot.com/2012/04/fuel-subsidy-saga-in-nigeria-drawback.html>

Taiwo, kehinde. “THE FUEL SUBSIDY SAGA IN NIGERIA: A drawback resulting from government inefficiency (Part 2)” My Mind Always  18 APRIL 2012. 28 August 2012.<http://taiwokehinde-mymind.blogspot.com/2012/04/fuel-subsidy-saga-in-nigeria-drawback_18.html>

                                                                                                                                                

Taiwo, kehinde. “THE FUEL SUBSIDY SAGA IN NIGERIA: A drawback resulting from government inefficiency (Part 3)” My Mind Always 25 May 2012. 28 Aug. 2012 <http://taiwokehinde-mymind.blogspot.com/2012/05/fuel-subsidy-saga-in-nigeria-drawback.html>

Taiwo, kehinde. “THE FUEL SUBSIDY SAGA IN NIGERIA: A drawback resulting from government inefficiency (Part 4)” My Mind Always June 6 2012. 28 August 2012. <http://taiwokehinde-mymind.blogspot.com/2012/06/fuel-subsidy-saga-in-nigeria-drawback.html>