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;
*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>
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