Sir: The Nigerian National Honours Award was established by the National Honours Act, No. 5 of1964. The Act empowers the President and C-in-C of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to establish by warrant, the Nigeria Order of Dignity, to honour deserving citizens, who have contributed significantly to the development and progress of the country in various fields of human endeavours. Therefore, for any person to be eligible for the award, he or she must have maintained a consistently high moral standard, proven integrity and impeccable character. In addition, a person conferred with the honour is expected to serve as a role model and source of inspiration to others. At the same time, awardees that are convicted of any criminal offence are expected to be stripped of the honour conferred on them.

In light of the above, I make bold, to state that it is high-time the National Assembly sets theball in motion, to amend the National Honours Act in its entirety; ensuring that the bar is raised for both the nomination and selection processes. Moreso, names of nominees and prospective awardees should be published early enough, for public information and criticism, as this was the order in the past. Doing this will go a long way to restore lost public confidence, as far as the national honour is concerned. It has become very disheartening that none of the holders of the prestigious honours, who are responsible for Nigeria’s present socio-political and economic woes has been stripped of the honours conferred on them, to serve as detriment to others. In fact, we need to have a “National Black Book Or A Hall Of Shame”, where names of saboteurs and unpatriotic citizens shall be registered, for reference purposes.

The “non-statutory” tradition of conferring automatic honours on public office-holders,simply because of the position they hold in government, needs to be stopped, because most of these “accidental leaders/beneficiaries of the honours” are usually found to be guilty of massive corruption and incessant breach of public trust.Thus, it has become a national embarrassment as these corrupt persons are being dragged to court for prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Based onthis ugly trend, only the most outstanding public office-holders, who must have served conscientiously, meritoriously and patriotically, should always be selected for the honours, afterleaving office. For instance, a former accountant-general of the federation, Mr. Chukwunyere Anamekwe Nwabuoku has just been sentenced to 72 years imprisonment on 23rd May 2026, as a result of the monumental fraud of N868m he committed, whilst in office.

In the same vein, a former minister of aviation, is still being probed over a N2 billion fraud purportedly expended on a rented Ethiopian airlines plane, which was used for a 3-day show and painted for unveiling in Abuja as “Nigeria Air”in the twilight of late President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. He holds a CON. Same goes for Saleh Mamman (Nigeria’s former minister of power and steel), who has just been sentenced to 75 years imprisonment for stealing the sum of N33.8 billion; a former governor of Taraba State, is also being probed for alleged diversion of N27 billion local government funds. He holds a CON; while a former minister of justice, a former governor of Delta State and a former governor of Kogi State are also still being probed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC);yet, they have also emerged as the governorship and senatorial candidates for both African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 general elections; and they are still bearing the insignia of the national honour as CON, respectively. It is the same story with a former GMD of NNPCL, who holds OFR; Godwin Emefiele (former CBN governor), who holds CFR; Mrs Dieziani Allison-Madueke (Nigeria’s former minister of petroleum resources), who holds a CON; and many other political appointees, who continue to manoeuvre their ways through the judiciary, to evade being convicted.

Moreover, a former minister for humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development) was removed from office over the transfer of N585.2 million, meant for some vulnerable groups into a private account. Her predecessor is also being probed for the misappropriation of the sums of N746.7 million and 1.3 million dollars. Alongside former national coordinator/CEO of the National Social Investment Programme Agency who was also removed from office over a fraud of N44.8 billion.Therefore, as the list of corrupt government officials (both past and present) has been constantly rising and constituting serious national embarrassment, it is high-time the conferment of the national honours on serving public office-holders are stopped, in order to preserve the sanctity of the award.

The list of other corrupt top government functionaries (past and present), cutting across the executive,legislative, judiciary, military/paramilitary and MDAs with various range ofcorruption cases has been mind-blowing and very perplexing. This endless ugly trend,calls for immediate action by the Nigerian government, to urgently sanitize the honours for overall national interest; and strictly “recognizing only men and women with high moral standard, proven integrity and impeccable character.” Thus, the clause on“conviction” needs to be redefined, as this is giving many corrupt individuals, who should have been jailed and stripped of the national honours, a hiding place.

• Comrade Ganiyu Abdullahi is a concerned patriot ([email protected])