Articles

A Season of Awards

Category: Within the nation Published on Saturday, 22 September 2012 06:00 Written by Kabir Mato Hits: 724

During the week, President Goodluck Jonathan conferred national honors on several Nigerians numbering over a hundred and forty. This investiture or better captured conferment has become a routine that Nigerians witness on annual basis.

Ordinarily, the moment ought to be that of national reflection and sober for both the recipients and the nation at large. It is a moment that in the ordinary would raise questions and answers are readily available to all and sundry. It is a moment that in the ordinary most young and even not too young citizens would strive to attain by drawing the recognition of the entire country.

Unfortunately, in the last several years, the award has been turned into an avenue of dispensation of favors by those in authority to those they desire to recognize not necessarily on the basis of any serious achievement that warrant such recognition. To an extent several citizens have rejected the award on the grounds that the process has been badly adulterated by politics and other ulterior motives.

This is not, however, to say that the entire exercise is in futility or awardees all belong to same category. No! in some cases, those that are recognized and honored were indeed worthy of the award. But in several other instances, the conferment has suffered serious distortions to the extent that the ordinarily very prestigious national affair has been so turned into a show of shame and favors of those who deny the nation and its people the latitude to good life and productive living.

As usual, on the list this year were people of proven track record and integrity and thus deserving of the honors. On the other side of the pendulum, there still exists the manifestation of favors and stack politics in the recognition of excellence. This is not our concern in this piece this week anyway.

We are concerned that up till this moment, Nigeria can aggregate citizens in tens and recognize them with such awards even if they were not deserving of such honors. The process has become so badly abused to the extent that nominations are done by states and other institutions of government.

We are of the view that it is necessary to make national honors award a matter of quota or national spread. This means that every state must nominate awardees and every year even if there are no citizens that distinguished themselves in their various callings. Equally disturbing is the uniformity and absence of measure in the selection of not just the awardees but the category of the award as well.

In my view, this explains the level of seriousness or the lack of it that characterizes the scheme thus reducing its value, essence and purpose. There is the need to, even if states are to nominate awardees, set certain important benchmarks that will clearly present those citizens across the various social strata that are desirous of national recognition.

I am a proponent of devolution of powers as such cannot criticize the involvement of the state level of government in the nomination processes. The issue however is that the nominations must reflect genuine efforts, industry and track record and not honoring those business men and women who have reaped the nation in collusion with public officials.

My take on the national honors is that the time has come when the necessary integrity needs to be restored to the exercise. It is not necessary that every state must benefit from the award as part of the largesse that units of federation share. The selection process needs to be more rigorous and the need for those who are responsible for the selection require some attitudinal transformation to ensure that those who are honored are those who are exceptional. Otherwise, the scheme will continue to be the annual routine that is a mockery of hard work and excellence.

I am yet to see tailors, mechanics and other artisans whose contributions in the running of the community and national economy are recognized. Was Mike Adenuga, for instance, honored on the basis of the number young and not so young Nigerians that are employed in his outfits or was it just a case of replicating an Aliko Dangote in the South West? The way things are going, we wait to see who in the business world would be honored with the second highest national honor of GCON next year. Will that fellow be from the South East or South South?

I am of view that it is necessary and critical to recognize hard work and reward it accordingly. But the way and manner it is being pursued at the moment leaves much to be desired. The implication of the current process, among many other things, is the mixing up of merit with nepotism. And as I said earlier, this is dangerous and waters down the importance of hard work and recognition for excellence. The state as an arbiter in the society which is suppose to treat the rich and the poor alike must retain its integrity by deploying reward and sanction. That is a functional state where law and order are supreme.

When honors are arbitrarily dispensed to citizens, many of which are not worthy, when sanction is deployed selectively between citterns and depending on the status and position of individuals in the society, such a state is certainly in a state of crisis and I think that captures the Nigerian reality. And this must be reversed if we are to get things right.