President Goodluck Jonathan will con­fer the 2013/2014 National Honours on 305 “Nigerians and friends of Ni­geria” today. The award ceremony, which will hold at the International Confer­ence Centre, Abuja, is a public recognition of those who have distinguished themselves in various fields of endeavour, and whose lives have positively affected their fellow citizens and humanity in general. Awardees are be­lieved to be persons who have been found wor­thy in both character and individual accom­plishments to deserve the honour.
A major distinguishing feature of this year’s award is that for the first time in two years, there is no recipient for the award of the Grand Commander of the Niger (GCON). However, according to the approval contained in the honours’ list, 24 people are to be honoured in the prestigious category of Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR). Among those to be honoured in this category are the four service chiefs: Air Marshal Alex Badeh (Chief of De­fence Staff); Lt.Gen. Kenneth Minimah (Chief of Army Staff); Rear Admiral Usman Jubrin (Chief of Naval Staff) and Air Vice Marshal Adesola Amosu (Chief of Air Staff). Also to be honoured with the award of CFR are the Acting Inspector General of Police, Sulei­man Abba, and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.)
A breakdown of other categories shows that 59 people, including the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC),Chief John Odigie Oyegun; Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko; the defeated gover­norship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the recent Osun gubernatorial election, Senator Iyiola Omisore; eight serv­ing ministers and seven state Chief Judges are recipients of the Commander of the Niger (CON).
The National Chairman of the All Pro­gressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Chief Victor Umeh; MD/CEO of Diamond Bank, Alex Otti; the Secretary of the 2014 National Conference,Valerie Azinge and the Comptrol­ler General of the Immigration Service, David Parradang, bagged the Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR) Award. Also, 53 other persons are to be honoured in the category of Member of the Federal Republic (MFR). They include the publisher of The Guardian, Mrs. Maiden Alex-Ibru, a veteran journalist, Mrs.Moji Makanjuola and the National President of the National Council of Women Societies, Nke­chi Mba. The list of 55 people to receive the Member of the Niger (MON) award is domi­nated by sportsmen and women. Prominent among them are Blessing Okagbare, a gold medalist at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, and the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the National U-17 football team, Asisat Oshoala. A traffic warden, Cor­poral Solomon Dauda and two presidential stewards, Michael Onuh and Oba Michael Adesina, also made the list.
While we heartily congratulate all the recipients on the honour being bestowed on them today, it is necessary to remind them that this public recognition of their good works should be reciprocated with exemplary lives that are worthy of emu­lation. They also should be mindful of the fact that should any of them be found wanting in their conduct in future, the awards that they are receiving today may be withdrawn. It is on record that the fed­eral government has had reasonable cause in the past to withdraw national honours that had been conferred on some people.
We must say without equivocation that as in recent years, some of the names on this year’s honours list are not worthy of the recognition. The criteria that quali­fied them for the honour are clearly lost on many Nigerians. It is regrettable that in spite of complaints by well meaning Nigerians who urged the government to carefully vet the prospective names for the National Honours, and despite the presi­dent’s assurances last year to redefine the criteria used in selecting the awardees, this year’s event has again come short of expectation. The conferment of the awards, in some respects, will not be the inspiring national ceremony that it ought to be. In short, we find the conferment of national honours on some of the awardees simply distasteful.
While some of the recipients richly de­serve the honour and the accolades that normally attend it, that cannot be said of many others who are public cynosures of vices, and not virtues. For instance, there are some politicians and judges of questionable character, who have graft and other grievous criminal allegations against them, on this list.
It needs repeating that National Honours award is a significant and profound event that should take into due cognizance the character, commitment and antecedents of every potential awardee, and the im­pact that such public recognition would have on public morality and humanity in general. National honours should be given to people with specific ennobling acts of honour, sacrifice or uncommon courage that are capable of inspiring the citizenry to greater heights.
It is, therefore, time to redefine and reassess the criteria. We maintain that the only way the National Honours can remain relevant, respectable, dignified and credible is to award them on merit. It should not be based on political, ethnic or religious considerations. That is the only way that the awards can serve the de­sired purpose of pointing out outstanding Nigerians that are worthy of emulation in the country. It is only when it is such deserving persons that are honoured that Nigeria can make sustained progress as a nation as other Nigerians aspire to copy their worthy examples.

National Honours Award: Time to redefine the criteria