The list is a mixed bag of those truly deserving of the awards while some others are questionable, contends Paul Nwabuikwu
At some point today, before or after you read this piece, hundreds of big men and women – and a sprinkling of ordinary people – will gather at an event in Abuja to be rewarded for their services to the nation – real, imagined or invented.
The occasion is, of course, the National Awards 2022 at the State House where President Muhammadu Buhari will confer the country’s preeminent honours on 437 persons, including seven foreigners.
The publication of the list of awardees has attracted some criticism by some civil society groups who say that it contains too many politicians and political aides at the expense of many deserving Nigerians who are making a difference in many critical spaces outside the headlines.
There is some substance to the criticism. The list is full of persons who are just popular for being popular or who have demonstrated a talent for hanging around the corridors of power for long periods. To be fair, Buhari is not the first president to show a preference for the usual suspects in selecting the awardees. His predecessors didn’t do much better. Besides, this is not just Buhari’s final but, if memory serves me right, it is also the first National Awards event under his watch. So the temptation to do last minute favours to some “patriots” whose contributions to national progress are only known to a few privileged residents of the Villa is quite understandable.
Besides, there’s the bureaucracy-tinged history of the awards. The tradition, for what it’s worth, is that the nation’s top politicians, judges, civil servants and other pillars of the rickety establishment should be included among the recipients. But of course, presidents have some room for maneuver. For instance, Buhari, like Obasanjo, is not famous for generosity towards his enemies. So it is not surprising that former Senate President Bukola Saraki, will not be among those whose citations will be read to loud applause today.
But let’s not be cynical. There are also highly deserving persons among the recipients whose inclusion has attracted widespread approval and quite a few cheers due to their significant personal accomplishments, well known contributions – or both.
Among them are two remarkable women. The first is Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, two-time Minister of Finance; the first female Minister of Foreign Affairs; former Managing Director of the World Bank; former Chair of Gavi, the Global Vaccine Alliance and currently the first woman and African to be elected Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Okonjo-Iweala was the head of the Obasanjo Economic Team which achieved a historic debt deal, implemented comprehensive and impactful economic reforms, ended the decades-long brain drain and left the economy in such good shape that Nigeria got through the 2008 global recession better than many western countries. Those reforms and the additional ones she led under Jonathan remain the sturdy foundation of any serious efforts to grow and strengthen the country’s economy. At the WTO, Okonjo-Iweala has continued her winning run. Barely a year after she resumed duties, her team broke the over two decades-long deadlock and finally achieved a highly critical global agreement on fisheries – in addition to other accomplishments.
Also awarded a GCON is a member of that high achieving Economic Team: Hajiya Amina Mohammed, former Environment Minister and twice elected Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, the highest-ranking Nigerian in the history of the global body. She is strong pillar of the UN system who has earned the respect of stakeholders – and goodwill for Nigeria.
This year’s National Awards is another opportunity to reflect on the precarious health of patriotism in the land. Outside the privileged circles of people in government, relatives of people in government, government contractors, friends of government and those who speak for government, patriotism and its associated virtues are not easy to find. It is no exaggeration to say that patriotism has become a dirty, hated word in Nigeria. George Orwell once said that the distance between the ordinary Englishman and elitist poets had become so wide that the word poetry “would disperse a crowd quicker than a firehose”. In Nigeria today, the public attitude to patriotism is arguably worse. Anyone making a case for patriotism – love of your country and the desire to defend it, according to the Oxford dictionary – is liable to be mocked for unmitigated foolishness.
And yet, despite the nation’s many failures which is inspiring many Nigerians to seek refuge in foreign lands and ethnic nationalism, patriotism continues to beat in some exceptional hearts.
Victor Moses is one. The son of a pastor, his parents lost their lives during one of the many religious riots in Kaduna. They must have died especially gruesome deaths, given the savagery that defines such incidents. Heartbroken and disoriented, he found himself in the UK on asylum, some kind relatives having paid his way. He ended up with a foster family in South London. His soccer talent was discovered and he bloomed, making quick progress at the national level.
After playing for England at the under-16, under-17, under-19 and under-21 levels, Victor did something that will never make sense to millions of Nigerians; he chose the Super Eagles over English national team. He made his debut in 2012 and for six years, Moses, known for his passionate, hard tackling style, was one of the most important members of the team.
The story of the courageous humanity of Imam Abdullahi Abubakar who saved 262 fleeing Christians from certain death during an attack by suspected Fulani herdsmen on a village in Plateau State in June 2018 is also well known. He hid the women in his house and the men in the local mosque and despite the threat of injury or worse, he refused to give them up. At a ceremony organised by the US embassy in his honour, Imam Abubakar explained his motivation in simple, profound words: “God created human beings and made them into different tribes, different colours, different shapes and put us together in the same place so that we can co-exist with one another”.
There are many other such stories around the country, incredible tales of ordinary Nigerians who risked so much and in some cases, like Joseph Blankson, a young father of two in Rivers State who drowned on his 13th attempt after rescuing 12 persons, sacrificed their lives for other Nigerians.
What inspired these persons to give so much and risk so much with no expectation of reward? Beyond physical courage, I suspect that their conception of Nigeria simply flies high above the many things wrong with the country, yet reaches down to honour the profound accident of geography, commerce and politics left behind by Frederick Lugard and other Nigerians with whom they share the messy inheritance.
Nwabuikwu is a member of THISDAY Editorial Board
