The conferment of national honours last week once again raises questions about the direction of public policy as well as the health of the republic. Coinciding with the conferment of national honours is the release of the 2014 Mo Ibrahim governance index. Sadly, the index rated Nigeria as one of the worst governed countries in Africa. In the report, Nigeria is rated 45.8 per cent lower than the African average (55.5 per cent) and ranked 37th out of 52 in the overall governance scale.
There will of course be disputes about the methodology used in compiling the index. Nevertheless, it unfortunately confirms a widely held perception. This is why the preponderance of people from the public sector in the national honours list is perplexing. For if they had done their work diligently, a major oil producer which is also the largest economy in Africa will not be scoring so low on every major index of governance.
The widely held perception that the list has overtime been devalued cannot therefore be dismissed with a wave of the hand. There is something to be perturbed about if venerated individuals such as the illustrious Chinua Achebe, Gani Fawehinmi as well as Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka have declined the award in the past.
For a national honour should be a defining moment in the life of a person. It should culminate a lifetime of achievement. It is something to aspire for. And the recipient should be a worthy role model for succeeding generations. It ought not to be devalued into a run-of-the-mill chieftaincy title caviarly dished out for reasons of political expediency.
The template set is clearly wrong. For a start, no one should be given an award for holding a particular post. An award should come, if it comes at all, only after a successful tour of duty embedded with outstanding performance beyond the call of duty. Only a handful of those on last week’s list come anywhere near meeting this criteria. In the past, worthy figures such as Dr. Francis Akanu Ibiam, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Margaret Ekpo, Sir Ahmadu Bello met this criteria. That they are not being replicated is cause for concern!
There were of course good choices. For example, the belated recognition of the designer of the National Flag and the valiant taxi driver whose honesty aroused suppressed pride in a nation. They were however too few and far between. This is because the list was so unwieldy that quality is bound to be compromised.
Finally, in view of recent events we also have to revisit the issue of post humus awards. It beats the imagination that the saintly Dr. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh was not given one of the highest national honours post humously. This is the consensus across all classes and ethnic compositions. For she averted a national calamity. And then how about the living? For example, Dr. Morris Ibeawuchi, first made contact with Patrick Sawyer the index Ebola case patient, continued to treat him, got infected from doing his job, got sick, survived and is back on his job.
To have excluded names such as his from the list shows how devalued the national honours has become. It is time to start anew with the re-composition of the quality of the committee who decide the recipients.