President Bola Tinubu conferred the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) award on Labaran Maku, a former information minister and supervising minister of defence, on Thursday.
This honour comes 11 years after President Goodluck Jonathan
conferred on him the more prestigious Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) award.
Maku was serving as a minister in Jonathan’s administration and was planning to contest in the Nasarawa State governorship election.
After getting the award, Maku
told journalists on October 30, 2014, that the honour would help the state if he became governor.
It is not the only oddity in the national honours award list. FIJ earlier reported how Professor Bolaji Akinyemi’s name appeared in the list of beneficiaries for the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) honour, an award he had earlier bagged in 2014.
Maku’s 2014 CON honour is the fourth most prestigious award in Nigeria, only behind the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR), Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) and Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR).
It is often awarded to state governors, exceptional legislators, executive cabinet members, and members of the public who are considered outstanding.
After the CON, the award that follows is the Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR), an award reserved for civilians who have shown great leadership and achievements as Nigerians. It is the highest award for non-public office holders.
The OON award comes in sixth place as the second-highest award for non-public office holders.
FIJ found that the National Honours Act, 1964 , vests record-keeping in the hands of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).
The Act also distinguishes honours as being of two kinds; Order of the Niger and Order of the Federal Republic.
“There are hereby established two Orders of Dignity which shall be known respectively as the Order of the Federal Republic and the Order of the Niger (and are hereafter in this warrant referred to as ‘the Orders’),” the Act reads.
Maku’s CON and OON are both of the same kind, although the Act does not state that a recipient can hold two if they are different kinds. It does say one must forfeit a lower award in the event they get a higher one.
Documented under ‘Consequences of promotion in rank’ are three steps for recipients to take.
A person appointed to any rank of an order shall cease to hold any lower rank of the same Order to which he may previously have been appointed, and cease to be entitled to use the insignia and initials of any such lower rank, and forthwith deliver up any such insignia to or in accordance with the direction of the Secretary to the Federal Government.
The Act, however, does not say anything about recipients getting lower ranks.
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