Did you know that Nigeria has a total of 14 national orders it confers on citizens who have rendered services to the nation, and that the author Chinua Achebe and the lawyer Gani Fawehinmi are among notable Nigerians who turned down national orders that were conferred on them?

Nigerian National Honours are a set of orders and decorations conferred upon Nigerians and friends of Nigeria every year. They were instituted by the National Honors Act No. 5 of 1964, during the First Nigerian Republic, to honour Nigerians who have rendered service to the benefit of the nation.

These honours are distinct from the honours that are part of the country's ancient chieftaincy system, which is a separate (but also legally defined) entity. National Honours are the highest honours or awards that a citizen can receive from his or her country for service to the country. Service to country is when one has done something very good for the country or that makes the country proud. For example, a citizen may receive a national honour for inventing something useful to other citizens, for performing well in an important job, or for writing a brilliant book.

Below are the list of honours, decorations, and medals awarded in Nigeria.

⚫ HONOURS (4)
The Nigerian National Honours, in descending order of importance, are: Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR), Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR), Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR), and Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR)

⚫ ORDER OF THE NIGER (4)
Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), and Member of the Order of the Niger (MON).

⚫ MEDALS (6)
Forces Service Star (FSS), Grand Service Star (GSS), Distinguished Service Star (DSS), Meritorious Service Star (MSS), Command Medal of Honour (CMH), and Command Medal (CM).

The GCFR and GCON are customarily respectively bestowed on former occupants of the office of President of Nigeria and Vice President of Nigeria including former military heads of state of Nigeria and Chiefs of General Staff. The GCON is also customarily bestowed on the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and the President of the Nigerian Senate during their first year in office, while the CON is customarily bestowed on Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria

The Nigerian government decides which citizens get honours. Everyone may not always agree on who deserves national honours. Sometimes the person receiving the honour may decide that he or she does not want it. Here are a few notable Nigerians who rejected national honours that were conferred on them::

◼️CHINUA ACHEBE was one of the foremost creative and seamlessly gifted writers the continent of Africa has ever produced, and widely recognized the world over for his famous masterpiece, ‘Things Fall Apart’ published in 1958, as well as other beautiful works completed by him. However, he was also famous for brazenly rejecting the offer of the National Award of the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) on two different occasions; the first being from the former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2004 and secondly from former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in 2011.

◼️WOLE SOYINKA, a widely notable literary giant whose exploits are recognised the world all over, aside a plethora of awards to his credit, is also a Nobel Laureate Prize winner in Literature, the first Nigerian and African to be so honoured. In 2014, he outrightly rejected his nomination for the Centenary Award by the then administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan due to the fact that a late former Head of State, General Sani Abacha, was also posthumously awarded during the event which did not go down well with the Nobel Laureate.

◼️CHIEF ABDUL-GANIYU OYESOLA FAWEHINMI was a renown Nigerian author, publisher, philanthropist, social critic, human and civil rights activist, lawyer and politician. In 2008, Fawehinmi rejected one of the highest national honours, the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR), as a way of registering his displeasure against the many years of bad governance since Nigeria’s independence.

◼️TAM DAVID-WEST, a former Minister of Petroleum, declined receiving the national honour of Commander of the Order of Niger (CON) which was conferred on him as part of Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary on October 1, 2010. The professor who stated government’s wasteful N10bn budget as one of the reasons for his rejection, also cited the fact that the CON was not appropriate for a citizen of his status who had served meritoriously in government at various capacities, and claimed he was entitled to a national honour of at least Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR).

◼️BAMIDELE FRANCIS ATURU, a Nigerian lawyer and a seasoned human rights activist. Although, he may not have rejected a national award, the fact that he took a very courageous stride to deepen the struggle against military dictatorship in Nigeria by rejecting an award of excellence as the Best Youth Corps member in Niger State, north central Nigeria in 1988, made his own rejection a vital part of this piece. More striking is the fact that he also declined a handshake with the then Military Governor of the state, Colonel Lawan Gwadabe.

Sources: Wikipedia | Opera

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