The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, has criticised the Federal Government’s tradition of awarding national honours to politicians.
Obi, who spoke in Abuja on Thursday during the public presentation of The Chronicles of a Legend, a biography of businessman Gabriel Igbinedion, called for a reform in the criteria for the country’s highest honours.
He said: “The Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, GCFR, and Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, GCON, should be for entrepreneurs and productive people, not politicians. We have to change the way we honour people.”
The former governor of Anambra praised Igbinedion for his contributions to aviation, education, and cultural preservation, insisting that achievers like him deserve more national recognition.
His words: “We live in a country where we celebrate people who are supposed not to be celebrated. If we did, the celebration we are giving him today would have been more.”
Obi described Igbinedion as a major employer of labour, saying: “If we had been a country that was productive, over 20 million Nigerians would have been employed because Igbinedion employed over 17,000 Nigerians.”
His comments come amid public debate on the recent national honours, cash gifts, and housing rewards given to the Super Falcons following their African Cup of Nations triumph.
Many Nigerians have argued that contributors in the education, health, and security sectors deserve equal national recognition.
