On Thursday, President Bola Tinubu conferred national
honours on 66 Nigerians in recognition of their service to the nation.
Among the recipients announced by the president, as he
addressed a joint session of the senate and house of representatives, was
Labaran Maku, a former minister of information.
Maku was conferred with the national honour of Officer of
the Order of the Niger (OON) — 11 years after he received a higher award of the
Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON).
In 2014, under former President Goodluck Jonathan, Maku was conferred with CON, which ranks above OON in the national honours pecking order.
The CON is typically reserved for senior public servants,
ministers, governors, and other high-ranking figures, while the OON is a tier
below.
The CON ranks above the Officer of the Order of the Federal
Republic (OFR), which itself precedes the OON.
Over 48 hours later, the presidency is yet to comment on the
apparent downgrade in Maku’s national honour.
The presidency also wrongly included Reuben Fasoranti and
Edwin Madunagu among the posthumous awardees of national honours — but later
apologised for the error.
In the past, speakers of the house of representatives were
typically honoured with the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic
(CFR), which ranks just below the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger
(GCON).
However, in October 2024, the house of representatives
rejected the CFR honour proposed for Tajudeen Abbas, its speaker, after the
federal government announced plans that Tinubu would confer it on him.
On Thursday, bowing to pressure from the house, Tinubu
upgraded the recognition and decorated Abbas and Senate President Godswill
Akpabio with the GCON — the second-highest national honour.
WHO IS MAKU?
Maku served as minister of information between 2010 and
2014, first under ex-President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and later under Goodluck
Jonathan.
In 2015, Maku defected from the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) after losing the PDP ticket
for the Nasarawa governorship poll.
He ran for governor on the APGA platform in 2015 and 2019
but lost both elections.h
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