San Nkire Berates President Jonathan’ Methods of giving National Awards
A member of the Board of Trustees of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Sam Nkire, has described President Goodluck Jonathan’s method of giving out the National Awards as reckless and partisan.
Nkire, who stated this in Abuja on Monday, claimed that over 80 per cent of the awardees were Peoples Democratic Party members, loyalists or friends, adding that the way National Honours were being dished out to cronies, it wouldn’t be long before every PDP member would become a recipient.
The former National Chairman of the Progressive Peoples Alliance said National honours should be the reward for achievement and not incentive for achievement.
Nkire said this year’s award ceremony should have been pushed forward, considering the spate of insurgency in the country among what he described as other unfulfilled dreams of the people.
According to him, this year’s National Honours award should have waited until such a time that the nation’s numerous challenges were sorted out, especially with the whereabouts of the Chibok girls still unknown.
The APC BoT member said the award ceremony coming at this time, and the awardees being largely for members of PDP family, the National Honour had become more partisan than national and had also lost its glory and respect from both national and international observers.
Nkire added that it was very wrong for Jonathan and the PDP to play politics with everything, including National Honours Awards, adding that “award bonanza” would not change the minds of Nigerians from the fact that the PDP had done nothing but wasted the nation’s resources in the last 15 years.
