By Gloria Ikibah
The House of Representatives has passed for second reading a bill to enact the Nigerian National Honours and Merit Award Commission.
This piece of legislation which seeks to
establish a Commission to regulate matters related to national honours and merit award was sponsored by the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas and Rep. Babajimi Benson.
The bill tittled “A bill for an act to repeal national honours act, Cap. N43 Laws of the federation of Nigeria, 2004 and
Nigerian national merit award act, Cap. N122 Laws of the federation of Nigeria, 2004 and enact the Nigerian national honours and merit award commission to, among other things, provide for
establishment of a commission to regulate matters related to national honours and merit award in Nigeria and for related matters (HB.05).
In his lead debate on Wednesday at plenary, Rep. Benson said that the objectives of the bill is to repeal the Nigerian National Honours Act and the Nigerian National Merit Award Act and enact the Nigerian National Honours and Merit Award Act to establish a single commission that will fuse the functions of the respective Governing Boards and regulate matters pertaining to the National Honours and Merit award.
The highlights of the bill are: “Section 1 which establishes one Commission known as the Nigerian National Honours and Merit Award Commission;Section 2 which establishes one governing Board with membership that reflect the federal character of the country;Section 5 which prescribes the functions of the commission;Section 7 which provides for nomination and disqualification.
“The bill which is contained in sub section 3 of section 7 makes it possible for a person to loose and be divested of an honour or award previously given to him if at any time he falls within those disqualified under this proposed Bill.
“Section 22 is the repeal section while section while section 24 prescribes the offences”.
Benson further explained that under the Nigerian National Honours Act, the main objective of the National Honours is to recognize members of the society who have made immerse contributions to national development as incentives to do more and to encourage other members of the society to contribute to nation building.
According to him, it is a way of the leadership of the country tell the citizens that there is no alternative to hard work, honesty, integrity and excellence.
“A National Honour is the highest honour a citizen can receive from his country for service to his country. On the flip side, under section 1 sub-section 1 of the Nigerian National Merit Award Act, the Merit Award is to be given to deserving citizens of Nigeria for intellectual and academic attainments that contribute to national endeavours in science, technology, medicine, the humanities, arts and culture and any other field of human endeavour whatsoever.
“From the provisions of both existing laws that their objectives are to recognize and reward excellence in whatever manner. Both the Nigerian National Honours Act and the Merit award Act established a governing Board with staff who must be paid salaries, allowances and other benefits.
“A careful scrutiny of both Acts established the fact that there is no function so heavy and cumbersome in respect of nomination of persons for national honours and merit award that one governing Board cannot handle especially at a time that all stakeholders are ad idem with the proposal of merging government bodies that perform similar functions to reduce cost of governance thereby making available more resources to disseminate dividends of democracy to the citizens.Also, it does appears that both Acts have become obsolete.
“While the Nigerian National Honours Act was enacted in 1964, the Merit Awards Act was enacted in 1992. It is therefore not surprising that certain provisions that will give credibility to the National Honours and National Merit Award were not contemplated.
“For instance, both Acts did not contemplate a situation where the Honours and the merit award are erroneously given to persons of questionable character or persons whose character has become questionable over time”.
The House passed the bill and referred it to its Commitee on Intergovernmental affairs.