Abuja Gets Set For 2014 National Awards Monday Written by Itunu Ajayi, Abuja • Awardees Thank God, Jonathan PREPARATIONS are in top gear for the conferment of national award on some Nigerians Monday. A visit to the Abuja International Conference Centre Saturday, where President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan would perform the presentation ceremony, revealed a new look of the centre. The centre is gradually assuming the national colours of white and green. The Abuja Investment, under whose jurisdiction the property is, was on ground to ensure that all the facilities like the air conditioning systems, the lighting and others are in place and that they are all functioning properly. The President had approved a list of 305 “Nigerians and friends of Nigeria” to be honored in the 2013-2014 National Honors Award, billed for tomorrow, September 29, 2014. Two Nigerians were made the Grand Commander of the Niger (GCON) in the previous two years, but no one made the list this time around. Twenty-four people will be honoured with the prestigious Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR). Some of them include Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah, Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Usman Jubrin, Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Adesola Amosu, acting Police IG, Sulieman Abba, National Security Adviser and Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd). Others are Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Ayo Oke, the Head of Service of the Federation Danladi Kifasi, a retired public servant Chief Philip Asiodu and Chief of Staff to the President, Brig. Gen. Jones Arogbofa (rtd). Fifty-nine people, one of whom is the All Progressives Congress’ (APC) National Chairman, John Odigie Oyegun, and Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Victor Umeh, will be honoured under the Commander of the Niger (CON) category. The event itself is being organised by the ministry of special duties who, The Guardian was informed, contracted out the decorations of both the interior and the exterior of the centre to event managers and other specific areas to be managed by experts. The decoration of the interior of the centre and the stage was ongoing when The Guardian visited and a pocket of the men of the civil defence were around the cent, apart from the men of the Nigerian Army and other private security operatives stationed at the entrance of the centre. The Nigeria Television Authority NTA has also begun to move in some of their equipment. At the Agura Hotel, where awardees and journalists are expected to be accredited was a beehive of activities, as the accreditation process which commenced on Friday and is scheduled to come to a close by 8 pm today (Sunday) was going without any hitch. Apart from journalists, who were seen waiting to be accredited, awardees did not have any issue getting accredited. One of those doing the accreditation told The Guardian that they were still waiting for the list of journalists to be forwarded to them before they could commence accreditation for the media. Some of the journalists said they were told to wait until 5 pm when the leader of the accreditation team would be on ground to attend to them. The Guardian ran into one of the members of the award committee but he declined any comment because according to him, he is just a member of one of the sub committees. He said the larger committee is being chaired by Justice Belgore (but he wouldn’t say which of the Belgores). He, however, said other sub committees had to be put in place to handle some specific areas like entertainment, security, movement and other logistics. He said he does not have the capability to talk officially since he is not the chair of his own subcommittee; but in all, he said things are going on as planned. In a telephone conversation with Erelu Olusola Obada, a former deputy governor of Osun State, who is one of the recipients, she expressed gratitude to God and the president, noting that her being honoured is an indication that all her contributions to national development did not go unnoticed. Her words: “It is a great honour for me and I give God the glory. I dedicate the award to God and I appreciate the president, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, for conferring this great national honours award on me. I pray for the success of Nigeria in all areas of human endeavour — economic, peace, security and stability. And once again I want to say this is a recognition that money cannot buy and I just give God the glory”. She said her political future in the ruling party is in the hands of God and she would be ready to serve in any capacity as God dictates in the future. A political scientist, Kunle Yusuff, also a recipient, told The Guardian via the telephone that anyone being conferred with such an award must have contributed immensely to the growth of the nation. “The award is excellent and we pray to almighty God to give us strength to also serve the nation the more. It is challenging and I know the country would be expecting more from us and by the grace of God, we will not disappoint God and the president who felt we deserve the award.” GUARDIAN SEPTEMBER 28, 2014
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 05:29:40 +0000
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