President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to expand the list of persons penciled down for this year’s National Honours, to include members of the opposition parties, who have paid their dues.
A young member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Kaduna State, Jabir T. Usman, who made the call on Friday, said the National Youth Leader of the PDP, Prince Muhammad Kadade Suleiman, deserved to be on the list given the feats achieved by the latter.
Usman said deserving members of the opposition parties should have been included in this year’s list of National Honours as being done when the PDP was in power at the centre.
“It’s a long established fact, when the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was at the helm of Nigeria’s affairs, the conferement of the ‘National Honours Award’ isn’t an exclusive exercise; confined to the people in government, or those who have direct connection to the government. The PDP evidently bestowed it based on merit and competency, to those who excelled and made remarkable achievements in different fields of endeavour, regardless of political inclination.
“In order not to be wrongly misquoted, I am not in anyway accusing the present government of being biased in the selection of those who were recently selected for the ‘National Honours Award’ or berating the capacity of the recipients.
“My only concern is that, a great icon on the Nigerian political landscape, Prince Muhammad Kadade Suleiman, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) National Youth Leader, surprisingly, he isn’t among the awardees, despite the obvious fact that he merited it.
“It is common knowledge, during the PDP era, they granted the national honours award even to the people in the opposition parties,” he said.
He added that he was rooting for Prince Kadade because, according to him, the PDP National Youth Leader has written his name in the ‘Guiness Book of Record’ as the first Youth Leader of a national party in the whole of Africa, who assumed the position at the age of 25.
“His emergence on this position, honestly reawakens the youths, giving them the confidence and impression that they really have a major stake in the Nigeria’s polity,” Usman added.
LEADERSHIP reports that President Buhari has approved the conferment of National Honours in different ranks on some eminent Nigerians for their contribution to national development of Nigeria.
The investiture ceremony is scheduled to take place at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja on Tuesday, October 11, 2022.
