President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has responded to pressure from lawmakers by conferring the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), Nigeria’s second-highest national honor, on Tajudeen Abbas, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Okay.ng reports.
This development was confirmed in a statement on Friday by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
The decision comes after a debate in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, where lawmakers called on the President to award a higher honor to the Speaker.
Previously, in his 64th Independence Anniversary Speech on October 1, President Tinubu had conferred the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) honor on both the Speaker and the Deputy Senate President.
However, this caused dissatisfaction among members of the House, who saw the distinction as unequal treatment compared to Senate President Godswill Akpabio, who received the GCON.
In the statement, Onanuga explained that the President was swayed by the House’s position and decided to correct the oversight.
“Thus, he has decided to upgrade the Speaker to GCON from CFR, in accordance with the National Order of Precedence,” Onanuga wrote, adding that the Speaker, Senate President, other principal officers of the National Assembly, and the Chief Justice of Nigeria would be formally decorated with their new honors in due course.
The move comes after the House of Representatives rejected the initial CFR honor for Speaker Abbas, accusing the President of showing preferential treatment to the Senate by awarding a higher honor to its President.
