Why NNMA produced only 79 laureates since 1979 ― Board Chairman

The Chairman, Governing Board of the Nigerian National Merit Award (NNMA), Professor Shekarau Aku has clarified why only 79 Nigerians have so far been conferred with the prestigious award of Nigerian National Merit (NNOM) about 40 years since the establishment of the Board in 1979.

He explained that many Nigerians apply annually for the award and that the rigorous process of selection from the committee of experts and subsequent recommendation to the President of Nigeria, limit the number of recipients to about two in a year.

Aku made the clarification on Thursday at the 2022 First Award Winner’s Lecture entitled: “Informal Art Education: Lessons from the Harmattan Workshops” delivered by Mr Bruce Onobrakpeya at the University of Abuja.

Onobrakpeya, now 90 years old was conferred with the NNOM award in 2017 by President Muhammadu Buhari in the category of humanities alongside Professor Adesoji Adesina who won the award for his works in the Engineering/Technology category.

The nonagenarian, in his presentation, called for the promotion of informal education in Nigeria, especially informal art education in view of the potential for job creation, saying the Harmattan Workshops, an informal art school he founded in Agbarha-motor, Delta State in 1998, has helped to train people who would “never have been able to acquire skills unless within the confines of art an school.

Speaking further on the NNOM award, the NNMA Board chairman, Aku, said it is distinct from the National honours award and a separate order of dignity that specifically aims at recognizing, promoting and rewarding academic achievements and other academic best practices.

He, however, said the NNOM Award is not an exclusive preserve of the academics alone, as non-academics who have distinguished themselves in their chosen fields have also received the award for their innovations and inventions that have contributed to national development, a number of times.

Aku said: “This is the award winner’s lecture. He was awarded in 2017. Everybody who is awarded National Merit Award is required to give at least one lecture to show to the public that he really had done enough work to justify the award given him is on merit.

“The National Merit Award has been conferred on 79 people since 1979. We are about 40 years now. That gives us on average, two awardees every year. Some years, we don’t even have anybody. This does not mean we do not have applications.

“For example, last year we had 30 applications and only two were selected. The previous year, we did not have any winners.

‘We advertised, and you submit all you have done to justify this. The award is in four different fields namely- Engineering/Technology, Humanities, including Education and Arts, and Sciences, which includes applied Sciences Pure Sciences and Medicine.

“There are also four specialised committees, when you apply, your application goes to each of the committees and each committee have experts drawn from private and public practice who go through the applications. If they do not have enough expertise within the committee, we use external assessors who go through the works and tell you whether the work justifies the National Merit Award.

“It is after the assessment that recommendation goes to the Board from each of the four committees while the Board takes its decision and makes recommendations to Mr President. It is Mr President who gives the final approval of the awardees. So, it is not the Board that decides,” he said.

Nigerian Tribune, however, gathered that at the inception of the NNOM award in 1979, four Nigerians who are all late now were conferred with the revered award, including Prof. Chinua Achebe (Humanities), Prof. Teslim Olawale Elias (Humanities), Prof. Thomas Lambo (Medicine) and Abubakar Imam (Humanities).

Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Dr George Akume, called for recommitment towards recognition of the contributions of the NNMA and its laureates to the overall socioeconomic, socio-political as well as scientific and technological development of the country.

According to him, the award is given to people who have made unique contributions in their fields and is designed to encourage excellence among Nigerians.

Akume who was represented by Prof. Babatunde Bolaji said the lecture was aimed at providing first-hand insights into the issues that the Laureates of the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) consider crucial to national development.

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