The presidential candidate of the Labour Party(LP) in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, Thursday, 31 July, 2025, called on the Federal Government to confer national honours on productive Nigerians, not politicians as being currently done, reports thegazellenews.com
Obi stated this on Thursday, 31 July, 2025 in Abuja while speaking during the public presentation of The Chronicles of a Legend, a biography of business mogul and philanthropist, Gabriel Igbinedion.
Obi, a former Governor of Anambra State, called for a reform in how the prestigious national awards are bestowed.
“The Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, GCFR, and Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, GCON, should be for entrepreneurs and productive people, not politicians..We have to change the way we honour people,” Obi said.
He praised Igbinedion’s contributions to aviation, education, and the preservation of Nigeria’s cultural heritage, insisting that achievers like him deserve more celebration and recognition from the nation.
“We live in a country where we celebrate people who are supposed not to be celebrated. If we did, the celebration we are giving him today would have been more,” he added.
While highlighting Igbinedion’s legacy as a major employer of labour, Obi said, “If we had been a country that was productive, over 20 million Nigerians would have been employed because Igbinedion employed over 17,000 Nigerians.”
