The Centenary Award presented to 100 notable Nigerians by President Goodluck Jonathan on the occasion of the nation’s one hundred years of amalgamation has continued to generate comments from Nigerians.
While, some of the awardees like Professor Wole Soyinka, the families late Chief Gani Fawehinmi and MKO Abiola rejected the awards, some other Nigerians including former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari accepted the award.
With the controversy still raging, the former military ruler on Saturday gave reasons for accepting the centenary award.
Speaking in an online interview with SaharaReporters, Buhari said he received the award from President Goodluck Jonathan at Nigeria’s centenary anniversary because of its significance.
Buhari, however, did not state whether or not a past leader should receive such an award, if there had been disclosures of his wrongdoing while in office, when asked if a former military dictator, the late Gen. Sani Abacha, deserved such award.
He described the issuance of the centenary awards as “the beauty of the system” inside Nigeria. He said honouring leaders with awards should “not be a difficult thing,” if past leaders declare their assets, before and afterwards.
He however said, the Federal Government under the leadership of Jonathan and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party were not doing enough in fighting corruption.
He said if there is sincerity, fighting corruption is not a difficult thing.
He said, “If Nigeria is serious about finding which of its leaders at which level is corrupt or not, it’s not a difficult thing.
“This PDP government with President Jonathan has a problem of fishing out corrupt officials.”
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