President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has conferred the nation’s second highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, on the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this on Friday night in a statement, titled, ‘President Tinubu Confers GCON on House Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas’.
This appeared to have an apparent response to the controversies and heated exchanges between the Senate and the House of Representatives over the Speaker’s eligibility for a higher honour.
In reject the CFR honour on Speaker Abbas, the lawmakers had argued that the House of Representatives was not inferior to the Senate.
In his 64th Independence Anniversary Speech on 1 October, President Tinubu conferred the Commander of the Federal Republic( CFR) on the speaker and the deputy senate president.
*This development led to a debate in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, calling on the President to confer a higher honour on the Speaker.
“President Tinubu was persuaded by the House of Representatives position and has decided to remedy the historical error and oversight.
“Thus, he has decided to upgrade the Speaker to GCON from CFR, in accordance with the National Order of Precedence.
“The speaker, the Senate President, other principal officers of the National Assembly and the Chief Justice of Nigeria will be formally decorated with their new honours later,” the statement read in part.
