By Anietie Ekong

The editorial comment of a national newspaper of Sunday, September 25, titled, “The Abuse of Honorary Degrees,” has left many admirers of the newspaper wondering what their motive is in such sanctimonious editorializing that clearly targeted some Nigerians for attacks based on spurious premises. Bereft of logic and sound reasoning, the editorial comment, which should be the newspaper’s official position on issues, presents a good case study in self-negation, contradiction and double-speak.

According to the paper, “nothing can be more cynical than bestowing honour on public officials just because they hold specific offices where big patronage could be dispensed. It is in this light that we view the recent award of honourary degrees in Management Sciences by the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) to the duo of Godswill Akpabio, governor of Akwa Ibom State, and Diezani Allison-Madueke, the Petroleum Minister, as we fail to understand the criteria that recommended them to the NDA authorities, an institution established for training our military officers.”

For the avoidance of doubt, the NDA, on Saturday, September 17, 2011, during her 22nd convocation ceremony, honoured five prominent Nigerians with the award of honourary doctorate degrees. They are the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, the governor of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio; former Minister of Education, Senator Jubril Aminu; Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke; and the National Security Adviser, General Owoye Andrew Azazi (rtd). The citation of the honourees at the event left no one in doubt that they were eminently qualified for the awards.

We fail to understand the criteria (to borrow the phrase from them) which the newspaper had used in marking out for its acerbic attacks on Akpabio and Alison-Madueke. While one may ignore the obvious ethnic bent (both are prominent indigenes of the South-south zone), it is remarkable that the same newspaper had celebrated the awards to Akpabio and Mrs Alison-Madueke with generous photo splash on its cover pages on Sunday, September 18, and Monday, September 19.

In what would indisputably make them qualify for a gold medal in contradiction and self-denial, the newspaper, on Monday, September 26, in a features story at page 25, titled: “Akpabio: Another Feather to His Cap,” further celebrated the award on the Akwa Ibom governor.

How the same newspaper which published this story can turn round in another breadth to claim not to understand the criteria for the award is baffling, to say the least, and smacks of dubiety. It is all the more befuddling for it to have cast aspersion on the NDA by insinuating that the institution may “have chosen to shamelessly commercialize their honourary degrees.” But it is comforting that the same newspaper the following day after the editorial also disabused the minds of its readers about any pecuniary consideration for the award.

According to it: “To start with, the NDA is not a political institution, so no one can accuse it of political bias. As a school for strategic planning, it involves in systematic study of the environments, situations, persons or groups. The results from those studies… determine the action taken by the institution. In the words of an officer, NDA’s strategic and intensive intelligence located Akpabio’s uncommon achievements spanning education, health and infrastructure amongst others”.

Continuing, in justifying the award by the NDA on Akpabio, the newspaper further said: “As a national institution, NDA… monitored all the governors and became convinced based on Akpabio’s verifiable achievements; his nationalistic approach to governance; his transparent style of leadership, that a true patriot is born.”

It is instructive that the newspaper editors have severally visited Akwa Ibom and can attest to the uncommon transformation that the state has witnessed in the last four years. Does it not then smack of mischief that the newspaper published this and have first hand knowledge of the development in Akwa Ibom but still claimed it did not know the criteria for the award or read dubious motives for it?

But perhaps the most revealing of the motives of the newspaper in the dubious editorial is that, just last year, the newspaper, in an event which featured world leaders and presidents, honoured Akpabio as an “Emerging Tiger.” Was it also induced to give the award to the governor and several other recipients? Or is the newspaper trying to tell the world that only they have the exclusive rights to bestow awards on Nigerians and any other institution that dares into this “exclusive” territory stands the risk of being discredited? Indeed, with the ill-informed editorial, this newspaper has elevated its editorial inconsistency to high level and has fallen victim of the Nigerian malaise of double standard which should not plague a respected media institution.

For Akpabio, awards from media and educational institutions have come in torrents. Thisday, Nigerian Tribune, National Daily, Daily Independent, City People magazine, Global Excellence magazine, and even their parent body, the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), have, at one time or the other, honoured the governor for his development strides in Akwa Ibom State.

He had also bagged honourary doctorate degrees from the University of Calabar, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, University of Uyo and Madonna University, Okija, Anambra State. He is also a fellow of Federal Polytechnic, Kazaure and College of Education, Bichi. Could all these institutions have been wrong in their assessment of Akpabio?

But the greatest awards that Akpabio has bagged, in my estimation, has been the appreciation by Akwa Ibom people for the numerous projects that dot the landscape of the state and executed in the last four years.

* Ekong is a Special Assistant on Media to Governor Godswill Akpabio.