The 50 distinguished Nigerians, or their representatives, were presented with 18 carat gold medals at a state banquet in the Presidential Villa on Thursday night.
Among the country‘s post-Civil War rulers, only two former heads of state, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar made the list.
The others, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and the late Gen. Murtala Muhammed, failed to make the list, leading to questions over the yardstick employed by Jonathan in approving the list.
The fact that Babangida and Buhari are challenging Jonathan in the 2011 presidential elections led to insinuations that the omission of their names might be politically motivated.
However, in an apparent reaction to the insinuations while presenting the medals to the recipients, Jonathan explained that the former heads of state were selected because of specific achievements they recorded, and not because they once held the position of head of state.
He said, ”Normally, the anniversary banquet is not meant for speech making, but this is a unique ceremony.
”When this anniversary celebration was coming up, we felt that it was good to recognise 50 people, who had one thing or the other to do with the realisation of the country‘s independence.
”But we also felt that if all of us had been complacent, we would not have reached the point where we are today as a country.
”It was extremely difficult for us to select the 50 – I know there were protests – and I plead with those protesting to bear with us.
”We are recognising these former heads of state not because they were former heads of state: look at Abubakar, who served for just 11 months and handed over to a democratically elected civilian government.
”He could have stayed on; there were serious pressures on him to stay on.
”As for Obasanjo, Biafra handed over to him in the war field, and he handed over to a civilian government for the first time in our history.”
Jonathan stressed that the award was not because of the whole achievements of the selected individuals, but due to specific achievements highlighted in the awards booklet.
The awards booklet highlighted the reasons given for the selection of the various individuals.
The reasons given for Obasanjo’s selection were as follows:
Obasanjo: He is a Nigerian soldier and an elder statesman. As Commander of the Third Marine Commandoes of the Nigerian Army, he received Biafra‘s instrument of surrender from Maj.-Gen. Phillip Efiong at Amichi, near Nnewi.
He later, honourarily stepped aside for Nigeria‘s then military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon during the final grand surrender at Dodan Barracks, Lagos on Jan. 15, 1970.
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