The following post is contributed by Nnadozie Onyekuru, who is a graduate student of global affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He previously studied at the University of Maiduguri in Nigeria and Thomas Aquinas College in California.
The recent posthumous conferment of Nigeria’s highest honors on Moshood Abiola and Gani Fawehinmi is a cheerful break for followers of events in Africa’s most populous country. Last week, President Buhari stunned Nigerians by announcing his decision to honor the late Abiola with the Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR) title typically reserved for the country’s heads of state. Abiola was the presumed winner of what is widely regarded as Nigeria’s best conducted elections about a score and five years ago. There is a noteworthy reference to his travails in Kofi Annan’s memoir, ‘Interventions: A Life in War and Peace.’ June 12, the anniversary of the eventually annulled elections, will now replace May 29 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day, according to the press statement announcing the president’s decision.
There is already a debate over the motive and constitutionality of the president’s act but few Nigerians dispute its merits. Even more uncontested is the president’s simultaneous award of the nation’s second highest honor, Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), to the late human rights defender, Gani Fawehinmi. Gani was a tireless and fearless advocate for truth and justice in the Nigerian polity. The mention of his name elicited one of the loudest ovations during President Clinton’s address to Nigerian legislators in 2000. Such unequivocal appreciation by the nation’s political class speaks a thousand words as does the jubilation surrounding the events of the past week. President Buhari’s decision to honor these late countrymen is a nod to the part of the Nigerian anthem that speaks of our heroes not laboring in vain and a fitting validation of the saying that inspires the name of this blog. The arc which bends towards justice also runs through Nigeria.