National Honours: Entertainers boycott Jonathan’s event

Just like Professor Chinua Achebe who disgraced and rubbished the The Presidency for the second time by blatantly rejecting the national honour of CFR bestowed on him, several top entertainers from both the music and movie sectors also boycotted the presentation ceremony, which held in Abuja, on Monday.
Unlike the previous editions, where colleagues and friends of the honourees usually accompany them to the event, this year’s outing was hugely boycotted by most of the colleagues and associates of the five Nollywood stars that were controversially honoured.
An angry top entertainer who spoke with us on the condition of anonymity said they decided to keep away from the ceremony because of the flawed nature of the list Mr. President drew for the entertainment industry.
“How can you come to a creative industry as big as Nigeria and decided to honour just one segment of that industry. Is Nollywood the only creative industry in Nigeria? What about musicians, painters and several others who are tirelessly working behind the scenes in the industry? National honours is not national jamboree, which is what Mr. President has turned it to and we do not want to associate ourselves with the charade that recently took place in Abuja, hence our collective decision to boycott it. Again, we expected Jonathan to honour more of veterans and pioneers in the industry and not those that danced and campaigned for him in the last presidential elections. It’s called national honours and not compensatory awards that you just dash out to friends and cronies. If this type of anomaly happens next year, we will stage a nationwide protest”, he threatened.
“And to further show how ill prepared Mr. President and his team are, they could not even get enough medals to present to all the awardees in Abuja. That tells you that the whole processes starting from selection to presentation were completely skewed,” submitted another enraged veteran in Nollywood.
While reacting, Emeka Rising Ibeh, the chairman, Lagos State Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), completely disagreed with the submission of his senior colleagues. He thanked President Goodluck Jonathan for deeming it fit to honour his colleagues. “Why the unnecessary noise about the choice of most of the honourees. They richly deserved this honour, those angry should wait for their own time and stop complaining. All of us cannot be honoured at the same time, last year, it was Aki, this year, Pawpaw, it’s turn by turn,” he argued.
Five Nollywood stars, Olu Jacobs, Kanayo O Kanayo, Stephanie Okereke, Genevieve Nnaji and Osita Iheme were among the 365 Nigerians awarded national honours by Mr. President in Abuja.