Happy New Year!
People commonly start off a New Year refocusing their goals and aspirations and creating plans for the necessary changes and adjustments in order to improve the quality of their lives.
This year, we at Experiencing Nigeria intend to do just that. We would like to dedicate a good majority of our 2022 blog posts to Nigerian Excellence.
The acclaimed Giant of Africa, Nigeria is a country with a diverse population known for their hospitality, their resilience and a penchant for success. It is undeniable that Nigerians irrespective of their chosen field or country excel in whatever they choose to do so there is a lot to celebrate.
The 2020s have been difficult for a lot of us so far. In addition January 2022 ushered in the New Year with a whopping six weeks in its calendar which is frankly very daunting considering January is often wrought with bills and seems to drag on forever! But, we shall not be deterred because thankfully, the 6 weeks of January went by pretty quickly.
The best place to begin our journey to all things Nigerian greatness is with the nation’s highest honours. Largely, the highest of honours conferred on distinguished Nigerians are awards of great exemplary service to the country and are conferred by the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to deserving citizens. Among the nation’s highest honours include Orders and Medals.
There are two categories of honorary Orders which are the Order of the Federal Republic and the Order of the Niger. The Order of the Federal Republic consist of various awards including the Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR), Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR), Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) and Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR). On the other hand, the Order of the Niger consists of various awards such as the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) and the Member of the Order of the Niger (MON). The medals that can be conferred on deserving citizens include Forces Service Star (FSS), Grand Service Star (GSS), Distinguished Service Star (DSS), Meritorious Service Star (MSS), Command Medal of Honour (CMH) and the Command Medal (CM).
According to Wikipedia, the GCFR and GCON are customarily respectively bestowed on former occupants of the office of the President and Vice President of Nigeria including former military heads of state of Nigeria and Chiefs of General Staff. The GCON is also customarily bestowed on the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the President of the Nigerian Senate during their first year in office, while the CON is customarily bestowed on Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Other deserving Nigerians have also been honoured with the nation’s highest honours either as a result of their craft cutting across all works of life.
The national honours of the Federal Republic of Nigeria represent the pinnacle of nationwide success and recognition, the quintessential example of what it means to aspire towards greatness and a collective confirmation of Nigerian excellence. But as excellence goes, the sky is the limit to what we can achieve if we apply ourselves, by a dint of hard work and focused effort whatever your 2022 goals may be. We hope we’ve been able to inspire you to focus on your personal greatness and that there is no true excellence completely devoid of serving others. We are optimistic that 2022 will be a great year for all of us. We at Experience Naija wish you an amazing and a fantastic 2022.
