A group, the Conscience Foundation, has kicked against a move by the Nigerian Senate to merge two of the nation?s national awards ? the Nigerian National Merit Award (NNMA) with the National Honours Award.

Up until now, the two nationally recognised awards, running differently in the nation, aim at recognising and rewarding distinguished and deserving Nigerians from two separate angles.

While the Nigerian National Merit Awards (NNMA) established in 1979 on the one hand seeks to recognise and reward academic and intellectual excellence in Nigeria, with focus on ?contributions to national development in fields like science, technology, medicine, humanities, and arts,? the National Honours Award on the other hand, aims at honouring individuals for ?services rendered to the nation, focusing on patriotism and national development.?

Categories in the National Honours Award include Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) and Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR).

Conscience Foundation in a press statement dated May 22, 2025 and signed by the Secretary, Bunmi Oyekanmi, argued that the scope and emphasis of the two nationally recognised awards make it difficult to merge them as one.

According to the group in the statement made available to News Express, while the National Honour Award is broader in scope, recognising a wide range of contributions, the NNMA is more specific, focusing on academic and intellectual excellence, they advise that such a merger though having some ?potential implications,? such as reducing duplication of efforts, enhancing the prestige and recognition of both awards and potential loss of focus on academic and intellectual excellence among others,? yet there are challenges and concerns bothering on how to ensure the maintenance of integrity among the merged awards, avoidance of politicisation of the process; establishing of clear, criteria for selection and awarding and the devaluation of the awards if given to undeserving individuals, hence opposed the merger proposals.

It would be recalled that on Wednesday, 21st of May, 2025, during a stakeholders? engagement in Room 201 of the National Assembly, Dr. Onwusoro Ihemelandu, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, reaffirmed that the Ministry strongly opposed the proposed motion to merge the National Honours with the Nigerian National Merit Award. He emphasised that the selection and assessment processes for the two awards were fundamentally different.

Concluding, Conscience Foundation in their release said: ?it must be clearly emphasised that the National Honour Award and the Nigerian National Merit Award (NNMA) differ in their focus and criteria.?