Members of the House of Representatives, drawn from various political parties, are grumbling over what they called “demeaning” national honour of Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) being proposed to be conferred on their Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas by President Bola Tinubu.
The House insisted that the President should confer the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCFR) on Abbas instead of the “demeaning” Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) while conferring GCON on the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun.
Moving a motion of urgent public importance during today’s (October 2) plenary session, the Deputy Spokesman of the House, Philip Agbese, described as unacceptable the treatment of the House of Representatives as if it were inferior to the Senate, in apparent reference to the conferment of the GCON on the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
Agbese said that in the order of protocol, the Speaker is ranked 4th, questioning why the CJN, who is ranked 5th, was accorded a higher honour.
It would be recalled that President Tinubu announced the conferment of different categories of honors on the nation’s leaders during his Independence Day speech yesterday, October 1.
