President Jonathan endorses three nominees for Nigerian Order of Merit Award

Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has approved the conferment of the prestigious Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) Award on three distinguished Nigerians for 2013.

This was disclosed by the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Nigerian National Merit Award, Oluwafeyisola S. Adegoke (Professor) during a press conference held in Abuja to announce the names of the 2013 proposed Awardees to the public. According to him, those to be conferred with the award are:
i. Seth Sunday Ajayi – (Professor of Science) who is a major figure in the international community of scholars in wildlife conservation, environmental protection and management.

ii. Francis Abiodun Irele (Professor of Humanities) the author of over a hundred publications, including the ‘Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature’ (edited with Simon Gikandi and published in 2004) and four collections of essays: The African Experience in Literature and Ideology ; The African Imagination: Literature in Africa and the Black Diaspora ; Négritude et Condition Africaine, and The Négritude Movement: Explorations in Francophone African Literature and Thought.

iii. Hilary Iyang Iyang (Professor of Engineering Technology) – He is an acknowledged leader in research. The focus of his research and professional areas include : contaminant leaching and de-dusting of materials ; design of containment systems and materials for barriers, energy systems and geo-hazards. He is the author of Nigeria’s National Oil Spill.

The Chairman of the NNMA Governing Board said that in accordance to the Transformation Agenda of the present administration and in order to enhance further research works, each recipient will be entitled to a cash award of ten million naira (N10m), a medal and a certificate. He further disclosed that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will decorate them with the NNOM Award on Thursday 5th of December, 2013 at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The Board Chair informed Nigerians that as a prelude to the NNOM investiture, the NNMA has scheduled to hold its Annual Forum of NNOM Laureates from the 3rd to the 4th of December, 2013; indicating the theme of the forum as : “The Information and Communication Technology Revolution as a Platform for National Transformation”. He also inferred that the theme and the sub-themes were carefully selected to enhance the transformation agenda of the present administration.

‘The forum will be declared opened by the President on Tuesday, 3rd of December, 2013 at the Merit House Auditorium. The Keynote Address Speaker of the occasion will be the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Technopark Trivandrum as well as the President of VMA Consultants, G. Vijaya Raghvan from India.

Adegoke urged Nigerians to endeavour to attend the event. He also congratulated the three distinguished Nigerians for having scaled through the rigorous selection exercise for the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award.