Five for national merit awards.

President Goodluck Jonathan will confer the awards on December 1.

The Chairman, governing board of the Nigerian National Merit Awards (NNMA), Oluwafeyisola Adegoke, has announced that five Nigerians will be honoured for their excellence, intellectual, academic and creative contribution to the development of the country both national and globally.

According to him, these five persons are all deserving Nigerians, whose achievements have brought global recognition to the country; and they will be conferred with the award by President Goodluck Jonathan on the 1st of December, 2011.

“Over 90 candidates within Nigeria and in the diaspora were nominated for the award for both 2010 and 2011 in the four disciplines; there are five recipients for the two years who will be getting the award for this year,” he said.

“In compliance with the provisions of the act which set up the Nigerian National Merit Award, the governing board is given free hand by the government to choose recipients of the award. I can tell you that as member of the board and as chairman that since its existence, nobody has influenced the choice of recipients.”

The NNMA also plans to hold the 4th Forum of Laureates on November 29 – 30, 2011, where former Ghanaian President, John Kuffuor, is expected to deliver the keynote address.

With this new set of awardees, a total of 65 Nigerians has been conferred with the National Merit Award since it was established in 1979.