Former Minister of Defence, Lt-Gen Domkat Bali (rtd), has explained why he rejected the national honour given to him by President Goodluck Jonathan and said that it was purely personal.
Bali, who was also a former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Gen Ibrahim Babangida administration, was one of the? awardees at the 2011 National Honours Award but he failed to show up for the event in Abuja fueling speculations.
The retired General who is now the Paramount ruler of the Taroh nation, the Ponzhi Taroh, while speaking to newsmen in Lantang said that the award “made no sense to me”
He said, “I saw the recent national award given to me as an insult to my personality. They told me the 2011 honour awarded me is Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR). But the federal government of
Nigeria gave me in the past a higher national honour honour of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) which is the second highest national honour in Nigeria.
“So what this current government offered me in 2011 is inferior to what I have before the award.
He stressed that “ I told them to give the CFR to someone else who deserved it because I had been given a higher one. That was the reason why I refused to attend the programme because my appearance there in Abuja would have meant my accepting to be demoted.
The monarch said, “I could be wrong in my reasoning. I even called some other people who got higher awards before and they were given a lower honour and they said it was acceptable to them, but in my own arrogance, it did not make sense to me, it is not acceptable to me.”
“This does not mean I m condemning others who went and receive the award lower than the ones they had, but I feel different,” he said.
He stressed that, “nevertheless, I commend President Goodluck Jonathan for recognising me from Plateau State, I will continue to appreciate that gesture, but I volunteered to relinquish my own so that another Nigerian can be given the honour.”