On June 12, 2025, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu conferred national honors on individuals recognized for their roles in Nigeria's democratic struggles. Two living recipients, Pa Reuben Famuyide Fasoranti and Dr. Edwin Madunagu, were mistakenly listed as deceased in the official honors list. Fasoranti, a leader of the pan-Yoruba group Afenifere, was awarded the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR). Dr. Edwin Madunagu, a Marxist intellectual and former university lecturer, received the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON). Both were erroneously categorized under posthumous awards despite being alive at the time of the announcement.
The error was confirmed by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, who attributed it to an oversight after the Democracy Day speech had been delivered. Fasoranti, born May 11, 1926, in Ondo State, is a former Ondo State Commissioner of Finance and educationist who turned 98 in 2024. Madunagu, born May 15, 1946, in Ilesha, is a mathematician, author, and founding figure in the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). He was dismissed from the University of Calabar in the 1970s due to his political activism. The presidency has not issued a formal correction or apology.
Awarding honors to people declared dead while still alive turns a solemn recognition into bureaucratic farce. Bayo Onanuga's admission of an "oversight" does little to inspire confidence in the vetting process for national honors. If the presidency cannot verify basic facts about living recipients, the credibility of the entire awards exercise comes into question. For Nigerians, this error signals that even symbolic gestures are prone to careless execution.
