Chagoury is not just President Tinubu’s man Friday; he has been a recurring figure in Nigeria’s checkered history and prominently featured in some of the most scandalous and destructive episodes of the nation’s history
On Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu conferred Gilbert Chagoury with the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON). It is the second-highest national honour in the country. It is usually awarded to or conferred upon persons who have distinguished themselves through significant contributions to the growth and development of Nigeria. People with a sterling and impeccable record of excellence. Characters with pristine antecedents, personalities with exceptional skills and value who have positively shaped and influenced the people and the nation.
Even though the conferment was low-key, held in secret and only came to public knowledge when certain public figures and influential Nigerians took to social media to congratulate Mr Chagoury. It was not done at a grand or elaborate ceremony, without pomp and pageantryas is mostly always the case with such a coveted and prestigious national honour. However, the reaction has been loud and cacophonous with many objecting to the development.
While the president has the discretion and the exclusive authority to confer national honour on anyone he deems fit, he must exercise caution. He must be circumspect and meticulous in picking those he thinks deserve the nation’s national honour. The truth is that Chagoury is a man with unpleasant traits and an uninspiring character. A man with his past and antecedents should not be in the conversation of national honour conferment. And we are not talking about lesser-known but equally significant national honours like O.O.N or M.O.N here, we are talking about GCON that is usually conferred on vice presidents, justices and high-flying civil servants.
The conferment came as a surprise to many but did not surprise some who see it as nothing more than the action of a president, who himself is a man of questionable and shady antecedents, canonising his equally unscrupulous friend with the nation’s prestigious national honour. Chagoury is not just President Tinubu’s man Friday; he has been a recurring figure in Nigeria’s checkered history and prominently featured in some of the most scandalous and destructive episodes of the nation’s history. He was the henchman of the late Nigerian dictator, Sanni Abacha. He helped the despot to launder money and was a key handler of illicit funds.
It is believed that Chagoury, in cahoots with Abacha, siphoned about two billion pounds from the nation’s treasury into foreign accounts during Abacha’s four and a half years’ rule as the country’s military dictator. In 2026, the Senate Committee on Public Accounts as part of efforts to recover Nigeria’s stolen wealth stashed in foreign accounts by cronies of the Abacha regime, opened an investigation into the sharp practices of the Chagoury brothers. It instructed the Central Bank of Nigeria to confirm how much was actually received from the close business associates of late Gen. Sani Abacha, by the federal government as part of the ongoing. During the investigation, while the Chagoury brothers claimed they paid $300 million, the CBN claimed it received only $180 million.
Chagoury is not just a sleazy businessman and an unconscionable bagman for a ruthless dictator; he is also a key contributor to and played, and still plays, a vital role in the parlous and perilous state that Nigeria is in today. Through patronage and cronyism under Tinubu, he has been able to secure lucrative contracts for monumental and landmark infrastructural projects. Many of these projects were awarded to him without due process and at the expense of a more qualified and competent construction company.
If Tinubu has limited his government’s excessive deference to and preferential treatment of Chagoury to allowing him to engage in his usual carpetbaggery and prebendalism, both of them may continue to find it easy to escape the ire of the public, but the conferment of the second-highest national award on a convicted money launderer is another step taken too far and is abhorrent and unconscionable.
This is not about presidential discretion; it is about respect and the sacredness of the honour. To confer such a prestigious honour on one of the people who superintended the destruction of the country is to desecrate the honour. To award the second-highest honour in Nigeria to a man once convicted for stealing Nigeria blind is the height of depravity and impunity. A character like Chagoury, a man with a deplorable past and a slew of criminal records, having is imposing hand right on the pulse of our nation and a sustained presence at the centre of the governance of our country, only further underscores the gravity of fundamental moral questions hanging around President Tinubu. Gifting Chagoury Nigeria’s second-highest national honour to Gilbert Chagoury as a Birthday present is an utter mockery of our nationhood. It is jarring and odious.