Funso Doherty, former Lagos governorship candidate, has written to Tajudeen Abbas, the speaker of the House of Representatives, urging the National Assembly to probe the reported conferment of the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) on Gilbert Chagoury, a Lebanese-Nigerian businessman, citing concerns over procedure, disclosure and validity.
In an open letter dated January 24, 2026, Doherty said the circumstances surrounding the reported award “warrant the attention and scrutiny of the Honourable House,” noting that serious public questions had already arisen over both the merits of the honour and the process through which it was allegedly granted.
According to Doherty, public awareness of the conferment did not come through any official presidential or government channel but emerged incidentally after a congratulatory message by a private individual more than a week after the stated date of the award.
“This unusual mode of disclosure is troubling, particularly in light of the widely reported close personal association between the award recipient and Mr. President,” he wrote.
An instrument of conferment circulating in the public domain indicates that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu awarded Chagoury the GCON on January 8, 2026, with the document stating that it was “given at Abuja, under my Hand and the Public Seal of the Federal Republic of Nigeria” on that date.
The issue gained national attention on January 19 after Femi Otedola, billionaire investor, publicly congratulated Chagoury in a post on X.
“Congratulations to my role model, dear friend and mentor, Ambassador Gilbert Chagoury, on the well deserved GCON honour conferred by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” Otedola wrote, adding that Chagoury’s work, “from Banana Island to Eko Atlantic City,” speaks “in landmarks, jobs, and lasting impact.”
Doherty also questioned whether the requirements of the National Honours Act were complied with, stating that the law mandates the issuance of a warrant and notification in the Federal Gazette.
“As at date, it is not evident that any such warrant was issued or gazetted in respect of this conferment, nor has any explanation been offered for the apparent departure from established statutory procedure,” he said.
He further raised concerns about the validity of the instrument, arguing that although it states the award was given in Abuja on January 8, 2026, it is a matter of public knowledge that the president was outside the country on that date.
“The president’s power in this regard not being delegable, the very validity of the award is thereby called into question,” Doherty wrote.
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He called on the House of Representatives to examine the matter as part of its constitutional oversight role, stressing that national honours, particularly of the rank of GCON, “speak directly to the values, integrity, and collective honour of our Nation.”
As of the time of filing this report, neither the Presidency nor Chagoury had responded publicly to the claims raised in the letter.
