President Muhammadu Buhari will on Thursday, May 25 confer national honours on President-elect Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, the vice-president-elect.
Tinubu will be conferred with the Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR) while Shettima will be honoured with the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON).
Boss Mustapha, chairman of the presidential transition committee and secretary to the government of the federation, announced the development on Thursday.
Mustapha who described the upcoming event as historically significant to the country and the international community, particularly Africa because of the democratic values and lessons in nationhood, said “it was for these reasons, the committee chose Nigeria: Better Together, as the theme for the 2023 transition”.
GCFR is Nigeria’s highest national honour and is only reserved for Presidents.
Mustapha said there would also be an official handover of transition documents to the incoming administration.
“This is going to be the most organised and seamless presidential transition in the history of Nigeria, enabled by executive order 14 signed by President Muhammadu Buhari,” he said.
He said on May 27, there will be an inaugural lecture by Uhuru Kenyatta, former President of Kenya.
In February, Buhari signed executive order 14 to enable the facilitation and management of presidential transitions. The executive order has put a legal framework in place for the seamless transition of power.
Speaking on the protests against the inauguration of Tinubu and Shettima as President and Vice-President respectively, he said: “Let me say without any fear of contradiction, there will be an inauguration on 29th of May”.
“We will proceed with the inauguration of President-elect Tinubu and the litigation will continue. Our constitution and electoral act have dealt with that. Our laws are sacrosanct,” the SGF added.