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(1) There is hereby established a Nigerian National Merit Award (in this Decree referred to as “the Award”) to be given to deserving citizens of Nigeria for intellectual and academic attainments that contribute to national endeavours in science, technology, medicine, the humanities, arts and culture and any other field of human endeavour whatsoever.

(2) The Nigerian National Merit Award established by sub-section (1) of this section shall:

(a) be an Order of Dignity

(b) entitle a recipient to

i. use the designation Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) after        his name.
ii.  receive a cash prize, a certificate and medal; and
iii. such other privileges as are enjoyed by recipients of high levels of National Honours.

Establishment of the Governing Board

2.

(1) There is hereby established a Governing Board of the Nigerian National Merit Award Decree (hereafter in this Decree referred to as “the Board”) which shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal and may sue and be sued in its corporate name.
(2) The Board shall consist of a Chairman and not less than four of more than seven other members who shall be citizens of Nigeria to be appointed by the President, Commander-in –Chief of the Armed Forces and one of whom shall be the Government of the Federation or his representative.
(3) The persons appointed to be members of the Board shall be persons appearing to the President, Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces to be suitably qualified by reason of their professional, academic, or administrative qualifications or attainments in any field of human endeavour.
(4) Subject to sub-section (5) of this section, a person appointed as a member of the Board shall hold office for three years and shall be eligible for re-appointment for one further period of three years.
(5) The President, Commander-in –chief of Armed Forces may terminate the appointment of a member of the Board on grounds of misbehavior or inability to discharge the duties of his office by reason of physical or mental incapacity

Functions of the Board

3.

(1) The Board shall:-
a. conduct the making of the Award in accordance with this Decree;
b. Institute measures design to promote intellectual and academic      excellence among Nigerians for this purpose and shall liaise with academic, professional and research institutions in Nigeria
c. manage in Nigerian National Merit Endowment fund established by section 9 of this Decree; and
d.    do such other things which in the opinion of the Board are necessary to ensure the efficient performance of its functions under this Decree.

Powers of the Board.

4.

(1) The Board may, if it considers it necessary for the due and proper execution of it function under this Decree appoint a Secretary and such other staff as it thinks fit.
(2) The Board, in relation to any employee thereof, shall power.
a.    to exercise disciplinary control (including dismissal) over such           employee; and
b.      with the prior approval of the Federal Civil Service Commission to determine the remuneration and allowances (and) in appropriate cases, pensions, gratuities and other terminal benefit to be paid  to such employees and such other conditions of service of the employees and it may think appropriate.
(3) The Board shall have power to acquire and hold property of any description.
(4) The Board may appoint one or more Committees to carry out on behave of the Board such function as the Board may determine.
(5) A Committee appointed under this section shall consist of a number of the persons determine by the Board, of whom not more than one-third shall be persons who are not members of the Board and a person other than a member of the Board shall hold office on the Committee in accordance with terms of the instrument by which he is appointed.
(6) A decision of a Committee of the Board shall be of no effect until is confirmed by the Board.

Proceedings of the Board

5.

(1) The Board shall have power to regulate its own proceedings and may make standing orders for that purpose and, subject to any such standing orders and to sub-section (2) of this section, may function notwithstanding.
a.  Any vacancy in its membership or the absence of any member.
b.  Any defect in the appointment of a member; or
c.  That a person not entitled to do so took part in its proceedings
(2) Notwithstanding its standing orders the quorum at any meeting of the Board shall be the Chairman and two other members; but in the absence of Chairman, the members present at any such meeting hall elect one of their members to preside and reference herein to Chairman shall be construed accordingly.

Procedure for making Nominations.

6.

(1) The nomination for consideration of a person by the Board for an Award   may be made by any citizen of Nigeria to the Board and any person may by himself, where not sponsored by another person, apply to the Board for this purpose
(2) A candidate for an Award shall also be qualified to be nominated by some other person or organization not being an alien.
(3) Every nomination under this section shall be in writing addressed to the Board and shall set forth in respect of each person nominated.
 a.  His full names and address and his brief biological data;
 b.  His personal attainments and specific contributions to science, technology, medicine, the humanities or arts and culture and any other field which the Board may select generally or specifically in each year; and
c. Such other particulars as of would, in the opinion of the person making the nomination, assist the board in arriving at a determination in respect of each nomination.

Committee of Assessors.

7.

(1)  In order to enable the Board arrive at a proper determination in respect of nominations made pursuant to section 6 of this Decree, the Board shall appoint ad-hoc specialized advisory committee of assessors to assist the Board in the selection of candidates proposed for any Award under this Decree.

(2) The Board shall have power to regulate the proceedings of any committee set up by the Board and the quorum of any such committee shall be as may be determined by the Board in each case.

 (3) Every committee of assessors set up under this section shall be made up of such persons (who shall not be members of the Board) appearing to the Board to be suitably qualified by reason of professional or academic or administrative qualifications or by their attainments in any field of human endeavour.

Making of Awards.

8.

Where the Board, after consideration of the report of the committee of assessors mentioned in section 7 of this Decree is of opinion the circumstances are such to render it expedient that Award should be made to a particular person or that a joint Award should be made to two persons in the field concerned. It shall transmit its decision to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation not later than 1st of September in each year so as to enable the President, Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces make the Award to the recipient or recipients concerned on the first Thursday in the month of December;

Provided that where the Board is, by reason that none of the persons nominated should be given an Award or for any other sufficient reason, is of opinion that no Award should be made in a particular year, then there shall be no obligation on the Board to make an Award in the year concerned.      

Establishment of Nigerian National Merit Award Endowment Fund.

Cap. 60 LFN

9.

(1)        There is hereby established a Fund to be known as the Nigerian National Merit Award Endowment Fund (in this Decree referred to as “Fund”) for the purpose of the award annually of prizes known as the Nigerian National Merit Awards to citizens of Nigeria.
(2)          The Fund shall comprise
          (a)       Moneys from time to time granted to the Board by the Federal, State or Local Government in Nigeria or by any statutory body (corporate or unincorporated) set up by any such Government;
          (b)          Subject to sub-section (3) of this section, all sums accruing to the Board by way of gifts, testamentary disposition, contributions from persons or philanthropic organizations or otherwise howsoever; and
           (c)          Interests on investments made by the Board.
(3)      The Board may accept gifts of property (including interests in land), money or other assets upon such trusts and conditions (if any) as may be specified by the person or organization making the gift but the Board shall not accept any gift if:
            (a)         The conditions attached by the person or organization making the gift to the acceptance thereof are inconsistent with the objectives of this Decree; or
            (b)      Such gifts are made by any organization not being a citizen of Nigeria or any organization established by or pursuant to any law not force in Nigeria.
(4)           For the purpose of the Companies income Tax Act, any donation made by any company in Nigeria to the Board under this section shall be a deductible donation within the meaning of that Act.

10.

Moneys in the Funds which may at any time be surplus to the current needs of the fund shall be invested by the Board in securities specified in the provisions of the Trustee Investments Acts such other securities as the Boards may, from time to time, approve.

Investments of moneys in the fund.
Cap. 449 LFN.

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(1) The Board shall keep proper account of the fund and proper records in relation thereto.

(2) The accounts of the Fund shall be audited by an auditor appointed annually by the Board from the list of auditors and in accordance with the guidelines supplied by the Auditor-General of the Federation.

Accounts and Audit.

Repeal:
Cap. 319 LFN
Saving and transfer of liabilities, staff etc.

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The Nigerian National Merit Award Act is hereby consequently replealed.

1.  The statutory functions, right, interests, obligations and liabilities of the Fund existing before the commencement of this Decree under any contract or instrument, or in law or in equity, apart from any contract or instrument shall by virtue of this Decree, be deemed to have been assigned to any vested in the Board established by this Decree.
2. Any such contract or instrument as is mentioned in sub-section (1) of this section, shall be of the same force and effect against or in favour of the Board and shall be enforceable as fully and effective as if instead of that Fund, the Board had been named therein or had been a party thereto.
3. The Board shall be subject to all obligations and liabilities to which the fund was subject immediately before the commencement of this Decree and all other persons shall have the same rights, powers and remedies against the Board as they had against the Fund immediately before the commencement of this Decree.
4. Any proceedings or cause of action pending or existing immediately before the commencement of this Decree, by or against the Fund, in respect of any right, interest, obligation or liability of the Fund may be continued or as the case may be, commenced and any determination of a court of law, tribunal or other authority or person may be enforced by or action or determination might have been continued, commenced or enforced by or against the Fund established under the repealed Act.
5. All assets, fund, resources and other movable or immovable properly which immediately before the commencement of this Decree, were vested in the Fund established under the repealed Act shall by virtue of this Decree and without further assurance, be vested in the Board.
6. Any person who immediately before the coming into force of this Decree is the holder of any office and be deemed to have been appointed to his office by the Board under this Decree.

Interpretation.

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In this Decree, unless the context otherwise requires:-
“Award means the prize designated as the Nigerian National Merit Award to be bestowed periodically upon citizens of Nigeria as specified in section 8 of this Decree;
“Fund” means the Nigeria National Merit Award Endowment Fund established by section 9 of this Decree;
Governing Board” or “the Board” means the Governing Board of the Nigerian National Merit Award Decree.

Citation.

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This Decree may be cited as the Nigerian National Merit Award Decree.
MADE at Abuja this 28th day of December 1992.