IME USUAH: THE NIGERIAN HERO

The Federal Government on when Thursday announced that the taxi driver

, Mr Imeh Usuah who returned $120,000, (about 18 Million Naira) left in his car by a passenger will be honoured with the National honour of the Member of the Federal Republic (MFR). He also got a three bedroom apartment from our dear president.

Usuah had stunned the world when he virtuously returned the money, in spite of his poor status and at an advanced age of 70 years, with a large family of 6. He took to cab driving after retiring from his job as a former workshop foreman with Julius Berger Plc. He laboriously struggled to make ends meet without compromising morals.

While some Nigerians commended his honesty, others called him a fool, considering the fact that the taxi driver wasn't financially buoyant himself.
Mr Usuah was awarded by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and given a token amount of N30,000. But when he emerged the winner of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) maiden Integrity Award, he received a plaque and N2.5 million ($15,860) for his honesty.

Usuah had taken to cab driving to make ends meet.
“Usuah’s exemplary act of honesty and integrity had sprinkled a burst of refreshing dew upon the national consciousness,” Arumah Oteh, the DG of SEC said, when he was honoured, adding that “the integrity award is a careful response to a critical need of the Nigerian society, as it is through it that trust is built and sustained.”

Usuah, a native of Ubokudom in Akwa Ibom, had commended the commission for the gesture and devoted the award to the “unsung honest and committed Nigerians across the country.”

Also to be rewarded is the designer of National flag, Pa Michael Taiwo Akinkunmi. He is being honoured with an OON. The 78-year-old great grandfather would be remembered as a national icon who designed Nigerian flag in 1959 when he was barely 23. For him, it is an honour coming at his twilight.