Calls are being made to President Bola Tinubu to include a former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Walter Carrington, in the list of pro democracy activists honoured for their roles in the June 12 struggle.

Carrington, who served as the US Ambassador to Nigeria from 1993 to 1997, was actively involved in the pro democracy activism that eventually birthed democracy in Nigeria in 1999.

They recall how Carrington openly joined forces with Nigerian pro democracy activists for the revalidation of the June 12 presidential election despite being on a diplomatic mission.

While in Nigeria, the former US diplomat got married to a Nigerian woman, Arese, a medical doctor of Edo descent. The activists argued that Carrington, who died in August 2020, deserved a posthumous award.

Similarly, case was made for other Nigerians who were part of the struggle but whose names were omitted on the list unveiled by President Tinubu on Thursday.

Prominent among those omitted were some of Tinubu’s allies in the Afenifere and the NADECO movement who were also in the trenches during the struggle.

Those omitted include Chief Ayo Opadokun, Pa Olanihun Ajayi, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, Chief Olabiyi Durojaiye, Senator Adedayo Adeyeye and Senator Jonathan Zwingina.

Others similarly omitted are Kofo Akerele-Bucknor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, Reverend Adebiyi, Dr Chidi Odinkalu, Chief Olisa Agbakoba, Innocent Chukwuma, Mike Ozekhome, Yinka Odumakin, Joey Odumakin among many others.

“The Presidency should review this list and many others deserving of honour, with a view to addressing the oversight and picking out the dead ones among them for posthumous honour,” a CSO member said.

The omissions have led to insinuations in certain quarters that the President might have deliberately omitted names of certain individuals who were part of the struggle, but who are now critics of his administration.

But a Presidency source attributed the omissions to human error, saying that even some of the President’s close associates who are still in his team, were inadvertently omitted.

“It has been brought to attention, that even the man who coordinated the President’s support group, SWAGA ’23, and who was actively involved in the June 12 struggle, was also omitted. It’s human error and another list is being compiled to address it,” a Presidency source said on Saturday.