President Buhari to honour Anthony Joshua with National Award

Things may be not be going well for Nigerian-born British boxer Anthony Joshua but he still remains an icon in his father’s land, Nigeria.

This perhaps explains why President Muhammadu Buhari is set to honour Anthony Joshua with a National Honour, ‘Officer of the Federal Republic, OFR’.

The award is slated for October 11, 2022. Other 437 individuals are on the lists as recipients of the National honours. The Ogun State born boxer will be receiving the OFR award, together with other 63 persons in that category.

The former World Heavyweight Champion was in 2018 awarded the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, ’OBE’ by the then Prince Charles after retaining his WBA, IBF and WBO titles. Having been previously awarded a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire MBE back in 2013 for his success at the London 2012 Olympics, where he won Gold in heavyweight boxing.

A few weeks ago, there was a presidential reception for the athletes that represented Nigeria at the last Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Aside from the monetary reward of N200m given to the athletes, various national awards were also bestowed upon the athletes by President Buhari.