In recent years, I have been invited to receive honorary degrees, awards and honorific titles from entities that did not exist a decade ago, often with impressive names but little institutional record. I declined most, not out of modesty, but because the ease of recognition raised a deeper question about what, exactly, was being honoured.
Across too much of contemporary Africa, recognition has become a substitute for achievement. Titles are conferred faster than competence is built. Awards circulate where measurement is uncertain. Symbolic gestures are treated as strategic victories.
