Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has sharply criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent announcement of presidential pardons, describing the decision as a betrayal of justice and national values.
Recall that on Thursday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu granted a posthumous pardon to Herbert Macaulay, a key architect of Nigeria’s independence movement, and Major General Mamman Vatsa (retd.), a former minister of the Federal Capital Territory under the Babangida administration.
The presidential pardon, which was extended to over 170 individuals convicted of serious offences, including drug trafficking, kidnapping, murder, and corruption, has sparked widespread outrage across Nigeria.
In a statement on X on Sunday, Atiku questioned the timing and moral judgment behind the decision, particularly noting that nearly a third of those pardoned were convicted of drug-related crimes.
“The recent announcement of a presidential pardon by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has, as expected, provoked outrage across the nation,” Abubakar said, adding that the pardons represent “a mockery of the criminal justice system, an affront to victims, a demoralisation of law enforcement, and a grave injury to the conscience of the nation.”
Atiku, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), emphasised that presidential pardons should serve as instruments of mercy that strengthen public faith in governance, not undermine it. “Ordinarily, the power of presidential pardon is a solemn prerogative, a moral and constitutional instrument designed to temper justice with mercy and to underscore the humanity of the state,” he stated.
He expressed particular alarm that 29.2 per cent of those pardoned were convicted for drug-related offences, calling the decision “shocking and indefensible” given Nigeria’s ongoing struggles with narcotics and youth drug abuse.
“Particularly worrisome is the revelation that 29.2 per cent of those pardoned were convicted for drug-related crimes at a time when our youth are being destroyed by narcotics, and our nation is still struggling to cleanse its image from the global stain of drug offences,” he said.
The opposition figure also drew attention to what he described as unresolved questions about President Tinubu’s own past, referencing reported forfeitures to the United States government related to drug investigations.
In his concluding remarks, Abubakar distinguished between legitimate mercy and governmental complicity in crime.
“Clemency must never be confused with complicity. When a government begins to absolve offenders of the very crimes it claims to be fighting, it erodes the moral authority of leadership and emboldens lawlessness,” he stated.
“Nigeria deserves a leadership that upholds justice, not one that trivialises it,” the former Vice President concluded.
The Tinubu administration has not yet responded to Atiku’s criticisms.
