Tinubu Pardons 175, Grants Posthumous Clemency to Vatsa, Macaulay, Saro-Wiwa

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved presidential pardon and clemency for 175 persons, including posthumous pardons for the late Major-General Mamman Jiya Vatsa and nationalist Herbert Macaulay.

The decision followed the endorsement of recommendations made by the National Council of State, which met on Thursday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

A statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said Tinubu also granted clemency to 82 inmates, reduced the prison terms of 65 others, and commuted the death sentences of seven inmates to life imprisonment.

Among those pardoned posthumously were Vatsa, a poet and military officer executed in 1986 on charges of treason, and Macaulay, Nigeria’s foremost nationalist and co-founder of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), who was unjustly convicted by colonial authorities in 1913.

The President also pardoned the nine executed Ogoni activists, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine, and conferred posthumous national honours on four others: Chief Albert Badey, Chief Edward Kobani, Chief Samuel Orage, and Theophilus Orage.

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Among the living beneficiaries is former lawmaker Farouk Lawan, alongside Mrs Anastasia Daniel Nwaobia, Barrister Hussaini Umar, and Ayinla Saadu Alanamu.

Onanuga explained that the four were found to have shown remorse and a genuine willingness to reintegrate into society.

“The exercise demonstrates President Tinubu’s commitment to justice tempered with mercy and his belief that rehabilitation and forgiveness are essential to nation-building,” the statement added.

The exercise was based on the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy (PACPM), chaired by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).

The committee reviewed 294 cases, recommending clemency for 82 inmates, pardon for two, reduction of sentences for 65, commutation of seven death penalties, and posthumous pardons for 15 former convicts, including the Ogoni Nine.

The PACPM adopted criteria such as advanced age (60 years and above), terminal illness, youth (16 years and below), long-term good conduct in prison, and evidence of remorse in assessing the petitions.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, inaugurated the committee in January 2025, with a mandate to promote justice, rehabilitation, and human rights in Nigeria’s correctional system.

The National Council of State, which comprises former Presidents, Heads of State, and Chief Justices, reviewed the committee’s submissions before giving its approval to the President.

The Council’s endorsement paved the way for the final announcement of the pardons on Thursday, marking one of the most wide-ranging clemency exercises since the return of democracy in 1999.