President Tinubu has granted posthumous pardon to Gen. Mamman Vatsa, Herbert Macaulay, and Ogoni Nine.
NaijaOnPoint Nigeria reports that President Bola Tinubu has granted posthumous pardons to late Major General Mamman Jiya Vatsa and nationalist Herbert Macaulay, marking a significant act of national reconciliation and historical redress.
Vatsa, a poet and former minister, was executed in 1986 after being convicted of treason under the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. His pardon, announced Thursday after the National Council of State meeting in Abuja, restores his honour nearly four decades after his controversial execution.
Similarly, Herbert Macaulay, co-founder of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) alongside Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, received a posthumous pardon. Macaulay, one of Nigeria’s foremost nationalists, was unjustly convicted by the British colonial government in 1913 and barred from public office — a blemish only now formally lifted.
According to Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, the decision was part of a broader exercise of presidential mercy that also extended to several former convicts, including ex-lawmaker Farouk Lawan, Mrs. Anastasia Daniel Nwaobia, Barr. Hussaini Umar, and Ayinla Saadu Alanamu. The pardons, Onanuga said, were granted to facilitate reintegration into society after they demonstrated remorse and reformation.
Additionally, environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues, collectively known as the Ogoni Nine — executed in 1995 under the Sani Abacha regime — were officially pardoned. President Tinubu also conferred national honours posthumously on the “Ogoni Four”: Chief Albert Badey, Chief Edward Kobani, Chief Samuel Orage, and Theophilus Orage.
In total, the President exercised clemency powers over 175 individuals based on the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy (PACPM), chaired by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Prince Lateef Fagbemi. The committee’s review led to 82 inmates being granted clemency, 65 receiving term reductions, and seven death sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
The move, inaugurated in January 2025 by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen. George Akume, underscores the administration’s commitment to justice, human rights, and national healing.