President Bola Tinubu has approved a sweeping presidential pardon that restores the honour of some of Nigeria’s most historic and controversial figures, including nationalist Herbert Macaulay, Major General Mamman Vatsa, and former lawmaker Farouk Lawan.
The decision, endorsed by the National Council of State, also extends clemency to dozens of inmates across the country in what officials described as a move toward justice, reconciliation, and national healing.
Bayo Onanuga, the president’s special adviser on information and strategy, announced the development in a statement on Thursday, noting that the pardons followed recommendations by the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy (PACPM), chaired by Attorney-General Lateef Fagbemi.
Mamman Vatsa, a soldier, poet, and former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, was executed in 1986 under the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida for alleged involvement in a coup plot. Nearly four decades later, his name has been cleared posthumously.
Similarly, Herbert Macaulay, widely regarded as the father of Nigerian nationalism received a long-overdue posthumous pardon. Convicted by British colonial authorities in 1913 and barred from public service, Macaulay’s record has now been formally rehabilitated 111 years later.
“The president’s gesture recognises Macaulay’s role in Nigeria’s liberation and honours his memory as one of the earliest champions of national identity,” the statement read.
Also pardoned is former House of Representatives member Farouk Lawan, who was convicted in 2021 for receiving bribes during his tenure as chair of the fuel subsidy probe committee. Alongside Lawan, Anastasia Daniel Nwaobia, Hussaini Umar, and Ayinla Saadu Alanamu were granted clemency for demonstrating remorse and readiness to reintegrate into society.
Among other beneficiaries are Nweke Francis Chibueze, who had been serving a life sentence for cocaine trafficking, and Nwogu Peters, who was released after serving 12 of his 17-year term for fraud.
In a broader act of reconciliation, President Tinubu also granted official pardon to the “Ogoni Nine” — Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight colleagues executed by the Abacha regime in 1995 — and posthumously honoured the “Ogoni Four” who lost their lives in the struggle for environmental justice in the Niger Delta.
The sweeping amnesty includes 82 inmates granted clemency, 65 whose prison terms were reduced, and seven death-row convicts whose sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.
The PACPM’s recommendations, submitted earlier this year, were designed to “advance justice, rehabilitation, and human rights” in Nigeria’s correctional system, according to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, who inaugurated the committee in January 2025.
