In any serious democracy, the prerogative of mercy is a solemn constitutional responsibility. It is not a lottery, not a favour, and certainly not a political gesture. It is meant for exceptional circumstances where justice, morality, rehabilitation and public interest converge. Under the All Progressives Congress, this sacred duty has been reduced to a spectacle of convenience.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s latest state pardon is a tragic example of how the APC continues to desecrate institutions, politicise justice and erode national values. The most disturbing aspect is that a majority of the beneficiaries were convicts in drug-related offences and others jailed for capital crimes, including murder. At a time when the country is battling narcotics, insecurity, social decay and a demoralised justice system, this kind of pardon is not mercy but mockery!
the farce presented as clemency
The APC has mastered the art of turning instruments of state into tools of patronage. Instead of extending mercy to prisoners of conscience, the unjustly convicted or those who have shown genuine rehabilitation, the list reeks of political calculation and selective redemption. The message is simple: crime is forgivable if one is connected.
the drug convicts: a betrayal of national effort
In communities across Nigeria, families are being destroyed by drug addiction and trafficking. The NDLEA and other agencies are still fighting a war to contain the crisis. What does it say of leadership when those convicted for drug crimes become the preferred recipients of presidential pardon? It is a direct insult to every parent, every community and every law enforcement officer confronting the scourge.
the murder convicts: a graver insult to justice
Even more troubling is the inclusion of individuals convicted of murder. Clemency in homicide cases touches on the very heart of justice. Where is the place of the slain? Where is consideration for the grieving families? What of society’s right to safety and closure? Or has the APC now assumed the power not only to govern but to rewrite consequence?
This is why the timeless words of the immortal Justice Chukwudifu Oputa in the celebrated case of Josiah v The State (1985) must be recalled in full and I quote:
“Justice is not a one-way traffic. It is not justice for the appellant only.
Justice is not even only a two-way traffic.
It is indeed a three-way traffic—justice for the appellant accused of a heinous crime of murder; Justice for the victim, the murdered man, the deceased, ‘whose blood is crying out to heaven for vengeance,’ and finally justice for society at large—the society whose social norms and values had been desecrated and broken by the criminal act complained of”
These words were not crafted as decoration. They were laid down as a guiding judicial philosophy. Yet, under the APC, only the accused and their sponsors seem to matter. The victim is forgotten. Society is ignored. Justice is mutilated.
A dangerous national signal
The implications are frightening:
• Crime now has a political exit door
• Punishment is no longer based on principle but on relationship
• Justice is no longer an institution but a token of patronage
• Law enforcement is reduced to theatre
• Victims are abandoned and the public is mocked
Rather than restore confidence in the justice system, this pardon weakens deterrence, embarrasses the country and demoralises institutions that still try to function with integrity.
The final reality
A government that trivialises mercy will eventually trivialise justice. What Bola Tinubu has done is not an act of compassion. It is a statement of political preference over principle, loyalty over law and power over morality.
When a nation forgives drug lords and convicted murderers while the innocent languish in prison cells, it is no longer merely in decline. It is in danger. Clemency should heal the system, not stain it. It should inspire hope, not outrage.
Nigeria deserves better. If this is how the APC intends to continue to govern, then they have not just lost the compass of conscience. They have abandoned it entirely.
DAN Osa-Ogbegie, a Benin based legal practitioner and thought leader, is the Publicity Secretary of the PDPh, Edo State.