Tinubu and paradox of pardon

A paradox is a statement or proposition which, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems logically unacceptable or self-contradictory. A paradoxical person is someone who has two opposite and seemingly contradictory qualities or characteristics. This can make them seem strange or hard to understand, but these contradictory traits can be a true reflection of their complex nature. No sensible person can trust a paradoxical leader because what he says in the morning may contradict what he will say in the evening. Most times, paradoxical leaders talk before they think, and this leads to the contradictory decisions they eventually take.

Tinubu has been consistent in his contradictory system of leadership from day one of his administration. He vowed to give Nigerians electricity and even asked Nigerians not to re-elect him if he fails to deliver on the promise. Paradoxically, in 2024, his regime witnessed the greatest number of national grid collapses in a year which stood at about 12 times a year. The grid collapses continued in 2025. He removed oil subsidy at his inauguration ground without consulting any human being which brought instant and unaffordable chaos in the price of PMS (fuel) per litre. He depreciated naira by about 300 per cent which saw naira lose value from about N420 to almost N2,000 at a time. These twin decisions made price per litre of fuel to rise from about N195 to more than N1,000 at a time which occasioned the worst level of hunger and hardship on the people. In order to prevent naira from collapse, the government which claimed it wanted market forces to determine the value of the naira ended up subsidising the naira to ensure that fuel was imported at a price that will not be more than N1,000 per litre. Renowned economist, Bismark Rewane, opined that the government spent more than $8 billion to stabilise the naira.

Tinubu assured Nigerians that if he removed subsidy, he would have enough money to provide infrastructure for them. He removed subsidy completely, according to him, yet he has not provided any infrastructure without leading the country to grave borrowing. One would have thought that with the removal of subsidy, and indiscriminate borrowing, the people would have been spared more hardship, but no, the government, paradoxically, has been increasing every tax and tariff on the citizens. Electricity tariff has risen and the electricity is not available. Taxes have increased, without income increasing commensurately.

Educational infrastructure is not delivered to the people, leading to strikes called by the Academic Staff Unions of Universities (ASUU), health infrastructure is not delivered to the people, leading to the strikes called by the Resident Doctors. Lack of fair distribution of wealth led to the retired veterans of the police going on protests for obvious maltreatment in not paying their retirement benefits regularly. The question is where is all the money going to? Tinubu boasted that the projected revenue expectation for 2025 was fully realised in August, yet paradoxically, more than 139 million Nigerians are now wallowing in poverty. Where is the money going to? My guess is that the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer in Tinubu’s regime.

It was not surprising when President Tinubu announced the reversal, on the 29th day of October, 2025, of the ill-fated, ill-thought-through pardon of some dangerous criminals on the 9th day of October, 2025. Just about three weeks of taking the decision. As usual Tinubu lived up to his leadership style of talking before thinking. As usual, his incompetent advisers and ministers misled him. He admitted publicly that he was misled by his incompetent team when he relocated the committee on prerogative of mercy from the Ministry of Special Duties to the Ministry of Justice. Another laughable action meant to cover up this obvious gaffe because what he needed to do was to punish all those who misled him to deter future corrupt practices.

To be certain, the President has the power to pardon anybody convicted or being tried or being accused of any criminal offence. This show of mercy can come in three forms: pardon, clemency, or commutation of sentence. Section 175 of the 1999 Constitution states this position clearly that the President may grant any person concerned with or convicted of any offence created by an Act of the National Assembly pardon, either free or subject to lawful conditions; grant to any person respite, either for an indefinite or for a specified period, of the execution of any punishment imposed on that person for such an offence; substitute a less severe form of punishment for any punishment imposed on that person for such an offence; or remit the whole or any part of any punishment imposed on that person for such an offence or of any penalty or forfeiture otherwise due to the state on account of such an offence. The President consults the Council of State before executing his power of pardon.

President Tinubu exercised this power on the 9th of October, 2025, in which he pardoned, unfortunately, convicted drug barons, kidnappers, egregious cold blood murderers, and corrupt politicians who were convicted up to the Supreme Court for heinous crimes.  It’s important to note that the whole idea behind the philosophy of punishment in criminal proceedings is not in the desire or pleasure of any government to inflict injuries on its citizens, but for deterrence. Since the fall of man at the Garden of Eden, man has tilted towards evil rather than good. It reached a level where God himself said that it grieved his heart that He made man. He destroyed the entire human race once in history because of evil and left only the family of Noah to continue life on earth. In order to dissuade man from evil, God instituted penalties for every offence. The most grievous offence God could not forgive was that of murder.

Immediately Noah came out of the ark, God commanded him in Genesis 9:6 that “whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” To this effect, God commanded in Exodus 20:13 as His fifth commandment, “thou shall not kill.” God made it clear that the murdered blood of the innocent defiles and pollutes the land and it takes the shedding of the blood of the murderer to cleanse the polluted land. Hear God in Numbers 35:29-34, “So these things shall be for a statute of judgment unto you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death … Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death. So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell.” God doesn’t dwell in the country where innocent people are murdered without consequences. One can now see why, despite all our blessings, we appear to be labouring under curses in Nigeria because of the amount of innocent blood that is being shed through terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery, murder, etc. It was embarrassing to Nigerians that Tinubu became an accomplice to these murders that polluted Nigeria by pardoning some murderers who murdered Nigerian citizens in cold blood.

Apart from the murder, Nigeria was recently delisted from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) because of the suspicion of its involvement in money laundering and terrorism sponsoring. The American Embassy recently accused Nigerian leaders of corruptly enriching themselves by stealing Nigeria money and buying up real property in Western Countries while the people are suffering. While Nigeria is under the microscope as a corrupt nation, it was shocking for Nigeria to witness that some politicians, found guilty of bribery and corruption and fraud by the Supreme Court, were pardoned by Tinubu. This was purely a political consideration not a show of mercy. Some had served their sentences and the only reason for the pardon was for Tinubu to use them to fight to capture Kano State votes and other states. A pardon means they can rejoin politics and if they win, they can return back to politics to continue their way of life of corruption.

A nation that is bedevilled with the evil of drugs among the populace cannot accommodate the release of drug barons to risk the lives of those officials who sent them to jail and worsen our drug challenges among the youths as more people would be bold to join the trade believing that they would also be pardoned if caught. Kidnapping has become a menace that should be discouraged fiercely and pardoning perpetrators would only worsen the crime.

The decision therefore of the President to rethink the pardon is welcome. The President should also have a rethink in placing more tax and tariffs on Nigerians on all fronts. He should be satisfied with the savings he is making from removal of fuel subsidy and the borrowing he is making. He should also sack the people who advised him to make such embarrassing pardon. Above all, the President must learn to think before he talks. The present attitude of talking before thinking is dangerous as it may lead to an irreversible mistake.