Tinubu pardons Macaulay, Vatsa, Farouk Lawan, grants clemency to 82 inmates
Global philanthropist, Bill Gates, is among the 959 distinguished individuals and organisations to be honoured under the 2024 and 2025 National Honours Award list, following the National Council of State (NCS) approval of the National Honours Award Committee’s report yesterday.
The Council also approved the exercise of the presidential prerogative of mercy for 175 persons across various categories. It ratified a list of special presidential awardees, comprising Nigerians and friends of Nigeria who have made outstanding contributions to national development.
The approval came during the NCS meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Affairs Office, Dr Imanso Umobong, announced the development while briefing State House correspondents after the meeting.
She explained that in August 2021, then President Muhammadu Buhari (now the late) had approved the reconstitution of the National Honours Award Committee, chaired by HRH, Justice Sidi Mohammed, with a four-year mandate to review nominations and recommend deserving awardees.
Umobong disclosed that the committee, made up of eminent Nigerians, screened over 5,000 applications through a series of rigorous meetings and eventually recommended 824 recipients for the 2024 and 2025 National Honours, as well as 135 for special presidential awards, bringing the number of honourees to 959.
Among the recipients is Gates, who is being honoured for his immense contributions to public health and humanitarian support in Nigeria. Also on the honours roll are living and fallen icons of Nigeria’s pro-democracy struggle, celebrated as part of the 26th anniversary of uninterrupted democracy, marked on June 12, 2025.
They include publisher, Sam Amuka-Pemu; the Ogoni Nine and other Ogoni activists, honoured posthumously for their environmental activism and sacrifice; as well as members of Nigeria’s Super Falcons and the national Taekwondo team for their international sporting achievements.
The immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, will also receive a national honour in recognition of his service to Nigeria’s democratic process.
THE decision for the presidential pardon followed a presentation by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), who conveyed President Bola Tinubu’s recommendations, based on the report of the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy, during yesterday’s NCS meeting at the State House, Abuja.
Although the full names of the beneficiaries are yet to be published, our correspondent gathered that pardons were granted to one of Nigeria’s founding fathers, Herbert Macaulay and former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister in the Gen Ibrahim Babangida regime, the late Maj-Gen. Mamman Vatsa. Members of the Ogoni Nine and Ogoni Four are also beneficiaries.
The President also pardoned four ex-convicts, including former House of Representatives member, Farouk Lawan;Mrs Anastasia Daniel Nwaobia, Hussaini Umar and Ayinla Alanamu.
“Herbert Macaulay and Vatsa are among the two major ones on that list,” a source who attended the meeting told our correspondent. Macaulay, often called the “father of Nigerian nationalism,” was twice convicted by the colonial authorities in Lagos.
Out of the 175 beneficiaries, 82 inmates were granted a full presidential pardon, 65 had their sentences reduced, while seven death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment, Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State told State House correspondents.
The meeting, chaired by Tinubu, also ratified key appointments, including Dr. Aminu Yusuf from Niger State as Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC) and Tonge Bularafa as Federal Commissioner representing Yobe State in the Commission. Both appointments received unanimous approval.
