Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has criticised President Bola Tinubu over the reversal of the presidential pardon earlier granted to convicted drug traffickers, kidnappers, and other criminals.

New Telegraph recalls that, President Tinubu ordered the removal of persons convicted for kidnapping, drug trafficking, human trafficking, fraud, and unlawful possession of firearms from the list of beneficiaries under the Federal Government’s prerogative of mercy.

Reacting to the removal in a statement issued by his media aide, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the reversal was not an act of wisdom but an act of shame.

According to him, the decision to cancel the pardon came only after Nigerians expressed outrage, describing the move as too little, too late, noting that the controversy raised fundamental questions about governance and accountability in the current administration.

He queried persons who compiled the list of beneficiaries and what criteria were used to justify freeing such offenders, adding that the attorney-general must explain the government’s role in the “national embarrassment”.

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Abubakar accused the Tinubu administration of a recurring pattern of hasty decisions followed by public backlash and reversals.

He described the presidential pardon as a “sacred constitutional power meant to reflect justice, mercy, and national interest — not to reward impunity or test public patience”.

Abubakar urged the president to publish the list of those who were meant to benefit from the pardon, saying Nigerians deserve to know “the names, the crimes, and the hands that signed off on this reckless indulgence”.

The politician added that the last-minute cancellation of the pardon “is nothing but damage control” and does not absolve the presidency of poor judgment.

“President Bola Tinubu has cancelled his own pardon for drug traffickers, kidnappers, and other hardened criminals — but only after Nigerians shouted loud enough to wake him from his moral slumber.

“If the public had kept quiet, would convicted drug lords and kidnappers be walking free today under the President’s blessing?

“This pattern has become too familiar — announce the unthinkable, watch the country erupt, then hurriedly reverse course as if governance is a game of ‘trial and error’,” he said.