Presidential pardon: what is wrong with it?

I have exercised a bit of restraint talking about the presidential pardon granted some interesting individuals by Mr. President.

The whole idea of state pardon didn't start with Mr. President and so should not be seen as his invention; so many other instances of state pardon have been granted across the globe and quite a number of them came with cries and woes.

Mr. President has therefore not done anything strange to the history of mankind in practical sense but his action has successfully written for him yet another history.

For all we care, state pardon isn't meant for people who have not committed offences against the law as it were; it is actually meant for people who have been found wanting and/or pronounced guilty by a competent court of law. So again, if Mr. President in his wisdom has decided to grant criminals state pardon; I can’t agree any less that is still within the purpose of its initial design.

The pronouncement of Mr. President like I have observed since it was made had been welcomed by a number of reaction. Very few of these reactions that appear to be in support of his action are those from his paid aides, party chieftains of PDP or old legal giants who seem to be battling the old age syndrome; the rest which clearly represents the true feelings of the people condemns in strong term the action and this is equally my standpoint.

I have not arrived at this conclusion mainly because quite a number of people share this bias, No!

From whichever angle we choose to see this, whether from the legal or moral point of view, very many arguments would emanate and it may not be totally correct for anyone to lay claim to his point view as what is generally acceptable. For those who have raised the legal correctness of this pronouncement, what I have read in majority is that the President has a right to grant pardon to people but that his choice of Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha and Bulama amounts to gross abuse of such powers; this is a question of opinion.

I am not a lawyer and as such would not want to bother debating the constitutional rights of Mr. president as far as this pardon is concerned; what is important to me is the import of this pronouncement, its implication on the psyche of an average Nigerian, the promotion of class argument and above all, its placement within the confines of common sense.

Of all of these arguments, that which is widely debatable is the moral implication of the pronouncement.

In the spirit of forgiveness, I would have agreed with Mr. Doyin Okupe that given the purported contributions of Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha after serving his terms to the Niger delta and Nigeria as a whole; there is no harm in forgiving Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha.

However, I have also come to understand that forgiveness doesn’t come as a dash. I can’t remember if at any point, Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha had apologized to the people of Bayelsa state or to Nigerians as a whole; this atleast would have created a basis for even discussing whether or not he should be granted any form of pardon. The crimes of Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha transcend robbing the people of their collective heritage; his actions and inactions must also have led to deaths of some others indirectly.  Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha is equally a fugitive as I write.

What then is wrong with the idea of state pardon in my personal opinion? The main problem I have with this is Mr. President himself. He, being my reason, I sadly can’t see anything right in his pronouncement.

What is equally wrong about the pardon is the fact that Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha is for some reasons placed side by side the likes of Oladipupo Diya, Late. General Shehu Musa Yar’adua, and late General Abdulkareem Adisa; where is the correlation?

Mr. President, over a long period of time had earned for himself the status of a man whose actions and utterances are always at loggerheads just as he has successfully assumed the status of a man that should never be trusted.

For a man who has several misquoted Transparency International, who has continuously over rated his fight against corruption, who has misrepresented facts about the power sector on CNN, one would have expected that he thinks deeply about the move before the disgraceful pronouncement. Thankfully, the United State of America didn’t mince words in stating categorically her standpoint on the pardon granted.

It is worth a mention that Mr. DSP is a criminal of international dimension. His crimes didn’t only deprive the people of state whose heritage he kept in trust, he equally brought shame to the country especially considering the miraculous way through which he left the borders of the United Kingdom. This then calls to question Mr. President’s appreciation of bilateral relationships with countries especially in the areas of promoting democratic norms, good governance and economic development.

With this pronouncement, for a fact, Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha now has a right to contest any election in the country; watch out for some serious politicking in Bayelsa state.

For those who have raised the issue of timing, my response is simple. This pronouncement would never have been good at any time except NEVER! The truth would not assume the state of falsehood in a hundred year period vice versa; so whether Mr. President had done this now or towards the end of his regime, it would have made no difference except for political calculations and this also would have been useful to the extent that people who actually voted Mr. Goodluck at the last election would ever overcome their ‘goodluck’ fever.

I see Mr. President in is usual character coming up with a defense, that also would only further strengthen the fact that we have a man who is lost in his own web of confusion!

I would rather expect him to rescind the decision, have Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha extradited to the United Kingdom and have him answer fully for his crimes. Anything short of this would have successfully assured people in government to go ahead with the looting with the hope that as long as a friend is at the helms of affairs, the can get away with anything.

 Nigerians are watching; God bless Nigeria