A pardoning culture, or a culture of pardons, By Uddin Ifeanyi
We can, while waiting for the jury, at least, agree that the optics of President Tinubu’s pardon is not right for the national zeitgeist. At the heart of this, is the question, “What is the essence of the Nigerian worldview?” Critics of the government hold that “impunity” is the one-word description. It is why a high-octane Nigerian politician will present forged university certificates for appointment to political offices whose minimum requirements are credentials from the secondary school.
One unintended consequence of the recent exercise of the presidential prerogative of mercy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was to prod the domestic conversation around how to kick-start Nigeria’s modernisation away from its traditional hangouts around the economy’s wellbeing towards consideration of the country’s culture. As compensation for conduct, what manner of behaviour is the president’s act designed to function as incentive to? And is the latter congruent with our sense of what we have to do to get the country’s economy going? Put this way, culture, with a small “c”, and not the one that begins with a high case “c,” is what is on the table here.
How meaningful is this lexical difference? If truth be told, the answer to this question depends on where one is looking at the problem from. At one remove, culture finds expression in the heart-in-the-mouth performances of the Atilogwu and Mpkokiti dances from the east of the country, the mesmerising swaying hips of young maidens in the South-West, the gravity-defying acrobatics of the Igbabonelimhin dance theatres of the Esan folks from the South-South, and the horse-based durbars that the North is famed for. But culture also has a quotidian aspect to it. My favourite definition of this aspect is what Lenin described as “historically determined forms of social consciousness.” The result, in other words, of humanity’s constant interaction with its environment. How the consequent cut-and-thrust shapes our language, religion, social organisations, etc. And how these, in turn, modify our environment.
Described differently, a lot of what makes up a people’s culture is beautiful. Music. The arts. Dance. Social and religious rites and rituals. Architecture. Not surprisingly, historians have come to define whole periods in people’s lives by their leading art forms. But the useful aspects of culture matter as much. And none more so than the behaviours that any given people compensate or penalise. Since coming to office in 2023, President Tinubu’s genius has been to force Nigerians away from their fascination with their bellybuttons and to reflect on those aspects of our lives that are critical to the nation’s continued existence.
Is Nigeria better off forgiving convicted psychopaths and drug and kidnap kingpins, or the legion of under-twenties awaiting trial for years on charges of Indian hemp possession? Can we agree, for instance, that anyone who has been detained, awaiting trial, for a period equal to half the maximum time he or she would have been eligible for, following a guilty verdict should be an automatic candidate for pardon?
For example, he did not birth the recent tension in Lagos between Igbos and Yorubas. This “competition” goes back to the political contestations between Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Owelle Nnamdi Azikiwe – if not even further back. But not one to miss the opportunity to take political advantage, the Jagaban Borgu played the disagreements to the hilt in his pursuit of high office. His recent pardon of a large number of felons is, in this respect, par for the course. Is Nigeria better off forgiving convicted psychopaths and drug and kidnap kingpins, or the legion of under-twenties awaiting trial for years on charges of Indian hemp possession? Can we agree, for instance, that anyone who has been detained, awaiting trial, for a period equal to half the maximum time he or she would have been eligible for, following a guilty verdict should be an automatic candidate for pardon? After all, the presumption still remains of innocence. On these, the jury will not return a verdict in a hurry.
We can, while waiting for the jury, at least, agree that the optics of President Tinubu’s pardon is not right for the national zeitgeist. At the heart of this, is the question, “What is the essence of the Nigerian worldview?” Critics of the government hold that “impunity” is the one-word description. It is why a high-octane Nigerian politician will present forged university certificates for appointment to political offices whose minimum requirements are credentials from the secondary school. It is why lower down the ladder, the Nigerian would drive through the red light at a traffic intersection and against traffic in order to go past traffic jams. It is what explains the police officer, having stopped to search suspicious-looking young adults, pulls out their inner pockets and begins sniffing for traces of drugs.
Again, none of these is President Tinubu architect of. Indeed, his backers could argue that the police officer describes the Nigerian dilemma more picturesquely — he clearly cannot tell the difference between his function and that of a sniffer dog’s. Thus described, Nigeria is not failing as a country because we cannot tell wrong from right. No. We have no agreement what these words mean. And so even to charge a Nigerian with impunity is to do him a great disservice.
Indeed, there is a Yorùbá adage that explains all of this; why, for example, the “poena” (the Latin root of the “punity” or punishment that “impunity” is bereft of) is not a part of our worldview or culture. The injunction to “conduct ourselves as our forebears did, in order that our outcomes will be both familiar and acceptable to them.”
Was there ever a chance that the Tinubu government has what it takes to begin to address this problem? Not a lit candle’s chance in Hell, apparently. For most of our political class, conservatism, and an adherence to tradition (i.e. prioritising the beautiful parts of our culture over its more useful elements) means that loyal cadres will always be preferred to competent ones.
Indeed, there is a Yorùbá adage that explains all of this; why, for example, the “poena” (the Latin root of the “punity” or punishment that “impunity” is bereft of) is not a part of our worldview or culture. The injunction to “conduct ourselves as our forebears did, in order that our outcomes will be both familiar and acceptable to them.”
Uddin Ifeanyi, journalist manqué and retired civil servant, can be reached @IfeanyiUddin.