By Desire Emmanuel
President Bola Tinubu on Thursday, October 9, granted presidential pardon to many Nigerian citizens both dead and alive and one of those pardoned was the nationalist and co-founder of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroon’s, Herbert Macaulay.
The nationalist died on May 7, 1946 at the age of 81 while his picture adorns the N10 Nigerian currency.
However, available information indicated that Macaulay was convicted twice by the British colonialists during the struggle for self governances, which many found unjust in those days as they saw it as a form of persecution.
It was gathered that in 1913, while in private practice as a surveyor, Macaulay was tried for misappropriating funds from an estate he administered and sentenced to prison. He was also banned from holding any public office. Many commentators have long debated the fairness of that conviction.
Also in 1928, after his newspaper, the Lagos Daily News, published uncomplimentary reports during the Oba of Lagos agitation, he was convicted of sedition in the so-called “Gunpowder Plot” case and jailed for six months with hard labour.
Hebert Macaulay therefore carried the toga of ex-convict till his death in 1946. Therefore, with the full pardon granted him by President Tinubu, Hebert Macaulay has shed the stigma of being an ex-convict that was attached to his records.
Also as announced by Tinubu, 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.
