Ahmadu Fintiri is the governor of Adamawa State. At the twilight of 2025, he stole the hearts of many. He gave full pardon to Citizen Sunday Jackson, an Adamawa farmer, a Christian, sentenced to death by Nigeria’s Supreme Court for defending himself against a Fulani herder who invaded his farm. The world was outraged by the verdict of the Supreme Court which tacitly upheld the ruling of a lower court. Self-defence suddenly became a crime with capital punishment in Nigeria. I shall return to this story shortly.

Now, let’s address another national matter. While Fintiri was playing the hero, another Nigerian of repute, a serving minister in President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet, was playing the villain. His name is Dave Umahi. He serves as Minister of Works. He was a two-term governor of Ebonyi state and briefly served as Senator before Tinubu head-hunted him to mind the Works Ministry. Make no mistake about it; Tinubu was right in picking him for the job as Works minister. A very busy office. Umahi was a round peg in a round hole. A civil engineer and self-styled Professor of Infrastructure, Umahi deserves to be there. It’s about his antecedent. As governor, Umahi was simply bullish in the manner he turned Ebonyi into a huge construction site. He built roads to last the decades; not the type built by some gbanjo governors. Umahi’s roads were forged in concrete and sturdy cement mix. He constructed bridges and flyovers, many of them. He built what could arguably pass for the best medical university in Nigeria. So, he has a pedigree of great doings. Tinubu is gifted with a rare knack of head-hunting the best. He pulled Umahi from the Senate to the Works Ministry to do some critical works for the nation. Such smart move and good thinking.

But Ebonyi is not Nigeria. Something shifted in the mind of Umahi. He got his priorities wrong. The same Umahi who built sturdy roads in Ebonyi, from rural precincts to urban Abakaliki, could not fix national critical roads like the Lagos-Benin-Asaba highway; the Benin-Warri road; Abuja-Lokoja road; and other existing roads. Here, Umahi failed. His failure brought insufferable pain on commuters this Yuletide. Umahi’s kinsmen from Ebonyi and environ travelling home from Lagos spent an average of two days on the road. Those from south-south were not spared. The roads were rough. Pain was the routine. All because Umahi, a hero in Ebonyi as governor, chose to play the villain from his office in Abuja. The Lagos-Benin-Asaba road is Nigeria’s second busiest highway. Under Umahi, this road is impassable. Proof is the trauma commuters went through these past days.  Enough said.

Let’s talk Fintiri, the hero. Fintiri on Tuesday granted full pardon to Sunday Jackson who was sentenced to death in 2019 for killing a herder who invaded his farm with his cattle and even initiated attack on Jackson. A clear case of self-defence. Despite the obvious merit of his defence, the trial court sentenced Mr Jackson to death in 2019. After his controversial conviction, he was transferred from Adamawa to the Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre in Abuja, where he waited for death until Fintiri’s show of mercy.

Let’s get the picture clear. An itinerant Fulani herder, Ardo Bawuro, invaded Jackson’s farm with his cattle. A familiar scene in Nigeria. Jackson on sighting the cattle chased them away to preserve and protect his crops. Bawuro who of course felt that the cattle have absolute right to eat the fruits of another man’s labour attacked Jackson with his knife. Jackson was said to be unarmed. In the scuffle, Jackson overpowered Bawuro, seized his knife and stabbed him with it. That was after Bawuro had stabbed Jackson thrice. Jackson testified that at the point when he seized the knife, he was exhausted and bleeding profusely hence he stabbed the herder in the throat three times just to escape.

Curiously, the case turned against him as he was arrested and charged with culpable homicide punishable with death under Section 221(a) of the Penal Code Law of Adamawa State whereupon he was convicted and sentenced to death.

The outrage that greeted the court verdict was deafening. From the United States Congress to Nigeria, not a few activists and lawyers condemned the show of shame by the Supreme Court which was expected to overturn the verdict of the lower court.

The Supreme Court, it appears, overlooked the law both in letter and spirit by discounting the essence of Section 33(2)(a) of the Constitution; Section 59 of the Penal Code; Section 61(a) of the Penal Code; and even Section 222(2) of the Penal Code.

It bears restating here that the judgment was not unanimous. Among the panel of five justices of the Supreme Court, three concurred with the lead judgment written by Justice Mohammed Baba Idriss. Only Justice Helen Moronkeji Ogunwumiju dissented. Very strange. What is stranger is the place of self-defence in the eyes of the law in Nigeria. It beats every grain of law, commonsense and moralism.

The judgment strips self-defence of its legitimacy and puts every Nigerian under attack in a quagmire. Submit yourself to your assailants, yield your property to them or run if you can. This is not to rubbish the decision of the respected justices of the Supreme Court; but a call on the custodians and stakeholders of the judiciary to reflect on certain judgments that seem to promote illegality, violence and impunity which the law, by its nature and whim, is opposed to.

In the case of Jackson, all is calm now. Governor Fintiri has done what the law could not do: Defend the defenceless and the weak. By granting pardon to Jackson and others, Fintiri has fulfilled a critical aspect of the faith of Christians as captured in the Bible in James 4:13(b) – “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” Fintiri has caused mercy to triumph over judgment. Yes, judgment is powerful. But when mercy shows up, judgment loses its potency.

Special thanks to US Congressman Riley Moore whose weighty pressure added to the voices in Nigeria that condemned the judgment. Just one more thing: Jackson is now a target of attack. Somebody should ensure his protection or effect his relocation out of that environment. Thanks to this gentleman, Governor Fintiri, for this inspired gesture and show of humanity. Truly a Man of the Year masterstroke pulled at the twilight of the year.