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.

On Wednesday, 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.

Abubakar said the decision to cancel the pardon came only after Nigerians expressed outrage, describing the move as “too little, too late”.

In a statement issued by his media aide, Phrank Shaibu, Abubakar said the reversal was not an act of wisdom but “an act of shame”.

“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,” the statement reads.

Abubakar said the controversy raised fundamental questions about governance and accountability in the current administration.

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

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”.

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