A Pardon Is Not Justice: Adamawa Must Apologize To Sunday

Let us be clear: Sunday did not need mercy. He needed justice, for that word “pardon” is heavy with arrogance, and painfully light on truth.

From the moment he was arrested, his ordeal began. Like many poor and powerless Nigerians, Sunday was swallowed by a system that presumes guilt before innocence; that favours and protects a particular tribe at the detriment of others. Incarceration on death row is not just punishment of the body; it is a slow assault on the mind. Every sunrise becomes a question. Every sound of footsteps a possible end. The constant knowledge that the state intends to kill you leaves scars no court ruling or any form of compensation can erase.

We may never know the full extent of what Sunday endured behind prison walls. But in a system notorious for overcrowding, neglect, and abuse, it is reasonable, indeed unavoidable, to acknowledge the mental torment he suffered. Years of fear, isolation, humiliation, and uncertainty. The loss of time, dignity, health, and peace. Despite the physical torture that may have occurred, the psychological cruelty of death row alone is an injustice of the highest order.

And yet, after all this, in an open display of moral failure, Adamawa State speaks of pardoning him, as though Sunday were the one in need of forgiveness. A pardon suggests guilt. It implies wrongdoing graciously overlooked. What Adamawa State should have done, and what it must still do, is bow its head in shame and ask the innocent Sunday Jackson for forgiveness. The state is the one that stands accused. Not the victim. Justice Fatima Ahmed Tafida of the Adamawa State High Court, who sentenced Sunday to death, should be investigated and prosecuted.

Moreover, an apology is not enough. Sunday deserves substantial compensation from both the Adamawa State Government and the Federal Government of Nigeria. Compensation for years stolen from his life. For emotional trauma. For reputational damage. For being forced to live as a condemned man when the law should have protected him. Justice demands not symbolic gestures, but material repair.

Nigeria cannot continue to treat human lives as disposable, especially when the poor and defenseless are involved. If self-defense can still end in a death sentence, then no citizen is safe. If wrongful convictions are resolved with “pardons” instead of accountability, then injustice is simply recycled under a different name.

Adamawa State did not show mercy. It corrected an error far too late and called it generosity.

Sunday walks free today not because the state was kind, but because it was wrong. And until the government admits that openly, apologizes without excuses, and compensates him fully, this case will remain not a story of mercy, but a stain on Nigeria’s conscience.

– Ambassador Ezewele Cyril Abionanojie is the author of the book ‘The Enemy Called Corruption’ an award winner of Best Columnist of the year 2020, Giant in Security Support, Statesmanship Integrity & Productivity Award Among others. He is the President of Peace Ambassador Global.