ANA President Usman Akanbi calls for posthumous pardon for Mamman Vatsa
By Editor
THE President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Dr. Usman Oladipo Akanbi, has made a poignant appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Federal Government of Nigeria to grant a posthumous presidential pardon to late Major-General Mamman Jiya Vatsa, a renowned Nigerian writer and poet who was implicated in a 1986 alleged coup plot and subsequently executed.
Dr. Akanbi made teh call at its second quarter Mbari Series Intellectual Discourse that has as theme ‘Mbari through the Eyes of the Founding Fathers’. The ANA president highlighted the significant contributions Mamman Vatsa made to Nigerian literature, notably in allocating plots of land at Maitama Extension to Africa’s largest writers’ body when he was the FCT Minster. Today, that land is the corporate headquarters of ANA in the nation’s capital that is fully developed and out to good use for writers all over the world. Dr. Akanbi affirmed that that singular action has ensured that Gen. Vatsa’s legacy as a writer continues to inspire generations of Nigerian authors.
Dr. Akanbi said two actions of General Vatsa that include being a published writer before his death and ensuring that writers have a befitting home in Nigeria’s capital city have immortalised him. He wondered why successive governments haven’t deemed it fit to pardon such a man all these years.
In making the case for his posthumous pardon, ANA president pointed out that granting clemency to General Vatsa would not be without precedent, citing the pardons previously extended to notable figures such as General Yakubu Gowon, Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, as well as to General Olusegun Obasanjo by past administrations. Distinguished writers like Lindsay Barrett and former ANA President Denja Abdullahi lent their voices to the call for Gen. Vatsa’s pardon, adding to the weight of the appeal.
Dr. Akanbi urged all well-meaning Nigerians to join in the call for clemency by appealing to the President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigerian Armed Forces, Chief Tinubu, to consider granting a posthumous pardon to Maj-Gen Vatsa. Doing so, he said, would not only heal hurting hearts but honour the late writer’s legacy as championed by the naming of ANA headquarters as Mamman Vatsa Writers’ Village, a sprawling resort that is the largest of its type in Africa and one of the largest globally.
Gen. Vatsa’s execution in February 1986 despite a visit by a delegation to the then Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida, to plead for mercy. ANA president’s call for a posthumous pardon is to clear Gen. Vatsa’s name and accord him the historical and cultural recognition he deserves for his enduring impact on Nigerian literature and creativity.
