MEMORY LANE: What did Herbert Macaulay do warranting being pardoned by President Tinubu? - Do you know he has his roots in Ogbomoso?

MEMORY LANE: What did Herbert Macaulay do warranting being pardoned by President Tinubu? – Do you know he has his roots in Ogbomoso?

Khalid ABRAHAM

President Bola Tinubu on Thursday granted posthumous presidential pardons to the late nationalist, Herbert Macaulay, and a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, the late Major General Mamman Vatsa, alongside 15 others.

The gesture formed part of sweeping approvals for clemency endorsed by the National Council of State during its Thursday meeting at the State House, Abuja.

The President also approved clemency for 82 inmates, commuted seven death sentences to life imprisonment, and reduced the prison terms of 65 others, acting on recommendations from the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy chaired by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi.

Herbert Macaulay’s alleged offence

In the early 1910s, Herbert Macaulay was accused of misappropriation of funds while serving as a surveyor and architect. He allegedly faced some financial difficulty and misappropriated funds from an estate he served as executor for. His actions were uncovered by the authorities who tried him and sentenced him to two years in prison.

Meanwhile, the historian Patrick Dele-Cole outlines evidence suggesting that Macaulay was unfairly persecuted at his 1913 trial. The prosecuting counsel, one Robert Irving, was Herbert Macaulay’s tenant who may have pursued a private vendetta. Macaulay had obtained a court order to evict Robert Irving on 3 December 1912. Additionally, Macaulay’s lawyers encountered severe difficulties putting up a solid defense in the course of the case: as an example Macaulay’s lawyers were unable to find the police magistrate anywhere in Lagos to obtain bail. Other incidents include the acting Chief Justice fining Macaulay £100 despite the five assessors in the court returning a not guilty verdict. Cole also underscores Macaulay’s scrupulous transparency regarding the trust. According to Cole “the will of the testatrix was read in public at the request of Macaulay and the loan he obtained in order to clear the debts of the testatrix was explained to the beneficiaries of the will (Macaulay’s niece was the principal beneficiary and she certainly did not engage Irving to prosecute the case), yet he was convicted of ‘intent to defraud'”.

Finally, Cole notes that Macaulay’s sentence of five years was “unusually severe.”

There was also the Gunpowder Plot

Macaulay’s second legal problem centered on what came to be the “Gunpowder Plot Case”. When the Privy Council decided that the exiled Oba Eshugbayi Eleko could apply for a writ of habeas corpus from one judge to another, Lagos went wild with excitement because it indicated that the popular Oba would be reinstated. Macaulay’s Lagos Daily News published a rumor that because of the Privy Council’s decision, the British colonial government in Lagos planned to blow up Oba Eleko’s vehicle. For the Gunpowder Plot Case Macaulay was sentenced to six months in prison (at Broad Street Prison) with hard labor without the option for a fine. Macaulay was sixty-four years old at the time of this conviction and the imprisonment increased Macaulay’s popularity within Nigeria.

Ancestry of Herbert Macaulay

Herbert Macaulay was born in Lagos in 1864 to Thomas Babington Macaulay and Abigail Crowder. His father was a son of Ojo Oriare, who hailed from Oriare compound in Okelerin, Ogbomoso, Oyo state. His mother, Abigail Crowder was a daughter of Bishop Ajayi Crowder, a descendant of Oba Abiodun, Alaafin of Oyo.

Macaulay after elementary and secondary school education, studied civil engineering in Plymouth, England, and was also a pupil of G.D. Bellamy, a borough surveyor and water engineer in Plymouth. In 1893, he became a graduate of the Royal Institute of British Architects, London. He also received a certificate in music from Trinity College, London and a certificate in violin playing from Music International College, London.

Upon returning to Lagos in September 1893, he resumed work with the colonial service as a surveyor of Crown Lands. He left the service as land inspector in September 1898 due to a growing distaste for the British rule of the Lagos Colony and the position of Yorubaland and the Niger Coast Protectorate as British protectorates.

After his conviction he went into politics, and practiced as an engineer, architect, journalist, boxer and musician.

He’s regarded as father of Nigerian nationalism. Years after his conviction he founded the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) in 1923, which was the first political party in Nigeria. And in 1944 he co-founded National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) with Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.

He made a huge impact and died in 1946 at the age of 81.