Presidential pardons: Biden, hypocrisy, and the precedent problem

Now, here is the thing: as a father, I completely understand Biden’s actions. In the unlikely event that I ever become President of Nigeria (or what is left of it) in a few decades, if my son does some really bad stuff, I’ll probably pardon him before it ever gets to trial, but that is because Nigeria is a banana republic that allows such things. For crying out loud, as we’ll discuss later on, such a son will not even get arrested…

I also accept that Trump made some egregious pardons in his first term, as did Clinton back in the 1990s, so that it won’t be the first time. Heck, Woodrow Wilson pardoned almost 2,500 people, but the thing is that before Nixon pardoned Jimmy Hoffa, presidential pardons in America were not seen as overtly political.

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That is my understanding, anyway.

Then Gerald Ford came after Nixon and gave him a full pardon for Watergate, which was clearly a political deal. Then Clinton came along and pardoned his half-brother, who had been found with cocaine, and Susan McDougal, who was a business partner to himself and Hillary, and I think that is where things really began to unravel with respect to the abuse of the pardons system, so it is a bit rich, as some people have tried to do in some WhatsApp groups I’m in, to try to pin abuse of the system on Trump, but I digress…

The thing here is that Biden explicitly promised not to pardon Hunter, and breaking that promise sets a whole new precedent that subsequent US presidents, not just Trump, will seize upon. As Nigeria watchers, we all know that the iron rule of bad precedents is that when you get away with it, the next person is guaranteed to do worse.

The thing about bad behaviour, when it is legitimised, is that it becomes the standard that human beings want to aspire to. Think of all of us driving in the wrong direction in Lagos traffic simply because LASTMA looks the other way when NURTW members drive against traffic. For the record, let’s not compare America with Nigeria (just yet) because if Seyi Tinubu, or Yusuf Buhari before him, or any other “first son” was found to have committed 191 sex crimes, 140 business crimes, and 128 drug offences, he would not even have been arrested, much less stopped.

For what it’s worth, any officer who attempted to investigate him would have probably ended up either shot at worst or had his career ruined at best. But we don’t even have to go as high as the President’s son. We were treated to the drama of a very credible accusation of rape against a governor’s son, and nothing happened (in Nigeria at least). Do you remember the story of Bala Chinda, who was sentenced to life in the UK for rape and murder? He did not think he did anything wrong because the girl in question was a “common harlot,” and that speaks to the fact that he had likely done such crimes in Nigeria and gotten away with it. Or do we want to talk about “men of God” who put their wicks in the wrong wells but “touch not my anointed,” so society has moved on?

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But then again, I digress…

Back to America, and what we are seeing is what the rest of the world is beginning to recognise as the classic Democrat problem. They have a tendency to posture moralistically but still end up doing what politicians do, while Republicans do what politicians do without caring about any posturing. So, to the majority of ordinary Americans (and increasingly non-Americans), Democrats appear hypocritical while Republicans “tell it as it is.” This perception of hypocrisy was a huge factor in why Trump won a few weeks ago, and Trump is probably now going to pardon all the jailed January 6 protestors, and the knock-on effect of all of this will be very bad for America and the rule of law (as we know it) around the world.

That worries me—a lot.

Nwanze is a partner at SBM Intelligence