Of all the the trusted appointees of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Minister of Justice and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, has allegedly earned the unenviable reputation of being the most selfish and reckless public officer in recent times.
Rather than exhibit the sterling attributes of scholarship and erudite qualities of an attorney general, Malami has become more notorious for rabble rousing, meddlesomeness, and having disregard for decency in the manner he carries himself as Nigeria’s chief law officer
Many continue to wonder how Malami has become so powerful and impudent to the point that he miasadvises Mr President on very sensitive issues of national interest and importance, once he thinks that such issues clash with his selfish interests
Within the last seven years as Nigeria’s attorney general, Malami has been using his position to foment crises both in his own home town and other places, in an attempt to secure unmerited political advantage over those he considers to be his adversaries, rightly, or, wrongly.
His foray into the local politics of Kano state, where he supported the faction of the APC, led by Senator Shekarau, has contributed in widening the gulf between the Governor Ganduje faction of the party on one hand and the Shekarau group on the other.
Recently, he instigated another crises in his own home state of Kebbi, by pitting the supporters of former Governor Adamu Aleiro against his own group, mostly comprising thugs and hoodlums, who have been terrorising supporters of the former governor and anyone who is not in support of his aspiration to become the next governor of Kebbi state
His predisposition to meddlesomeness has also taken him to Sokoto, where he is living no stone unturned thinking that he can dislodge the political godfather of Sokoto, Senator Aliyu Wamakko, and imposing his puppets as his preferred leaders of the APC in that state but Wamakko has been proving a hard nut to crack while Malami is now praying for a soft landing.
Not many have forgotten his ignoble roles in the Zamfara political tragedy that saw the APC losing that state to the opposition PDP in 2019.
The raging controversy, over the Federal High Court, Umuahia’s ruling on section 84(12) of the newly enacted Electoral Act, to the effect that it ordered the expunging of that section from the Act, is strongly believed to have been engineered by Malami.
His involvement in that questionable court ruling is tied to his desperation to remain in office, while he contests election to the office of the next governor of Kebbi dtate
Everyone knows that Malami and his other political appointees are morbidly afraid of losing election after resigning from office as required by Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, which they thoroughly hate. In a recent interview with the BBC Hausa Service, Senator Ahmed Baba Kaita from Katsina state said it loud and clear that “those behind the shameful court ruling are those who are afraid to resign and go back home to contest elections because they have no grassroots support”.
According to Kaita the National Assembly is the only constitutional body to formulate laws through legislation and no office no matter who is occupying it can temper with such laws not even the Attorney general of the federation. Those afraid of that section and agitating for deleting it from the amended electoral act know they cannot win election anywhere and they are only postponing the doomsday but it will come.
Therefore, in a desperate attempt to safeguard against such an eventuality, Malami who is vividly aware he does not have IMMUNITY after leaving office and that the “Dogs of Witch hunt” he has released against his perceived enemies would turn against him, has resorted to manipulation of the judiciary through the Federal High Court, Umuahia, thus opening up another pandora box of scandal around him. No attorney general in this democratic dispensation has messed up that office like Malami has done in the last seven years and without immunity he is afraid of the unknown between now and election time because he cannot clean up the messy footprints created by selfish ambition.
The attorney general, actually exposed himself with the speed he deployed to implementing the controversial court ruling by quickly proceeding to gazette it, even when, the room for appeal to a higher court has not been closed
To legal experts, all the processes leading to the court ruling, were irregular, as there was only one party, the plaintiff, before the court, in a case that should, ordinarily have involved the defendants as interested parties too
The attorney general was clearly up to some mischief by sneaking into Umuahia with the suit, principally to take the National Assembly and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, by surprise, and thereby prevent them from stating their own positions before the court.
Going by the groundswell of legal options on the matter, chances are that the APC may be stepping on a banana peel, in the event that the Umuahia court decision is overturned at the Appeal Court, which lawyers believe would most likely happen
The consequences would now throw the APC in a serious quagmire, if the political appointees had participated in the National Convention slated for this weekend in Abuja, because, the whole process would stand nullified.
These are just a few of the many shenanigans of the attorney general, which Mr President has continued to tolerate to the bewilderment of many.It will not be out of place to predict that Malami and characters like him, who have surrounded Mr President, may end up being the archiles hill of the APC and the Buhari administration even if not visible for now the years to come would tell how Malami misled the president and the nation.
Mr. Badmus is a public affairs analyst based in Abuja.
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