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OPINION…2023: Before Minister Malami becomes Governor!

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Abubakar Malami is the Nigerian Minister of (in)Justice and Attorney-General of the federation. By the combination of these two powerful offices Malami could be said to be an important member of the Buhari administration. To be sure the AGF has Buhari’s number; he knows his strenghts and weaknesses! The embattled President has absolute confidence in him, trusts him blindly and listens to his legal advices. As an intellectually-challenged President Buhari cannot afford not to have Malami by his side as he treats certain complicated national issues that he neither comprehends nor controls.

Given this presidential incompetence Malami exploits the presidential lethargy to make his life (and that of his family) wonderfully better by loooting whatever he could lay his hands on in terms of filthy lucre! Today, he is said to be stupendously rich by the force of his uncanny ability to defraud the broken system with impunity.

He is a great ‘dealer’ aiding and abetting injustice with eyes firmly fixed on a larger picture. Whoever underestimates Malami’s capacity for notoriety and controversy linked to high-wire corruption must think twice before reaching any conclusion.

Malami is seen in power circles as a prominent strategic member of the Fulani cabal running Nigeria aground. With President Muhammadu Buhari presented to the Nigerian public as the ‘ceremonial’ Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces he literally heads nothing and commands no army.

Alas, Malami, Kingibe, Gambari and the ailing Mamman Daura and co had used the surrogate presidency to foster their political ambition and economic interests, all these at the criminal expense of the country at crossroads.

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Given this chaotic development majority of Nigerians are praying and fasting daily for 2023 to come faster! We all know that Buhari is in Aso Rock as a ‘ceremonial’ leader on whose behalf key political decisions are taken and executed, sometimes at wee hours of the night in far-away London or Daura, (often on a sick-bed), in order to legitimise or legalise whatever decision the cabal must have reached as the President is nowhere to be found in Abuja, located elsewhere outside the city taking good care of his deteriorating health.

Malami’s past is nothing to write home about prior to his emergence onto the national stage as the Chief law officer of the nation. And by occupying the two strategic positions he has ensured that goodies flow from Abuja to Birnin-Kebbi, Kano to Kaduna where fraudulent investments compete for attention.

Malami has found great favour in Buharism as many other northerners favoured criminally by the former Army General who gatecrashed to power at the zenith by brandishing ‘integrity’ and patriotism. Today we know better!

Apart from the trappings of power and the humongous amount of money he is used to corruptibly accumulating what is behind Malami’s desperate gubernatorial ambition in Kebbi State could be said to be immunity that comes or goes with the office of the Chief Executive of the state.

Malami has been in power for close to seven years since the advent of Buharism. Nothing scandalous he has done so far has ever merited his dismissal or redeployment to other ministries. Yet scandals abound! Malami has been exposed as a highly-corrupt top government official operating wthout let or hindrance.

If President Buhari is truly fighting corruption as he claims wildly then Malami should have since been relieved of his posts. But since the fight against corruption is politicized, fought more through propaganda or directed systematically against the vociferous opposition the Buhari regime has failed woefully on that score. The ruling APC administration has proven to be more corrupt than the opposition PDP!

Buhari knows what Malami is doing in terms of corruptible self-enrichment but he has elected to keep mute if only not to be seen as aiding the ‘enemies’ to bring down the legal foundation upon which his brutal regime is built. It is not that Malami is any brilliant or his performance stellar. It simply takes a clueless mortal to discover another in the same league.

The exposure of Malami’s vast corrupt actvities, nay investment empire, ought to have led to a detailed investigation but since the AGF more or less controls the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), having facilitated reportedly the appointment of its youthful head, Abdulrasheed Bawa, the anti-graft agency is powerless to launch any credible investigation.

It is no longer news that Abubakar Malami, swimming in his millions and billions of illicit funds, is gunning for Kebbi State governorship. He wants to succeed the incumbent Governor of his state, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu. And in seeking to book residence in Birnin-Kebbi as executive Governor post-Buharism Malami is ‘campaigning’ hard. He is distributing money, edible materials and cars to those that matter.

During the recent Sallah celebration he was seen distributing cash gifts and assorted crops to his people. He followed that up by distributing exotic cars to his party executives and delegates! The Minister of Justice has suddenly become generous transforming himself into a glorified Santa Claus in whom the ‘talakawas’ and the well-to-do in the society are well pleased.

But make no mistake about it, all is tailored towards meeting a certain power-grab objective.

With millions of Dollars and billions of Naira in his possesssion Malami is poised to ‘buy’ over the Kebbi state Government House. No force or individual can afford to constitute themselves as obstacles to the realisation of this ‘dream’! Any one that tries to be an impediment is destined to be crushed.

But before Minister Malami becomes Governor we must dutifully warn Kebbi indigenes about what awaits them in the event of Malami becoming their leader. With him comfortably installed inside the Govt. lodge then embezzlement of the public funds would be his primary objective. He has not stolen enough; he wants more like Oliver Twist!

And the greater worry here is that by the time Malami is sworn in as the Governor the scandals he supervised at the Justice department would be swept under the carpet. And here again, the worry is manifest given the fact that having booked residence at the government house probing him or serving justice becomes a difficult if not impossible task to undertake by the in-coming administration.

Therefore, Malami and his sons may well be allowed to enjoy the fruits of their economic and political crimes against the fatherland. And life, under that circumstance, could not have been merrier!

AUTHOR: Ozodinukwe Okenwa


Articles published in our Graffiti section are strictly the opinion of the writers and do not represent the views of Ripples Nigeria or its editorial stand.

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