Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely-Lord Acton
In Africa nay Nigeria, public office holders turn the law upside down, choose the one to obey and the one they choose not to obey.
Indeed this lack of separation between leadership, interest and institutions accounts for the weather of impunity all over the Nigerian state.
This has weakened institutions and made development a mirage as public office holders turn themselves into law and bend the law to suit their whims and caprices.
Abubakar Malami, former Justice Minister was one of the strong men and power behind the throne during the eight years rule of Major General Muhammadu Buhari,the leader who found it difficult to police his ministers and make them accountable for their deeds in office as revelations in the past two years of his inglorious Presidency have shown .
For Buhari, he reigned while his Fulani henchmen and cabal ruled.
In the eight years of his reign, characters like Malami, Godwin Emefiele, the infamous CBN Governor,late Chief of staff Abba Kyari and Buhari’s uncle Mamman Daura ruled,called the shots and had the Cabinet at their beck and call.
This sense of entitlement must have made Malami who stepped into court arrogantly on Monday December 29 at the resumed hearing of his alleged corruption as someone bigger than the law he trampled upon for eight years.
Even then,his mien two years outside of power, shows that he still has a sense of entitlement that he owns the Judiciary and the system that sustains it.
Who would not think so.
Under a regime which former Works Minister, Babatunde Raji Fashola described as one where the captain of the ship,Muhammadu Buhari would assign a job and not supervise it.
As a result, he made Ministers serving under him sacred vows as they raped the country with impunity and turned themselves into law.
Malami’s carriage and mien portray that air of invicibility he acquired and nurtured for eight years.
It is not news that he also flouted the rule of law he swore to protect during his tenure as AG.
He forgot that whatever goes round, comes round .
For failing to meet bail conditions on the 16- count graft charge against him by the EFCC, he feels the law should respect him.
Malami’s alleged pilfering of $400 million Sani Abacha loot is the alleged source of how he acquired 41 eye- popping properties worth N212 billion located in Yobe and Kano States.
Properties are so much that would have made Buhari turn in his grave that ministers that took him six months to assemble developed light fingers almost bigger than Emefiele his chief banker and made him the latter of corruption which dominated the Buharis ‘anti corruption’ years.
The revelations concerning official corruption under the watch of Buhari call to question the judgement of those who felt Buhari’s sainthood exhibited in his first coming in 1983-85 would make him run a saintly government needed to pull Nigeria out of the morass.
They were wrong.
Malami did not stop at helping himself with the Abacha loot as he set a record which beats Emefiele’s own.
Maybe if Emefiele’s wife and children had not voted with their feet when their breadwinner was caught, they would’ve been caught in the web like Malami’s family.
That he allegedly incorporated his family led by his 22 year- old son, Abirul Rahman who got a princely mansion worth hundreds of million property built for him by his father.
This obviously made the assertion by former military President Ibrahim Babangida who declared of late that his corrupt ridden eight year regime was a Saint compared to the eight- year rule of the Katsina general.
It is impossible that the country hasn’t seen anything yet until the trial of the corruption under Buhari’s eight -year administration is eventually unveiled either now or in the near future.
EFCC for morality sake should make its job of establishing Malami’s family of corruption valid by calculating all the money the former Attorney General had made from his law practice to determine whether indeed he is justified having the properties.
That he included at least two of his wives-Hajia Bashir Asabe,Hajia Fatima and Nana Hadiza Buhari, his third wife and daughter of his boss into the corruption family speaks volume of why he married his boss’ daughter who had six children in her previous marriage.
That he involved his wives and sons into the corruption enterprise had made the North they represent ironically the poverty capital of the world .
Richard Akinjide,late Attorney General of the Federation, in an interview granted before his demise to The News magazine on September 18 2000 described Nigeria as a mere geographical expression, obviously echoing what late Chief Obafemi Awolowo said over six decades earlier.
As an opposition figure to Awo throughout the latter’s five decades in politics, it was surprising that Akinjide could turn round to admit and confirm what Awo said.
Akinjide did not stop at that, he described Northern leaders as “parasites” feasting on the economic fortunes of Southern Nigeria.
Said he,”The problem with Nigeria is that you have those who don’t know governing at the helm.This is the problem of Northerners. The North believes it can use the army to rule the country.
Unfortunately ,a number of Northerners cannot separate the public treasury from their private treasury.They believe that the two are synonymous.
But in the South, public treasury is sacred”.
Could this assertion by late Akinjide, a believer in North’s hegemonic rule until the late 90s when he changed tune, be the reason why characters like Malami and Ahmed Idris, a former Accountant General of the country who looted a princely N109 billion of the country’s money and still question why the state should continue his prosecution after forfeiting N30 billion out of it ?
Today, Akinjide who propounded the 12,2/3 legal theory that installed Shehu Shagari when the 1979 presidential election was deadlocked, must have regretted his action in his dying days.
Could this explain why Malami and acolytes accused the EFCC of political persecution even when he has not convinced the court that he worked hard for the money and properties he acquired , using his wives and children as partners and beneficiaries of the alleged looting.
On the surface, how could an officer of law convert a looted fund gotten through years of litigation into his personal use.
The EFCC also need to establish a link if it had not done so between Malami and Emefiele who as then CBN Governor must have allowed the diversion of the Abacha loot kept in the CBN under his watch.
The EFCC must also prove the real owners of 756 duplexes forfeited by the state from Emefiele’s light fingers.
The EFCC must also discreetly establish a link between Malami,Emefiel and Buhari’s ruling cabal allegedly led by Mamman Daura,the elderly cousin of Buhari who called the shots behind the lame duck throne.
Emefiele as the nation’s chief banker must also explain why it is possible for public and civil servants to have such properties in their account and name without alerting police anti Fraud unit.
Though the reason why he couldn’t have done so was obvious as he was kingpin of the looting spree having spent nine years as the country’s chief banker.
Our country’s legal and financial system that permits stealing of such a humongous amount of money needs to be reexamined if corruption by civil servants and public office holders must stop.
It is only reasonable that Doctors, University teachers and others would go on strike at every opportunity when they discovered those they trained are using the knowledge they acquired to loot public funds with impunity while they, as teachers, remain as poor as church rats.
Though obtaining justice in Nigeria remains ridiculously slow,special courts or tribunals should be established to try proven cases of corruption with dispatch and not allow the system to slow down trials which with the passage of time leads to miscarriage of justice.
The state and citizens remain the losers as looters of public funds use money at their disposal to pervert Justice.
Time to setup a Special Anti Couption Tribunal is now if the country must survive the weight of corruption holding it down.
*Tunde Abatan,is Publisher Newdawnngr.com tunde2013abatan@gmail.com