We thought we had seen the worst mutation of fawning depravity in Michael Aondoakaa, the pathetically loquacious character who, as Justice Minister and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), strove tirelessly to pervert justice by openly putting the law at the service of shady political players during the Umar Yar'Adua administration, thereby dragging the nation's jurisprudence into utter disrepute.
So embarrassed was the legal establishment that it
barely waited for the earliest opportunity to publicly disrobe the buccaneering
fellow as SAN after his removal from office in February 2010. For want of
what to do thereafter, he retreated to his native Benue and resorted to rice
farming, big time.
Under Aondoakaa, the rule of law was perverted to the
ruse of law.
Today, Abubakar Malami, SAN is increasingly proving to
be in a class of his own in professional misjudgement, if not worse.. His role
in the Mainagate that unraveled last week seems to have, at last,
helped drag into national spotlight what could only be termed a
culture of zig-zag sprouting in the Ministry of Justice since 2015
and, more significantly, underscore in cold, bold print the grave danger a
society faces ultimately having a Lilliputian in such big chair.
From the facts now known, Malami undoubtedly diminished
the integrity of that lofty office by repeatedly providing false
interpretation of court judgements for the sole benefit of a common
fugitive.
Worse still, rather than hiding his head in shame and
immersing himself in ashes and sackcloth in penitence, Malami was still arguing
last week that he acted in "public interest" by availing the pension
fraud suspect, Abdulrasheed Maina, the legal equivalent of a bulletproof
jacket.
A man already being sniffed at by the entire community
as a prime suspect did not seem to see the folly in flaunting a little he-goat
around.
In drafting the three vile letters seeking to
launder Maina before the head of service few months ago
and smooth his way through the Interior Ministry,
crafty Malami resorted to a poor imitation of what is called "imaginative
omission" in literary theory. He harped, harped and harped on the 2013
judgement of an Abuja court which purportedly vacated the arrest
warrant against Maina, as if that was enough to override the charge of
absenteeism as the actual basis for his dismissal from the service in
2013 or to blot out the memory of the substantive criminal
case against him over the looting of pensioners' billions.
The emergency legal alchemist must have prayed
fervently that no one also remembered that Interpol was still on Maina's
trail. Of course, his ramshackle letters paved the way for
slimy Maina to not only return to office but also reap a triple
bonanza: receipt of whopping N21m in back pay, double promotion to Grade Level
16 and a chance to sit for further promotion exam.
Never in recent history has official collusion in gross
illegality been this audacious and the full weight of the state vigorously
thrown behind open criminality.
What confounds is not just that Malami's actions
violates logic and decency; more shameful is that someone who occupies such
very high office still does not appear to have the commonsense after the fact
and seems too inured by the shimmering ambience of power to figure that
something was ever amiss.
Yet, in the eye of the law, that office is deemed the
next ranking after the President and Vice President in
the Federal Executive Council; not even the position
of the self-preening Chief of Staff to the President comes
close.
For the ease of reference and maybe reverence for the
office of the Attorney General of the Federation, many have over the years
formed the habit of addressing occupant simply as Attorney Gen.
But on account
of the foregoing case of duplicity entered against Malami, I can almost bet
that those now left disillusioned in, say, Yoruba-speaking South-West, are
likely to discountenance the acronym Attorney Gen literally as "Atanni
Je" (the deceiver) henceforth.
If faith were lost in the chief law officer, in whom
shall the common-man trust?
So, let it be recognized that, with the nation's
supposed legal czar mired in such noxious sewage, what is left of the credibility
of President Buhari's anti-corruption agenda only gets further eroded.
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| Odion |
Worse still, while indulging in the orgy of
self-righteousness now, Malami hardly seems bothered by the monumental global
shame his perfidious act has certainly brought the nation, nor the contempt
with which bodies like Interpol (earlier pressed into worldwide manhunt for
Maina) are now likely to view the country.
Indeed, if public anger is stoked to boiling point over
the Maina scandal, it is partly because of the memory of how the monster had
evolved. He was invited by President Jonathan to plug the leakage in the
pension scheme. Like a typical rogue plumber, he ended up making matters worse.
True, he recovered some loot and unmasked the rats. But
he soon took the place of the swines displaced. Because he already knew their
tricks, he was more savage in his own pillage.. Unlike the principle Mobutu
Sese Seko preached, Maina gobbled too much for the owner not to notice.
By one account, the Grade Level 14 civil servant, whose
known wage was less than N250,000 monthly, suddenly had enough to shell out
staggering $2m cash on a property in an upscale Abuja neighborhood in 2012. So,
just as the now late Zairean kleptocrat-in-chief already forewarned in the
circumstance, the whole town and the Interpol were soon in a hot pursuit of
Maina.
But Malami and the conniving Interior Minister soon
hatched a counter-plot with the apparent blessing of the shadowy enforcer at
the DSS.
Of course, their hearts were too deadened to feeling.
Otherwise, they would have been enraged that what Maina is accused of stealing
is actually blood money, being what was either stolen from senior citizens who
died in unspeakable pain or those left to stew in abject penury at old age.
Malami's knack for poor judgement was also very much in
evidence in the Misau-IG affair. The senator from Bauchi had leveled sundry
weighty charges against the no 1 cop including allegation of inseminating
serving female officers, thus insinuating that the title, Inspector General,
could perhaps now be rightly taken as "Inspector Genital".
Documents tendered by Senator Misau exposed the IG's
profligacy.. The First Lady's staff requested operational passenger vehicles.
But Father Xmas IG chose instead to bless them with two hefty SUVs, even when
his men on the field do not have vehicles to chase criminals.. A
calculating fellow, the IG obviously acted with the expectation that the tale
of his generosity would, at least, reach Madam's ears.
Malami's response? He rushed to the court to
press grave charges against Misau.
It is perhaps a reflection of the AGF's cluelessness
that, under him, the justice ministry has been unable to secure any conviction
in all the high-profile cases.
Yet, like all deluded power-mongers, Malami seeks to
acquire more; to perform more magic, maybe. He wants to bring the far more
aggressive EFFC under his infirm thumb. In the final analysis, only an AGF
unworthy of his title will not feel diminished by Aso Rock developing the
infernal habit of disobeying court judgements as illustrated by the Dasuki and
El Zakzaky cases.
Even where the government appeared to have a good case,
he plays the spoiler by throwing a spanner in the works. At least, we
saw his bungling hand in the graft case brought by ICPC against Godsday
Orubebe. The reason the multi-billionaire Malabu case is also stalled.
Again, we saw his wrecking hand in the case of alleged
theft of N2.1b against a certain Ahmed Saleh. The independent prosecutor was
about to deliver the killer punch when Malami suddenly appeared and filed a
nolle.
Initially, they cited "conflict of interest"
against Adeogun Phillips, the lead prosecution counsel. If that was the only
reason, how come the matter was not sustained after he withdrew?
Curiously, Saleh, against whom the weighty charge of
complicity in the diversion of N2.1b as the Chief Registrar of the Supreme
Court was entered, would almost immediately be ushered into the more sensitive
office of the Secretary of the National Judicial Council (NJC).
One would think that, being the custodian of juridical
values and therefore emblematic of jurisprudential integrity, only men and
women squeakily untainted would be accorded the rare honour and privilege of
sitting at that supreme council.
So, if the public loses faith in the AGF, whom shall we
trust then?
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