Bala Mohammed, Abubakar Malami, Unmasked

Dialogue With Nigeria By AKIN OSUNTOKUN

Dialogue With Nigeria by AKIN OSUNTOKUN

**”Is there not some chosen curse, some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man who owes his greatness to his country’s ruin?”

—Joseph Addison**

For years, a thick fog shrouded Nigeria’s efforts to identify and prosecute those enabling banditry and terrorism. That haze finally began to lift with the recent exposure of Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State’s alleged involvement in these criminal networks. Given his history of fervent Fulani nationalist rhetoric, this revelation, unfortunately, comes as little surprise.

Governor Mohammed has previously positioned himself as a torchbearer of Northern Muslim irredentist sentiments—a role which, whatever its political calculus, has never matched the relative personal discipline attributed to the late President Muhammadu Buhari. Yet, Mohammed’s opportunism and involvement in controversial policies have always set him apart.

Back in September 2019, he famously declared: “I think there is a lot of mistrust and misconception as regards the Fulani man. The Fulani man is a global or African person. He moves from The Gambia to Senegal and his nationality is Fulani. As a person, I may have my relations in Cameroon but they are also Fulani. I am a Fulani man from my maternal side; we will just have to take this as our own heritage, something that is African. So, we cannot just close our borders and say the Fulani man is not a Nigerian. It is that culture of getting revenge which is embedded in the traditional Fulani man that attracts reprisal.”.

As later events revealed, this wasn’t merely rhetoric but indicative of deeper ties. According to a December 29, 2025 EFCC charge sheet, state officials, including the Bauchi Commissioner of Finance, Yakubu Adamu, had been arraigned for alleged $9.7 million in terrorism financing, with funds traced back to approvals by Governor Bala Mohammed.

Inter alia, “the EFCC, yesterday, arraigned Yakubu Adamu, Commissioner of Finance, Bauchi State, and his co-defendants on alleged $9.7 million terrorism financing.

They were alleged to have conspired to provide funds in the aggregate sum of 2,300,000.000 U.S. dollars in cash for the benefit of Bello Bodejo (Alhaji Bello Bodejo is the President, the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore) and persons associated with him, pursuant to approvals granted by Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State.The said funds were alleged to be used, in whole or in part, to finance a terrorist or terrorist group”.

“They delivered 500,000.00 U.S. dollars in cash to Bodejo and persons associated with him for the purpose of perpetrating terrorism and conspired to disguise the origin of the sum of about 6, 950, 000. 00 US dollars for the benefit of Yakubu Adamu, the Finance Commissioner, routed from Bauchi State Government’s funds through the BDC operators….

“They facilitated and agreed to the conversion, concealment and use of funds in the sum of about N4,650,000,000.00 availed by Polaris Bank under the guise of financing the supply of motorcycles to Bauchi State Government”

In a conspicuous occurrence, the notorious Bodejo, (who had become a law to himself during the Buhari presidency), foretold the death of a child he was going to murder when on June 16th 2022 (A day preceding the attack on Christian congregants at the Owo catholic church, Ondo state) he “addressed a mammoth crowd of Fulani pastoralists from across Nigeria and beyond and “rained curses on some state governors whom, he claimed, chased Fulani pastoralists away from their states using state systems, assuring them that peace will continue to elude them until they reverse their decisions and wholeheartedly welcome and accept the pastoralists as members of the society. “We know our friends and enemies and we will act at the right time,”.

Caught pants down, the Bauchi governor typically resorted to playing the incoherent victim, waffling “God is wonderful. I don’t have to say anything. I don’t even have to go to the public court, but certainly, politics has become something else in Nigeria. “The APC-led Federal Government thinks it can use the courts and institutions of government, like the EFCC, to persecute and prosecute Nigerians who are not in their party. If they don’t stop, we’re going to declare war,”.

The irony here is that the governor is probably correct that the choice to prosecute him at the moment is a political priority of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu presidency. This predilection is calculated at weakening the capacity of the opposition and it is tendentious of all incumbents seeking reelection. Yet it is not a sufficient alibi for clearly established culpability and the sheer magnitude of the crime. Ultimately what is significant and relevant is the veracity of the charges levelled against him.

In a peculiar strike of Stockholm syndrome, we were recently notified of the case involving former federal Attorney General and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami, his wife and son who arrived in a private jet to a heroic welcome in Kebbi after meeting N1.5 billion naira bail condition. So, what is it that the Malami family had accomplished to merit this heroic welcome? There are two perspectives to this peculiar behaviour worth recalling. One, as earlier indicated, is the psychology of the Stockholm syndrome ‘where hostages or abuse victims develop positive feelings, empathy, or emotional bonds with their captors/abusers’. Allied to this notion is the theoretical exposition of Peter Ekeh which concludes that ‘public office corruption in Nigeria carry little moral sanction and may well receive great moral approbation from members of one’s primordial public. ‘To put your fingers in the till of the government will not unduly burden your conscience, and people may well think you are a smart fellow and envy you your opportunities’.

It is in the context of the above perspectives that we find an adequate explanation for the behaviour of the Kebbi people who were celebrating the return of a criminal suspect on whom “The Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the interim forfeiture of 57 properties (yes, 57 properties) suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities linked to a former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN. Along with his wife, Bashir Asabe, his son, Abubakar Abdulaziz, Malami is equally squaring up against a N8.7 billion money laundering charge. The notoriety of Malami does not end here.

Earlier in July 24 2023, the Cable had reported that the former attorney-general of the federation (AGF), will be questioned over at least five suspicious transactions during his time in office. The transactions include:

“The mysterious payment of $496 million to Global Steel Holdings Ltd (GSHL) as settlement for the termination of the Ajaokuta Steel concession nine years after the Indian company had waived all claims for compensation”

“His handling of the sale of assets worth billions of naira forfeited to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by politically exposed persons”

“His role in the $419 million judgment debt awarded to consultants who claimed to have facilitated the Paris Club refunds to the states”

“The strange agreement to pay Sunrise Power $200 million compensation in its dispute with the federal government over the Mambilla power project”

“The duplicated legal fees in the transfer of $321 million Abacha loot from Switzerland to Nigeria”.

You will also recall that on 13th May 2023, it was widely reported that Abdulaziz Yari, former governor of Zamfara state, says he bought 250 copies of a book written by Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation, for N250 million. This works out at 1million naira per copy. “I, the chief launcher, bought about 250 copies of this book for the cost of N250 million.“. He boasted

You remember Yari, don’t you? He, of the famous crime partnership with former Accountant General of Nigeria, Ahmed Idris, which fleeced Nigeria of 84 billion naira?. Yari, a former Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, conspired with embattled Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, in an alleged N84 billion fraud. ‘The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) commission equally disclosed the allegation that Mr Yari spent at least $700,000 of the N20billion he received from the problematic deal on a recent trip to Saudi Arabia for lesser hajj’.

Reinforcing the news value of Malami’s unveiling before the Nigerian public is the coincidence of the release of a book in which the former first lady, Aisha Buhari and her daughter, Fatima, all but corroborated the villainy of Buhari’s top functionaries like Malami as “those who knew the former President’s weaknesses and exploited them to the detriment of his administration, of whom “Buhari and Nigerians were both victims who enriched themselves beyond measure,”.

And as we were putting this column, the news broke that former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), was taken into custody by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) on January 19, 2026, shortly after his release from Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja on allegations of terrorism financing and the discovery of arms and ammunition at Malami’s country home in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State’.

The tragicomedy of George Sekibo

There was a video clip which recently circulated across the social media in which the federal minister of works, Nyesom Wike, paid a visit to his friend, Senator George Sekibo, in Ogu, Rivers state. ‘The video shows the interior of Sekibo’s newly built sprawling mansion which left Wike speechless’. If the edifice left the two term tenure former governor of Rivers state and current minister of the FCT speechless, you can well imagine what effect it would have on ordinary folks like us.

My first impression of the scenario was how the normlessness of the residence matches the absurdity of Sekibo’s physical appearance. The house appears to be a logical manifestation and extension of his unique physical proportions.

One of his constituents sums it all “You proudly handed out drinks (whether or not they were 40-year-old whisky). Still, you failed to present something far more critical: the legislative record of what you achieved during your extended stay in the National Assembly as Senator representing Rivers East—approximately fourteen (14) years in the Senate.

“You also deliberately avoided explaining the source of the enormous wealth on display…It would have been more instructive to present:

• The companies or businesses you own.

•    Empirical evidence of taxes paid to the Nigerian state.

“Today, many of the people who elected you four times into the National Assembly still wallow in abject poverty, deprivation, and penury. So, Senator, as you admire your magnificent mansion, kindly pause and ask yourself a simple moral question: How many rooms does one man truly need to sleep in per night”?