Malami And A Society Waiting To Be Rescued

By Mobolaji Sanusi

“To oppose corruption in government is the highest obligation of patriotism.”—G. Edward Griffin

The media, since December of last year, has been in a reporting frenzy over a systematic monumental sleaze involving the federation’s immediate past number one legal officer. Abubakar Malami, SAN, while serving as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the federation, had no foreboding that an agency that is once under his control in the Justice Ministry, the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), will one day confidently invite, detain and arraign him, his wife and son, in a court of law over alleged corruption committed while in office.

But today, it has happened to him, hitting him like a thunderbolt. Reflectively, such self-inflicting happenstance can never be ruled out in the lives of those currently serving in different positions across the country after leaving office. The remedy is for them to strive to overcome official financial misconduct.

Through a court order, EFCC has secured a temporary forfeiture of 57 properties worth N212.8billion said to belong to Malami, his wife, and son. This is perhaps the biggest corruption case, so far from a single family of a former or serving public office holder under this democratic dispensation. And this leaves much to be desired about how fast the once cherished family values in our communal lives are fast eroding from our society. This singular incident of privileged human insatiable greed involving Malami and family, with other laughable unresolved corruption cases pointedly indicates why the country, in the midst of God-given resource-endowment, may forever be struggling for real greatness by remaining avoidably poor.

From being an unknown/unrated corporate lawyer/attorney in 2015, Malami, by sheer providential luck of being appointed by demised President Mohammadu Buhari, had magically, in eight years of two terms of that epoch (November 2015-May 2023), reportedly amassed stupendously huge unexplained wealth to the admiration of a largely morally bankrupt society and to the chagrin of few right thinking Nigerians.

Malami now faces EFCC’s 16-count charge, including an infraction of Section 15(2) (d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011, as amended and punishable under Section 15(3). Alongside his wife, Bashir Asabe; son, Abubakar Abdulaziz Malami, allegedly used Rahamaniyya Properties and Metropolitan Auto Tech Limited to launder about ₦9 billion with which they bought thirty choice houses littered across Abuja, Kebbi, Kano, and other states. The houses are believed to have a current street value of ₦212.8billion. All the houses were believed to have been clinically acquired during his eight years of serving in the government of the late President Buhari.

Malami and family, after meeting bail conditions stipulated by the judge, reportedly returned to Kebbi, his home state, where a shameful spectacle occurred. According tonreports, they insensitively rode in a chartered private jet to a waiting crowd of jubilating relatives and supporters. This shameful display involving key suspects in a N212.8 billion money laundering case sadly underscores how low our contemporary but mostly depraved communities have sunk.

This perhaps explains why the 2024 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index graciously ranked the country 140th out of 180 countries. In a total corruption rating score of 100, the country scored a paltry 26 marks, far below the global average pass score of 43. This result, reflects a dip from the position of 136th out of 174 captured most-corrupt-countries in 2014.

What the Malami and family’s alleged corruption infamy tells us is that our society as a collective is fast becoming abysmally irredeemable from the firm grip of corruption. Illegal dipping of hands in public tills has sadly become a norm rather than an exception. Becoming the order of the day are: Inflated project costs by government officials in tandem with contractor allies, outrageous commissions on negotiations done on behalf of the government, setting aside of brilliant policy initiatives except such allow for personal aggrandizement, and a shoddy handling of anything government works to give room for pursuits of filthy lucre, amongst others.

This is why at this point in the nation’s most recent history, the country’s immediate-past number one legal officer, wife, and son, without being known for having hitherto engaged in any identifiable industry or productive engagements/venture can allegedly amass such stupendous wealth and properties. No wonder that the family system as a veritable foundation of societal values have overtime been destroyed by especially governmental kleptocrats.

Malami at one time sadly sat over a ministry that wrote and approved legal opinions relied upon in the prosecutions of criminals when he himself is entrapped in questionable ‘mens rea.’ It won’t be hyperbolic to state that this probably symbolized amongst the privileged class in the country, a syndrome that has haughtily affirmed corruption as having assumed a toga of crime without conscience – with no serious consequential repercussions – once the right bargain is struck.

Perturbingly, our society has been routinely celebrating unrestrained individualism over our communal good and well-being. Several looting of public treasury by individuals in government, running into trillions of Naira have continued unabated with several others waiting for their opportunity. The Emefiele Central Bank scandal is fast fizzling from public consciousness. Diezani Allison-Maduekwe is also fast becoming history. The case of the former Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris who was accused of stealing tens of billions of Naira may never be revisited again. The Abdul-Rasheed Maina pension fund stealing scandal has equally become history. The subsidy thieves are busy enjoying looted trillions of Naira in their various communities while other Nigerians are now paying the price of government’s ineptitude in handling its oil operations. Of major concerns here is how to resolve or tackle this moral question of celebrating intellectual corruption that gives the elites in government especially, the myth of unchallenged privilege.

There is class culpability in what we have accused Malami of. This is because very few families of politically exposed persons can be exonerated from the Malami corruption malady because it is something that is routinely practiced while our poverty-stricken populace, as spectators, pitifully hail such disgusting acts of odious criminality. If truly the EFCC, Code of Conduct Bureau and the Independent Corrupt Practices & Other Related Offenses Commission, ICPC, are effectively watchful of elites in government, Malami could not have brazenly committed these alleged crimes, notwithstanding his being in power at the time.

These three societal institutional watchdogs looking the other way, can only give a false sense of temporary invincibility to those currently serving in government and their families that they can do anything and go scot-free for as long as they remain in power. Someone needs to remind them that whatever protection they enjoy now by virtue of being in power is temporary. Recent history has shown that the long arm of justice, even though grinds slowly, will eventually catch-up with such people at the end of their tenure.

Another peril against cleansing our societies of the filth of corruption is always the reappearance of publicly known looters of public tills in successive governments. Examples of powerful public till robbers that meandered their ways back to appointive/elective positions litter the entire political landscapes. Ayn Rand’s inimitable words gave an insight into the consequences of unrestrained looting in any country with his graphic description of a doomed society to be one in which “corruption is being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice.”

Our society needs redemption from the pangs of avoidable official sleaze committed by mindlessly avaricious past and present government officials that have ascribed law to a cobweb that holds only the weak while the strong/mighty effortlessly passes through, unruffled. Most Nigerians believe that Malami, despite the alleged corruption charges hanging on his neck, might soon be forgiven and told to sin no more. They sarcastically say, this is Nigeria where anything goes, after all.

Something urgent has to be done about official corruption because of its destructive influence on the country’s general wellbeing. Noam Chomsky succinctly captures the malady’s rapaciously debilitating effect when he declared: “Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.” Our societal foundations are being destroyed by the corruption cankerworms.

To save our society from the hundreds of corrupt public officers and families lurking around the corridors of power and tormenting our forward-movement at the various levels in this federation, I beckon on all, including especially the traditional rulers as royal fathers to kindly act as patriots by rejecting public till robbers in our communities. Our royal fathers as traditional leaders of our communities must henceforth start denying such pen-rogues of prime chieftaincy title recognitions to restore community integrity and sanctity. We owe ourselves the task of ensuring that condemnable acts of stealing in government stands exposed, anytime and anywhere.

•Sanusi is former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency and currently the managing partner at AMS Reliable Solicitors.(WhatsApp/Text Messages Only To: 07011117777).