Abubakar Malami (SAN) was the honourable attorney general and minister of justice of Nigeria for eight years under late President Muhammadu Buhari. As minister of justice, and one of the youngest ministers in the Buhari cabinet, when he was appointed on 8 November, 2015, he prided himself on being the chief law officer of the country. I shall return to this. As the chief law officer, his responsibilities included providing legal advice to the government and ensuring compliance with the law.
In a 28 June, 2020 essay, “Malami: Portrait of a ‘Barrier-in-Chief’”,published on the whistleblowing platform, Corruption Anonymous (CORA), my colleague, Godwin Onyeacholem, wrote, “Malami is one in the privileged club of distinguished lawyers who tag their names with that smug title of SAN (Senior Advocate of Nigeria), a legal title keenly coveted by the typical Nigerian lawyer. But he also comes across as one who is essentially unfaithful to the law. As in a number of other appointments, Buhari’s choice of Malami for the pivotal office had, from the outset, been viewed by the more discerning segment of the populace as a dreadful miscue.”
Malami was a big fish in the Buhari administration. Before his appointment, very little was known of his legal bona fides. Through a combination of guile and the absence of executive oversight, Malami, a third-rate lawyer, was able to hold President Buhari, who would later become his father-in-law, and the nation, by the jugular. And he ran amok.
Today, Malami, one of his wives, Asabe Bashir, and son, Abdulaziz Malami, are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the State Security Service (SSS). A summary of the charges against Malami, which stretch from Abuja to Kebbi, his home state, where he received a hero’s welcome after he was granted bail, includes corruption, money laundering, terrorism financing and the discovery of arms and ammunition at his country home in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State.
The EFCC alleges that 46 bank accounts linked to Malami are currently under investigation. He has been accused of overseeing 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. There is the sale of assets worth billions of naira forfeited to the EFCC by politically exposed persons, the $346.2 million Abacha loot recovered from Switzerland and other sums from the Island of Jersey, as well as the disbursement of ₦4 billion Anchor Borrowers’ Programme funds from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
On 6 January, Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered an interim forfeiture of 57 properties in Abuja, as well as Kaduna, Kano and Kebbi states, worth ₦212.8 billion linked to Malami. Looking at the choice properties, including hotels, schools, and luxury homes, Malami would put real estate tycoons to shame. Clearly, our honourable attorney general of the federation and minister of justice was busy buying and selling properties than dispensing justice. Little wonder he is also being tried for “knowingly refusing to prosecute alleged terrorism financiers whose case files were submitted to his office for legal action.”
In his defence, Mr Malami, through his lawyer, Joseph Daudu (SAN), told the court that he earned “₦374,630,900 million income from salaries, estacodes, severance allowance, and others; ₦574,073,000 (five hundred and seventy-four million, and seventy three thousand naira) as income generated through disposed assets; ₦10,017,382,684 (ten billion, seventeen million, three hundred and eighty-two thousand, six hundred and eighty-four thousand naira) turnover from businesses; ₦2,522,000, 000 (two billion, five hundred and twenty-two million naira) being loans to businesses; ₦958,000,000 (nine hundred and fifty-eight million naira) as traditional gifts from personal friends; and ₦509,880,000 (five hundred and nine million, eight hundred and eighty thousand naira) realised as income from the launch and public presentation of a book titled, Contemporary Issues on Nigerian Law and Practice, Thorny Terrains in Traversing the Nigerian Justice Sector: My Travails and Triumphs by Mr Malami.” Of course, this doesn’t come anywhere close to the amount the former minister is accused of stealing.
Interestingly, Malami’s ally and former pension boss, Abdulrasheed Maina, himself a fugitive from justice, has told us that what we know of Malami’s alleged crimes is a tip of the iceberg of malfeasance under the former minister. Maina should know. While in office, Mr Malami confirmed he met Mr Maina in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in January 2016, noting that the meeting, which had Maina’s wife and then National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd.), was “in the interest of national security” and meant to discuss the “recovery of looted pension funds.” The following year, Maina was reinstated and promoted, drawing the ire of Nigerians. Maina was subsequently dismissed by President Buhari, while Mr. Malami defended his actions and vowed that he would meet with “hundreds of such individuals if it helped recover stolen asset.” Today, he is standing trial for tampering with recovered assets.
Some of us knew this day would come. Again, I go back to Onyeacholem’s prescient 2020 essay: [Buhari’s] “choice for the office of attorney general and minister of justice was the first telling sign that the much-touted change would be a sham. It has nothing to do with Malami’s academic qualifications [even though that is suspect], but a lot to do with his fiercely guarded reactionary mindset, a feeble moral strength and a perverse sense of common good. Nothing about his past suggests he is the type of chief law officer Nigeria needs at this moment or at any time in the future.”
It is on record that for eight years, Malami’s office could not successfully prosecute any high-profile corruption case. Midway into his tenure, a coalition of civil society organisations on 29 July, 2019, held a press conference in which they drew the attention of Mr Buhari and the nation to the danger of re-appointing Mr Malami as a minister for a second term, describing him as “barrier-in-chief” to President Buhari’s much-vaunted quest to “kill corruption.”
“Indeed, the description would seem like a fitting cognomen,” Onyeacholem noted, “in light of the fact that there is no record of his office successfully prosecuting a single high-profile corruption case since 2015. Instead, Malami is accused of parlaying his office to frustrate the prosecution of some big-time thieves, and also seizing cases from original prosecutors whenever he likes in the hope of steering them, as widely believed, toward a predetermined end.”
Malami’s indiscretion, for which he is justifiably standing trial, raises a number of issues, the three most important being, the centrality of the rule of law, without which no nation can develop, the importance of strong institutions, and the need for an effective national ethos. Malami and his family received a hero’s welcome after they were granted bail, despite his egregious abuse of public office. As honourable attorney general and minster for justice, Mr Malami interpreted the law the way it suited him. He undermined the institutions meant to fight corruption; he undermined the very constitution he swore to uphold and shirked his responsibilities of ensuring compliance with the law. Not even an Area Boy with no knowledge of the law would behave this irresponsibly and perversely.
Back to Malami’s love of the designation “Chief Law Officer of the Federation.” On Thursday, 11 May, 2023, eighteen days before he left office, Mr Malami launched his autobiography in Abuja with the title, Traversing the Thorny Terrain of Nigeria’s Justice Sector: My Travails and Triumphs, where hemade ₦509,880,000 (five hundred and nine million, eight hundred and eighty thousand naira), according to his claim in court. The headline of The Nation newspaper the following day was, “My duty as Nigeria’s Chief Law Officer most challenging – Malami.”
The paper noted that Mr Malami said “his job as the Chief Law Officer of the Federation stood out as the most challenging period of his professional career. Not because it is daunting or difficult to be effectively performed but because of the misconception of the public and ignorant conflict between public and private interests on what the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation is constitutionally empowered to do. Part of the responsibilities of the Attorney General of the Federation is that of being a legal adviser to the government, all the ministries, departments and government agencies. He is also the first person to be contacted and the first person to be blamed regardless of where the mistake was made.”
According to Malami, “Most of the criticisms levelled against the office are misinformed and misguided due to the linear approach to analysing the issues. They forget that as the AG and minister of justice, you are to take consistent decisions that will be in line with underlying principles of law. Of course, with the wider interest over and above private as well as individual interests, that is the true definition of impartiality as is needed to efficiently perform his duties.
“My autobiography is an enjoyable reflection of my life history, educational pursuit, professional practice, public career and sojourn in politics. Personally, the desire to serve the country and improve the administration of law and justice has never been stronger than when I served in the exalted office for the past 8 years. I have in my capacity played my role and contributed majorly in improving the laws and in the distribution of justice in the socio-economic development of the nation, and enhancing its security.”
For Mr Malami, clearly there was “no conflict between public and private interests.” He spent eight years as minister of justice serving himself and his family.
I hope he gets the justice he served Nigerians while in office. The jury is still out, but Abubakar Malami will go down in infamy as the worst attorney general and minister of justice of the federal republic.
Chido Onumah is the Coordinator of the African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL).
