Properties Forfeiture: Analysis of Malami's Mistakes and Way Forward

FORFEITURE OF 48 PROPERTIES: ANALYSIS OF MALAMI'S 4 STRATEGIC MISTAKES THAT LANDS HIM IN TROUBLE

    By Ahmed Umar

I commiserate with my former mentor, Abubakar Malami,SAN ex- Attorney General and Minister of Justice over the grant of final forfeiture of his 48 assets worth about N200BILLION by Abuja Federal High Court. 

One clear difference between Developed and Developing nation's politicians is the service of strategist. 

Strategist in this context and in my opinion are engaged group of few talented people capable of calculating past and present to arrive ataccurate future. 

Good strategist upon advise their principal on any action he would like to take; they break it into pieces, analyse it and arrive at best option. Only few politicians in Nigeria maintain this important people. 

As regards to Malami, this unfortunate circumstances is avoidable had it been he maintain good strategist, because I believe they might have foreseen the consequences and advise on the right path to go. 

 

As one time famous supporter of Malami, I identified four (4) strategic mistakes that landed him into trouble as follows:

 1: MISTAKE NO. 1: DO NOT  BITE A FINGER THAT FEED YOU

Malami would never have become a Minister and amassed such humongous multi-billions property if late Buhari had not become president in 2015. 

The paternal question now is, how late President Buhari won 2015 presidential elections? 

The Almighty ALLAH made Buhari President in 2015 and the Almighty ALLAH destined Bola Ahmed Tinubu to join force with Buhari and defeated PDP. 

It is undeniable fact and common knowledge to all and sundry that Bola Ahmed Tinubu plays a key role in Buhari's victory in 2015 which resulted in the emergence of Malami as Justice Minister, (an opportunity that made him MULTI-BILLIONAIRE overnight) this simple narration is enough to qualify President Tinubu DIRECTLY or INDIRECTLY to be one of the FINGERS THAT FEED MALAMI, and Malami should have take all these events into consideration and never fight Tinubu, in fact Malami should regard President Tinubu as father same regards he extended to late Buhari. 

Good strategist would have remind him about this. 

 

 2- MISTAKE NO. 2: REFUSAL TO RESIGN AS MINISTER AND CONTEST FOR GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION IN 2023

As a political analysis, I said it with all emphasis that nobody in the history of Kebbi politics is so lucky to have opportunity to become Governor in platter of gold as Malami in 2023; every body surrendered to him;..unfortunately for reasons best known to him he thrown away this golden opportunity into dustbin, claimed that Buhari asked him not to contest, an excuse later proved to be untrue. This remain a big mistake Malami will for ever forget. 

I believed had it been Malami got good strategist, they would have advise him to resign and contest for Governorship to arrest the present quanqimire he found himself. 

 3. MISTAKE NO. 3: REJECTION OF APC OFFER TO CONTEST FOR SENATOR, KEBBI CENTRAL IN 2027.

 I heard from a credible source that APC, Kebbi State chapter once resolved to field up Malami as unopposed Senatorial candidate for Kebbi Central come, 2027, according to the source, initially Malami welcome the offer, but as usual he later throwned away this opportunity too. 

With good strategist on ground, they would have advise him to grab the opportunity for his immunity. 

 4: MISTAKE NO. 4: DECAMPING TO ADC

When Malami learnt about EFCC Plan to prove him, instead of compromising and seek for out of court resolution, he mistakenly decided to decamped to opposition party, thinking that civil rights activist and international communities will come to his aid and interpret his prove as political persecution, thereby forcing EFCC to reverse its decision. But huge evidence proved against him by EFCC made such civil rights activist and international community to remain silent. 

Good strategist would have advise him to enter Plea Bargain, instead of decamping to opposition party and proceeding with open legal battle. 

THE WAY FORWARD: CASE STUDY OF ADC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, ATIKU ABUBAKAR (WAZIRIN ADAMAWA) 

I read Biography of ADC, Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar and I found out that, he is one of the smartest politician in Nigeria that make good use of strategist. Among his strategist were Nigerians and other foreigners, very good in coming up with solution; 

 Two good examples:

1- When the internal crisis within PDP deepened, his strategist advise him to resign from PDP and look for another party, which he complied with accordingly and now enjoying it. 

2- When EFCC plan to prove him like Malami, his strategist advise him to send his beloved son ABBA ATIKU ABUBAKAR to Join Tinubu's RENEWED HOPE AGENDA and STAND BY HIS MANDATE, Since then Atiku's case closed and sealed. 

I suggest Malami should reached out to Atiku's strategist for clue about best way out for him. 

The Abuja Court that grant EFCC prayer of final forfeiture, calculated Malami's legitimate earnings from 2015 to 2023 as Minister and found out that his earnings failed to match acquisitions. 

The trial court held that the evidence before the court showed Malami earned N89.7 million (N89, 664,000) as salary while serving as minister between 2015 and 2023, and received N12 million (N12,158,400) as severance allowance at the end of his tenure.

The Judge, further noted that the former AGF declared N253.6 million (N253,608,500) as official earnings in an addendum to his asset declaration submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau in a letter dated 16 June 2023.

Let me intervened and add merging error and approximate his earnings from 2015 to 2023 to N1billion, then how one can  prove beyond any reasonable doubt the legitimate source of hundreds Billions in question? 

It is miraclous for any Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) or even Senior Advocate of  World (SAW) if any, to justify a person with monthly salary of less than N2million, acquired  properties worh N200Billion in 8 years. It is not only questionable but contrary to the sense. 

Malami's unrealistic rhetoric of 'BA GUDU BA JA DA BAYA' IN MY OPINION is a bad strategy and should be jettisoned immediately and do the needful before it is too late.

______________________

Ahmed Umar

ahmedgamji@gmail.com

07038182929