Mainagate, therefore, brings into the open, Mr Malami’s obvious unsuitability for the post he currently holds.
OF a truth, Nigeria has had a slew of totally incompetent and obfuscating Attorney-General’s and minister of Justice. During the Obasanjo era we had one who would always insist on giving his own interpretation of court judgments, however tangential, his was to the Lord Justices’ decisions. And his was what got done. Bad as that was, and when you think Andoakaa must reckon as the worst ever, I do not think Nigeria has had the ill-luck of having an Attorney-General and Minister of Justice like the incumbent, Abubakar Malami, SAN, who has been fingered as the mastermind in the clandestine return to the country and subsequent re- appointment and promotion of former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdullahi Abdulrasheed Maina, as a director in the civil service. He is already claiming, against all the evidences, that there is a press war against him.
What for? you’d like to ask.
Malami first came to my, and I guess, national recognition, when he intervened in the inglorious Kogi State gubernatorial debacle where he was the face of the ethnic, as opposed to, the legal interpretation of that election. At the end of the day, they got what they wanted for a governor: a non Yoruba and Muslim, asides which, many could have very well committed suicide. He had then appeared before a group of journalists looking fresh, but somewhat timid and withdrawn. When he spoke, he confirmed my inner questions as to what attracted President Muhammadu Buhari to him in the first place.
Apart from several leaks about Mr Malami being integral to the dizzying distrust amongst top aides and agencies in the Buhari administration, Malami’s hands have best been shown in the ongoing video: Mainagate, where he is already being cast as the lead actor. He had even cleverly claimed that he would like inquiries into the matter to be open to all Nigerians. And I call that being clever by half.
It remains a modern day wonder how, and why, a country’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, would set himself upon a journey, all the way to as far away as the Middle-East, to meet with a fugitive at law, claiming he took permission from the National Security Adviser who should ordinarily be profiting from his legal know how, and advice. We would never know all that transpired in Dubai, but we could be guided by Maina himself where, referring to a document in his trending tape, he claimed to have told the minister: “Sir, I will not let you go empty handed.”
As soon as the minister came back from the trip, series of letters rapidly flew out of his office, asking, directing, and literally countermanding various persons and agencies of government, not only to recall, but to ensure that a huge sum of money, in back salaries, was paid Maina, with a promotion as the icing on the cake. Rather than honourably own up to his faux pas, and accept responsibility by promptly resigning his appointment, Attorney-General Malami has been doing everything to find a fall guy in an aide, as if any letter could have left his office, without his say so, especially in a sensitive matter to which the Head of the Civil service of the Federation was clearly opposed. Till tomorrow, and according to the Head of Service, no letter of reabsorption into the service has been written to Maina.
Mainagate, therefore, brings into the open, Mr Malami’s obvious unsuitability for the post he currently holds. This, however, should not stop the President from deploying him to where his capabilities would be more relevant and appreciated. Not to act, is for the president to further compound this unfortunate incident which could very well be the harbinger of far worse consequences.
MINISTER ADAMU ADAMU MUST REALLY THINK NIGERIANS ARE FOOLS
On this column on Sunday 3 September, 2017, I wrote as follows:
“What therefore rankles the most about the constitution of boards of agencies and parastatals under the ministry of education is not only that the ministry, under a minister of northern extraction, could gloat uproariously about being sensitive to federal character in the appointments even with 15 out of the 21 Chairmen in the colleges of education, 10 out of 25 in the Polytechnics and 12 out of the 19 in the mostly regulatory agencies and para-statals under the ministry all going to the north, but that six months after that announcement, nothing has changed as none of the supposedly brand new boards has been inaugurated. And let nobody ascribe this to President Buhari’s indisposition as examples are legion, even on You tube, of ministers inaugurating boards of their respective ministries. I do not see any of these appointments as doing anybody any favour since the boards and councils are meant to guide and assist the administration of these various institutions by putting in place policies and ensuring their compliance in running the institutions since, as we recently saw in the case of the National Health Insurance Scheme, many are they, who believe they can run them like their fiefdom”
I wrote further: “How can officials of state be this arrogantly disrespectful of not only persons, but institutions of state too? But it is not only disrespect that is motivating this; rather, it is the crass opportunism being used to disguise ethnicity. As you read this, literally all the executives running the core agencies in the ministry, like TETFUND and UBEC, are under the headship of Northerners whilst Southerners are consigned to those agencies which require real hard work like the National Library of Nigeria and others in that category. It is obviously in order not to upset the apple cart that Adamu Adamu, who is being assisted as minister of education, by a highly experienced Professor from the South, is not keen about inaugurating the boards. It is beyond him to realise that most of these appointees, especially those from the South, are reputable and very busy people who, put in the lurch in this highly arrogant manner, are stopped from properly planning their schedules and itinerary. If anybody had said that after all the promises made by President Buhari at his party’s recent meeting Adamu Adamu would still retain the management of literally all the above parastatals in the hands of his Northern brothers, not many could have believed, who have come to trust President Buhari in spite of everything. I think the only honourable thing to do is for Malam Adamu to immediately cause a retraction of his ministry’s publication of April 22, 2017: by Mrs Chinenye Ihuoma, to the effect that ‘President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the reconstitution of the boards of 19 agencies and parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Education for a period of four years, adding that in doing so, the President took into cognizance provisions of the respective legislation with respect to composition, competence, credibility, integrity, federal character and geo-political spread.”
If only these people would know what many of those sincerely supporting the president go through in the hands of those who believe that it is all a question of ‘monkey dey work, baboon they chop’, they will think less of ethnic solidarity. Why would it take you eight months, still counting, to inaugurate boards you constituted without being pushed.
Enough then, of these bloody lies.
CHIEF OLADEJI FASUAN BECOMES THE ASIWAJU OF AFAO-EKITI.
All roads lead to the palace of the Alafawo of Afao-Ekiti, HRH Oba Ademilua, on Saturday, 9 December, 2017 as the multi-honoured, super Nigerian patriot, Chief Oladeji Fasuan, a retired public servant, per excellence, with glittering service spanning all the states of the old Western Region, and known, unarguably, as the leader of the effort that culminated in the creation of Ekiti State, is honoured with the title of the ASIWAJU OF AFAO.
Time is 9.00am.
Entertainment and related ceremonies will take place at his place under the usual Cocoa and Palm Tree Grove.
Congratulations, Sir. Oye a mori.
