BY IGBOTAKO NOWINTA
Why the break-neck speed being employed by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, in asking for Section 84 (12) of the 2022 Electoral Act to be deleted, while pretending that no other cogent court orders have been given in this regard? Was it impossible before this current controversy concerning section 84 (12), for Abubakar Malami as the nation’s Attorney General, to have acted smart and patriotic by drawing the attention of aspiring and serving Nigerian public office holders to the fact of the existing provisions in the 1999 Constitution? I beg to say this quickly: It is an open secret that more than 80% of the oil being produced in Nigeria is being stolen, and 90% of the money being earned from oil is being used to service foreign loans. Who are the countries patronizing the oil thieves? How did we get to where we are now, given the fact that the Government of General Olusegun Obasanjo frantically made efforts and succeeded in offsetting the accumulated debts that hanged on the neck of our country then? Who are the people engaging in this brazen and cruel destruction of the Nigerian nation? With the greater mass of Nigerians boiling in the hottest lake of impoverishment, have we bothered to ask the question why Kaduna is being isolated by bandits and banditry? One can go on and on. Abubakar Malami and his so called super master-General Muhammadu Buhari don’t seem to be bothered by the above critical questions. They are concerned absolutely in only deleting Section 84 (12) of the 2022 Electoral Act to protect their political co-travelers, who are hell bent on remaining relevant in the unfolding journey to the 2023 general elections. Abubakar Malami in my own opinion is the worst Attorney General and Minister of Justice, since the return to democratic rule in 1999. He has dipped his hands in almost every administrative pie in the current government running in Nigeria; and each time he has moved against the interests and aspirations of the Nigerian people. This troublesome and controversial Malami, who is trying to zombify us by his recent actions has played his game cruelly against the people of Nigeria and must go.
No sitting Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, since the return to democracy in 1999, has made himself available like a gasoline to burning national issues like Abubakar Malami.
Not even Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, the ex-Minister of Justice and Attorney General, in his rashness and often selfish maneuvers to line his pockets with tax payer’s money during the reign of ex-President Umaru YarAdua, went too low to impose his will and hideous manipulations on Nigerians like Abubakar Malami.
It was because Michael Kaase Aondoakaa subverted the rule of law, due administration of justice and integrity of the judiciary, at that time that he was eventually disgraced out of office, while the Supreme Court subsequently slammed a judgement on, banning him from public office for life.
No Attorney General has tried desperately and recklessly to tie Nigerian electorates to the catastrophic political status-quo, in order for political spoilers and crooks to continue to circulate and regenerate within the system, like current holder of the position – Malami.
Therefore, when a great friend, legal luminary, pro-democracy and human rights activist, Femi Falana recently in a statement said that Abubakar Malami chose to obey the court order granted by a Federal High Court in Umuahia, thereby ignoring other relevant court orders pertaining to the controversial Section 84 (12) of the 2022 Electoral Act, he was exposing a man whose cup is already full of unprecedented affront against the interest of the masses.
According to the combative Senior Advocate of Nigeria: “We submit, without any fear of contradiction that unless the valid and subsisting order of Abuja judicial division of the federal high Court is set aside by the trial judge or an appellate Court, the attorney general of the federation cannot delete the section 84(12 of the Electoral Act”
Arguing further, Femi Falana said: “lt is trite that the attorney general cannot chose and pick the orders of Court to obey or disobey, more so, which is undoubtedly clear that the attorney general deliberately set out to manipulate the federal high Court to issue conflicting orders in a desperate move to annul 84(12) of the Electoral Act”
Lamenting Abubakar Malami’s alarming action, Femi Falana noted: “No doubt, this is the first time in the entire history of Nigeria that the office of the attorney general of the federation has engaged in forum shopping for favourable orders of the federal high Court or any Court”.
This is the said controversial Section 84 (12): “No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the convention or congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election.”
What l get from the above is that the following sections of the 1999 Constitution: “66 (1)(f), 107(1)(f), 182(1)(f) and 137(1)(f) have touched the issue mentioned above in section 84 (12) by stipulating as l lift Section 66(1)(f) to buttress this point here: ” No person shall be qualified for election to the Senate or the House of Representatives if…he is a person employed in the public service of the Federation or State has not resigned, withdrawn or retired from such employment thirty days before the date of election.”
The drafters of the Section 84 (12) have more or less succeeded in putting a noble electoral provision that will save the nation the overwhelming government resources and instrument usually employed by political appointees to advance their elective ambitions.
That is what Abubakar Malami and Justice Evelyn Anyadike are trying to delete from the electoral statues in Nigeria. Who says this section 84 (12) will disenfranchise serving political office holders or act as a stumbling block for political appointees, even when it is an open secret that most politicians are known for using financial resources siphoned from public office to marshal their political ambition?
It is interesting to know that the controversial Section 84 (12) of the 2022 Electoral Act already existed in different similar languages some chapters and sections in the 1999 Constitution as l mentioned above, but I make bold to state here that the drafters of the 2022 Electoral Act knew absolutely about the deliberate and conscious non-compliance with these fundamental sections by many Nigerian elite politicians.
It is therefore apparent why they inserted it in the Electoral Act, in order for it to be seen to be binding or compelling on current serving public officers in the country.
The fact of the matter is that this replicated section which already exist in the 1999 Constitution has been a mere paper work as far as many political rascals are concerned within the Nigerian system.
These are political law breakers whose stock in trade has been the ability to go against the law because of desperate urge to remain within the corridors of power.
Coming again to Abubakar Malami. Why the break-neck speed being employed by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, in asking for Section 84 (12) of the 2022 Electoral Act to be deleted, while pretending that no other cogent court orders have been given in this regard?
Was it impossible before this current controversy concerning section 84 (12), for Abubakar Malami as the nation’s Attorney General, to have acted smart and patriotic by drawing the attention of aspiring and serving Nigerian public office holders to the fact of the existing provisions in the 1999 Constitution?
I beg to say this quickly: It is an open secret that more than 80% of the oil being produced in Nigeria is being stolen, and 90% of the money being earned from oil is being used to service foreign loans.
Who are the countries patronizing the oil thieves? How did we get to where we are now, given the fact that the Government of General Olusegun Obasanjo frantically made efforts and succeeded in offsetting the accumulated debts that hanged on the neck of our country then? Who are the people engaging in this brazen and cruel destruction of the Nigerian nation?
With the greater mass of Nigerians boiling in the hottest lake of impoverishment, have we bothered to ask the question why Kaduna is being isolated by bandits and banditry? One can go on and on.
Abubakar Malami and his so called super master-General Muhammadu Buhari don’t seem to be bothered by the above critical questions. They are concerned absolutely in only deleting Section 84 (12) of the 2022 Electoral Act to protect their political co-travelers, who are hell bent on remaining relevant in the unfolding journey to the 2023 general elections.
Abubakar Malami in my own opinion is the worst Attorney General and Minister of Justice, since the return to democratic rule in 1999.
He has dipped his hands in almost every administrative pie in the current government running in Nigeria; and each time he has moved against the interests and aspirations of the Nigerian people. This troublesome and controversial Malami, who is trying to zombify us by his recent actions has played his game cruelly against the people of Nigeria and must go.
Is it in the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), where the former Chairman, Ibrahim Magu is being dumped in the pit of irrelevance for committing no serious crime known to us; is it the issue of the rampaging Fulani herdsmen, where he has placed the Miyetti Allah ( an association fronting for cows) above the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; is it in the matter of the recent Magodo Housing controversy in Lagos State, where sitting Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu was embarrassed and ridiculed like a nonentity? Just to mention but a few.
Nigerians are simply sick and tired of the antics of this unrepentant tribalist, inconsistent untouchable guy, an irritant to the cause of the masses and a symptom of some of the terrible things wrong with our country, it is in this light that l hereby call for his resignation.
For an Attorney General to have the affront to display reckless impunity and flagrant disobedience of Court orders and the strenuous efforts of members of the National Assembly, he is asking for too much, like Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, and has to go; he has become a clear danger to constitutional democracy in Nigeria.
Must the jaundiced political interests of the elite be perpetual in our society; must the elite always have their ways in Nigeria, especially on this particular explosive, fundamental and sensitive matter? Must their chiseled opinions always prevail?
Honestly, the level of destruction and violence electoral manipulation has wrought on our country is horrendous and incalculable.
The fact of the matter is that there will neither be accountability nor development when political leaders owe the privilege of power to the narrow interest of a few.
All criminal, demonic and desperate pseudo politicians must be stopped from continuing to bastardize our electoral issues. They should learn to retire or resign their political positions as stipulated by law or chased out of power.
Indeed, Malami’s actions contain multiple layers of meanings and are designed to allegedly protect him and his likes in government, who are desirous of a political slot come 2023 general elections.
Malami an archetype of Nigeria’s crazy elite, is indeed being blinded by his political ambitions, this behavior tarnishes our repeated call for judicial sanity in our land.
Nowinta wrote: Where We Are: A Call For Democratic Revolution In Nigeria.
