The embattled duo is bitterly at loggerheads and at the crossroads at the same time. They are talking tough at cross purposes. They continue to spew and pour almost uncontrollably.
They are the sundered Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman, Presidential Pension Reform Team (PPRT), and the pierced Abubakar Malami, Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice. They are aggressively at each other’s throat.
They are desperate to outwit and outsmart each other. Their game plan is clear: To make this “dirty” cup pass over them. They want the heavy burden off their “fragile” necks.
How else can one make a mockery of the government’s anti-corruption war than this? For once, information minister Lai Mohammed got it right. He was quite on track. Yes, beneficiaries of corruption are fiercely fighting back. Surprisingly, we are on the same page on this.
Only that the minister is looking at the wrong side. He should look inward not outward. The fighters and the beneficiaries are within and not outside this government. It is an in-house thing, sort of a family affair. The MainaGate aptly confirmed this as much.
But as usual with him, he passed the buck again. He blamed others for the wrong reason. Listen to his jaundiced argument: “When the media falls to the distraction tactics of those mortally against this (anti-corruption) war, they weaken the battle.” How does he mean?
His grudge: “In recent times, it is not unusual to read such headlines as ‘Buhari’s government losing corruption war.’ This is sheer mockery, not reporting. How many newspapers have written strong editorials to support this war”?
Oh, virtually none. This is because there are glaring and huge contradictions in the prosecution of the anti-graft war. These leave in their trail wide gaps and unending doubts. Let us leave it at that.
Something unusual, perhaps unheard of, happened on Monday last week, November 22, 2017. That day, Maina displayed some uncanny audacity. The concerned authorities are glossing over it. They dare not address it.
They erroneously think time will heal the wounds again. That it will soon be swept under the dirty carpet of history. Nobody should play a devil’s advocate here, the issues raised need to be decisively dealt with.
Imagine! Maina was bold enough. He ferociously accused the Federal Government, through his lawyer, Sani Katu, of owing him a whopping N159 billion. That is more than enough to run many African countries successfully. He claimed that is his commission as a whistle-blower!
He did not stop at that. He equally challenged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to an open debate. He wanted to prove he never stole N2.1 billion as alleged by the commission.
How did he arrive at this colossal N159 billion commission? This is his “simple” arithmetic: “Between 2011 and 2012, the PPRT recovered cash and asserts worth N1.63 trillion, which has been with EFCC.”
And since President Muhammadu Buhari came on board, Katu gave a vivid account of how much his client retrieved: “Similarly, between 2016 and June 2017, Maina released intelligence and tip-offs that stopped the annual stealing of N1.3 trillion. Also, between February and October 2017, he recovered N152 billion, N60 billion and other sensitive materials.”
Then the computation: “Let us total what Maina recovered, then apply the whistle-blower’s 5 per cent, and get the total to be paid Maina, then subtract N2.1 billion, which even though it is a complete fabrication by the EFCC, then pay him the balance of over N159 billion.” It is as painless as that!
Though the EFCC failed to respond, Malami took up the challenge, supposedly on behalf of government. He ended up making matters worse for the anti-graft agency. He wrote to a Senate ad hoc panel that Maina was yet to account for about 270 properties he recovered from alleged pension fraudsters: “The properties, as we speak, have been shared among top officials of the commission (EFCC), friends and family members, including lawyers of the agency.”
That led him to conclude the involvement of a powerful pension syndicate among former top civil servants, the Nigerian Union of Pensions, federal lawmakers and ex-government officials as members. He also alleged involvement of military officers in the unabating scam. He refused to name a single person.
But Maina would not stop talking. He refused to be cowed. The more Malami took up the defence, the more Maina was encouraged to spill more beans. Since that day, it has been one move or another by him. He was determined to spit the more. He vowed to spew out all the “unknowns” and all Nigerians need to know about MainaGate.
He came very close to that on Tuesday. He pointedly accused unnamed Buhari aides of being thieves: “People around the President portray themselves as saints but it is a lie, they are not.”
He insisted he got the nod of Buhari to do what he did: “When this government came in, the President gave the nod, ‘go and sit down with Maina, I have given you the approval’.’”
Still, Malami would not cave in. He strives hard to give Maina a close mark. He is not giving him any breathing space either. He came on board again:
“Over 66 accounts were used in pension fraud-associated transactions. About 270 or more assets involving houses and automobiles were recovered. There is a strong allegation that about 217,000 ghost pensioners exist within the system.”
Nigeria is simply a massive house of fraud. We are amazed and amused that EFCC has kept an unwise silence on all of this. It has maintained its unsolicited distance from Maina. This is not the time to ignore Maina with undignified silence, it must just address this issue.
We naively ask: Is the anti-graft agency scared of the “unknowns”? Is the “fear” of Maina, the beginning of “wisdom” for the EFCC?
The more reason we wonder aloud. We want to know the “unknowns.” Even now!

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