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Mr. Omoyele Sowore, a pro-democracy campaigner, human rights activist, former presidential candidate of African Action Congress (AAC), and founder of the online news agency, Sahara Reporters, is an indisputable and unpretentious gadfly. His ubiquity in the public space, challenging corruption and misrule, has gravitated from mere advocacy to a lifestyle. He is restless, fearless, audacious, opinionated, and eccentric. With his damning revelations and penchant for speaking truth to power, he has consistently been a thorn in the flesh of the powers-that-be. For standing by his convictions, he has also seen the abuse of power meted out to him. Nonetheless, his battles have shifted to the law courts, which have turned out a leveler for both the oppressors and their victims.
As the last bastion of democratic rule, the judiciary hosts both the powerful and the underdog. Those who feel that their rights have been infringed upon resort to the law courts for reprieve. On the other hand, those who are accused of abusing their powers while in public office are also dragged to the law courts. One of such persons is Abubakar Malami, SAN, who served as Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice for eight years under the Buhari presidency. He was probably the longest serving in that capacity in Nigeria. Nowadays, Malami has been a regular visitor to the Federal High Court, Abuja. The Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had slammed a 16-count charge bordering on conspiracy, financial fraud, and money laundering to the tune of N8.7 billion against him, his wife, the son (Abdulaziz), and an associate (Hajia Bashir Asabe). The initial charge on terrorism-financing was dropped, but investigations allegedly traced part of the laundered money to acquisition of choice properties in Abuja, Kano and Kebbi. In fact, according to newspaper reports, about 57 properties allegedly traced to him worth over N200 billion.
But in an ironic twist, Malami and Sowore met at the lobby of the Federal High Court, Abuja, last week. Both were at the Court for their different matters. Sowore apparently came to follow up the suit filed against him by the Department of State Services (DSS) for cyberstalking and for calling President Tinubu a “criminal.” Trust Sowore! The chance encounter gave him an opportunity to taunt Malami. “You see how it feels now to be persecuted. When you were with Buhari at that time, you were bragging. We warned you then that there is failure in the justice system, but you didn’t listen, and now the system is dealing with you,” Sowore said. “When you were in Buhari’s government, you were saying Sowore committed treason. See as they are dealing with you now,” he concluded.
It will be recalled that the DSS arrested Sowore on August 3, 2019, for organizing the #RevolutionNow protests across the country. He spent 124 days in detention and was charged for “treasonable felony, money laundering, and insulting the president.” Even when he was granted bail, the Federal Government refused to let him go. As the then Attorney General, Malami justified Sowore’s continued detention against a valid court order. One could understand why Sowore mocked Malami for “facing the system” he once defended and used against him.
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Malami was powerful indeed. He had the ears of former president Buhari. At a particular time, he was begged to shelve his gubernatorial ambition in 2019 to enable him continue the yeoman’s job in the Ministry of Justice. It was him that nominated the youngest EFCC Chairman, Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, who comes from his home-state, Kebbi, and served between February 2021 and June 2023. But at the height of Malami’s power and influence, he allegedly soiled his hands in asset forfeiture and judgment debt deals. Today, it is the same EFCC, he once called the shots, that is prosecuting and disrobing him.
The substance of Sowore’s humorous spat on Malami is that power is transient and that the law of karma is inescapable. This brings us to the diatribe between Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Dr. Ukpabi Asika, the then Administrator of East Central State during and immediately the Nigerian civil war. Azikiwe had written an article and criticized Asika for neglecting the roads in East Central State. In his rebuttal, Asika hit back at Azikiwe and accused him of habouring “Nattering nabobs of negativism” (apologies to former US Vice President Spiro Agnew). He trolled Azikiwe as an “ex-this, ex-that and ex-everything” who as a spent-force, was gasping for breath of relevance. The fire raged on. Azikiwe, the pen warrior and master of satire, acknowledged Asika’s derogatory reference to him as Ex-Premier of Eastern Region, Ex-Governor General of the Federation and Ex-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and landed with a caustic reminder to Asika – that a commercial mammy-wagon that shuttled between his hometown, Onitsha and Lagos, had an inscription that reads: “No condition is permanent.” Not long after, the military government of Gowon that appointed Asika was toppled.
Indeed, the country has seen hordes of characters in political power. Some of them siphoned the public till. Others used the influence to emasculate the system in a bid to advance self-serving and political interests. At the time when a cabal was shielding from Nigerians the health status of former president Umaru Musa Yar‘Adua, the then Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa, SAN, brazenly declared that the president could rule the country from anywhere in the world. Mallam El-Rufai who talked without modesty as Minister and Governor is today facing heavy charges from anti-graft agencies and the DSS. Where are the likes of Major Hamza Al-Mustaphas – the dreaded Chief Security Officer of Abacha’s military junta? The enduring lesson which Sowore mockingly sent to Malami is that what goes around comes around. There are limits to power, money, and influence, and like human life, they are ephemeral. No matter what anybody does with the privileges of political power, there is always a day of reckoning. Those who are currently serving in government or any public office should take note.
