Malami’s Business: Bala Ibrahim Goofed -By Rabiu Musa

Constructive criticism and logical expression of opinion deduce from unbiased analytical inferences by a state’s citizens in any democratic dispensation help to put the government in shape, surface transparency, and hold public office holders accountable. But when some miscreant citizens choose to use the opposite of an unhealthy destructive criticism in order to achieve a political grandstanding, both the government and its appointees are bound to be sent into a traumatic purgatory.

To this end, I was compelled to commit pen as a civic duty to counter a destructive criticism written by one Bala Ibrahim title “Malami’s Business Boom Under Economic Doom” because of the unguided utterances and inaccuracies it conveyed.

The article only succeeded in exposing the ignorance of the writer of what being RICH means, using a quasi economic analysis and or deliberate intellectual mischief.

Why I am disappointed with the writer? This is because it’s obvious that he’s only out on a personality destruction voyage on the person of Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN, and that of his business though he woefully ended up being a victim of an ingenuity failure and contradiction.

The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami SAN, has recently been at the eye of the storm for what was believed to be his doggedness and daring to reshuffle the anti-corruption war of Buhari’s administration over what he had perceived to be a gross sabotaged within the administration. To this light, the Attorney-General of the Federation had on 18 June, recommended to President Muhammadu Buhari the sacking of the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu.

Malami, in a memorandum to the president, anchored his recommendation on several grounds ranging from the diversion of recovered loot to insubordination and misconduct by Magu. This does not go down well with some political renegades in the country and their benefactors. They resolved to be using the instrumentality of the media among other things to distract the Minister from conducting his multi-tasking national assignment.

In a very rarest gesture to clear the mind of the doubting Thomases, Malami wrote to President Muhammad Buhari explaining his ownership of 27 lucrative businesses and that he was rich before becoming a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But even with this saintly gesture expressed by the minister, its very obvious that corruption and its benefactors were furious and has already launched a fightback war in a higher deceitful manner to bring him down. The hunk article in question is believed to be one of the weapons thrown by them in their desperation to drag the image of the minister into an unnecessary ding-dong in order to score a political card.

Ibrahim Bala chooses to bring himself so low and put forward a sassy narrative relied on unsubstantiated data from Sahara Reporters, a medium that on several occasions through their nonethical genre of journalism tarnished the hard-earned reputation of manifold dignitaries in Nigeria. And that of a petition from Kebbi Concerned Citizens which had already been dispelled by the founding members of the association.

Its a pity that the writer could not even locate the address of Malami’s business in Kano but chose to attack it for a political mischief and reputational mockery.

In his word “Rayhaan hotel, located at Sallari, near y’an tsaki chicks” while the Rayhaan Hotel’s address is Zaria Road, Opp. Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital Southern Gate, Behind Federal Government College, Kano, Nigeria both on their symbol and on Google. He should have found out about all that before writing his creepy narratives. This shows that he drew his inferences from something he doesn’t know and made an analysis out of ignorance.

I thought someone who addressed people as schemers and as intellectual elite will authenticate the validity of his data before releasing his muddy work for public consumption.

Malami has unarguably conducted himself in the most admirable manner for anyone who knows what the position of a minister used to be by continuing to expand his businesses in order to continue providing jobs for the teeming unemployed youth. He deserves an accolade, not condemnation!

And one of the writer’s furious obsession with Malami apart from his hidden motives was that Malami says he was rich even before becoming minister. The question here is, was he not rich? Owing to being a reputable Senior Advocate of Nigeria with a track record of a Spartan discipline in his profession let a lone having the 27 lucrative busineses? Or the writer has a special definition of the word “Rich” apart from its original meaning from Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary which define it as “Having a lot of money or property”? Isn’t it appears that the writer is a typical conjurer who finds love in writing or doing the bidding of his masters?

I believed the stark ignorance of the writer conveyed in the piece is highly dangerous. It’s important to avoid destructive criticism against our leaders and misleading people. It’s an obvious betrayal of the sanctity of human life.

Rabiu Musa writes from Kano and can be reached at: rabiumusa037@gmail.com