Abubakar Malami SAN is a Nigerian lawyer and politician who is serving as Minister for Justice and Attorney-General, since 2015. He was born on the 17th of April 1967 in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State. His early formal education began at Nassarawa Primary School, Birnin Kebbi and went on to College of Arts and Arabic Studies for his secondary school education. In 1991, he bagged a Law degree from Usmanu Danfodiyo University and was called to the bar in 1992. He also obtained a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Maiduguri in 1994. Upon graduation, he became a legal practitioner in various positions including being a counsel and magistrate in Kebbi State. He also acted as Muhammadu Buhari’s lawyer in court challenges to his defeats in presidential elections in 2003, 2007 and 2011.
Malami was the National Legal Adviser of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change. He was also actively involved in the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013. He participated as the resource person to the Manifesto Drafting Sub-Committee of Inter Joint Party Merger Committees between the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). He contested for the 2014 Kebbi State governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress but lost the primaries to Atiku Bugudu.
Notorious for being a Buhari loyalist, Malami was unsurprisingly appointed as Minister for Justice and Attorney-General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 11 November 2015. The then 48-year-old became the youngest minister in Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet. He was re-appointed as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation by President Muhammadu Buhari on 21 August 2019.
Corruption Scandals
In June 2019, Malami was summoned before a disciplinary panel of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee to face a petition for the removal of his Senior Advocate of Nigeria rank for alleged misconduct.
Abubakar Malami was also responsible for filing the petition to the Government to remove the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu. The petition was filed on account of Magu’s diversion of recovered loot, insubordination and misconduct. Then, he recommended three people to take Ibrahim Magu’s position.
Abubakar Malami is under fire for using his office as Attorney General & Minister of Justice to amass “unexplained wealth”. This was brought to light with the extravagant display of wealth common among members of his family. Sahra Reporters revealed how one of Malami’s sons with no known history of employment owns a N3bn property in Birnin Kebbi, capital of Kebbi State, known as “AZBIR Arena.” Furthermore, all the AGF’s sons are known to drive around town in multi-million-naira luxury vehicles specially shipped from abroad and customized to their taste with some carrying vanity number plates.
Likewise, during the recently held wedding of another son, Abdulaziz, it was a display of private jets. Even the President, who prides in his anti-corruption crusade, deployed his Presidential aircraft — Dassault Falcon 900 with registration number NAF 961 — for the wedding of Malami’s son. Needless to say, the five-day-long extravaganza was a lavish event featuring the flaunting of cash wads and other excesses.
On the other hand, Malami himself was discovered to have a multi-billion-naira private school in Kebbi, a luxury hotel in Kano, and three houses in Abuja. This includes a Gwarimpa area mansion he bought this year for N90m, tore down and remodelled into a N300m mansion. He is also alleged to own a multi-million naira hotel still under construction along Jabi Lake Bypass in Abuja. Along with another massive structure being built in Sokoto State, he owns several other properties across Nigeria and expensive cars to boot. Despite, the clamour for an investigation into the AGF’s fortune, President Buhari has turned a blind eye to these allegations.