By Temidayo Akinsuyi

A former Chief Whip of the Senate, Prof. Sola Adeyeye, has said that the 8th Senate under Bukola Saraki failed Nigerians by confirming Abu­bakar Malami as a minister in 2015 despite his mediocre performance during his screening.

Speaking with Daily Indepen­dent in Abuja, Adeyeye, a professor of Biology, who was in the Senate for eight years (2011 -2019), said Nigeria would have been spared some of the incompetence and anomalies being witnessed in the Ministry of Justice today under Malami’s watch.

While sharing his views on the request by Igbo leaders to President Muhammadu Bu­hari to release Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous Peo­ple of Biafra (IPOB), who is currently facing treasonous charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja, Adeyeye said due course in Nigerian judicia­ry is too slow and protracted because of the incompetence of lawyers in the Ministry of Justice.

“Honestly, I don’t know what they (Igbo leaders) discussed with the president. Personally, I’ve learnt that until you have the facts of a situation, you should be very careful. Yes, the president is correct. When a matter is within the judiciary, the executive should not pre­empt it.

“Having said that, we must also remember that even when a court has sentenced a person or pronounced him guilty, the prerogative of mercy resides with the president. He can still pardon whoever is convicted. But at least, he would have es­tablished the fact of conviction and he would have said ‘look, we don’t want trouble, we want peace in all parts of Nigeria. But let the process take due course’.

“What I think is that the so-called due course has been too protracted. Cases are run too slowly in this country. I do not know whether it is because the Ministry of Justice is filled with incompetent people or it is that some people have just decided to let things snowball into whatever direction of in­competency.

“Look at the number of peo­ple against whom very egre­gious allegations have been made concerning corruption. Few people have been convict­ed and we are grateful for that. But see how long it took to con­vict Abdulrasheed Maina. A level 14 person who has been shown to own so much. It took forever to get him convicted.

“Part of quite frankly I be­lieve is that if you look at the Ministry of Justice, most of the lawyers who work there are not among the best in the country. The minister is just one senior advocate of Nige­ria. Is he going to appear in ev­ery case in which the Federal Government has very serious cases to prosecute? Is he going to face Wole Olanipekun here today, Olisa Agbakoba there tomorrow, Falana in another place tomorrow? He is just one person”.

Speaking on Malami’s ap­pearance before the Senate on October 14, 2015, Adeyeye said despite his rank as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the responses given by Malami to the questions asked him were so mediocre that he strongly be­lieved he shouldn’t have been confirmed.

According to him, among the 37 ministerial nominees that appeared before the Sen­ate, he believed that Malami and Professor Claudius Dara­mola from Ondo State failed the screening exercise.

He said he raised the is­sue among his colleagues but many of them said President Muhammadu Buhari who did not attach portfolios to the names of the then ministerial nominees will not make Mala­mi the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice when there are other Senior Advocates on the list such as Babatunde Fas­hola and the late James Ocholi.

“In any case, when Malami appeared before the Senate in 2015, I didn’t think he passed. I didn’t think he should have been confirmed. In the 8th Sen­ate when Malami appeared, he was among two nominees who I thought did not do well. At that point, I brought it up in ex­ecutive session. I also brought it up at principal officers meeting that two of the nominees did not do well and one of them was Malami. The other was a Yoruba man.

“I argued passionately that the president sent us a list of 37 people from 36 states and the FCT. Thirty-five of them were adjudged to have done well but two of them did not do well. They should not have been confirmed".

“If we had done that, we would have been spared the incompetency that we now see in the Ministry of Justice. Of course, some of them at that time were arguing that Mala­mi was not likely to be made the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice. Ocholi, who had done very brilliantly at confirmation, should have been made the Attorney-Gen­eral and Malami would have been the Minister of State for Labour. But that was not what happened.

“Instead, Malami became the Attorney-General and it is the prerogative of the president to choose who he wants. That also depends on the level of con­fidence he has in the person. Once the Senate says this per­son has scaled the fence, then you cannot blame the presi­dent again. But quite frankly, I believe the Senate failed the nation at that point”.

Adeyeye said he took the is­sue of Malami and Daramola to Saraki, the then Senate Pres­ident. He, however, said Saraki who agreed with him couldn’t act on it because he didn’t want to be seen as opposed to Presi­dent Buhari.

“Fortunately for Bukola Saraki, I went to him on the is­sue. But Saraki was afraid that if he should reject Malami and not allow him to scale through, it will be seen that he went to double cross the president. Hell no!

“The interview session at the Senate was public, shown on live television. Everybody saw that questions were asked and for a senior advocate of Nigeria, the responses we got from Malami in my own opinion were so mediocre that he should not have been con­firmed. Same with Professor Daramola from Ondo State. Both of them shouldn’t have been confirmed. But the rest is history. A nation is like a man or woman; you will sleep on the bed you have laid”, he said.

https://independent.ng/saraki-led-senate-failed-by-confirming-malami-as-minister-adeyeye/

No matter what you might think Saraki's led 8th senate is the best in history and Nigerians are proud of them. They checkmated the excesses of the executive and sponsored bills which is the main function of senate unlike what we have now. We now have a conglomerate of thieves that doesn't know their left from their right

Lol

And Femi Adeshina will always say that Buhari means well for Nigeria. The north is really slowing down Nigeria's progress

Okay

The blame should be on the unfortunate soul who sent the name for confirmation.

This elderly man knows what he is saying really! Malami is highly incompetent and this is the major problem of Nigeria! Too many irational persons heading strategic positions, most of them northern mallams with no capacity to engage

If not for nepotism , they wouldn't have done that but what can we say, this is Nigeria.


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Issokay

Only God know

Mediocre performance during screening. Hmmn
Malami lacks the intellectual capacity to be a legal adviser to an association of beggars, not to talk of being the AGF.

If you listen to Malami argue, you will pity him.

Oh God help us

All of them are bunch of confused mediocres including the man talking.

Failed government, the day of operation finish Dem all shall come, and you people will tell us how kept us far back. You will travel over seas the white donkeys will want to finish you with racist act. For those of you that have been to the state .

Malami say na catapult dem been use for Lekki tollgate

Olodo minister

Northern Nigeria Petroleum Company NNPC.

#Copied

The NNPC is now the *"Northern Nigeria Petroleum Company"* The all-Muslim top 20 executives in NNPC makes Nigeria look like an *annex of Arab Emirates.*

1. Mele Kyari (GMD)
2. Umar Ajiya (Chief Finance Officer/Finance and Accounts)
3. Yusuf Usman (Chief Operating Officer)
4. Farouk Garba Sa’id (Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Services)
5. Mustapha Yakubu (Chief Operating Officer, Refining and Petrochemicals)
6. Hadiza Coomassie (Corporate Secretary/Legal Adviser to the Corporation)
7. Omar Ibrahim (Group General Manager, International Energy Relations)
8. Kallamu Abdullahi (GGM Renewable Energy)
9. Ibrahim Birma (GGM Governance Risk and Compliance)
10. Bala Wunti (GGM NAPIMS)
11. Inuwa Waya (MD NNPC Shipping)
12. Musa Lawan (MD Pipelines And Product Marketing)
13. Mansur Sambo (MD Nigeria Petroleum Development Company)
14. Lawal Sade (MD Duke Oil/NNPC Trading Company)
15. Malami Shehu (MD Port Harcourt Refining Company)
16. Muhammed Abah (MD Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company)
17. Abdulkadir Ahmed (MD Nigeria Gas Marketing Company)
18. Salihu Jamari (MD Nigeria Gas and Power Investment Company Limited)
19. Mohammed Zango (MD NNPC Medical Services)
20. Sarki Auwalu (Director, Department of Petroleum Resources)*

*Only three top positions were allotted to the entire Southern Nigeria.*

*What happened to federal character? What’s the job of the Federal Character Commission? Do we have a National Assembly? What the hell is wrong with the members of National Assembly? Where’s the Senate oversight committee on NNPC? Where are the activists?*

*The North produces nothing and contributes zero revenue to the central purse in Abuja. Yet, the North gulps 99 per cent of the revenue*

Nepotism results in bias, unfair treatment, and exclusion of others. Nepotism.

*LAMIDO's Confession*

*Fulanis with no sea shore are controlling Yoruba seaports and NPA, Fulanis with no single barrel of crude oil are controlling the NNPC. Minority fulanis with a population of less than 10 million are controlling the Yoruba nation that is over 60 million people.*

Minority fulanis who occupy the poorest region in Nigeria are the ones controlling the taxes, industries and revenue of Yorubaland.

Minority fulanis control the judiciary, the military, the police , the air force, Civil defense and the immigration while the Yoruba nation is held up like a slave in a plantation.

*Go to Apapa wharf, Tin can Island, NPA, Nigerian Customs all over Yoruba land, the fulanis are ruling supreme.*

Any society where the minority rules the majority, it is an apartheid system of government.

*Hussein Maitaya*

“I argued passionately that the president sent us a list of 37 people from 36 states and the FCT. Thirty-five of them were adjudged to have done well but two of them did not do well. They should not have been confirmed".

Mtcheewww ... Like He would have done better rejecting the President candidate

So bad Prof. Too late to cry over spilt milk.

They failed Nigerians more by not impeaching that monumental failure and natural disaster called Buhari

Ok

Malami is not the only problem with Nigeria. The head is sick.

Period

Wait a minute... you just realized this...?

Nonsense

mumu talk. how can he remove him

seunlayi:
Ok, and is he the one stopping you from removing Malami since your statement already shows that the man don't meriit the task?

Saraki self know na... I know if you ask Saraki this same question, he'll admit.

A man of his political wisdom and swag, shouldn't have confirmed that quota system lawyer as minister.

They even should have gone a step further to impeach the sleeping C-in-C self who keeps nominating incompetent people like himself to key positions.

2023 would be worse in T**** *U enter sha

100 percent agreed

franchasng:
They failed Nigerians more by not impeaching that monumental failure and natural disaster called Buhari

I comcer

.

davidodiba:
Northern Nigeria Petroleum Company NNPC.

#Copied

The NNPC is now the *"Northern Nigeria Petroleum Company"* The all-Muslim top 20 executives in NNPC makes Nigeria look like an *annex of Arab Emirates.*

1. Mele Kyari (GMD)
2. Umar Ajiya (Chief Finance Officer/Finance and Accounts)
3. Yusuf Usman (Chief Operating Officer)
4. Farouk Garba Sa’id (Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Services)
5. Mustapha Yakubu (Chief Operating Officer, Refining and Petrochemicals)
6. Hadiza Coomassie (Corporate Secretary/Legal Adviser to the Corporation)
7. Omar Ibrahim (Group General Manager, International Energy Relations)
8. Kallamu Abdullahi (GGM Renewable Energy)
9. Ibrahim Birma (GGM Governance Risk and Compliance)
10. Bala Wunti (GGM NAPIMS)
11. Inuwa Waya (MD NNPC Shipping)
12. Musa Lawan (MD Pipelines And Product Marketing)
13. Mansur Sambo (MD Nigeria Petroleum Development Company)
14. Lawal Sade (MD Duke Oil/NNPC Trading Company)
15. Malami Shehu (MD Port Harcourt Refining Company)
16. Muhammed Abah (MD Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company)
17. Abdulkadir Ahmed (MD Nigeria Gas Marketing Company)
18. Salihu Jamari (MD Nigeria Gas and Power Investment Company Limited)
19. Mohammed Zango (MD NNPC Medical Services)
20. Sarki Auwalu (Director, Department of Petroleum Resources)*

*Only three top positions were allotted to the entire Southern Nigeria.*

*What happened to federal character? What’s the job of the Federal Character Commission? Do we have a National Assembly? What the hell is wrong with the members of National Assembly? Where’s the Senate oversight committee on NNPC? Where are the activists?*

*The North produces nothing and contributes zero revenue to the central purse in Abuja. Yet, the North gulps 99 per cent of the revenue*

Nepotism results in bias, unfair treatment, and exclusion of others. Nepotism.

*LAMIDO's Confession*

*Fulanis with no sea shore are controlling Yoruba seaports and NPA, Fulanis with no single barrel of crude oil are controlling the NNPC. Minority fulanis with a population of less than 10 million are controlling the Yoruba nation that is over 60 million people.*

Minority fulanis who occupy the poorest region in Nigeria are the ones controlling the taxes, industries and revenue of Yorubaland.

Minority fulanis control the judiciary, the military, the police , the air force, Civil defense and the immigration while the Yoruba nation is held up like a slave in a plantation.

*Go to Apapa wharf, Tin can Island, NPA, Nigerian Customs all over Yoruba land, the fulanis are ruling supreme.*

Any society where the minority rules the majority, it is an apartheid system of government.

*Hussein Maitaya*

Other tribes should also use nepotism to bring their people in but no, they'll even be a stumbling block to their own. Don't blame the north, blame other tribe's selfish and sanctimonious behavior.

You are absolutely right. Malami is a very stupid and idiotic dull fool

Terrier99:
Mediocre performance during screening. Hmmn
Malami lacks the intellectual capacity to be a legal adviser to an association of beggars, not to talk of being the AGF.

If you listen to Malami argue, you will pity him.

I always pity the National Assembly when I hear them argue. 75% of them should not be there.