By Eshioramah Sebastian, Abuja.
In a scathing indictment of former Attorney-General Abubakar Malami’s political trajectory, Okoi Obono-Obla, former Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Public Prosecution, has questioned the erstwhile minister’s loyalty to his principal, Buhari, while reaffirming his commitment to the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).
Obono-Obla made the remarks during an exclusive interview with Spear News on Friday, where he addressed swirling speculation about Malami’s potential defection from the APC and other sundry national issues.
Malami, who served as the Attorney General of the Federation for eight years under the Buhari administration, has faced criticism for his recent stance against the current APC government.
With characteristic bluntness, Obono-Obla framed Malami’s contemplated exit as a fundamental betrayal of Buhari’s legacy, recalling how the former president had firmly declared “I remain APC” when reacting to Nasir El-Rufai’s defection. “If Malami truly is a Buharist, after Buhari has taken this position and he is still talking about leaving, I doubt his loyalty to Buhari,” Obono-Obla asserted, adding with dismissive finality: “Let him go.”
The legal luminary and party stalwart went further to diminish Malami’s political stature within APC circles, categorically denying his leadership credentials in both the contemporary party and its CPC predecessor.
“Malami is not a leader of the APC. There is no evidence he was a leader in CPC. He can’t be a leader in CPC,” Obono-Obla stated, reducing the former minister’s role to that of “just an ingredient” in the party’s makeup and emphasising his status as “just a minister, an appointee of President Buhari.”
In stark contrast to Malami’s apparent wavering, Obono-Obla presented an impassioned defence of continued APC membership, positioning himself and fellow loyalists as understanding partners to the Tinubu administration during Nigeria’s challenging economic transition. He traced current hardships to structural issues dating back sixty years, particularly highlighting the fuel subsidy regime which successive governments lacked the political will to remove.
“President Tinubu’s government showed courage in taking difficult decisions – that’s what leadership demands,” Obono-Obla argued, employing a vivid medical metaphor: “It’s like a doctor amputating a patient’s leg to prevent cancer spreading. Yes, there’s pain, but we’re already seeing hopeful signs – state allocations have tripled, the economy is gradually recovering.”
The former presidential aide saved his most potent rhetoric for defending the APC’s centrality to Nigeria’s political stability, warning that the party’s fragmentation could have national consequences. Describing APC as “the only existing national party” following PDP’s decline and Labour Party’s fracturing into “four factions,” Obono-Obla positioned himself and others as true nationalist committed to the party’s survival.
“If there are issues, we will engage internally. We are not leaving we will remain in APC”, he declared, adding pointedly that, if Malami wants to leave, that’s his right. But we remain with APC and with Tinubu.
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