West, North Nigeria & The Brotherhood Of Temporary Unity: Malami's EFCC Probe Exposes Selective Justice

 West, North Nigeria & The Brotherhood Of Temporary Unity: Malami's EFCC Probe Exposes Selective Justice West, North Nigeria And The...

 West, North Nigeria & The Brotherhood Of Temporary Unity: Malami's EFCC Probe Exposes Selective Justice

West, North Nigeria And The Brotherhood Of Temporary Unity. 

When news broke that Abubakar Malami, SAN—Nigeria’s former Attorney General of the Federation had become a target of EFCC scrutiny, I paused, not in shock, but in recognition; In Nigeria, power rarely forgets; it only waits.

Yesterday’s defender of authority often becomes today’s lesson in accountability once usefulness expires. Malami was no bystander during the Buhari years. For eight long years, he guarded the presidency’s legal gates, from prolonged detentions and controversial court defiance, to selective prosecutions and constitutional gymnastics. 

The Ministry of Justice did not act in isolation. If his conduct was unlawful, Nigerians must ask: Why did justice sleep until power changed hands? The answer is simple: the West knows how to deal with the North. Satire becomes unavoidable here. The same system that cheered as rules bent now feigns offense at the bends. Those who profited from silence are suddenly vocal. 

In Nigeria, justice arrives not on principle, but on a calendar. To grasp this moment, step back into history; what we see today is no novelty. From the First Republic, Nigerian politics has hinged on elite blocs; the West and the North—vying for the center. The NPC and Action Group were not foes over culture, but over power, ideology, and control.

Under Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s government, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was jailed in 1963 for treasonable felony, deepening mistrust and revealing how Northern power at the center crushes perceived threats.The military era swapped uniforms but not instincts. 

The June 12, 1993 election, Nigeria’s freest, won by Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, was annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida, not for process flaws, but to protect entrenched interests. General Sani Abacha’s regime buried the mandate, imprisoning Abiola and stifling dissent.

Civilian rule returned, but the habits endured. Modern Nigerian politics thrives on transactions. Unity is preached when interests align; morality resurfaces when they diverge, dusting off old files. Alliances form and fracture not on values, but on access to the center. Political friendships rarely outlast transitions.

Accountability feels selective because it targets former insiders only after beneficiaries change. 

History reveals a pattern: rivalry when power feels secure, convergence when threatened. This is not about ordinary citizens who trade, intermarry, and coexist; it is elite behavior staking claim to the center.

When a former Attorney General, once loyal to state excesses, turns liability, Nigerians rightly demand answers. If corruption is the target, cast a wide net. If abuse of office matters, timelines should not start post-election. 

Justice that awaits a new regime’s courage ceases to be justice and becomes political housekeeping.

Nigeria knows this script: yesterday’s enforcer is today’s offender; yesterday’s silence fuels today’s outrage. Courtrooms morph into extensions of political transitions, not altars of truth.

History will judge if this marks a break from selective accountability or another chapter in wielding law as weapon, not compass. Until then, Nigerians will keep asking the uncomfortable question: Are we seeing justice, or just power changing hands?

Family Writers Press International