A BOMBSHELL FROM BAUCHI

Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa stood on the floor of the Senate for only a few seconds recently, but in the short time, he succeeded in jangling raw nerves. Every valediction is usually a mixed bag depending on where one is coming from. There are typically tears for a chapter that will be missed and cheers for the uncertainties of a new beginning. So, it happened that Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa stood on the floor as the ninth National Assembly, which had performed far below expectation according to many, stood to bid farewell.

However, in a short speech, Bulkachuwa spoke of encroaching upon the freedom and independence of his wife, Zainab, who retired in 2020 after years as President of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal, and how she tolerated his encroachment and bent backwards to help some of his colleagues.

By the time Ahmed Lawan, controversial former Senate President hushed him, it was too late as the 83 -year- old senator who represented Bauchi North in the ninth Senate had said all he wanted to say and crucially, all Nigerians needed to hear.

Expectedly, following Bulkachuwa’s unbridled revelation, a wave of criticism from Nigerians has assailed both the former senator and the retired judge who sat atop Nigeria’s appeal court for years.

For many Nigerians, all they have been able to muster is a knowing nod. For many years, there has been deep-seated suspicion that Nigeria’s judiciary, famously described as the “last hope of the common man” had become a den of thieves and robbers where justice was sold to the highest bidder. To put it simply, Nigerians no longer trust that the judges who sit in their courts can resist the lure of filthy lucre.

Of course, there have been instances recently to reinforce that. In 2016, just months after Muhammadu Buhari assumed office, a jarring attack at the instance of the Department of State Services in the dead of night shattered the mystique surrounding the Nigerian judiciary.

The men of the DSS who were to become heavy favourites for similar midnight invasions were said to been on a mission to weed out corruption. As much as Nigerians were alarmed by the attack, they were also scandalized that judges could be dragged into such allegations.

Bulkachuwa’s jarring allegations also strike a painful chord in a country where allegations of electoral malpractices in critical national elections were met with chorus of “go to court.” Observant Nigerians soon pointed out that the uncommon confidence of those who asked aggrieved Nigerians to go to court hinted at something else.

Given that this is a country where anything goes, it is safe to say that no one will question either Senator Bulkachuwa or Justice Bulkachuwa who is now retired. They will retire to their good old age most probably with the good things their life of compromise had given them, but it is Nigeria that will be worse for it, worse for having them. In a country long accustomed to corruption in its many forms, how many more people like the Bulkachuwas do we have in the system who are ready to manipulate the system as much as they can to gain an advantage, any advantage at all. Bulkachuwa’s jarring revelations also confirms the unease many people feel when the course of justice intersects with politics in Nigeria.

In Nigeria’s notorious do-or-die political culture, people rig elections and then abuse power by dipping into the public till and getting enough money to validate their stolen mandates. These they do by bribing judges and whoever else is available to be bribed.

In the face of Bulkachuwa’s revelations, the Nigerian judiciary must again look at itself. If a judge who headed the country’s penultimate court did not prove impermeable to corruption, who is left?

Ike Willie-Nwobu,