A Nigerian senator, Adamu Bulkachuwa, has come under fire after confessing to influencing the decisions of his wife, Zainab, while she was serving as a judge and President of the Court of Appeal.
The comment also called Mrs Bulkachuwa’s reputation into question, as many said it has destroyed public confidence in the Nigerian judiciary.
Mr Bulkachuwa, 83, who represented Bauchi North senatorial district in the 9th Senate, confirmed infringing on the “freedom and independence” of his wife as a judicial officer.
“My wife, whose freedom and independence I encroached upon while (she) was in office, and she has been very tolerant and accepted my encroachment and extended her help to my colleagues,” said Mr Bulkachuwa, an All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart, at a valedictory session of the 9th Senate on 10 June.
In the 41-minute video clip of Mr Bulkachuwa’s revelation, the outgone Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, was seen interrupting Mr Bulkachuwa, who lost his reelection bid to the parliament.
“Distinguished, I don’t think this is a good idea going this direction. It is not a good idea, please,” Mr Lawan retorted, stopping Mr Bulkachuwa from further spilling the beans.
Compromise of court decisions is generally believed to be a recurrent happening in Nigeria, but confession to it by actors is rare.
Mr Bulkachuwa’s rare confession serves as a validation of the suspicion of bias the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had against Mrs Bulkachuwa after she appointed herself to head the five-member panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court in 2019.
The PDP, along with its then-presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, was challenging the election of then-President Muhammadu Buhari.
The party alleged that Mrs Bulkachuwa would not adjudicate on the case impartially due to her tie to her husband, then a senator-elect on the platform of the APC, and her son, Aliyu Abubakar, who was a governorship aspirant on the platform of the party.
Mrs Bulkachuwa later stepped down from the panel and replaced herself with Mohammed Garba, who chaired the panel and eventually saw the proceedings through to the end.
Mrs Bulkachuwa retired from the bench as president of the Court of Appeal after clocking the mandatory retirement age of 70 for judicial officers in 2020.
Mrs Bulkachuwa’s claim of independence faces test
In the waning days of her headship of the appellate court in February 2020, she shared her four-decade experience with journalists in Lagos.
Specifically, Mrs Bulkachuwa denied an allegation that she took a N6 billion bribe.
“There was a time when allegations were flying around that I was given N6 billion, and I laughed. So, if I was given N6 billion, do you think I would still be here?” she wondered.
The jurist went on to distance her judicial duties from her husband’s political life.
In 2022, Mr Bulkachuwa, a staunch ally of then-President Buhari, could not secure the APC ticket for Bauchi North, prompting his defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In the 9th Senate, Mr Bulkachuwa was the chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs.
“My husband is a politician, but politics is a no-go area in the house. Even my children are aware of that. No politician is invited to the house. My husband can pursue whatever he wants to pursue as a politician, but we hardly discuss politics in the house. All these help to guard against any influence from any politician,” Mrs Bulkachuwa had averred during a presser in Lagos in February 2020.
However, her claims are at variance with Mr Bulkachuwa’s revelation at the Senate valedictory session on Saturday.
Public confidence in Nigeria’s judiciary has plummeted in recent times in the light of decisions of courts that were seen as unpopular.
‘A blight on judiciary’
Lawyers have condemned Mr Bulkachuwa’s statement.
A former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba, described Mr Bulkachuwa’s remark as “a monumental disgrace for our institutions.”
Mr Agbakoba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), recalled how his client, Usman Tuggar, lost an election petition to Mr Bulkachuwa concerning the Bauchi North senatorial seat.
“I represented Usman Tuggar in relation to the disputed elections between him and Senator Bulkachuwa for Bauchi North senatorial. We lost in 3 (three) courts. Senator Bulkachuwa seems to suggest why,” Mr Agbakoba said in a statement he sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday.
Calling on the authorities to arrest Mr Bulkachuwa, the erstwhile NBA president and constitutional lawyer, said the lawmaker’s revelation “is a blight on my confidence in our systems.”
He urged President Bola Tinubu “to cleanse the system in a most dramatic and fundamental process if he wishes to succeed.”
Another lawyer, Malcolm Omirhobo, said Mr Bulkachuwa’s confession “portends danger to the dignity of the judiciary.”
Mr Omirhobo, a human rights lawyer, said the senator’s remarks showed the “phoney judgements” that emanated from Mrs Bulkachuwa and the appellate while she served as its president.
“It will reduce the integrity of the judiciary, and the public will find it hard to trust and respect the judgements of our courts,” the lawyer pointed out, adding that “there are many like this infamous couple in Nigeria.”
A former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Chidi Odinkalu, while reacting to Mr Bulkachuwa’s statement, said Mrs Bulkachuwa was “neither honourable nor interested in justice.”
Mr Odinkalu opined that Mrs Bulkachuwa’s subversion of justice, as revealed by her husband, has “tarnished” the image of serving judges whom he said would be seen as “trading judicial decisions in their bedrooms.”
He urged serving judges to speak up and insist on an independent inquiry into Mr Bulkachuwa’s revelation.
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