AZUKA ONWUKA FROM PUNCH
On the day the Ninth Senate was holding its valedictory session on June 10, 2023, some interesting things occurred. One of them was the shedding of tears by Senator Orji Kalu, who lamented that Nigeria was not fair to him, because he was arrested and sent to jail for stealing despite his contributions to Nigeria and democracy. However, the shock that came from that session was the revelation by Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa, representing Bauchi North Senatorial District, that through his wife, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa – former President of the Court of Appeal – he influenced court judgements in favour of some of his colleagues. The moment he let the cat out of the bag, the Senate President of the Ninth Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan, cut into his speech and made him to stop.
Three factors could have inspired Bulkachuwa to make that disclosure. The first was that he wanted to swim in the euphoria and self-importance of a benefactor, a power broker, a man of influence, a rainmaker, a godfather. He wanted to be appreciated by his colleagues.
The second factor was the haughtiness that he is one of the key owners of Nigeria. Therefore, nothing would happen to him. And the reaction of the security authorities confirmed that. Even though individuals and groups like the Nigerian Bar Association have called for his arrest, the police and the Department of State Services neither invited him for questioning nor arrested him. If what he had said was said by someone else, the reaction of the authorities would have been swift and different. In progress-driven countries that respect the rule of law, both Bulkachuwa and his wife would have immediately been arrested and investigated. Some of the cases completed under the tenure of Justice Bulkachuwa would have been investigated and reviewed.
There was a third factor that could have been at play. Let us discuss it with a story. In the Igbo culture, it is an abomination for a man to copulate with an animal. It is believed that if anyone did that in secret, the Earth (goddess) would cast a spell that would make the person confess that desecration of the earth publicly. Members of the community would gather and the culprit would, under a trance-like mood, confess all the evils he has committed.
One day a certain man secretly copulated with a ewe. After four market days, nothing happened to him. One full moon came and passed and nothing happened to him. He cast away all fears. While discussing with his friends in the market one day, he boasted loudly: “People say that anybody who copulates with a ewe would confess publicly. All that is nonsense. See me, I copulated with a ewe but nothing happened to me.” Those around him looked at one another knowingly and quietly departed from him.
The same thing could have happened to Bulkachuwa. Karma could have compelled him to unknowingly confess in public what he and his wife did in private. Karma hit his tongue and made it loose, making him sing like a bird.
And that it came at a time the election tribunal is sitting over the 2023 elections was instructive. It brought to light the open secret most people know but can’t say it: that justice can be bought or influenced in Nigeria. The casual manner Bulkachuwa said it confirmed that the practice is endemic. It also put the judges in charge of the election cases on the spot. Everybody is watching to see if they will dispense justice in accordance with the Constitution or will stand logic on its head.
It also put the new administration of President Bola Tinubu on the spot. The gaffe was an opportunity for Tinubu to prove whether he is concerned about ensuring that the rule of law is upheld or discarded. Bulkachuwa is a member of his party, the All Progressives Congress. That a member of his party and Senate openly boasted about using his wife’s position as a judge to influence court judgments without any consequences points to the type of country Nigeria is. The silence of Tinubu’s administration to that shocking confession casts his administration in a negative light.
The attitude of his administration to such serious matters has been interpreted as a continuation of what happened under the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari. Under Buhari, it was not hidden that all Nigerians were not equal before the law. Justice was dispensed based on the ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, etc, of the person involved. Nigerians would complain but Buhari was never perturbed. For example, on March 8, 2017, there was a clash between the indigenes of Ile-Ife in Osun State and Hausa residents. The police responded swiftly by arresting mainly the indigenes of Ile-Ife, including a traditional ruler, flew them to Abuja and paraded them before the media. Rather than treating the matter like an ethnic clash between the Yoruba and the Hausa and investigating it fully with a disinterested mindset, the police made it obvious that they had judged the case and concluded who were wrong and who were innocent.
Similarly, on several occasions, different Fulani leaders directly or indirectly admitted orchestrating attacks on different communities in Nigeria. Some made their comments at open town hall meetings; some inside TV stations during interviews; while some made theirs at press conferences. Nothing happened to them. However, on many occasions, different members of host communities were arrested or invited by the security authorities for one comment or the other. For example, in March 2016, in an exclusive interview with Premium Times, Saleh Bayeri, the Interim National Secretary of Gan Allah Fulani Association, an umbrella body of Fulani associations in Nigeria, admitted that the attack on Agatu in Benue State, was a reprisal by his Fulani people against the Agatu people who he accused of killing a prominent Fulani man in 2013 and stealing his cows. A month earlier, suspected Fulani herdsmen had attacked and razed 10 Agatu communities, with hundreds reportedly killed. Former Senate President, David Mark, who represented Agatu at the Senate, called it genocide, putting the casualty figure at 500, a figure which the then inspector general of police, Solomon Arase, disputed.
In like manner, during the build-up to the 2023 general elections, some people who engaged in ethnic and religious incitement and threat got different treatments. For example, Musiliu Akinsanya – better known as MC Oluomo – Lagos State Parks Management Committee Chairman, recorded himself on video making such an ethnic threat against non-supporters of the APC. Bayo Onanuga, a campaign aide to the current president, made posts issuing such ethnic threats. None of them was even cautioned by the security agencies, not to talk of being arrested. However, the same week, one Chief Frederick Nwajagu, Eze Ndigbo of Ajao Estate, in Okota, Lagos, made a comment in response to the ethnic attacks on his community, saying that since they were not safe anymore, they would invite the Indigenous People of Biafra to protect them. The police and the DSS promptly responded by arresting and charging him for “terrorism.”
The picture this simply paints is that in Nigeria, all animals are not equal. But everybody who understands the rudiments of nation-building knows that it is virtually impossible to build a successful nation by treating equals unequally or treating unequals equally. Sadly, that is what Nigeria has been doing for decades while ironically hoping to achieve growth and peace. It is like planting oranges and hoping to reap apples. It is apparent but unfortunate that the administration of Tinubu has followed in those same footsteps.
