Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa; Have we all moved on?

By Stanley Alieke

Days after Distinguished Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa openly and brazenly boasted of how he influenced court judgments in favour of himself and in favour of his friends and colleague using his wife who was the president of the court of appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, the senator is yet to be invited to substantiate his claims and the retired justice is yet to be invited by the National Judicial Council to deny or support her husband’s claim.

For the husband of someone who was the “number one judge” (president) of the number two court (court of appeal) in the land up until her retirement in 2020 to make such allegations and we are all moving on as if we didn’t hear what we heard is beyond my comprehension.

I am not surprised because it is a classic Nigeria. Things like this go unpunished, it will be forgotten soon and we will all move on. Remember that staff in the office of the immediate past president of Body of Benchers, Wole Olanipenkun SAN, also openly boasted how her boss is the number one lawyer in Nigeria and very close to judges and justices and that he uses his influence to influence the outcome of judgments in his favour and in the favour of his client. Despite the calls and loud cries from people, the president then refused to step down and submit himself for investigation and before a disciplinary panel until it all blew over and he successfully completed his tenure as the chairman of the body of benchers, handed over and everyone moved on as if nothing happened.

If my knowledge serves my right, the retired justice in question is also a member of the body of benchers, the number one body of lawyers in Nigeria. It is the body that admit new members (lawyers) into the legal profession, discipline airing lawyers and also acknowledge outstanding lawyers by offering them the SANship title.

For a woman who is facing this allegation to be a member of such a body even after her retirement as a justice then the judicial arm of government in Nigeria is inside a deep blue sea.

I have been expecting at least a newsletter from the office of the retired justice disclaiming the statement of her husband but because we are in an animal kingdom, they are expecting it to blow over and everyone moves on to another more heartbreaking news.

Remember that during the 2019 presidential election petition period in which the retired justice was still the president of the court of appeal or in layman speaking, “the number one justice of the court of appeal”, it was rumoured that the justice was given a whopping sum N6B as a bribe to influence the outcome of the election petition tribunal judgment.

The retired justice blatantly denied this accusation; but well, the statement of her husband earlier this week has proven otherwise; that there might likely be some atom of truth in the bribery allegation made against the retired Honorable justice.

It is expected of the National Judicial Council to conduct a thorough review of every case that the retired justice ever sat upon and of every judgment the retired justice ever delivered, especially politically motivated cases, it is possible that numerous of those cases are the ones her husband “encroached on her rights and influenced the outcome of the judgment”.

If we have a proactive Nigeria Bar Association, this is the time to press the neck of the National Judicial Council to invite the retired Justice and review her cases. This should not be a difficult task for the Nigerian Bar Association if they really want to rise to the occasion because the president of the NBA, the immediate past president, and some other officials of the NBA are all members of the NJC.