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On the day the Ninth Senate was holding its valedictory session on June 10, 2023, some attention-grabbing issues occurred. Considered one of them was the shedding of tears by Senator Orji Kalu, who lamented that Nigeria was not honest to him, as a result of he was arrested and despatched to jail for stealing regardless of his contributions to Nigeria and democracy. Nevertheless, the shock that got here from that session was the revelation by Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa, representing Bauchi North Senatorial District, that via his spouse, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa – former President of the Court docket of Enchantment – he influenced court docket judgements in favour of a few of his colleagues. The second he let the cat out of the bag, the Senate President of the Ninth Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan, lower into his speech and made him to cease.
Three elements might have impressed Bulkachuwa to make that disclosure. The primary was that he wished to swim within the euphoria and self-importance of a benefactor, an influence dealer, a person of affect, a rainmaker, a godfather. He wished to be appreciated by his colleagues.
The second issue was the haughtiness that he is among the key homeowners of Nigeria. Due to this fact, nothing would occur to him. And the response of the safety authorities confirmed that. Though people and teams just like the Nigerian Bar Affiliation have known as for his arrest, the police and the Division of State Providers neither invited him for questioning nor arrested him. If what he had mentioned was mentioned by another person, the response of the authorities would have been swift and completely different. In progress-driven nations that respect the rule of regulation, each Bulkachuwa and his spouse would have instantly been arrested and investigated. A few of the circumstances accomplished beneath the tenure of Justice Bulkachuwa would have been investigated and reviewed.
There was a 3rd issue that might have been at play. Allow us to focus on it with a narrative. Within the Igbo tradition, it’s an abomination for a person to copulate with an animal. It’s believed that if anybody did that in secret, the Earth (goddess) would solid a spell that may make the particular person confess that desecration of the earth publicly. Members of the group would collect and the wrongdoer would, beneath a trance-like temper, confess all of the evils he has dedicated.
Someday a sure man secretly copulated with a ewe. After 4 market days, nothing occurred to him. One full moon got here and handed and nothing occurred to him. He solid away all fears. Whereas discussing together with his buddies out there in the future, he boasted loudly: “Individuals say that anyone who copulates with a ewe would confess publicly. All that’s nonsense. See me, I copulated with a ewe however nothing occurred to me.” These round him checked out each other knowingly and quietly departed from him.
The identical factor might have occurred to Bulkachuwa. Karma might have compelled him to unknowingly confess in public what he and his spouse did in personal. Karma hit his tongue and made it free, making him sing like a hen.
And that it got here at a time the election tribunal is sitting over the 2023 elections was instructive. It delivered to gentle the open secret most individuals know however can’t say it: that justice could be purchased or influenced in Nigeria. The informal method Bulkachuwa mentioned it confirmed that the apply is endemic. It additionally put the judges accountable for the election circumstances on the spot. All people is watching to see if they’ll dispense justice in accordance with the Structure or will stand logic on its head.
It additionally put the brand new administration of President Bola Tinubu on the spot. The gaffe was a chance for Tinubu to show whether or not he’s involved about guaranteeing that the rule of regulation is upheld or discarded. Bulkachuwa is a member of his celebration, the All Progressives Congress. {That a} member of his celebration and Senate overtly boasted about utilizing his spouse’s place as a choose to affect court docket judgments with none penalties factors to the kind of nation Nigeria is. The silence of Tinubu’s administration to that stunning confession casts his administration in a damaging gentle.
The perspective of his administration to such critical issues has been interpreted as a continuation of what occurred beneath the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari. Underneath Buhari, it was not hidden that every one Nigerians weren’t equal earlier than the regulation. Justice was distributed primarily based on the ethnicity, faith, political affiliation, and so on, of the particular person concerned. Nigerians would complain however Buhari was by no means perturbed. For instance, on March 8, 2017, there was a conflict between the indigenes of Ile-Ife in Osun State and Hausa residents. The police responded swiftly by arresting primarily the indigenes of Ile-Ife, together with a conventional ruler, flew them to Abuja and paraded them earlier than the media. Somewhat than treating the matter like an ethnic conflict between the Yoruba and the Hausa and investigating it absolutely with a disinterested mindset, the police made it apparent that they’d judged the case and concluded who have been improper and who have been harmless.
Equally, on a number of events, completely different Fulani leaders instantly or not directly admitted orchestrating assaults on completely different communities in Nigeria. Some made their feedback at open city corridor conferences; some inside TV stations throughout interviews; whereas some made theirs at press conferences. Nothing occurred to them. Nevertheless, on many events, completely different members of host communities have been arrested or invited by the safety authorities for one remark or the opposite. For instance, in March 2016, in an unique interview with Premium Occasions, Saleh Bayeri, the Interim Nationwide Secretary of Gan Allah Fulani Affiliation, an umbrella physique of Fulani associations in Nigeria, admitted that the assault on Agatu in Benue State, was a reprisal by his Fulani individuals in opposition to the Agatu individuals who he accused of killing a distinguished Fulani man in 2013 and stealing his cows. A month earlier, suspected Fulani herdsmen had attacked and razed 10 Agatu communities, with a whole lot reportedly killed. Former Senate President, David Mark, who represented Agatu on the Senate, known as it genocide, placing the casualty determine at 500, a determine which the then inspector normal of police, Solomon Arase, disputed.
In like method, in the course of the build-up to the 2023 normal elections, some individuals who engaged in ethnic and spiritual incitement and risk bought completely different remedies. For instance, Musiliu Akinsanya – higher referred to as MC Oluomo – Lagos State Parks Administration Committee Chairman, recorded himself on video making such an ethnic risk in opposition to non-supporters of the APC. Bayo Onanuga, a marketing campaign aide to the present president, made posts issuing such ethnic threats. None of them was even cautioned by the safety businesses, to not discuss of being arrested. Nevertheless, the identical week, one Chief Frederick Nwajagu, Eze Ndigbo of Ajao Property, in Okota, Lagos, made a remark in response to the ethnic assaults on his group, saying that since they weren’t protected anymore, they’d invite the Indigenous Individuals of Biafra to guard them. The police and the DSS promptly responded by arresting and charging him for “terrorism.”
The image this merely paints is that in Nigeria, all animals should not equal. However everyone who understands the rudiments of nation-building is aware of that it’s just about unimaginable to construct a profitable nation by treating equals unequally or treating unequals equally. Sadly, that’s what Nigeria has been doing for many years whereas mockingly hoping to attain progress and peace. It’s like planting oranges and hoping to reap apples. It’s obvious however unlucky that the administration of Tinubu has adopted in those self same footsteps.
– Twitter: @BrandAzuka
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