By Adamu Gwazuwang.<\/p>\n
The Appeal Court ruling dismissing the request\u00a0 for head of the
\nPresidential Election Tribunal Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa to recuse
\nherself from the case as requested by Atiku Abubakar’s counsel is an
\nindication of the decline in the sensitivity of Nigerian judges to
\nissues that question their integrity and the credibility of their
\nverdicts.<\/p>\n
We only need to recall that in 1999, Justice Umaru Abdullahi as
\nPresident of the Court of Appeal did not even wait to be asked before
\nvoluntarily recusing himself from presiding over the Presidential
\nElection Tribunal at the inauguration, admitting that his wife was an
\nelection official, to realize how low judge’s sensitivity to loss of
\nintegrity has plunged today.<\/p>\n
Thus, Zainab Bulkachuwa, the judge at the centre of the fiasco, did not
\nsee any possibility of being perceived as susceptible to undue influence
\npresiding over an election petition between APC and PDP while her
\nhusband and son remained prominent members of the APC.<\/p>\n
She adamantly ignored sustained public outrage and even citations of
\nestablished\u00a0 \u00a0 judicial pronouncements and precedence upholding similar
\nfilial relationships as basis for biased considerations in adjudication
\nand recusal of less recalcitrant judges.<\/p>\n
When she fina\u013aly succumbed\u00a0 \u00a0 she claimed it was “voluntary” and
\nconjured vindication from the\u00a0 validation contrived\u00a0 by her compliant
\nsubordinates’ professed inability to detect any link between husband and
\nwife or mother and child, capable of swaying Her Lordship’s human
\njudgment. Left to them, she should stay on the panel emulating the
\nstatue outside the court depicting a mature, busty blindfolded lady,
\nwith open ears, wielding a sword above a book in a symbolic indication
\nof what might befall anyone thinking blindness is deafness!<\/p>\n
Since they are so convinced of the ineffectual nature of Justice Zainab
\nBulkachuwa’s\u00a0 family bonds as to declare it inadmissible in evidence,
\nthe remaining judges could as well perfect their perfidy by sustaining
\nthe predictable trajectory of Her Lordship’s jurisdiction over the case,
\nsince she got no courage to remain from their endorsement.<\/p>\n
Justice Umaru Abdullahi obviously belongs to a more morally-motivated,
\njustice- sensitized and therefore credible generation of Nigerian judges
\nthan, for lack of a better term of reference, the Bulkachuwa bench.
\nJustice Abdullahi didn’t need any further “evidence” or “proof of
\nconnection” to determine that he should not be a judge in a matter with
\nwhich his wife has a link, remote or direct. His conscience and high
\nmoral standing was enough for him to place the fear of God above the
\npleasures of the world.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Nigerians must brace up for more “legalities” that ridicule
\njustice as the Bulkachuwa factor continues to redefine bias in the minds
\nof her “brothers”on the presidential election tribunal. At the end of
\nthe day we should all be reminded of the words of late Mohammed Abubakar
\nRimi,\u00a0 former governor of Kano State in reaction to his unjust
\nconviction before a Special Military Tribunal : “there will also be
\njudgment of posterity and ultimately judgement of Almighty God in the
\nHereafter.”<\/p>\n
ADAMU GWAZUWANG, A public analyst writes from Abuja.<\/p>\n
By Adamu Gwazuwang. The Appeal Court ruling dismissing the request\u00a0 for head of the Presidential Election Tribunal Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa to recuse herself from the case as requested by Atiku…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n