In what appeared to be an appreciation to Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa, a former President of the Federal Court of Appeal, Adamu Bulkachuwa, the senator representing Bauchi North, confessed to seeking and obtaining favours from the justice, which undermined her independence during her tenure.

Justice Bulkachuwa is married to the senator.

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Bulkachuwa was called to bar in 1976, and in 1998, she was appointed a justice of the Appeal Court.

Prior to her appointment in the appellate court, she served as a judge in the Bauchi State High Court.

In 2007, she presided over the Sokoto State governorship election petition, and Timipre Sylva’s petition challenging Seriake Dickson’s eligibility as the Bayelsa State People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s governorship flag-bearer.

On April 17, 2014, former President Goodluck Jonathan appointed Bulkachuwa as the Federal Court of Appeal’s first female president. She held that position until March 6, 2020, when she retired from active service after turning 70.

Before her retirement, the former Appeal Court president appointed herself chair of the tribunal hearing petitions for the 2019 presidential election between Atiku Abubakar and former President Muhammadu Buhari. This was until she recused herself on May 22, 2019.

She stated that she recused herself for personal reasons. Her recusal, however, was triggered by pushback from the PDP after her husband was elected senator of the Bauchi North Senatorial District under the APC, the same party that made her son, Aliyu Haida Abubakar, a governorship candidate in Gombe State.

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EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

Bulkachuwa was born to Alhaji Abubakar El-Nafaty and Hajiya Aishatu Dudu El-Nafaty, natives of Nafada Local Government Area of Gombe State, on March 6, 1950.

She attended Tudun Wada Primary School and Senior Primary School in Kaduna, Kaduna State, between 1957 and 1963. Later, she enrolled in Queen Elizabeth School in Ilorin, Kwara State, where she gained her West African School Certificate (WASCCE) in 1968.

Between 1971 and 1972, the justice attended Abdullahi Bayero College Kano for her GCE ‘A’ Levels, and in 1975, she received her LL.B. (Hons) from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, after which she attended the Nigerian Law School in Bwari, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, between 1975 and 1976.