From May 29, 2015, the very moment Bala Mohammed stepped down as Minister for the FCT, he was on the radar of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
It wasn’t until October 2016 that the commission finally detained him.
He was arraigned in May 2017 for corruption and fraud allegations, crimes committed while serving as minister.
But by May 29, 2019, he had been sworn in as Bauchi State Governor forcing the EFCC to suspend his prosecution due to the immunity conferred on him by the constitution.
Bala Mohammed served as minister under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which lost the 2015 presidential election.
He was also elected governor under the PDP platform.
That conferred immunity is however months away from ending.
More significantly, the Bauchi State governor has proven to be a thorn in the flesh of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Apart from the previous allegations made against him, he now has terrorism financing charges pending.
Already, the Bauchi State Commissioner of Finance, Yakubu Adamu, has been charged to court by the EFCC for money laundering and terrorism financing.
That was in December 2025.
At least three more officials from the state’s civil service are facing similar charges.
And just as it has become customary in Nigeria, the Bauchi State governor has alleged political persecution and accused the EFCC of been used as a tool for political ends.
He would however not be the first politician incapable of withstanding the heat of criminal prosecution or political persecution, whichever suits their narrative
While all this is happening, the political world around him has been changing.
The APC now boasts 30 of the country’s 36 state governors as against the 21 states it had just a year ago.
Opposition leaders have accused the presidency of using intimidation to get the governors to defect.
That is exactly why the Bauchi governor’s visit to President Tinubu last week Friday has raised eyebrows with questions swirling about his future plans and whether he is also about to join the APC.
He would however not be the first politician incapable of withstanding the heat of criminal prosecution or political persecution, whichever suits their narrative.
But that also depends on who is pulling the strings; who is president, a political amateur or maestro.
In September 2011, the Code of Conduct Tribunal arraigned former Lagos governor, now President Bola Tinubu of corruption charges.
The tribunal accused Tinubu of operating a foreign bank account while he served as governor of Lagos between 1999 and 2007. Several months earlier; Tinubu, who was the national leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN, was in last minute negotiations with the Congress for Progress Change (CPC) to form an alliance against the PDP ahead of the 2011 presidential election.
Both the CPC and ACN had already chosen their presidential candidates along with their running mates.
And according to guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), time had also run out for the parties to make changes to their presidential tickets.
But the ACN and its leadership were persistent.
Nuhu Ribadu, who was then the presidential candidate of the ACN would essentially drop out of the race to support Muhammadu Buhari, the CPC presidential candidate.
On the other hand, Pastor Tunde Bakari, Buhari’s running mate, would pledge to resign before or after inauguration and make way for Bola Tinubu to become Vice President.
As it turned out, both parties could not come to an agreement.
It was Goodluck Jonathan that was inaugurated president on May 29, 2011.
Three months later, his government dragged Tinubu to the tribunal, in what the opposition termed a political witch-hunt.
Nobody rises to political prominence without facing some level of adversity from the state and those in control of the levers of power.
Some politicians cave under the pressure.
Others rise in spite of it.
Like Tinubu, Bukola Saraki faced charges at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
He was literally placed in the dock in full view of the world. The intent, it seems, was to exert enough pressure on him and have him resign as Senate President.
In 2015, after the defeat of Goodluck Jonathan, Saraki maneuvered his way to become Senate President without the backing of the powers that be.
So, he was out on public display at the tribunal for the world to see.
Things got so heated that lawmakers toyed with the idea of granting themselves immunity from criminal prosecution.
But instead of buckling under pressure, Saraki absorbed the humiliation and held on to his office.
Today, no one remembers he went through such an ordeal.
Even more intense was the hostility and attacks Atiku Abubakar endured in the last months of the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency.
Atiku was stripped of all of the trappings of the office of the Vice President, including the cars and security details.
He was forced out of the PDP and was indicted by a panel that effectively made him ineligible to contest the 2007 election.
The Supreme Court would later put him back on the ballot, but essentially, only his immunity saved him from criminal prosecution.
On the surface, the political rift in the PDP over Jonathan’s right to contest for president in the 2011 elections and the subsequent understanding with the party’s governors to serve only one term led to PDP’s defeat in 2015.
But, a closer examination of events between 2010 and 2011 would show that the seeds of Jonathan’s defeat were planted in Lagos and not at PDP national secretariat in Abuja.
After all, the five governors that dumped the party in 2014 would not have had the option had the All Progressives Congress not been formed.
The irony is that Jonathan had the opportunity to stop the CPC and ACN merger before it took form.
And while Jonathan met secretly and willingly rescued Tinubu from the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Bala Mohammed went to Aso Rock begging in clear public view
Tinubu’s arraignment at the Code of Conduct Tribunal had the potential to end his political career.
To keep his political aspirations alive, it was Edwin Clark, an Ijaw leader and confidante of Jonathan that Tinubu turned to and seek an out of court settlement.
It was Clark that brokered the peace between Jonathan and Tinubu.
But Jonathan, apparently lacked the political killer instincts and sought no concessions from Tinubu.
He didn’t ask the former Lagos governor to join the PDP or pledge political support whenever circumstances demanded.
All of this happened in secret and behind closed doors.
And by end of November 2011, months after the initial arraignment, the Code of Conduct Tribunal had dismissed the charges against Tinubu for lack of diligent prosecution.
Jonathan obviously wasn’t looking ahead.
Maybe he genuinely had no plans to seek re-election in 2015 at that point in time.
But he thought his favour to Tinubu was enough to secure political support.
How wrong his assumption would prove to be.
That lack of political instincts would cost him almost immediately.
Meanwhile, talks of an alliance between CPC and ACN did not end after the 2011 elections defeat.
It picked up again and the dismissal of the charges against Tinubu freed him politically.
This was a key moment.
It wasn’t until a few months to the 2015 presidential election that Jonathan realised the true weight of his mistake and he made frantic effort to appease Tinubu.
He made tantalising offers to Tinubu in order to break the alliance.
It was already too late.
Now contrast this with how charges hanging over Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi are playing out.
He is 15 months away from losing his immunity.
The political party under which he had planned to launch a presidential campaign or at the very least, emerge as a vice presidential candidate has been pulled from under his feet.
His fellow travelers in the PDP, the governors of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Plateau, Taraba and Adamawa have all dumped the party and joined the APC.
As for Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo, nobody really knows where he stands.
While Jonathan watched as the opposition organised and formed an alliance that defeated him; Tinubu has presided over the dismantling of the PDP brick by brick.
And while Jonathan met secretly and willingly rescued Tinubu from the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Bala Mohammed went to Aso Rock begging in clear public view.
The APC and presidency needed him to be seen visiting.
That was enough to create the optics of an opposition caving in and a ruling party marching to victory.
As the governor declared, he wasn’t there to negotiate a deal to join the ruling party.
The reality is that he doesn’t need to.
He just needs to commit to supporting the president’s re-election and political agenda.
Then maybe, he will get legal reprieve from the EFCC.
And if he is lucky, he might even get to nominate his own successor.