On August 21, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) sent a letter to the Governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasiru El-Rufa’i, indicating his withdrawal as NBA2020 conference speaker. The governor was billed to speak on the topic “Who is a Nigerian? The letter generated a lot of controversy from different angles of the country, especially among the Nigerians that were spending significant time on social media expressing their views on national issues of interest.
According to the NBA president, the invitation was withdrawn from the governor following a petition by some lawyers under the aegis of Open Bar Initiative following rising killings in Southern Kaduna.
Well, writing on this kind of issue ends up with different interpretations, no wonder sometimes I find it very disturbing and difficult to press my keyboards on any stuff that may generate comments if not anger to many people, especially those that are not in line with the author`s stand. Permit me to clarify this to you that I am neither a supporter of Mallam El-Rufa’i nor his sympathiser. In fact, I have issues with some of his strict and anti-masses policies but we have no option than voice out our opinion, especially on any issue capable of downsizing democracy, human rights and the rule of law in the country.
Let me start with this, the NBA as an association has the right to invite or withdraw invitation to anybody in their program because they are the organisers of the program and therefore have the right to select the guests for the program.
Be that as it may, I have personally not seen anything wrong in Inviting someone to a program and withdrawing same. What makes the issue create unnecessary attention among the general members of the public is the issue of allegations against the governor in relation to rising cases of attacks in Southern Kaduna. The NBA president stated that the withdrawal of the governor`s invitation has nothing to do with religion or ethnicity.
Whatever he said, the majority will find it very offensive, especially those that hold the opinion that the association’s approach was very poor and uncalled for, the association failed to give the governor a fair hearing, which is one of the cardinal principals of the rule of law. The governor is presumed innocent of the said allegation till a court pronounces him guilty. The views of some members of the association shouldn’t be the basis to withdraw such invitation unless the association wants it.
This is just like teenagers’ prank we had back in university days that you send your party invitations to some people and still give words to bouncers not to allow them to gain entry just to humiliate them at the entrance then you later apologise to them. NBA apologiding to the governor simply means that the association is not convinced withdrawing the invite was right or affirming my thought on the above mentioned issues
There are a lot of conspiracies surrounding the matter. Religious and tribal champions are busy giving the incident different interpretations and inclinations but I perceive the whole melodrama ensued between NBA and El-Rufa’i as part of the 2023 political game. If not for political reason, why will the NBA allow other speakers like Wike and Obasanjo? Are they saying they have history of obeying court orders?
If NBA is concerned on the killings in Southern Kaduna, they will not have entitled the theme of the conference “Am I a Nigerian-A debate on National Identity”, instead, they should have opted for “The Indigeneship-Citizenship Conundrum” to make fool out of him. It will be a very good avenue for people to dig deep by asking unhidden agenda and questions some people think about him. This will also pave way for them to understand why the governor has issues with Southern Kaduna leaders. But the association denied all these opportunities to their members and general public just because of the interest of insignificant few among them.
Now their attitude towards El-Rufa’i is creating a different narrative among the fragile country`s ethno-religious population; a significant number of the population are turning the saga as an issue of ethno-religious sentiment. El-Rufai`s presence in the conference will not benefit the common Nigerian with anything but will definitely bring out different stories especially on the current crisis in the state.
In addition, NBA’s reactions to such issue that has colouration of religious is nothing but fuelling the disintegration among the major religions in the country, especially now that everything in Nigeria one must put religious and tribal sentiments for such things to attract attention.
Moreover, the NBA has directed the Muslim lawyer to nominate another Muslim governor to speak in the event. This has indicated that NBA and their sponsors have an axe to grind with El-Rufa’i. The NBA, which is the body of learned and a rallying point and unifying factor, has derailed from this core objective. What a shame!
A lot of negative narrations are going on daily in Nigeria from Mailafia`s allegations to another. All these will not let us understand the major challenges facing the country like insecurity, poor democratic governance, abject poverty and unemployment that have become the order of the day in the country.
Nigerians should be conscious of the issues that can castigate one another and lead us to unnecessary conflict that may result in further loss of lives and destruction of property. Few unpatriotic individuals and organisations try to use unhidden agenda and conspiracies to divide us for their personal interest.
Mohammed, a democratic governance enthusiast, writes from Funtua, Katsina state
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