* Jigawa NBA demands re-invitation of Kaduna gov
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has urged lawyers of northern extraction to boycott the annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) over the withdrawal of the invitation extended to Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai to speak at the event billed for next week.
The NBA had removed el-Rufai’s from the list of speakers in response to protest by some lawyers who had threatened to boycott the event.
The MURIC, in a statement on Friday by its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, described NBA’s action as parochial, myopic and jejune.
“MURIC calls on all lawyers from the North to boycott NBA’s AGC in protest against this open declaration of war on Northern Kaduna. Every little action of injustice must spark a reaction if tyranny is to be stopped in the world,” Akintola said.
“NBA has crossed the red line in human relations and conflict management. No single lawyer from the North should participate in the AGC either as a resource person or as a participant unless NBA rescinds its decision to drop el-Rufai from the list of speakers. Injury to one is injury to all.
Akintola said by dropping el-Rufai, NBA has declared war on the other side in the Southern Kaduna crisis and has lost a golden chance to be part of the solution to the conflict, adding that the association has further been elected to be part of the problem.
He said: “The fact that NBA took the ill-advised step on account of a petition written by a group, Open Bar Initiative whose main fear is expressed as ‘One can be sure that he will also use the given platform to advance his conflated narrative, designed to deceive and confuse the nation on the real causes of the killings’ exposes NBA’s impatience, intolerance and self-conceit.
“Is it not better to hear him out than to lock him out? Is it not better to jaw-jaw than to war-war? The departure of the ambassador, they say, is the beginning of war.
“Was it not Jane Goodall who said, ‘Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right’? Change cannot come through rejection and exclusion.
“How justifiable is NBA’s decision to exclude Governor el-Rufai from the virtual conference when people like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of Odi and Zaki Biam fame and Governor Nyesom Wike are among the speakers? Who bulldozed the hotels of innocent people despite court orders? Who visited unspeakable violence on political opponents? Should NBA hobnob with people linked to genocide and undemocratic practices? So why demonise el-Rufai where killers of innocent people and enemies of democracy are idolised?”
Meanwhile, the Dutse, Jigawa State branch of the Nigerian Bar Association has threatened to boycott the conference if el-Rufia is not re-invited.
The threat is contained in a statement by the Chairman of the Dutse branch, Mr. Garba Abubakar.
While condemning the decision by the NBA to exclude el-Rufai from the conference, the branch said the governor should have been given the right to respond to the allegations leveled against him.
The branch argued that it is strange that the NBA could exclude el-Rufai but allow Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, who has also been accused of several human rights infractions.
The branch vowed that it would not allow a section of the country to take the association for a ride, arguing that they all have a fair understanding of the law.
The statement read in part: “If complaints are to be judged on their face value and without due process, similar treatment is to (be) given to the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, who has serious allegations of abuse of human rights against him to the extent of demolition (of) residential houses and place of worship without observing due process.
“A section of the country cannot, therefore, take us for a ride as we all have a fair understanding of the law. On the strength of this, therefore, we call on the national body under President Usoro (SAN) to reverse the decision with immediate effect else the Nigerian Bar Association, Dutse branch, will boycott the virtual Annual General Conference taking place in a few days.”