Still on NBA’s ‘red card’ to El-Rufa’i

By Tiko Emmanuel Okoye

By the time this article is published, the 60th and first virtual Annual General Conference (AGC) of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) scheduled to run from last Wednesday to Friday would have either been concluded albeit under a lingering dark cloud of animosity and controversies or rescheduled for exactly the same reasons.

The animosity arises from the arguably contentious decision of the NBA to delist Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufa’i as one of the speakers at its virtual AGC.

Others billed to speak are former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, former minister Oby Ezekwesili, and a Pentecostal cleric, Pastor Tunde Bakare. Quite predictably, el-Rufa’i wasted no time firing on all cylinders!

In a protest letter delivered by his personal lawyer, he accused the NBA of demonstrating “a total disregard for the basic constitutional provision of fair hearing and justice” and “descending into the realm of partisanship.”

He immediately received a lot of support from several Northern organisations, such as the Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria, the Kaduna Muslim Lawyers Association, and NBA branches in Yobe, Bauchi and Jigawa, who decried what they considered a nexus of contradictions in the entire saga.

They imputed ethnic and religious biases into the action and demanded a reversal of the “unprecedented” dis-invitation plus an apology to el-Rufa’i, failing which their members would boycott the AGC.

Meanwhile, a pressure group, the Radical Agenda Movement in the Nigerian Bar Association (RAMINBA), apparently taking a cue from another pressure group within the fold the Open Bar Initiative whose petition against the governor caused the immense commotion, decided to further ‘shake the table.’

The members started mounting pressure on the National Executive (NEC) of the NBA to equally withdraw the invitations of former President Obasanjo and Gov.

Wike as speakers, citing well-known instances where they wilfully flouted valid court orders and adopted authoritarian measures that violated the fundamental civil liberties of millions of law-abiding Nigerian citizens.

It is highly unlikely that el-Rufa’i underwent an interview process prior to being handed a speakership invitation.

That being so, why should he and his supporters believe that he has to be given “a fair hearing” prior to any decision being taken to, or not to, disinvite him?

It is a trite saying that he who has the power to give up equally has the power to receive it back.

And why should the governor use the services of a private attorney rather than his attorney general and commissioner for justice since the invitation was extended to him in his official capacity as governor?

Would he pay the attorney out of his own pocket or do so using public funds? It also does not make sense to hear some critics of the action insist that a decision to withdraw an invitation earlier given to a speaker must involve all branches of the NBA.

Is it that the NBA constitution and conventions do not delegate such a mundane task to the National Executive Committee?

It is very ironic to hear el-Rufa’i bleating about not being treated “fairly and equally.”

This is a man who arrogantly dispensed with fair and equal treatment when he decided against all reasonable advice to pick a Muslim from the Northern Senatorial Zone as his running mate on a Muslim/Muslim ticket to the chagrin of Kaduna South indigenes in particular and Christians resident in the state in general.

He must, therefore, be told in no uncertain terms that he who comes to equity must do so with clean hands. Now take another look at the list of speakers.

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Apart from el-Rufa’i who has now been delisted and Pastor Bakare who was personally handpicked by Buhari as his running mate in the 2011 Presidential Election but is not a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) – all other speakers are either registered members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) or sympathisers of the major opposition party and are known to be at loggerheads with both the president and the ruling party.

Perhaps, the asymmetric composition of the speakers’ list is why critics are accusing the NBA of swimming in highly partisan waters a point many would consequently consider justifiable.

It stands to reason that even without openly voicing their concerns, the Presidency and the APC national leadership are bound to perceive the 60th AGC more as a forum for their political adversaries and competitors to engage in their favourite pastime of bashing Buhari and the ruling party.