NBA National Executive Committee Withdraws Invitation to Nasir el-Rufai
The Nigerian Bar Association National Executive Committee, at its ongoing meeting, has resolved that the invitation to the Governor of Kaduna State, H.E. Nasir El-Rufai by the 2020 Annual General Conference Planning committee be withdrawn and the decision communicated to the Governor.
The decision by the NBA National Executive is coming after a petition seeking for the removal of the Kaduna State governor as a speaker in the NBA Annual General Conference was signed by over 500 people within an hour of it’s initiation.
Aside that, some lawyers also called on the leadership of the NBA to remove el-Rufai from the list of speakers due to his leadership failure in the wake of the killings in Southern Kaduna as well as his human rights record.
A summary of the petition, which was started by Usani Odum on change.org., reads:
“The senseless killings in southern Kaduna must stop. The political correctness of Governor El-Rufai on national TV is diversionary. It is a reversal to have him speak to lawyers on security, when Governor (Babagana) Zulum of Borno a better person can do so.
“We may not be able to do anything to stop the killings, but we can stop the governor from speaking at the NBA-AGC to show our disapproval of the manner he has handled the situation!!”
A number of lawyers have also stated publicly that they will not attend the NBA conference if the leadership of the bar insists on el-Rufai.
In a letter, titled, ‘Request to Withdraw the Offer of Platform at the 2020 Annual General Conference of the NBA to Mallam Nasir el-Rufai’, and addressed to the Chairman, Technical Committee on Conference Planning, NBA, Prof Koyinsola Ajayi, some lawyers said the governor must not be allowed to speak at the conference.
The letter was signed by Silas Onu and Auta Nyada and listed 10 allegations against el-Rufai and his son, Bello, cuurently a Special Adviser to Kaduna Central lawmaker, Senator Uba Sani.
The lawyers recalled a statement credited to el-Rufai during the run-up to the 2019 general elections. Then, the governor threatened that any foreigner who interfered in the elections would leave Nigeria in “body bags.”
