The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has asked lawyers from the North to boycott this year’s Nigerian Bar Association Annual General Conference following the removal of the Kaduna State Governor from the list of Speakers at the event.
MURIC stated its position in a statement by its Founder and Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, on Friday.
It described the NBA’s action as parochial, myopic and jejune.
Ii said, “NBA yesterday dropped Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State from the list speakers at its Virtual AGC, which is billed to start on 26th August, 2020. It is high level prejudice.
“NBA as a group of learned literati should know better. It is parochial, myopic and jejune.
“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. By dropping El-Rufai, NBA has declared war on the other side in the Southern Kaduna crisis. By so doing, it lost a golden chance to be part of the solution to the conflict. NBA has elected to be part of the problem.
“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.”
Recall that El-Rufai had said he is not angered following the withdrawal of invitation to speak at the annual general meeting of the NBA.
El-Rufai said, “He is the governor that made permanent military and police bases a reality in southern Kaduna, after close to 40 years of waiting. He is the governor that set up a Peace Commission to nudge communities to embrace their responsibility to live in peace and harmony.
“He has done this with equality of concern for all residents, not just those with access to the media and who are able to mobilise sentiment even when they are part of the problem. His investments in building a constituency for peace, anchored on the rule of law, respect for the citizenship rights of everyone and an embrace of the obligations of common humanity will continue.”
