The leadership of the Muslim Lawyers Association of Nigeria (MULAN) in Kaduna has directed its members to Annual General Conference (AGC) of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) following the withdrawal of Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s invitation by the NBA.
Governor El-Rufai was one of the speakers billed to speak at the 60th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association.
But the National Executive Council of the NBA withdrew the governor’s invitation after a group of lawyers protested against the governor’s presence at the conference.
The lawyers had argued that inviting El-Rufai to speak at the event is a ‘reward for misrule,’ adding that the governor does not represent what the NBA stands for.
However, the decision to remove the governor from the list of speakers that consists the ex-president, Olusegun Obasanjo and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has continued to spark controversies as other groups of lawyers want other speakers to be kicked out as well.
Some other groups have also threatened to boycott the association if the NBA refuses to rescind its decision on El-Rufai.
MULAN is one of the groups that have expressed their displeasure with the withdrawal of El-Rufai’s invitation.
While addressing a press conference on Saturday, August 22, 2020, MULAN executive in Kaduna urged Muslim lawyers across the country to boycott the conference.
The group said the NBA NEC decision on El-Rufai was parochial, sentimental, disuniting and tainted with favouritism and ethnoreligious considerations.
Reading MULAN’s position to journalists, the vice-chairman of the group, Abbas Ma’sanawa said they were disappointed at the unfortunate dis-invitation of the governor.
He said, “The MULAN Kaduna Branch has watched with dismay how the NBA has kept mute in the face of genocide going on in the North East, Banditry and Kidnappings in Katsina, Zamfara, Niger, and the Kebbi States, and Giwa and Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State with the NBA giving surreptitious ethnic cover to Southern Kaduna as if lives matter more in some parts of the country over the others.
“MULAN Kaduna makes bold to say that lives lost in Batsari, Katsina State far outnumbers that of 8 local governments of Southern Kaduna put together. This isn’t to say MULAN Kaduna justifies losses of lives anywhere and in any guise. MULAN Kaduna wonders where was the posturing of NBA at the many lives lost in Borno State?
Citing instances in which Governor Wike allegedly violated the Nigerian Constitution, MULAN argued that the governor does not merit the NBA invitation.
“Without mincing words, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 precisely, Section 10 states in clear terms that “the Government of Federation or of any state shall not adopt any religion as a State Religion”. We are witnesses to how Governor Nyesom Wike demolished a Mosque and came out openly to say, ‘I repeat once again without apologies, Rivers is a Christian State. That is why nobody can touch us”.
“We believe that NBA NEC deemed these utterances glorious hence the lofty invitation to Nyesom Wike to use cur hallowed platform to propagate his governance inklings and dis-invitation of Governor El-Rufai. MULAN Kaduna Branch believes what is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander, MULAN said.
Meanwhile, a group of lawyers under the aegis of the Radical Agenda Movement in the Nigerian Bar Association (RAMINBA) have called on the NBA to remove Obasanjo and Wike as speakers from the upcoming conference.
The lawyers argued that both Obasanjo and Wike have acted against the rule of law.
