The Governor of Kaduna State, Mr Nasir El-Rufai was expected to be one of the guest speakers at the 60th annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) that ended at the weekend. Rufai is not in any way shy of controversy. He either courts controversy or controversy corners him. At this moment when his state, or part of it, is in turmoil he has been in the eye of a tornado. When the NBA invited him as one of its guest speakers many people, lawyers and non-lawyers alike, thought that the opportunity had come for them to hear from the Governor who, customarily, speaks with harsh candour. We expected to feel the sting and hear the clash of battle between the NBA and its invited guest speaker. But that didn’t happen because a lawyer, Mr. Usani Odum had started a mild protest that grew into a revolt.
His petition against the invitation of Rufai got the endorsement of about 3000 lawyers. The request to disinvite Rufai was addressed to the Chairman of the NBA Technical Committee on Conference Planning, Professor Koyinsola Ajayi. The lawyers listed 10 allegations against Rufai and his son, Bello, who is a Special Adviser to the Kaduna Central Senatorial district, Senator Uba Sani. The complainant-lawyers said that Kaduna State had a “record of 483 persons killed between January and June 2000 which is higher than the reported deaths in the Boko Haram territories of Borno which is 290, Adamawa 37 and Yobe 35.
As I recall, there were no more than three advocates for retaining the invitation of the NBA to the Governor (not including me) and two of these three gentlemen are from the South of Nigeria. Conversely, some of those who spoke against his attendance share the same faith with Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and some others come from the northern part of Nigeria.” It is clear that the NBA was on the horns of a dilemma. Three thousand of its members wanted the invited guest stopped. If it did not act as they wished these people would have revolted. Then the NBA acted as the 3000 wished and others have revolted.
Eventhough people thought it was inappropriate to invite Buhari to come and lecture the NBA on the rule of law which he treated with disdain, I thought it was a wise decision to invite him for three reasons: one, it was an opportunity to hear his thoughts on the subject of rule of law and why his government finds it difficult to obey court orders. He made his views known and the NBA and the public including this columnist, also made their reservations to his position crystal clear. The second reason I think it is better to invite both saints and sinners is that by the way Nigeria is arranged in ethno-religious terms there will never be an agreement or who and who not to invite for such gatherings. There will always be disputes because one man’s saint is another man’s sinner. It is therefore better to go for inclusiveness so as to preserve the unity of the NBA.
The third reason is that the NBA, being one of the custodians of people’s rights, should be in the vanguard for the expansion rather than the contraction of the space for free speech.
That space is being rapidly constricted by a constellation of censors who want free speech punished as hate speech and who shoot law-abiding, peaceful placard carriers and pull into detention for long periods, people who say one or two unkind words about the government, federal, state or local. If an enlightened group like the NBA queues behind those censorship czars then our democracy is in serious trouble.
That selectivity amounts to hubris. The problems of Nigeria are too grave and complicated for the conversation that can lead to their resolution to be limited only to those who agree with us or who we agree with. We must expand the circumference of the conversation to include those we disagree with and those who disagree with us. Nigeria is clearly out of joint now. To solve its problems we need a big-tent approach because there is safety in numbers. The country is too deeply divided now so we do not need to do things that are capable of bringing more divisions.
Now the lawyers who are angry with the decision to bar Rufai from the NBA dialogue have formed an Association they call the New Nigerian Bar Association (NNBA). Two lawyers Mr Nuhu Ibrahim and Mr Abdulbasit Suleiman said in Kaduna a few days ago that the withdrawal of the invitation to Rufai was based on religion and ethnicity. I don’t believe the decision had anything to do with ethnicity or religion. It may have been based simply on the possible desire to please the 3000 petitioners whose views accord with the NBA’s objective of protecting the rule of law. Still it was a mistake not to let Rufai have his day at the forum so that he could be subjected to some close scrutiny. Afterall, lawyers are said to be priests in the temple of justice whose duty is to contribute to the delivery of justice through fair hearing.
If you are looking for public officers with moral authority to speak on issues where will you manufacture them from? If we had plenty of them, Nigeria would not be in the disjointed shape in which it is today. Rufai could have been queried by the lawyers on his alleged disrespect for the rule of law and it would have been right to do so. As for the insecurity in Kaduna State it is illogical to hold the Governor responsible. Security is provided in Nigeria by the Police and the Armed Forces.
The current attempt by the Federal Government to establish community policing is the equivalent of moving in circles. No centrally controlled policing arrangement can solve the multifarious security problems of this heterogeneous society. To blame Rufai for the intractable problems in Southern Kaduna is to divert attention from the President who controls the Police and the Armed Forces. Is Rufai expected to secure Kaduna with his Koran or his bare hands? Let logic prevail. No State Governor can police his state efficiently when the operational decisions are not taken by him but by someone else far away from the theatre of action.
As for those who are threatening to form a new NBA my advice is: don’t split your association. There is enormous strength in numbers. If the NBA was wrong in its decision on Rufai you do not need to dismantle your respected Association with your own wrong-doing too. Two wrongs will not make a right. Go back to the big tent of the NBA and work within it to reform the Association.
