By our reporter| The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on Friday said it did not cancel the invitation of governor Nasir El-Rufai to speak in one of the panel sessions at the forthcoming conference of its members for ethnic or religious reasons.
NBA President, Paul Usoro, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), who stated this while reacting to the controversy triggered by the decision to disinvite the Kaduna State governor, explained the rationale behind the decision of the National Executive Council of the association in a statement.
According to him, the disinvitation of the governor from the event had no ethnic or religious coloration or connotation as being claimed.
Usoro revealed that some of those who spoke against the governor’s attendance share the same faith with him while others came from the northern part of the country.
NBA NEC, he said, is not passing any judgment on Governor El-Rufai by its decision and is not in a position to pass such judgments without having all the facts and hearing from all the sides.
The NBA chairman state that the NEC did not discuss the substance of the issues that have been raised against the governor by the different groups and persons who clamored for his being disinvited, although there was “very considerable clamour” in that regard.
Usoro said, “I have received several messages from our members that have attributed ethnic and religious considerations to the decision. That is not correct and is very far from the truth. Neither the NBA nor NEC belong to any religious or ethnic group. We are lawyers and professionals dedicated to the ideals and the promotion and preservation of the Rule of Law and we belong to one indivisible family of the NBA.”
“As I point out in my letter, neither the NBA nor NEC set out to sit in judgment against Mallam el-Rufai and even from that prism, the principle of fair hearing does not apply.”
The NBA president further stated that none of the persons or parties who are opposed to the invitation of Mr El-Rufai to the conference has been offered the platform to advocate or propagate their viewpoints and positions and so the principle of not hearing the other side does not arise.
“We are one united Nigerian Bar Association with no religious or ethnic bias or predisposition and shall ever so remain,” he said.
He insisted that the claims that the NEC decision was based on religion and ethnicity were not correct, stressing that they were far from the truth.
This year’s NBA Annual General Conference, which is the 60th, has been scheduled to take place between August 26 to 29.
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