The
Nigerian Bar Association, in an audacious move and a very classic naming and
shaming act, has withdrawn its invitation to Kaduna State Governor, Nasir
el-Rufai, to speak at its conference following protests from some
lawyers.
The tweet on Thursday
announcing the decision read, “The
National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association at its ongoing
meeting resolves that the invitation to the Kaduna State Governor, H.E. Nasir
El-Rufai, by the 2020 Annual General Conference Planning committee be withdrawn
and decision communicated to the Governor.”
 |
| *Gov El Rufai and President Buhari |
A petition to stop the
governor started by a lawyer, Usani Odum, had garnered over 3,150 signatures on
Change. Org as of 4 pm on Thursday.
In a
separate letter titled, ‘Request to Withdraw the Offer of Platform
at the 2020 Annual General Conference of the NBA to Mallam Nasir el-Rufai,’
addressed to the Chairman, Technical Committee on Conference Planning, NBA,
Prof. Koyinsola Ajayi(SAN), some lawyers said the governor must not be allowed
to speak at the conference.
The letter, which was
signed by Silas Onu and Auta Nyada, listed 10 allegations against El-Rufai and
his son, Bello, who is a Special Adviser to Kaduna Central lawmaker, Senator
Uba Sani.
They
faulted the NBA for inviting El-Rufai, citing his alleged poor human rights
record and his inability to stop the killings, particularly in southern
Kaduna.
The lawyers listed his
sins to include serial violations of human rights and reckless talks like his
threat against members of the international community that they would return
home in body bags if they intervened in the 2019 elections.
The NBA has continued
what I advocated that Nigerians to continue to do when the late Kashamu peers
wanted to shut former President Olusegun Obasanjo up for grafting the proper
epithet for the late serial fraud. Boko Haram can invite El-Rufai for their
session but let no decedent Nigerians give him their platforms.
El-Rufai
was one of the fresh blood President Obasanjo injected into governance in his
time. He showed some zeal in restoring Abuja master plan but his activities
were trailed with extreme wickedness.
I met him on the net in
2010 when former President Yar’adua fell ill and the cabal around him started
monkey business with Nigerians. We started a pressure group of 12 Nigerians
which blossomed to 54.
The online movement
latter became a real organisation at a meeting called by Pastor Tunde Bakare. The
Save Nigeria Group engaged the cabal until the National Assembly used
the doctrine of necessity to enthrone Dr Goodluck Jonathan as President
..
I saw how efficient
El-Rufai could be while working with him online.There was no airspace he could
not enter to get information. The day they were bringing Yar’adua to Nigeria,
he was downloading every move of the plane to me.
But it
was in that process that I saw how widely ambitious he could be. I cannot
forget the day Jonathan was made President and he came to Pastor Bakare’s room
at Transcorp. He wanted a list forwarded to the President of about 3 names from
which he could pick a vice-President. His name was on the list with highest
points.
I forgot I had seen him
twice in UAE before. The first time was when I attended his 50th birthday. The
second was when he solicited a meeting of SNG leadership through me. Pastor
Bakare was reluctant at attending but succumbed to pressure from Mr Jimi Agbaje
who was the first to become the first adversary of El-Rufai and his partner,
Jimi Lawal. I saw they were not for any great good at the UAE meeting!
Thereafter came the
2011 elections during which Major General Muhammadu Buhari picked Pastor Bakare
as his running’ mate and me as his spokesman. El-Rufai was by the sides of
Pastor but throwing bomb at Buhari as “corrupt and unelectable”.
By
2015 he turned around a Buhari supporter and had abandoned his 2011 pipedream
of running for President on Labour Party opportunistically using the SNG as a
launchpad. He became one of the members of the CPC merger committee for CPC
towards the APC, I was named a member without anybody discussing with me. I
took a trip to Abuja to explain to other members that I was done with the CPC
experiment and I was not going to participate in APC. I met EL-Rufai and
Hadilza Bala-Usman at 3G office and returned to Lagos.
Some weeks after this
encounter, I met EL-Rufai at Abuja Airport as we were both traveling to London
on British Airways, I saw him and Dr Kayode Fayemi at the lounge and greeted
them but EL-Rufai did not answer.
As God would always
show his sense of humor, we were assigned next seats to each other and we
didn’t exchange a word till we got to London. I was not surprised a year after
that he started giving testimony as a Governor about how he started befriending
killers and paying them compensations:
He said: “For Southern Kaduna, we didn’t understand
what was going on and we decided to set up a committee under Gen. Martin Luther
Agwai (rtd) to find out what was going on there. What was established was that
the root of the problem has a history starting from the 2011 post election
violence.
“Fulani herdsmen from across
Africa bring their cattle down towards Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria. The
moment the rains starts around March, April, they start moving them up to go
back to their various communities and countries.
“Unfortunately, it was when they
were moving up with their cattle across Southern Kaduna that the elections of
2011 took place and the crisis trapped some of them.
“Some of them were from Niger,
Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal. Fulanis are in 14 African countries and they
traverse this country with the cattle. “So many of these people were killed,
cattle lost and they organised themselves and came back to revenge.
“So a lot of what was happening in
Southern Kaduna was actually from outside Nigeria. We got a hint that the late
Governor Patrick Yakowa got this information and he sent someone to go round
some of these Fulani communities, but, of course, after he died, the whole
thing stopped.
That is what we inherited. But the Agwai committee
established that
“We took certain steps. We got a
group of people that were going round trying to trace some of these people in
Cameroon, Niger republic and so on to tell them that there is a new governor
who is Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensations for lives lost
and he is begging them to stop killing.
“In most of the communities, once that appeal
was made to them, they said they have forgiven. There are one or two that asked
for monetary compensation. They said they have forgiven the death of human
beings, but want compensation for cattle. We said no problem, and we paid some.
As recently as two weeks ago, the team went to Niger republic to attend one
Fulani gathering that they hold every year with a message from me.”
This was the same
fellow I went to Dubai to celebrate his 50th birthday ?
I was in Southern
Kaduna two weeks ago and my eyes were tearful as the President of SOKAPU, Hon
Jonathan Asake, briefed us fully on all imaginable evils under the sun that
El-Rufai had done in Southern Kaduna. The naming and shaming by the lawyers is
just a tip of the iceberg; a date with International Criminal Court should be
the greatest reward. Striking this fellow off the list of possible leaders of
Nigeria ever is a fair deal.
*Mr Odumakin, the Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, is a
commentator on public issues
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