Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has criticised the decision by the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) to withdraw its earlier invitation to Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai due to opposition by its members but later extending invitation to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Rivers State Governor Nyesome Wike.

Recall that the NBA on Thursday withdrew its invitation to El-Rufai as one of the conference speakers at its 2020 Virtual Annual General Conference (AGC) which is scheduled for 26th to 29th August 2020.

In a statement signed by its Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, and made available to INDEPENDENT, MURIC described the decision to drop the Kaduna State Governor from the list of conference speakers as “high level prejudice” and “parochial, myopic and jejune”.

The full statement read: “NBA yesterday dropped Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State from the list of speakers at its Virtual AGC which is billed to start on 26th August 2020. It is high level prejudice. The 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. The 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.

“How justifiable is the NBA’s decision to exclude Governor El-Rufai from the virtual conference when people like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of Odi and Zaki Biam fame and Governor Nyesom Wike are among the speakers?

“Who bulldozed the hotels of innocent people despite court orders? Who visited unspeakable violence on political opponents?

“Should NBA hobnob with people linked to genocide and undemocratic practices? So why demonise El-Rufai where killers of innocent people and enemies of democracy are idolised?

“MURIC calls on all lawyers from the North to boycott NBA’s AGC in protest against this open declaration of war on Northern Kaduna. Every little action of injustice must spark a reaction if tyranny is to be stopped in the world.