NBA should not have disinvited El-Rufai —Sanusi

The ex-Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido, said on Sunday the forthcoming annual general conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) would have been a creditable platform for the association to grill Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, on the current situation in his state.

Sanusi, who is on a one-week visit to Kaduna State, was reacting to the NBA’s withdrawal of the governor’s invitation to the conference.

The association had on Thursday withdrew the invitation extended to El-Rufai after some lawyers threatened to boycott the workshop over Kaduna State government’s poor handling of violence in southern part of the state.

In his address at the Government House in Kaduna, the deposed Emir cautioned the NBA not to allow the controversy to take religious or ethnic dimension.

He said El-Rufai is a nationalist and not an ethnic jingoist or religious bigot.

Sanusi said: ‎I’m aware that the vast majority of NBA members do not agree with those things.

“You know if you have an opinion, people will either agree with you or disagree with you but a man ‎who has an opinion that can be agreed with or disagreed with is always better than a man who has no opinion at all.

“Nasir always has opinions. He knows what his positions are on things. He says that position very clearly. People will like it, some people will not like it and that is what some people call controversial and being controversial is actually having an opinion.

‎”To be honest I do not want to join issues because we have already heard the views of Nigerians and the response.

“Everybody has a right to a fair hearing, and most importantly for me, if you feel that the Governor of Kaduna State is not doing right you should invite him to your covers and ask him to explain what he is doing.

“Tell him what you think is doing wrong and you will learn something from him and he will learn something from you.

“‎That is the best way to handle issues like this. But again, I have seen the response from different branches of NBA and I hope this matter will not be turned to ethnicity and religious matter. It should be a matter of principle.”