Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State must have learnt some lessons from the events of the past few days. He is often indifferent to whatever anybody feels about him or his actions. But he must have felt humiliated and wounded at the withdrawal of his invitation to speak at this year’s Nigerian Bar Association’s annual national conference.

Lawyers who are against him say he does not respect the rule of law and he engages in human rights abuses. Some cite the seeming unending crisis in Southern Kaduna, where human life has become meaningless. There, criminal elements kill, destroy and burn properties with impunity. Nobody is spared – children, men, women, and other vulnerable members of the society. The recent attack in Gonan Rogo community in Kajuru Local Council of Southern Kaduna, for instance, claimed the lives of 11 children of a 93-year-old visually-impaired woman, Mrs. Azumi Boka. Many people have lost their lives to the senseless killings, which have festered for years.

Fulani herdsmen and the natives have traded and continued to trade blame over the crisis. The natives accuse the Fulani of being the aggressors. They also allege that both the federal and state governments are in tacit support of the herdsmen to exterminate the people of Southern Kaduna and take over their ancestral land. They wonder why both President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor el-Rufai have not bothered to visit any of the affected communities to sympathise with the victims. The Fulani herdsmen, through their umbrella body, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), claim they only carry out reprisals in self-defence.

Amid these attacks and counter-attacks, the perception is that the security agencies and government have not shown enough sincerity of purpose in the efforts to tackle the problem. The killings have continued despite the curfew imposed on Southern Kaduna and in spite of the presence of security men, some of whom have been accused of taking sides in the whole crisis.

Nevertheless, what I am yet to understand is how the action of the NBA, which was partly prompted by the protests against el-Rufai’s handling of the matter, wore a religious garb. Some Muslim groups started hauling stones at the NBA for cancelling the invitation to el-Rufai. Muslim lawyers in Kaduna and a few other northern states withdrew from the conference.  They wondered why the NBA disinvited el-Rufai but failed to do so in the case of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State who was accused of saying sometime ago that Rivers was a Christian state. They said killings were also going on in Zamfara, Katsina, Niger and the North-East but NBA kept silent only to bark at similar killings in Kaduna. They considered the NBA’s action as parochial, sentimental and tainted with ethno-religious considerations.

To further register their protest, some of these lawyers, who are of northern extraction, formed a splinter group, which they called New Nigerian Bar Association (NNBA). The conveners of the new group, Nuhu Ibrahim and Abdulbasit Suleiman, said the NBA failed to uphold the fundamental principle of fair hearing on the allegations against el-Rufai “as were contained in a petition by Chidi Odinkalu, a long-time foe of His Excellency and a lawyer of eastern extraction, but the NBA failed to extend the same treatment to southern invitees who were also petitioned and are also alleged to have committed similar or more human rights abuses than those alleged against Mallam el-Rufai.”

I am surprised at the argument of these ‘learned gentlemen’. For one, the NBA does not need to invite el-Rufai to hear from him before taking a decision on protests by its members. It is not a court of law. It is an association that reserves the right to invite anybody or not, based on its principles and wishes of the majority of its members.

Besides, the killings in Zamfara, Niger and the North-East, which the NBA splinter group alluded to, have more to do with banditry and terrorism than ethnic pogrom going on in Southern Kaduna. It is also a fallacy to insist that Governor Wike should be given the el-Rufai treatment.

The questions are: What has religion got to do with this? Is the Southern Kaduna war between Christians and Muslims or between the Fulani herdsmen and the natives? Do el-Rufai’s defenders sincerely feel that he has done well in handling the crisis or was their defence of him because he was a Muslim? Was he the first person to have been so disinvited?

The same NBA had once disinvited the former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Maurice Iwu, as a guest at an NBA conference in protest over what it considered the poor handling of elections during Iwu’s tenure. I did not hear that Christian lawyers or groups protested against that decision.

And just last week, the Wisconsin Lutheran College Board of Regents and the College’s Administration withdrew an invitation earlier extended to the Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence, to deliver a commencement address to the graduates of Wisconsin Lutheran College. This was after the careful consideration of the escalating events in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where a white police officer shot Jacob Blake seven times. Another speaker, Rev. Mark Jeske, replaced Pence at the event, which took place last Saturday, August 29, 2020.

Religion is a big problem in Nigeria. Politicians and some other questionable characters manipulate it to achieve their desired selfish goals. Political Sharia was introduced in Zamfara during the presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. The then President tactically dodged the potential crisis. Today, some of those who introduced the Islamic law then don’t live true to its tenets. Every year, we waste scarce resources in the name of sponsoring pilgrimages to Mecca and Jerusalem. We stone the devil in some of those pilgrimages but in reality, we are worst than the so-called devil.

Imagine the Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, saying he would quickly sign the death warrant of the musician who was sentenced to death by the Sharia Council in Kano for blasphemy. If any governor is most unqualified to cast the first stone, it is Ganduje. But in this part of the world, hypocrisy goes on errand for us most of the time. It is pathetic.

Meanwhile, members of the splinter NBA group don’t need to cry more than the bereaved. El-Rufai doesn’t need any proxy war because he is capable of fighting his battles. They should join hands with all men of goodwill and good conscience to persuade the federal and Kaduna state governments to sort out the mess in Kaduna without favour or bias and without further delay. The government must be seen to be above board and must ensure that those perpetrating the evil in Southern Kaduna are arrested, prosecuted and adequately punished. They should bear in mind that peace eludes any society where there is no justice.

 

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Re: As zoning rumble continues in Anambra

Nigeria’s political space is largely ruled by the force of religion, tribalism, zoning, our-turn syndrome, godfatherism etc. Issue-based politics, exposure of contestants to the crossfire of debate and rigorous examination as practised in advanced democracies are still novel to us. Ours is a longwinded process that equitably demands that the aforementioned ‘’necessary evils’’ be sustained for a reasonable period of time. But I fervently pray for that day when one puts up oneself for an elective post, and one gets elected solely on who one is and what ideas one projects irrespective of one’s minority, ethnic and religious background. For now, I totally align myself with Mrs Uche Ekwunife’s aspiration and submission that for Anambra the ‘’authentic zoning is man to woman’’. Uche Ekwunife’s name has since assumed the level of a recurring decimal in Anambra politics with Anambra South and Central as her anchor points. The men have ‘privatised’ the Anambra governorship seat for too long: it’s time for them to collapse their structures for this remarkable woman to make history

– Edet Essien Esq. Cal. South, CRS, +2348037952470

Dear Casmir, in a social club where Esusu contribution and welfare projects are practiced, the union finally breaks up if pattern is changed before the benefits go round. Nigeria is at the verge of break up if presidency eludes the east in 2023.

– Cletus Frenchman, Enugu, +234 909 538 5215

 

Casmir, the beauty of democracy is freedom of participation. Over the years, experience has shown how covetous mankind is especially in developing nations where getting to power has proved to be the quickest way to get rich. A lot of wastes in resources and lives are recorded within such period. To curtail such wastes, the zoning theory affords the best option for us. Luckily, Anambra State is blessed with competent candidates in each zone. The political parties should field candidates from South to contest for them. Since one governor will emerge, let those that are not lucky invest their wealth in other areas that will benefit the state in particular and humanity in general.

– Pharm. Okwuchukwu Njike, +234 803 885 4922

 

Anambra electorate should go for the best candidate that will deliver good governance to them wherever the candidate comes from. Sometimes, zoning formula fails to produce good leaders that will rule well. The most important thing is good governance.

– Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, +2348062887535

 

Casmir, in an ideal/utopian world, competence rather than zoning is the parameter that influences the emergence of political leaders. But, we know in reality, Nigeria has not experienced the ideal for a long period of time. Due to June 12 crises, zoning though unwritten in APC’s constitution – but a gentleman agreement – became a child of necessity in resolving where the pendulum of power swings to at the centre. When and wherever there is a perceived feeling of injustice, occasioned by a group in a society having an air of superiority and a dominant attitude of lording it over others, whether in a homogeneous or heterogeneous society, zoning then becomes inevitable. Let all the six regions in Nigeria have a bite of the cherry. Thereafter, we can go back to non-zoning/merit principle.

– Mike, Mushin, +2348161114572