Obasanjo Boycotts NBA Conference

By Ella Makondo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo boycotted the just concluded 60th Virtual Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association( NBA),  a source said.

Controversy had trailed the conference when thousands of lawyers signed a petition for the NBA to remove Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, from the list of speakers due to human rights concerns that were raised against him in a petition.

The National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association had   at meeting resolved  that the invitation to the Kaduna State Governor, H.E. Nasir El-Rufai by the 2020 Annual General Conference Planning committee be withdrawn .

Its decision  was therefore communicated to the governor.

But  the disinvitation of El-Rufai generated an  outrage with the Muslim Lawyers’ Association of Nigeria ( MULAN)  who asked that   Obasanjo and Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike be removed as  speakers at the conference.

“We insist that if any standard is set for withdrawing El-Rufai, the same should apply to other speakers too,” an official of the body told The Punch.

“El-Rufai is a public officer and any other person who has the same record of allegations of human rights abuses should also be disqualified. We expect that the same standard should apply to Obasanjo and Wike,” Abikan a Professor of Law at the University of Ilorin, said.

It was gathered  that while  speakers including Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and House of Representatives Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, spoke at the conference, Obasanjo did not, while Wike sent a representative.

Dr. Obasanjo’s Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi, told The PUNCH via  telephone interview on Saturday that the former military head of state did not attend or speak at the conference.

“Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was obviously not at the conference but I don’t know why he did not attend the event,” he said.

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