Former Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi, has faulted the dis-invitation of the Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, to the forthcoming conference of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA).
Governor El-Rufais invitation to speak as one of the guest speakers at the 2020 conference of the NBA was withdrawn by the body of lawyers late last week.
Sanusi spoke during a visit to the Kaduna State Governor at his office in the Government House on Sunday.
According to the former monarch, it is wrong to withdraw the invitation to the without given the Governor a fair hearing to defend himself.
Sanusi said rather than withdraw el-Rufais invitation, the lawyers should have rubbed minds with him to identify areas that need to be addressed for the purpose of governance.
If you feel that the Governor of Kaduna State is not doing well, you should invite him to your conference and ask him, and let him explain himself on what hes doing and tell him what you think hes doing wrong. You will learn something from him and hell learn something from you, he said.
If you disagree with someone, having him in your hall and telling him your view is the best and he can defend himself. And if there are things he needs to improve, hell take them on board and if there are things you dont know of, youll be better informed. I think NBA has lost an opportunity to interrogate the governor and collectively rub minds to identify areas that need to be addressed for the purpose of governance.
He urged parties involved in the matter to handle it properly to prevent it from generating ethnic or religious concerns.
Thats the best way, I think to handle matters like this but then again, Ive seen the response from different part of the NBA, I hope this isnt turned into an ethnic and religious matter; it should be a matter of principle and I really think its their loss, if he was there, he will add value to them, he said.
I am 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 position is 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.
If you dont want to be controversial, you just be flexible, just flow with the wind and nobody knows where you stand. Then you will not have any friends or enemies, as the case may be.
Furthermore, Sanusi prayed for peace to return to the troubled region in Kaduna and other parts of the country where there were security challenges.
He also commended his long term friend, El-Rufai for the way he has managed the affairs of Kaduna.
