By Patrick Obia
The Managing Editor of CrossRiverWatch, Comrade Jeremiah Archibong, has taken his position on most trending issues in the continent of Africa and Nigeria saying, the recent coup d’etat in Mali should have been the last resort and, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) should have given Governor El Rufai of Kaduna State a fair hearing before delisting his name among their speakers.
He made his opinion known as an analyst on FAD 93.1 FM radio program “The Hard Lines” where he said the recent dethronement of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta of Mali by the military aught not to happen in a democratic dispensation.
He urged them to quickly facilitate a transitional process into another democracy adding that, “It is not worthy for the military to step out of the barracks and do what they are doing.
“Even if the democratic President is not living up to expectation, the worst that can happen is for the military to leave the barracks, no matter how bad the democracy was. It is not worthy for the military to step out of the barracks and in the name of coup. If perhaps they see the need to plot the coup, what they should do is quickly ensure or facilitate a transition process into another democracy; that is what we are watching out to see.”
On the junta’s spokesman, Col. Ismaël Wagué who said they are going to set in place a transitional council, with a transitional President who is going to be either military or civilian, Comrade Jeremiah expressed fear that, “It baffles me because, each time the military comes up and plot a coup, you hear the same statement and how far do they live to keep up to their words? That is a problem. If you are saying the reason is because there is high level of corruption, insurgency and other issues.
“I expect that even if at the tail end its to plot a coup, then, they should quickly start the democratic process because we have known that all the country that plotted coup left-right centre, they have not left a good remark. What the military should do is to look for another means of sorting out these issues instead of coming to plot a coup that at the end of the day, will lead to destruction of infrastructure, economy and at the same time take them back to where they are coming from.
“Coup should be the last resort and the military need to go back to the drawing board; this is old school, they should come out with another means, create a proper dialogue; they can think outside the box not to start parading themselves and killing people. Doing that to me as a person, it’s wrong.”
On the sagal of Malam Nasir-El-Rufai who had been listed among speakers to take part in a panel discussion in the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, forthcoming conference, slated for August 26-29, 2020 but was suddenly removed because of a petition by lawyers, this, the Managing Editor opined that, the NBA should have handed him a fair hearing rather than bowing to pressure perceived to be fueled by opposition.
He based thus, if delisting El-Rufai was base on human rights violation, Rivers State Governor, Nysome Wike whose name is on the list shouldn’t have been because, both of them have all violated human rights adding that, the decision was taken too quick and has some iota of political motivation.
“Is he the only Governor who have issues who is on that platform? If you ask me, they did not give the man the opportunity to defend himself to be frank. If you are talking of due process and all of it I expect the NBA committee should know that, they should have at least, place a call to this man and say, what do you have to say about these allegations against you. But again, even if they didn’t do that and they wanted to say let’s punish him or let’s delist him, they should have done that along side Nysome Wike because, these issues are also in Rivers State; you can’t have these issues in Rivers and you delist the man in Kaduna, to me that is not objective; it is not balanced, it is not fair.
“I’m not saying El-Rufai does not have issues, he may have issues but follow due process in giving him the right to explain. No body want to be wrongly accused. The decision was taken too quick. perhaps who knows, it may be politically motivated.” He said
Mr El-Rufai had in a statement on Thursday accused the Nigerian Bar Association of embracing a “one-sided narrative” after the lawyers’ body bowed to pressure and withdrew his participation from next week’s NBA annual general conference.
He said, he had accepted the invitation to participate in the conference as part of his commitment to having a national conversation and the evolution of a national consensus.