|
Recently, the community of social
rights activists gathered in Lagos to mark the 70th birthday of a
man who has been silent of late on account of ill - health but who will,
nevertheless, go down in the history of this beleaguered nation as an
unwavering defender of truth and justice, an irrepressible gadfly that pricked
the conscience of successive regimes, a trenchant voice of the voiceless, and a
courageous man that repeatedly placed his life on the line in an unending
battle for the public good. In the last four decades, Chief Abdul-Ganiyu
Oyesola Fawehinmi (SAN) popularly known as Gani has represented many things to
many people nationwide: lawyer, social critic and human rights activist,
prolific writer and publisher, philanthropist and politician.
Born April 22, 1938, Gani son of Chief
Saheed Tugbobo Fawehinmi, a timber merchant, muslim leader and philanthropist
of Ondo Town
in Ondo State
attended Ansar-Ud-Deen
Primary School, Iyemaja -
Ondo and Victory College Ikare, where he took the West African School
Certificate Examination in 1958. As a student, Gani took delight in current
affairs. He liked to read newspapers especially the Daily Times and the West
African Pilot which were the popular tabloids of the time and he was noted
for his passionate views on matters of national, legal and political interest
which earned him the nickname “Nation”. After working briefly as a clerk in the
High Court in Lagos between 1959 and 1961, he
proceeded to London where he enrolled as a law
student at the Holborn College of Law for the LL.B degree of the University
of London. Despite the
loss of his father in his sophomore year and having to carry out a range of odd
jobs to fend for himself, Gani graduated and returned to Nigeria to attend the
Nigerian Law School and was called to the bar in January 1965.
As a lawyer, Gani is the quintessential L’enfant
terrible: his legal practice has led to numerous rulings regarded as locus
classicus in the Nigerian legal system. He uses the courts to challenge bad
laws, bad government and abuse of power under both military and civilian
regimes. In a career life that has been characterized by career and life
threatening legal acrobatics, Gani has remained consistent and uncompromising.
He transforms the courtroom into a stage, courts the press and excites public
interest with ample theatricals that, his critics claim, often border on exhibitionism. But he
never looses sight of the goal: and his goal is usually to defend or to assert
the rights of an individual or the rights of the people. Gani has been involved
in or handled some of the most controversial and, sometimes, the most dangerous
cases in Nigeria.
Top on the list of such cases are the Dele Giwa case, the Ken Saro Wiwa case,
his cases against the Disciplinary Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association,
Chief FRA Williams, Maryam Abacha and her Family Support Programme, etc.
Gani’s social criticism and unrelenting
human rights activism, and his eyeball-to-eyeball confrontations with political
power especially the infamous variety known as military rule are legendary. If
there is any man alive in Nigeria
today that can be said to have fought suicidal battles on the side of justice
and good governance like a one–man riot squad, that man is Gani Fawehinmi. For
his courage, his battles against injustice and his rallies against anti–people
policies, Gani has been hounded, harassed, arrested, detained, tortured and
arraigned in court several times between 1969 and 1996. His office and home
have been besieged, attacked, and ransacked many times. Through these travails
the legal combatant remained undaunted and fiery as ever. Even on the sick bed
to which he has been confined in London,
Gani manages to place his position on issues of public interest in the public
domain.
As a prolific
writer and publisher, Gani’s publications including the hugely popular Nigerian
Weekly Law Reports and allied compilations serve as invaluable tools for generations of lawyers.
Some of the books authored by him are popular handbooks for students,
researchers, journalists, historians and jurists. Among these are Nigerian Law
of Habeas Corpus, Law of Contempt in Nigeria, Murder of Dele Giwa: the Right of
a Private Prosecutor, June 12 Crisis-the Illegality of Shonekan’s Government, Peoples
Right to Free Education, The Bench and the Bar in Nigeria, Court System in
Nigeria - A Guide, Petrol Price Increases In Nigeria: The Truth You Must Know,
Obasanjo: The Absentee President of Nigeria, among others. Gani’s books portray
him as a man with a passion for chronology and details. In a country where data
collection and record keeping are treated with levity, Gani represents rigour,
thoroughness and mental acuity.
As a philanthropist, he freely defends and
empowers indigent persons and the downtrodden; and as a politician, his principled stance and focus on issues through his National Conscience Party (NCP) has demonstrated that conscientious politics that places the interest of the people above
pecuniary interests is possible in Nigeria.
Gani has suffered persecution and
prosecution for the emergence of a better society in which equal rights,
justice and the rule of law reign. He has fought the cause of the common man
with uncommon dedication without counting cost or return, and without loosing
his integrity. Although he is yet to receive a national honour in Nigeria,
his positive contributions to society have earned him the Bruno Kreisky Prize
(1993) - a recognition for international figures who advance the cause of human
rights. He has also won the Bernard Simon’s Award of the International Bar
Association (1996). In 2001 he won the Ondo State merit award and the Senior
Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) was bestowed on him rather belatedly by the Body of
Benchers - thirteen years after students of the University of Ife (now Obafemi
Awolowo University) had in youthful expression of public angst over the
continued omission of Gani’s name in the list of SANs defiantly decorated him
as Senior Advocate of the Masses (SAM). Over the years, Gani has been
named “Man of the Year” at one time or the other by practically every newspaper
or newsmagazine of note in Nigeria.
Enigma, rebel, maverick,
radical, eccentric, or nonconformist, it is not easy to find any one adjective
that sufficiently describes Gani. But one thing is certain: Gani Fawehinmi who
clocked three scores and ten on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 is a man of uncommon
courage.
uchebush@yahoo.com; 0805
1090 050
|
Posted by Robot| 22.09.2008 09:06