Different strokes for different folks
By Femi Adesina [ kulikulii@yahoo.com ]
Saturday, April 26, 2008

Two celebrations occurred within the week. And incidentally, the people at the very centres of it are from Ondo town, in Ondo State. They both turned 70 within two days of each other. Legal luminary, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) and top public relations specialist and former Minister of Information, Sir Chief Alex Akinyele.

At Gani Fawehinmi’s birthday party on Tuesday, the man was conspicuously absent. Why? He’s in a London hospital, battling lung cancer. For about a year now, the lawyer and human rights activist has spent more time in the hospital than out of it. Uniquely, however, his 70th birthday was graced not just by friends, relations and colleagues from the human rights community, but by those you can call the flotsam and jetsam of society. The blind, the lame, deaf, dumb, and generally destitute persons. It was a birthday party with a difference.

As you read this, Chief Alex Akinyele is holding a birthday thanksgiving service at the Anglican Church in Ondo. On Thursday, which was the actual day he turned 70, a book had been launched in his honour, and the Alex Akinyele Plaza was commissioned by no less a person than former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. Truly, it’s different strokes for different folks.

When you look at the paradoxes of Fawehinmi and Akinyele at 70, you know that life can be baffling, confounding, enigmatic and puzzling. Two people from exactly the same background, born two days apart into poor families, and who through a combination of grace, luck and hard work, pulled themselves up by their boot straps, to get to the very top of their professions. You cannot write the history of the legal profession in Nigeria without Gani Fawehinmi being given prodigious mention.

Neither can the story of public relations be told without Alex Akinyele being mentioned as one of the very fathers. Now, see how fate has treated them differently at 70. Right was the Abami Eda, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti when he described life as a “bitch.” This bitch of a life. It gives you something with one hand, and takes away something with the other. It gave Gani professional success and acclaim, and at the critical period, took away his lungs. Bitch, bitch, bitch. Oh, life, you can be so cruel.

Remember the football coach, Theophilus Adeyemi Tella? Last September, he led the Golden Eaglets to win the World Cup in Korea. The world was at his feet, so we thought. One month later, he was dead. Of lung cancer. I did a piece then, with the title, ‘Tella: This bitch of a life.’ Permit me to quote a portion from that October 27, 2007 column, as it fits the issue at hand:
“Tella came back home, got cash gifts, a house, and many other rewards from an appreciative nation. At that point, it seemed the world was his oyster. At only 56, he could still coach different teams for the next 20 years. From obscurity to stardom. From anonymity to global centrestage. But Bernard Shaw was right when he said, “there are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire, the other is to get it.” Tella got his heart’s desire, and he also lost it. Few days after the triumphal return, he was at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) battling a relapse of the lung cancer. Triumph and Disaster, those two impostors (Rudyard Kipling) had teamed up to deal him a deadly blow.”

Crocodile tears? Some people may accuse me of celebrating Gani after I had excoriated him in a September 29, 2007 piece entitled ‘Once upon a Gani Fawehinmi.’ Yes, I accused him of ‘too know,’ that he had made himself supreme to the Supreme Court, that he had lost the virtues, ideals that made him our hero in the past. I said his support for Nuhu Ribadu, the then boss of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) bordered on zealotry, fanaticism, obsession. Yes, I still stand by all those. But lung cancer? You dare not wish anybody that evil. Not to Gani, not to anybody. Poor life. Bitchy life. Malicious life. Is that the reward Gani deserves from you after about 40 years of suffering in many prisons so that the rights of the average Nigerian will be guaranteed and preserved?

Akinyele too. Don’t think he got his 70 on a platter of gold. He virtually got it by the whiskers, by the edge of his luxuriant moustache. He told Daily Sun in an interview that between 2005 and 2007, he underwent four surgeries in foreign hospitals. And he added what I think is food for thought: “You don’t become 70 because you eat well, or live well, or because you cared so well for your life. You reach 70 only by divine grace.” May that grace be available to us all. Say amen, somebody.

Fawehinmi and Akinyele have so many things in common. Yet, they are dis-similar in very many other ways. I remember when Stella Obasanjo died on the surgery table abroad in 2005. News filtered into the country that it was in the process of procuring an abdominoplasty, popularly called tummy tuck, so that she could look stunning during her impending 60th birthday. The rumour was everywhere, but nobody verbalized it, maybe because of deference to the dead, or fear of the emperor in power. Until Gani came with a lengthy press statement, asking President Olusegun Obasanjo to clear the air on the cause of death of his wife. Most newspapers tucked the piece inside, but Daily Sun made it a cover choice. It became a major issue. So riled was Akinyele by what he described as Fawehinmi’s indiscretion and insensitivity that he called his Ondo compatriot all sorts of names. Trust Gani, he released his own scud missiles. It became real roforofo, and their paramount ruler, the Osemawe of Ondo, had to call for a truce. I did a piece on it then. The title was, ‘Ondo boys at war.’

Fierce loyalty. That is a hallmark of both people. Gani idolizes, nay worships Nuhu Ribadu and the anti-corruption war. Don’t say any evil of Ibrahim Babangida, or you have Akinyele to contend with. Ever loyal to the man who gave Ondo town its first minister ever.
Controversy. The two Ondo ‘boys’ love it. When there is a river of contention to jump into, they never tarry at the bank. They dive in with a mighty splash. There must be something in the water they drank as babies in Ondo that makes them so bold.
And this clincher of a similarity. They are no mean men where the opposite sex is concerned. Those close to Gani says he calls them “lubricants of the revolution,” and he has at least two official wives. Well, his religion permits it. Akinyele too has had three official wives, but he now says at 70, playing days are over. May it be so.

The Ondo ‘boys’ have made their marks. We can only pray that life will treat them much more kindly in the days and years ahead. Gani Fawehinmi particularly needs a divine touch now. May he get it. Amen.

From my mail box

Longer life
I always enjoy your Saturday column, but none was so satisfying and tantalizing as ‘Inside Obasanjo’s Mind.’ You added 20 years to my life span.
Igwemma

I must confess
If I must confess, I will say you are using juju to write. If not, how can you know exactly what is going on in Baba’s mind. You must be a prophet.
C.P.N Umuachusi, Ado-Ekiti

Tragi-comedy
‘Inside Obasanjo’s Mind’ is a tragi-comedy. I said it earlier, you are a prophet, a visioner, and of course, a seer.
Ayo Moses, Ore

A wizard
Inside Obasanjo’s Mind. Are you sure you are not one of the wizards Obasanjo thought about in your column? Keep up the good work.
Ted Ojo

I wonder
Just like you, I wonder what we gain by huge reserves, when we have untrained and unfunded police. God help us.
Akin Balogun

Link me
Please link me with an old friend, Ada Acquilla Nwoke. We lost contact after Dof Catering School, Lagos.
Hilda Nze, 07027830852

Mind reader
You are a mind reader. Obasanjo thinks exactly what you wrote in ‘Inside Obasanjo’s Mind.’ Please tell him it is better to fail with honour than to succeed by fraud.
Atanang

Father of loot
Thanks for all your write-ups. Actually, the father of modern Nigeria is actually the father of loot, from all what we have seen. What a shame.
Tommy J.

No pity for Buhari
I have no pity for Buhari. How did he emerge presidential candidate of ANPP in the first place. He that goes to equity must go with clean hands.
Darlington Agomuo

For Obasanjo
Obasanjo must suffer the evils he did. When God wants to punish a nation, He gives them the likes of Obasanjo.
Engr. S. Omololu

Double amen
Double amen for your prayer against the Ribadus and Obasanjos of our country. You spoke my mind.
Harrison Hassan, Gombe

Grange on the range
I read your piece, ‘Grange on the shooting range,’ and I cannot agree more. Nigeria is indeed a strange nation where things that defy explanation happen on a daily basis.
Ikechukwu Okafor, Enugu

Still on Grange
This is indeed a strange country, where citizens go begging for medical bills while the Ministry in charge steals unspent allocations. Sad.
Christian Ayasuk, Port-Harcourt

Calling Mrs Bosah
Please link me with Mrs Bosah. I need to know how much she is enjoying your column.
Nonso, Lagos 08078616887

We will survive
The Grange saga is not a surprise because it is the routine of the PDP led government. But I promise you, the poor masses will survive whether they like it or not.
Joe, Michael Okpara University, Umudike

Rule of law
I’m an apostle of rule of law and Yar’Adua too. The court has ruled, let us abide by it. We should not applaud the judiciary only when their judgment favours us.
Kings Murphy, Abuja

Disband reforms panel
Now that we’ve been told there’s nothing wrong with Yar’Adua’s election despite his own admittance, we should save tax payer’s money and disband the electoral reforms panel.
Abiodun Sopitan

He loses more
In your piece, Yar’Adua wins and loses, you are quite right, but he loses more than he wins.
Okenwa Ugwu, Lagos

Bilikisu Sani
Kindly link me up with Bilikisu Sani. She had her higher diploma a Bida Poly and served at FGC Kano in 2002.
Idris Aliyu, Kano, 08022338471

Yar’Adua’s moral standing
The tribunal has weakened Yar’Adua’s moral standing. It may cost him the presidency if Supreme Court annuls the election.
Martin D.R.S, Nsukka

Thanks
Thanks for your write up. Nigeria is full of deceitful people who are prepared to go against the dictates of their conscience for a price. Nigeria will surely outlive them all.
Revd S.A Adetayo, St Michael’s Anglican Church, Ojo, Lagos.

On Yar’Adua wins and loses
Beloved, I have just finished reading your column on Yar’Adua wins and loses. Please keep on telling the world the truth because only the truth shall set us free.
Kpakpa, Amkpa, Kogi State

Gang-raped
It was certain that the tribunal judges gang-raped us (Nigerians) with that ruling on presidential election. But I think instead of us risking our lives, properties and wasting of resources again in the name of by-election, we should all join the eminent jurists to chorus ‘as the court pleases.’
Ugochukwu Anarado, Kano.

Link me
Please link me up with Mr Ben Umotong (PATHOLOGY DEPT UNICAL).
We did our youth service together in Bauchi State in 1979/80. He worked at Ningi Hospital while I was at GSS Ningi. Last place of work was University of Calabar in the 80's.
Michael Alade 00944--7985248418(LONDON)

Kindly link me
Kindly link me up with my bosom classmates at Ilorin College Ilorin (a.k.a ICI ) now Government Secondary School way back in the seventies (1973-1976). They are RAJI MOHAMMED and YINKA AKINWARE . My number is 08050296181. Thanks a million.

Raphael Okafor
Please link me up with Engr. Raphael Okafor.We were course mates at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology in the 1990s.
OKONKWO OGECHUKWU
08033372299

Kingsley Eze
My name is Kingsley Eze, I live here in Chicago, Illinois. I enjoyed your piece on the Obasanjo saga, I wish there are more detribalised Nigerians like you. Could you please help me locate one Mohammed Yaro. I lived with him in Jos, Plateau State during my Youth Service in 1992/93. He was an accountant with MAMSER on Ibrahim Taiwo Road Jos where I served. This man was like a big brother to me and he showed me that people
from different tribes can be brothers! It will be nice if I get to link up with this guy to show my appreciation of all he did for me.
My phone number is +1-832-964-7979
Thanks,
Kingsley Eze
Michael Alade 00944--7985248418(LONDON).

Gogo Peters
Please hook me up with my lost friend Gogo Peters and my first love Chijoke Nwankwo.Thank you.
Dr. J. 919-822-2783

Dr Effiong Bassey Anwanane
Dr Effiong Bassey Anwanane, veterinary graduate of ABU Zaria, 1976 - last known address at Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
Toks Ogunbiyi (toksogunbiyi@hotmail.com)

Link me
Can you link me up to a classmate Evelyn E. We were in HSC at BSS Gindiri in 1975 – 77. God bless.
Dr Mwanse Lemak Daniel, Jos