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Gani Fawehinmi at
70
By Sun News Publishing
Thursday, April
24, 2008
On Tuesday, April 22, 2008, the radical human rights lawyer
and champion of the pro–democracy movement in Nigeria,
Chief Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi, turned 70. The birthday of
the legal luminary and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) was
celebrated in Lagos with the launch of a book on his life
of exemplary service to law and humanity entitled Gani Through
the Law, written by a journalist, Mr. Richard Akinnola. The
occasion provided an avenue for the public adulation of one
of Nigeria’s most outstanding and beloved lawyers by
a gathering of lawyers, human rights activists and politicians
in Lagos.
Although Gani, as the popular lawyer is fondly called, was
unavoidably absent at the celebration on account of a debilitating
health condition that has kept him outside the country for
about a year, his physical absence did not dampen the essence
of the celebration of his four decades and three years of
unflinching commitment to the quest for an egalitarian and
democratic society, even at a great cost to his health and
personal liberty.
The name, Gani Fawehinmi, in Nigeria is synonymous with humanism,
legal radicalism and a passionate devotion to the public good.
An accomplished author, publisher, administrator, philanthropist
and human rights crusader, Gani graduated in Law as an external
student of the University of London in 1964. He attended the
Nigerian Law School, and was called to the Nigerian Bar in
1965.
From that time onwards, he has taken up the challenge of advocacy
for the masses and was an arrowhead of the crusades for democracy,
human rights and good governance in Nigeria, for more than
40 years. He earned the sobriquet, “conscience of the
nation” for his firm belief in the rule of law and his
insistence on its use for the common good.
Gani’s unbending commitment to this principle and his
various litigations incurred the wrath of many Nigerian governments,
leading to his arrest on 34 occasions, with 18 different spurious
charges slammed against him even as he was remanded in no
less than 15 prisons across the country. He instituted many
high–profile cases against the injustices of some governments
and is recorded to have handled more than 5000 cases in the
Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Courts and Magistrate
Courts across the country.
Some of these are Dele Giwa vs. Adewusi, 1982; Gani Fawehinmi
vs Ibrahim Babangida and Others, 1992; Gani Fawehinmi vs Shonekan
(constitutionality of the Interim National Goverrnment), 1993
and Gani Fawehinmi vs Sani Abacha, (declaration of assets
by public officers), 1994. His battle to unravel the killers
of the assassinated journalist, Mr. Dele Giwa, led to his
imprisonment in 1990.
One thing that stood Gani out in all these cases is his consistency
in the effort to make the various governments of the period
accountable to the people. For this, he was denied entry to
the senior bar for many years but he was happy to hold the
title, “Senior Advocate of the Masses,” conferred
on him by the students of then University of Ife, Ile Ife,
until he was eventually appointed “Senior Advocate of
Nigeria,” the highest legal title in the country, in
September 2001.
For his outspokenness against human rights abuses in Nigeria,
Fawehinmi has received various local and international awards,
including the International Bar Association’s prestigious
Bernard Simons Memorial Award for contribution to the rule
of law in Nigeria, 1998.
He was a rallying point in the crusade against perpetual military
rule in Nigeria and, with the advent of democracy, he formed
the National Conscience Party of Nigeria (NCP) on which platform
he ran for presidency in 2003.
Fawehinmi was a consummate author and publisher of books,
especially on critical areas of law, the Supreme Courts of
Nigeria Law Reports and other courts’ law reports. Gani’s
strides in the legal profession and on the nation’s
political terrain are remarkable. His was an uncommon demonstration
of courage, steadfastness, selflessness and a dogged pursuit
of the people’s welfare. These are exemplary qualities
which endeared him to the people but stood him out as an irritant
to governments and their security agencies.
Regrettably, his erstwhile illuminating interjections on political
developments in the country and his readiness to take the
government up on contentious issues have been sorely missed
since illness took him out of circulation last year. His position
as the Senior Advocate of the Masses has been noticeably vacant.
However, Gani’s outstanding achievements, his survival
of the onslaught of government agents since 1969 and his unbowed
spirit, are worthy of celebration, as he turns 70. We join
other Nigerians to felicitate with this living human rights
legend on his birthday and wish him a quick recovery and safe
journey back to the country.
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