By
Kayode Ketefe
 |
|
Chief
Gani Fawehinmi
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Today
September 5, 2013, marked the fourth anniversary of the demise of the legal
legend, Chief Gani Fawehinmi SAN. The late Chief belonged to the exclusive
group of Nigerians (dead and living) whose lives are so much woven round and
deeply embedded in some concepts that their very names evoke the essences
depicted by the respective concepts. They are inexorably linked with some ideas
or phenomena advanced to such seemingly superhuman height that history readily
accords a place to them.
Gani
was steeped in social reformation via the invocation of the composite
endeavours of criticisms, legal advocacy, and public interest litigation was
his forte. As a matter of fact, Gani’s peculiar life had a spawn a concept
called “Fawehinmiism”. He lived and died for it.
Today,
the nation is standing still to celebrate this legend. Gani stood out larger
than life for most part of his adult life on accounts of altruistic pursuits of
making the life better for mankind.
It
was the local journalists who invented the unorthodox style of referring to
this legal icon by his first name “Gani” instead of his long surname,
Fawehinmi. It was an expedient initiative since the surname was considered too
long for headline purposes; and Gani was always making the headlines!
Born
on Friday, April 22nd, 1938, Gani lost his father midway into his tertiary
education and stinted his way through engagement in menial works, including
washing toilets in London! Driven by determination to make a success of his
life, he seared through all the difficulties with unbridled enthusiasm and
peerless courage and eventually obtained the object of his desire - a licence
to practice law. He was called to the Bar on January 15, 1965.
Right
from the time he established his chambers. Gani Fawehinmi & Co in Lagos,
this unusual man set for himself the selfless task of reforming his society
through utilisation of law as an instrument of socio-political and economic
reformation.
A
human and civil rights lawyer par excellence, he was the most vociferous
agitator for the rule of law, due process, constitutionalism and liberal
democracy. He had a pathological hatred for all forms of corruption. Gani had
been known to flatly reject lucrative briefs that were contrary to his
principles.
One
of the criticisms his adversaries levelled against him was that Gani was
stubborn and unyielding. Whether or not this is true is matter of perception.
But his famed obstinacy, to many objective minds, stemmed from unrepentant
stance on his personal convictions - a quality wanting in many Nigerians today
including most of our leaders!
He
was the first Nigerian to start publishing a law report, debuting at a time
when most lawyers relied on foreign law reports. The Nigerian Weekly Law
Reports, which he started on October 1st, 1985, still exists till today.
Gani
was a barbed thorn in the flesh of successive Nigerian governments, especially
the military. He was a firebrand that spat venom against the broadside of
governmental highhandedness and man’s inhumanity to man. He was arrested,
incarcerated and even imprisoned countless number of times, all on accounts of
his outspokenness and vitriolic criticisms of governments’ aberrations of rule
of law. The following simple statistics tell a lot: He was locked in security
cells 32 times and imprisoned eight times by different military governments!
But
his spirit remained irrepressible throughout his life. It was only somebody
like Gani that would be released from prison and still go to public arena
moments later to organise another rally against the same military government!
He summarised his philosophic orientation simply thus: “I am not a
middle-of-the road man, what I believe in, I pursue intensely.”
It
is these attributes that made the former United States Ambassador to Nigeria,
Mr. Walter Carrington (1993–1997) to say “Gani’s chamber is the shrine of
democracy and rule of law!”
For
reasons probably not unconnected with his vibrant outspokenness, principled
stance and often unconventional approaches to issues, the Legal Practitioners
Privileges Committee did not consider him fit to be awarded the prestigious
honour of Senior Advocate of Nigeria for many decades.
By
the time he was belatedly given the SAN award in 2001, Gani had grown to such a
phenomenal colossus that his name was even an honour to the award rather than
the other way round! His inclusion in the rank of SAN was simply a
beatification of that rank! Retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice
Kayode Eso, described him as “one of the greatest advocates to have worn the
silk.”
Some
people were surprised when even his putative number one adversary, former
President Ibrahim Babangida, once showered him with adulatory epithets and
described him as the only social critic and human rights crusader he most
respected. But such was the virtues of Gani that even when you antagonised him,
you would nonetheless recognise that his own battle was a more conscientious
one, based on higher moral pedestal.
It
is suffice it to say Gani Fawehinmi would live forever in the minds of
Nigerians who appreciate his contributions to make Nigeria a better country
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