By Chris Paul Otaigbe
The 16th edition of the Chief Gani Fawehinmi Annual Lecture/Symposium known as Fawehinmism held Wednesday 15th January 2020 at the Airport Hotel in Ikeja.
The topic treated at the lecture was Federalism and the Judiciary in Nigeria.
It was an event that had heavyweights in the Nigerian Legal profession all in attendance to do justice to the theme of the day.
Monday Ubani was the Chairman of the planning committee, while Femi Falana played the role of the Master of Ceremonies.
Among some of the notable dignitaries were Olisa Agbakoba, Dele Adesina. Also, in attendance were Late Gani Fawehinmi’s wife and his son Mohammed among others.
The program which was anchored by Femi Falana began at about 11 am with an opening speech by Monday Ubani, the Chairman of the Planning Committee. Incidentally, he had held the same position last year.
In his welcome address, Ubani said the late icon is being celebrated for his great achievements in the life of the nation for his usage of Law as an instrument of change.
“No Lawyer, dead or alive, is yet to rival his immeasurable contribution to the issue of human rights and public interest litigations. He was second to none.” Said Ubani. He maintained that Gani’s legacy remains the treasure of the legal community until the end of time.
As if answering the unspoken question about Falana as the MC for the occasion, Ubani, who was the immediate past National Vice President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) said “the choice of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Mr Femi Falana is very strategic. He was a protégés of the Late Legal guru. He was tutored, mentored and brought up by the Late Gani Fawehinmi for times like this and he has not been disappointing.
He was with Gani for most of the struggles, while the Late icon was alive.” Ubani enlightened.
True to the bill and bar set by the Committee Chairman, in between introducing Guests and Speakers, Falana intermittently told stories of the great exploits of the Legal Legend. Daring moves made by the Great Legal mind which have become legacies that have emboldened generations of Lawyers after him to challenge the system.
One of such terrifying adventures was his fearless engagement of the military governments at the time and which frequently landed him in jail. Falana cited the one in which Gani turned him (Falana) into a litigant challenging a particular policy of the Ibrahim Babangida junta. The resolution of that case got Gani a room in Ikoyi Prison. But today, it had set the precedence that has formed the basis for Lawyers to challenge the hike in the Tariff of electricity.
In his address, Dele Oloke, the current chairman of the NBA, which is the body that organized the program, said Gani was a human right colossus, a Legal Titan, a cheerful giver whose relevance to the Nigerian society remains unparalleled and could not be diminished for its impact on the nation’s history. He added that the closeness of the icon to the downtrodden, his passion to help the poor and less privileged pitched him against the State for close to 50 years and in consequence, his health suffered. Speaking further on the commitment of the legal legend, Oloke said, in all Gani’s travails for the masses of Nigeria, he was unwavering in his belief that only adherence to the concept of the rule of law and an independent judiciary are the only planks upon which a State and an egalitarian society can be nurtured.
Falana returned to pilot the program after the NBA Chairman had delivered his address and gave another scenario that he and his mentor Gani experienced. “Since my discharge certificate, after 18 years… I appeared before a Tribunal, peopled by Judges in 2008. It was an Election Petition Tribunal. A member of that Tribunal, even though he wasn’t the Chairman… A young man of impeccable integrity who was at home with his substantive and adjectival Law, impressed everybody. But lo and behold, a big man in the profession, felt this young judge would not allow us to have our way and there was a plot to have the young judge removed from the Tribunal and transferred elsewhere… we suffered that transfer. Even when the judgement was delivered, neither the winner nor the loser was satisfied. So, we all had to head for the courts…” Falana narrated.
He was obviously telling the story of the next speaker, Justice Ugochukwu Anthony Ogakwu, Justice of the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal. Speaking on the essence of the program, the Judge said the objective of the event serves not only to reinvigorate the actors in the fight for social justice, it equally acts as a tonic for upcoming social crusaders. “ I pray you continue to meet the desired goals on this laudable and praiseworthy cause. May your endeavors be successful as you strive to keep alive the ideals that Gani Fawehinmi stood for.”
For the court of Appeal Justice, it is to a testament to the doggedness of chief Gani Fawehinmi that the crusade he started, virtually, as a lone voice and which was viewed at the time as an affront to the government, now has several adherents and foot soldiers. “Such that even in death, he is still seen as a lone star with fond reminiscences…” said the Judge.
Adedayo Oyebanji who represented the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba said Gani was a highly respected social critic, seasoned human rights Lawyer. During his lifetime, he was widely acknowledged as the nation’s foremost human rights activist. “Gani Fawehinmi championed human rights in Nigeria for many decades and led the legal team in most of the nation’s celebrated cases. As we are also well aware, Chief Gani Fawehinmi dedicated his whole life to the defense of human rights and condemnation of bad government policies. He fought the then military government with what he had. Chief Gani Fawehinmi was famous worldwide for his blunt and sharp criticism of the government of the day.” Said Justice Oyebanji.
She added that the members of the Legal profession remain ever proud of him, just as his family should be eternally grateful to God for the achievements of the great legal luminary.
Speaking on the treatment of the judiciary as an appendage by the Executive arm of government, she said time has come for such an abnormally to come to an end. In this wise she called on the Gani in every practitioner in the Bar and Bench to rise up and play a role in bringing this development to a stop. Placing the major responsibility on the doorstep of the NBA, she said “may I call it the ‘Gani’ in all of us… by that I mean, the NBA ought not to be docile on sensitive national issues….”
Dele Adesina said Gani Fawehinmi was a personality that embodies so many values and virtues. “The time has come for us to take some or all of this virtues. If not all, some and there is no reason why we cannot take all. We are not celebrating just a human being because he was a human being. We are celebrating Gani because of his incorruptibility. He was incorruptible. We are celebrating Gani because he was a man of integrity. We are not celebrating Gani because he was the President of Nigeria. But I know he contested for the Presidency of the country and he didn’t win. But today, he has a name that is bigger than many Presidents. Gani was a man of insight and a man of deep knowledge…” said Adesina.
In his goodwill message, Olisa Agbakoba spoke about a particular encounter with a vicious military officer during one of their Tribunal assignments. He had experienced it with Falana. Recounting the experience, Agbakoba said, Gani used to call him ‘Agbako’ (a Yoruba name for calamity). The Colonel, in the story, had threatened Gani to come out and meet him after the Tribunal session if the Legal icon was man enough. Not known to make retreat from threat from any quarter, Gani asked Falana and Agbako to follow him. Olisa said that was probably the scariest part of his life. “ That was how he said we should follow him to Bori camp to meet the colonel…” said Agbakoba.
Although, in his usual narration of excerpts of the dramatic encounters he had with the late legend, Falana would later tell the audience that while he (Falana) followed the icon to the Colonel Paul Okutimo’s area, Agbakoba stayed in the car. Okutimo actually told his boys to beat us up and his boys told him they won’t beat us even if he would fire them…” Falana said.
Mohamed Fawehinmi gave the vote of thanks on behalf of Gani’s family to bring the program to a close.
