Ganiat Ibukun Fawehinmi, widow of deceased radical lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, was not sobbing early Saturday when her husband passed on at the Lister Medical Centre in the Adeniyi Jones neighbourhood of Ikeja.
The past one week had been difficult for the legal gadfly and, by Thursday, he was placed on a life support machine. He died, doctors say, of complications arising from lung cancer.
In her first public comment, Mrs. Fawehinmi, a mother of eight, shared her husband’s last statements with mourners at the family home in Ikeja.
A father’s message
“He just wanted us all to continue in his tradition of speaking truth to power, to always speak out against injustice, and never to be mute in the face of tyranny in this land,” Mrs. Fawehinmi said, fighting hard to beat back tears; her dry eyes putting a strained gloss on the somber mood around her.
Measuring the depth of the loss on the children, and the long drawn emotional cost of his prolonged illness, Mrs. Fawehinmi said his message was one of appreciation and challenge: “Tell them how grateful I am of them for being great children,” he had said. “Nothing more one can hope from God. I urge them not to grief for long or mourn endlessly. What I will cherish is that they continue the tradition of what I live for… fighting for the poor, and standing up against injustice. The government must improve the health conditions in the country.”
Mrs. Fawehinmi also said her husband wanted his law office to continue defining its mission along its current path of public interest law and the advocacy for social change.
A family’s pain
“Government needs to overhaul the health care system of this country. If we had a good healthcare system, my father wouldn’t have died...” Mohammed, Mr. Fawehnmi’s first son, said.
Hafsat Oni, his daughter, who practices medicine in Ohio in the United States, wondered if her father would be alive today if the cancer that killed him was diagnosed early.
“They kept treating him for heart problems when in fact what he had was lung cancer, so while the treatment lasted, his cancer spread to his liver and his brain and he died from complication of the brain metastasis,” she said, stressing a personal irritation, as she made a spirited but failed effort at convincing him to come to the United States for treatment. “He preferred to go to the United Kingdom… and even when he was due for another appointment with his doctors in June he declined to go, saying he had more important things to settle here.” Mrs. Oni said.
When the children asked to know what those “pressing things” were, she said he offered no specifics: “But we all knew it had to do with (the)things he always lived for: defending the poor.”
His legacy
In his active professional life, Mr. Fawehinmi came to mean a lot to most people, and some of these things became the theme of tributes on Saturday. Legal commentators seem to agree that his social engineering, using the weapon of law, will ultimately define his legacy.
The current reality of multi party politics in the country is one of the major contributions he made in expanding the democratic space in the country. In 2002 when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) hid under a nebulous guideline to refuse registration of his National Conscience Party (NCP), the late lawyer wore his legal gloves and fought it to the Supreme Court where it was ruled that INEC had no basis in law to narrow the political space.
Always testing the political waters was his honed legal tactics for expanding the frontiers of rights for his fellow citizens under the banner of the constitution.
Thus, his 1988 legal battle compelled the Director of Public Prosecution of Lagos State to charge Col. Halilu Akilu and Lt. Col. A.K. Togun (both top security officers in the government of General Babangida) for conspiracy to murder Dele Giwa, the Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch Magazine, gave birth to the right of private citizens to prosecute cases.
Yemi Osibanjo, former attorney general for Lagos State and Jiti Ogunye, a private attorney in Lagos recall these virtues in the departed lawyer saying this quality, along with his copious contribution to the nation's legal jurisprudence, through the dozens of publications he authored, and his expansion of access to legal literature, were the signal defining legacy of Mr. Fawehinmi.
A government mourns
As family members and associates of Mr. Fawehinmi were planning his funerary rites, a federal government delegation led by the Minister of Information and Communication, Dora Akunyili, brought a condolence message from President Umaru Yar’ Adua, which was received by Mohammed Fawehinmi, a lawyer himself.
Mrs. Akunyili described the late lawyer and activist as a “good Nigerian brand and the Iroko of (the) legal profession in Nigeria.”
On her trail, the Lagos state governor, Babatunde Fashola, also led a handful of aides to commiserate with the family. They were also received by Mohammed Fawehinmi, who heard Mr. Fashola describe his father in glowing terms.
“Even if you don’t like his style, you cannot ignore his message,” the governor said. He also made his message personal: “If not for the works of people like Gani [Fawehinmi] I will not be governor today.”
A nation grieves
News of Mr. Fawehinmi’s passing spread quickly on Saturday morning; and mourners started pouring into his Lagos home immediately his remains were transferred from the Lister Medical Centre to the Lekan Ogunmola Memorial Home, a private mortuary at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos.
Among the early birds were political activists and members of Mr. Fawehinmi’s large tribe of human rights campaigners. Then there was a shoal of government officials.
From the United States where he is on a year’s Fellowship, the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, sobbing, described Mr. Fawehinmi as “My dear friend, father, mentor, and believer,” adding that, “His friendship and unwavering support played the most substantial role at the EFCC and made us succeed in our attempt to change Nigeria for the good.”
Mr. Ribadu said, though “his support will be really missed, [it] will be remembered for his legacy - the emergence of a generation of Nigerians who believe in justice, fairness and equality and who are not afraid to speak out especially for those who don’t have a voice.
“Gani’s legacy will resound with us for generations to come. He taught us to stand firm against all that work against the common good of our commonwealth. My last conversation with him was an agreement to mobilise Nigerians for change.”
In London, where he is undergoing medical examination, Femi Falana lamented the “loss of a dogged fighter par excellence, a social crusader of extraordinary moral fibre and a public interest litigator of unequal dimension who consistently confronted the menace of institutionalised injustice, wanton official corruption and excrutiating poverty unleashed on hapless Nigerians by a tiny rapacious ruling elite.”
Mr. Falana however wants those he described as “progressive forces” to use “ Gani’s exit … to take the struggle to a greater height in the interest of our famished fatherland.”
Olisa Agbakoba, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and founder of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) said in his tribute: “We should celebrate his life. We should not mourn him at all. We should celebrate his life. I think the memorial is to emulate him and keep his flag flying.”
Mr. George Etomi, who is chairman of the NBA’s business law section, said, “Gani’s death is one of the biggest losses not just to the profession and the country but to humanity as a whole,” adding that “he fought for his principles not minding the personal cost to him. He will be larger in death than in life because there are many reasons to continue from where he stopped.”
Mr. Awokoya, who cut his teeth in Mr. Fawehinmi’s chambers, interpreted the passing as a compensation. “The rest he was denied in Nigeria will not be denied in heaven. It is really shocking and tragic that a patriot has been subjected to such treatment and punishment,” he said.
For Mr. Akeredolu, the current NBA President, who sent word from Ibadan where he lives, the shocking news was ‘unkind’, but he added that “We are however consoled by the qualities of his consistent and persistent input to our national life and development.”
A community’s loss
In the pastoral home of the Fawehinmis in the Oka neighbourhood of Ondo, the mood was expectedly, mournful, as his flustered sister; Mrs Oladiran Awosika, arrived early to receive mourners. “This is where it all started,” she told NEXT, adding that “my brother’s death is a great sorry, a great act of cruelty, leaving us all vacant.”
At the home of another sister, Mrs. Tolu Fashipe, on Iranlowo Street, off Gani Fawehinmi Avenue, NEXT gathered that she had left for Lagos on Monday when Mr. Fawehinmi’s health took a turn the for worse. Her husband also left to join her on Friday.
Back at the Fawehinmi family home, the first entry in the condolence register was of a Madam Morolape Juliana Ademoyo who wondered, “what are we to make of this?”
Nicholas Ibekwe, Segun Balogun, Ifedayo Adebayo and Anthony Smart contributed to this report
Reader Comments (44)
post a comment
* = Required information