Gani Fawehinmi: Four Years After? By Jiti Ogunye Premium Times - 10 hours agoCOLUMNS, OPINION On the 5th of this month of September, 2013, it will be four years since the transition of Chief Oyesola Ganiyu Fawehimi, Senior Adovocate of Nigeria (SAM), Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). Adoringly addressed in an abbreviated form, like ”Awo”, and “Zik” were fondly addressed before him, Gani was well ingrained in the popular consciousness of the Nigerian people. He was a man of many parts. He was a husband, a father and a family man. He was a chief, holding the traditional title of Lomofe of Ondo Kingdom. He was a first class legal practitioner, law researcher and publisher; an inimitable human rights crusader, a principled social critic and a selfless fighter for democracy ; a sincere philanthropist and humanist; and an uncommon peoples’ politician. Indeed, he was a statesman that never occupied any public office in his life time but who demonstrated statesmanship, patriotism and love for country than many persons who did occupy public offices. By his audacious and very risky struggles against military dictatorships and for the enthronement of democratic governance in Nigeria, he contributed to state-building in Nigeria more than many politicians who actually occupied political offices in Nigeria, from the First Republic to the current era of civil rule. In the past four years of his painful transition, the Nigerian human rights community, civil society and the Bar have missed his incredible leadership, mentorship and pace-setting in the sphere of initiation and dogged pursuit of public interest litigations that positively shape the development of the rule of law, strengthen human rights jurisprudence, and deepen constitutionalism. No doubt, Nigerians have missed Gani’s invaluable contribution to the search for a better society, his credible voice in the arena of social activism, and critical interventions in socio-economic and political discourses. There are many ordinary Nigerians who, since the demise of Gani, often ask what his reaction to the prevailing crises in all facets of our country’s life in the past four years would have been were he alive. How would Gani have reacted to the constitutional cum presidential office succession crisis that engulfed the Country in the wake of the illness and permanent incapacity of late President Umaru Musa Yar Adua to discharge the functions of office of President? How would he have taken the “doctrine of necessity”-that extra constitutional legislative innovation- which was the resolution formula of the logjam occasioned by the refusal of the Aso Rock shadow presidency to allow the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to become the Acting President? What would have been his position on the 2011 Elections, the violence and bloodshed that attended the declaration of results, and the Boko Haram insurgency that followed shortly thereafter? What would have been his reaction to the declaration of a state of emergency in the North-Eastern States? What would have been his role and legal challenge to the removal of the fuel subsidy by President Jonathan on January 1st, 2012, the spontaneous national protest that followed, the oil subsidy probe in the National Assembly, the Farouk Lawal-Femi Otedola Bribery allegation, and the reluctant but forced trial of the subsidy thieves? What of the massive and large scale crude oil theft in the Niger Delta Region, and the Niger Delta militants-originated kidnapping, now a criminal pandemic that has spread across the entire Country, in which lawyers, judges, academics and school teachers, traditional rulers, actors and actresses, government officials and their relatives, and many other Nigerians have been abducted for payment of ransoms? How will Gani react to the kidnap of Chief Mike Ozeknome, SAN, a one- time junior counsel in his Chambers, whose release is now being sought not only by placard carrying co-ethnic protesters, but also by concerned persons who have resorted to advertorial placements in the print media to appeal to the good conscience and milk of kindness of the kidnappers? Would Gani have concluded that this public demonstration of helplessness by relatives and friends of victims of kidnapping, and the usual appeal that is made to kidnappers each time they strike is further proof that the ordinary citizens have lost confidence in the capacity of the Nigerian State to protect their lives and property? Would Gani have regarded the inclination of family and friends of kidnap victims to pay ransoms to kidnappers as weakness, unprincipled propitiation or appeasement of kidnappers, or as a natural and realistic response to a very dire situation? Would Gani have accepted the ” do not pay ransom to kidnappers in order not to encourage them” advice usually given by the police or scoffed at the advice and condemn same as sheer hypocrisy? And how would Gani have reacted to the rash of desperate amendments of the criminal law, by States in the South-South and South East of Nigeria, to provide the death penalty for the offence of kidnapping or abduction, especially with arms; and the practice of demolition of houses ( including hotels) owned, resided in or used as detention camps by alleged kidnappers, on the orders of State Governors, without any legislative backing or order of court? What of the issue of the emoluments and allowances of our legislators, locally and internationally declared to be the highest in the world, and the obstinacy of the legislators to continue with the legislooting ( quoting Senator {Prof} Soal Adeyeye of Osun State when he was yet to be elected to the Senate)? What could he have done to stop further payments of the allowances and salaries unless and until there is a disclosure and an ascertainment that the payments are in strict compliance with the law and the Constitution? How will Gani react to the consummation of the privatization of the PHCN, and the purchase of the unbundled assets of PHCN by the mighty and powerful in the land? How will he react to the unconscionable increase in energy tariffs ( on the basis of approximated bills, without any metre reading) by Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), headed by Dr. Sam Amadi ( who, incidentally, was once a junior counsel in his Chambers), when power supply is still very poor in the Country? How will Gani react to the appointment of the First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan by the Bayelsa State Government as a Permanent Secretary, and the traffic gridlock that is caused by the First Lady anytime she is organizing a major event, be it in Abuja, Lagos or Port Harcourt? Will he go to Court, as he did against Mrs Maryam Banbangida and her Better Life for Nigerian Woman Project, during the reign of her husband, General Ibrahim Babangida, when she was spending state funds without any budgetary allocation or legal cover? How will Gani react to the feasting budget of the presidency and the new additions to the presidential jet fleet? How will he take the new appetite for foreign loans, after the celebrated escape of Nigeria from foreign debt trap, under Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, who was the ministerial inspiration behind the “payment of a substantial portion of debt for forgiveness of all” policy of the Obasanjo Presidency, who, ironically, is now the chief promoter of the new borrowing spree, under the dubious rationalization that Nigeria is under-borrowing? Will Gani recall that he had to institute an action in the Federal High Court to stop the payment of the salaries of Okonjo Iweala and Mr. Adeniji, then Foreign Affairs Minister, in foreign currency, since that practice was not in consonance with the Constitution of Nigeria; and further, will Gani recall that the Court of first instance declined jurisdiction to entertain his claim on the ground that he lacked the locus standi to institute the action, that he was a meddlesome interloper and a busybody, before the Court of Appeal held that he was clothed with locus standi ? How would Gani have reacted to the deregistration of political parties by INEC, and the attempt to kill his National Conscience Party? What will be Gani’s reaction to the chairmanship election in the Nigeria Governors Forum, where 19 votes were deemed less than 16, and the recognition given the Jonah Jang Faction of the NGF by the Presidency? What of the Rivers State House of Assembly Crisis and the roles Governor Rotimi Amaechi, the Police, the Presidency, the National Assembly, and the PDP are playing in the crisis. How would Gani have reacted to the Judgment of the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, reversing the sentence of death earlier passed on Major Hamza Al Mustapha and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan by Hon. Justice M. Dada of the Lagos High Court, for the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola in 1996; CJN Katsina Alu and Isa Ayo-Salami, PCA saga, and the renewed ongoing “effort” to rid the Judiciary of corruption and political manipulation ?
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 09:58:07 +0000
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