Still on Fawehinmism

Statue of Gani Fawehinmi

FIRST and foremost, I salute the quintessential social justice crusader, late Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) for his extraordinary, inimitable and altruistic life while on earth. The Senior Advocate of the Masses (SAM), as Gani was christened, lives on in the hearts of the people despite his transition to the great beyond in 2009. Almost a decade counting, the vacuum Fawehinmi left is yet to be adequately filled. The masses still mourn.

On the other hand, corruption hops dimensionally knowing that its core enemy is no more. The youths voluntarily acknowledged Fawehinmi’s selfless services to the society with the title of ‘SAM’ which connotes a defender and voice of the people. It is understandable why Fawehinmi’s families, colleagues, fans and the masses, including students, converge annually to commemorate his death with public symposium, among other activities.

Incidentally, the recent 14th edition of Gani Fawehinmi Annual Memorial Lecture organised by the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja branch turned dramatic with face-to-face accusations and counter-accusations alongside defences. At the venue, mammoth crowd of great personalities and youths gathered to pay homage as usual. But the unprecedented episode that more or less interrupted the event was the aggressive refusal of the youths and students to allow Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) have access to the venue as a guest-speaker. The youths discourteously blocked his way and accused him of aiding and abetting corruption by holding briefs on many corruption cases thereby frustrating the anti-corruption crusade of the Federal Government. In their argument, Fawehinmi’s ideologies are incompatible with backing treasury looters. Luckily, a prominent activist and lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) came to his rescue and calmed the protesting youths. Reacting, visibly in an angry manner, Ozekhome lambasted the Federal Government and his detractors over the opprobrium and tagged the dramatis personae as ‘rented miscreants’. But seriously, could the same crowds that bestowed titles without restrictions, including ‘SAM’ to Fawehinmi metamorphose overnight to ‘rented miscreants’ or perhaps, a different group? Two salient points emanate from the quagmire; first, is there any sense in the youths nonsense? In all probabilities, the youths’ specification for the highly-treasured event was exclusively ‘Fawehinmism’.