Date Published: 12/27/09

The Unforgettable “Gadfly” of Honour By Idumange John

Idumange John (MNIM, CBA), Is a lecturer and Activist

When matters of justice, integrity and honour come to limelight in this geo-political expression fondly called Nigeria, one cannot but remember the late Senior Advocate of the Masses - Gani Faweihimi. Verily, if the rare iconoclastic and quintessential Gani were alive, he would have continued the fight for justice in a land where people lie, swindle, steal, rape and desecrate all known rules of civility. Surely, Gani would have contributed immensely to the proposed constitutional review even amidst the supremacy contest between the two Houses of the National Assembly (NASS). Indeed only a great people in a great nation can postpone ad infinitum her destiny and development. Although the buccaneering corruption and injustice may take a while to recede, as evidenced in the recent report by Transparency International, that Nigeria ranks 130 among 180 countries on Corruption Perception Index (CPI) the rebranding exercise is succeeding. With frustration adorning the face of Professor Dora Akunyili - the Minister of Rebranding who does not know the parameters used by Transparency International, the crusade of the “gadfly” can only be recalled with vivifying nostalgia.

Nature abhors a vacuum because God’s divine technology of creation is complete. Whatever artificial distortions there are in the world today are contrived by man in his hobbessian State . At different times, the creative intelligence has always sent people to project divine purity and goodness on earth. In Zoroastrianism and Christianity such persons are called messiahs. In Buddhism they are avatars; in Eck they are referred to as the Mahantas, in the Grail Message of the Abd- Ru-Shin variety – they are called ones and among the Rosicrucian such people are called living and ascended masters. However, in most parts of the developing world, people are often pre-occupied with the basic, biological needs of survival hence very scant recognition is accorded this category of people who pragmatize higher ideals.

In the days of old, Thales, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Socrates and their likes fought very hard to change their societies by making man to think for himself. Because of his intellectual sophistry and radicalism Socrates was forced to drink the hemlock by a jury which was essentially made up of his students. He did so but turned down the more dishonourable option of abdication. Socrates treasured honour and preferred it to death.

Mahatma Ghandi used non-violence as a potent instrument to expose man’s inhumanity to man and above all to secure the independence of India – the world’s largest democracy. He was killed violently; Martin Luther King Jnr. Was convinced that the strength of a man’s character should be more virtuous than the colour of his skin. Through his fierce struggle, thought-provoking speeches and peaceful demonstrations, he won over the hearts and minds of people across racial boundaries. It was he who laid the foundations of what has materialized in President Barrack Obama.

Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Thambo, Desmond Tutu and their contemporaries also believed that racial segregation or apartheid was unnatural and ungodly. Nelson Mandela saw the struggle against separatism as an organic necessity hence he sacrificed 27 years of his life in the gulag and but nature beckoned on him to be President of a United South Africa. On his release, the living legend defied the oppressive apparatus of the evil Pretoria regime.

Mother Teresa blended her humanity with subtle religiosity to help the poor and dying in Calcutta – India. The Nobel Prize for Peace which she won in 1979 was only the crystallization of her relentless and selfless charity work in China, Russia, Cuba – the dark heart of the socialist enclave and the aura of sanctity she radiated around scores of nations around the world. Her beatification by the Papacy only crowned her earthly magnanimity with some ecclesiastical connotation – which in the thinking of many is a more profound prize for her Albanian ancestors.

In our geography, we have many unsung heroes some deceased but others alive. Professor Awojobi never realized his lofty dreams of advancement in automobile technology in Nigeria. Anthony Enahoro moved the first motion of Nigeria’s independence. Michael Imodu used strike as an instrument to emasculate the imperialists. No monument has been erected for these dogged fighters and shapers of human destiny. For the living, they only get eulogized when they are dead. The good is often interred with their bones; so let it be with Caesar.

We still have among us the likes of Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, Professor Wole Soyinka, Dr. Gabriel Okara, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, Eskor Toyo and other Nigerians who made enormous sacrifices are still around. Nothing monumental has been done about them. A great many of them are either fitted into a straight-jacket of ethnicity, sectionalism or outrightly derided.

Today, a torrent of encomium is being poured on Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAM) who fought for the democratic ideals he stood for. He was detained for more than sixty times like that strong prodemocracy activist in Burma. As a lawyer, he elevated the law profession to an enviable height setting new precedence’s, breaking new grounds; and handling more than 5,000 cases pro bono - an indication that he solicited and advocated, for most part, for the down trodden masses. The “gadfly” as he was fondly called perched on the high and mighty, using the instrumentality of law to reduce self-acclaimed colossus into hapless Lilliputians. He took public litigation to its crescendo, cutting down most of the “tall trees” on the pro-establishment enclave. He stood tall as a socialist, a moral huntsman who dug man out of the snug burrows and exposed the skeletons in the closet of politicians and public office holders.

Beyond the court room, Gani exuded robust scholarship and one of his landmarks is the publications is the Nigerian Weekly Law Report (NWLR) which is now a handy reference material on the table of legal practitioners. One of the numerous gestures to immortalize Gani is to ensure the uninterrupted publication of the NWLR. This is one legacy the Nigerian legal community must not compromise.

For the writer, the area the legal Icon excelled most is in the area of education and philanthropic Litigation. This is where the evocation of eulogies should sound more thunderous than other spheres of life. Gani’s scholarship scheme-which was floated in 1972, produced many educated people who otherwise would have been dumped among the colony of the disillusioned illiterates. In executing this philanthropy, Gani transcended ethnic, religious and cultural boundaries. He is one of the greatest educators of the century and he never scooped public resources to help the poor because he turned down all attempts made by the bourgeois to corrupt his soul. Only a socialist-minded progressive wig can withstand such temptations.

In spite of the constant harassment he suffered in the hands of an oppressive military apparatus and democratic tyrants, Gani took interest in whatever happened in Nigeria’s political landscape. From the locus classicus of Amakiri, the numerous students’ cases in Ife, Lagos, Benin to the Ken-Saro-Wiwa case, the gadfly demonstrated that the legal profession is not just a money spinning business but a social engineering profession. He pursued this cause with the virtuoso and vigour of a zealot. He stood against injustice even amidst the staccato of gun fire. He elevated the consciousness of colleagues and demystified the esotericism attached to the profession. Gani spared nobody; he stood with the oppressed and deprived in the Niger Delta; the Talakawa in the North; condemned the wanton violence instigated by Islamic extremists in the North and reprisal attacks of the O’dua Peoples Congress and the gale of ethnic-related crises that tasked the stability of the nation.

When I periscope the life of Gani Faweihimi, I am tempted to believe that most Nigerians are not only sycophants but have succeeded in pushing this unenviable vocation to a bizarre level. For a man like Gani who achieved so much how many Nigerians pouring eulogies at his grave side singing his praises ever visited him in Gashua prison where this Icon was maltreated and denied his medications?. Again, how many Nigerians ever went to lift Gani’s spirit during his six years battle with Cancer? Better still, how many men and women of means assisted, Gani morally or financially in his several trips abroad during his six years persecution by Cancer? Indeed, how many Nigerians would carry on his good works especially his scholarship scheme now that the man has translated? In his profession, how many lawyers who trained under him would be strong enough to protect the lowly and oppressed Pro-bono in an era when even Medical Doctors do not adhere to the Hippocratic Oath? How would Gani’s colossal strides, his never-say-die spirit and his democratic ideals help Nigerians especially those at the corridors of power erect solid; enduring democratic structure to immortalize the ideals Gani fought for. Will Gani also pass on as one of the unsung heroes we only celebrate at death?. Those who weep for Gani should rather weep for Nigeria with her decrepit health care delivery system, poor infrastructure, lack of planning, failed social services delivery system and mal-governance.

The late legal Icon disclosed that the Cancer that sentenced him to his untimely developed in one of his detentions by a past but living military dictator. If Nigerians love Gani enough, the occasion of his death is a time to put many things right. If Gani was a Caesar of sort and his lovers were Mark Anthony, why will Anthony not stir the poor, the blind and the oppressed to mutiny? If we love Gani enough, why can’t we use the occasion of his death to dismember those artificial barriers erected by the bourgeois who foist stagnation on the people through a fraudulent electoral process?

If there was any greater social crusader of our times at least in the past century than the quintessential “gadfly”, I am yet to be informed and that is why these difficult questions harass my consciousness and beagle my mind with subtlety. A eulogy or an ode are not sufficient to immortalize the phenomenon called Gani who traversed every empty space in Nigeria to put smiles on the faces of the less-privileged. Indeed Gani lived all his life for others and nature can attest to the fact that here was a man. Many were hypnotized by his fiery, candour and ardour, which have become an elixir to animate the near-moribund conscience of the nation. Nigerians and indeed his admirers all around the world should be consoled by the fact that his ideals, his philosophy and consciousness have worn the garb of immortality. Many Nigerians like this humble contributor cannot afford the luxury of forgetting that voice of hope, pillar of justice and the voice that agitated for a commodious life with crusading zeal and unparalleled enthusiasm in Nigeria. There was the gadfly, whence comes such another!.

Idumange John (MNIM, CBA)

Is a University Lecturer and Activist.