Interview with Late Chief Gani Fawehinmi

Now I am Armed to Fight even More Gani Fawehinmi, controversial lawyer and human rights activist, takes the silk September 10. In a four-hour interview with a Newswatch team led by Bayo Ogunmupe, Fawehinmi speaks on what the honour means to him, e.t.c. Newswatch: Recently, you were honoured with the SAN title. Did you apply for it this time? Fawehinmi: Yes, I first applied for this about 21 years ago. I was turned down. Then I applied again in 1984. You will recall what Justice Mohammed Bello said when this award was given. He said, I rejected the award in 1984. That I was offered, but I rejected. That is not quite correct. Newswatch: What then is the correct position? Fawehinmi: What happened was that there was this crisis of whether or not we should attend the tribunals set up by the military in respect to decree No. 3 of 1984 regarding the recovery of public property from politicians. They set up the tribunal and the bar said that we should not appear. I disregarded the bar and appeared, and they put me on the black list. Then, there was a crisis that arose from there, and I sued the big wigs, F.R.A Williams, Kehinde Sofola, etc. And then Sowemimo summoned a meeting as the chief justice then in his office. Present were Justice Mohammed Bello, Rotimi Williams, Sofola, Oyuike, myself and two other persons. Then the chief justice started by saying, well, we want to settle this problem. You have to withdraw the cases you have in court. Your SAN is ready, we will give it to you, but you must withdraw the cases pending in court. Oh no! Blood rushed into my head in such a way that if I did not control myself I could have gone berserk. I was ashamed, angry, I was surprised. Ah-ah, the chief justice of Nigeria . So I stood up, and said thank you my Lord. I said I am doing this on principle and there is no way I can compromise the principle. I am not fighting the cases to win or lose. But to ensure that certain principles are established. Even as I attempt to do this, if I lose the SAN, so be it. But I cannot withdraw the cases, the SAN can be taken back. They said ok, that’s what we want. It was on the front page of the Tribune newspaper. So, it wasn’t that I just refused. It was just that I refused on principles. Secondly, I applied in 1990, obviously with the events of 1984 it was just a formality that I will be rejected. Then after that I decided that I was not going to apply again. Then pressure started mounting, mounting. Lawyers, judges of all the courts. I am not saying all judges. But judges of all the courts, lawyers of all shades of opinion, even some of the SANs, etc. They prevailed on me to apply. I don’t know who met my mother again. Days to the close of the submission of the application date, the closing date was the 31st of March. My mother came and said some people are saying I have done something good, others are saying it is bad. This is the highest honour that a lawyer can have. If there is anything, please let me know. If there is nothing, go and apply, because they are saying that they are not going to change the law. How can they change the law because of you? So, with this pressure from the judges, friends and the lawyers in my chambers, I decided to apply. Newswatch: In the past, you said you were contented with the Senior Advocate of the Masses, SAM title. Fawehinmi: Well, I have given you the reason. I take the SAM as a major award. After that award, several awards have come even internationally. I got a prestigious award from Austria . Then after, I had the American Bar Association award. Thereafter, the most important award, that is, the entire world bar, the International Bar Association, IBA, in 1998, before the assemblage of more than 3,000 most distinguished jurists and lawyers from 143 countries. You know the IBA has a membership of 5.2 million lawyers across the world. When they brought me to the rostrum and I was introduced by a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, who doubled as the chief prosecutor in the war crimes tribunal in The Hague , and she was pouring encomium on me, I could see one of the lawyers from Nigeria in tears. He is a SAN, but I don’t want to mention his name. He was so overjoyed that he burst into tears. To me, that was a great climax. Then, after that the pressure mounted again that this had to happen, the SAN of a thing. Well, as far as this award is concerned, it has some challenges. I accept the honour but I think it has some challenges. Newswatch: What are the challenges? Fawehinmi: The challenges are that one must be more determined, more committed to the ideals of justice. First, justice is in two parts; you have legal justice relating to the courts, and social justice, relating to the masses. Social justice without economic fundamental rights cannot be attained. Nigeria today has no respect for the economic rights of the mass of our people. The Nigerian legal system merely aids the interest of the elite. Until we make economic rights fundamental human rights, we will continue to stumble from one instability to another. Because, you cannot do justice in an environment of abject poverty. So, economic rights that we are talking about are related to the issue of poverty. The right of employment, and if there is no employment, the right to unemployment benefit, so that people will be able to keep body and soul together. So that they cannot be driven to  anger, pain, anguish and frustration. Three, the right to have good and subsidised nutritious food. Four, the right to have good home where you can live in. A roof over your head should be an economic fundamental right. The right to good education, health, life and property should be all fundamental rights. Even the right to water and electricity should be a fundamental right. You see, when you talk of poverty, and that’s the mistake some people make in this country; they want a stable society, they want a democratic process, but they ignore social justice and they are talking of legal justice. You cannot have it. All the civilised countries that have attained stability have accorded economic right, fundamental right to their people. But in Nigeria today, they allow the poor people to come under chapter two of the constitution. What they call social fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy. They direct, but no Nigerian can go to court and say his state or local government or federal government should provide food, accommodation, etc., where he does not have. You all go to the hospital with your children and you don’t have money to pay and you cannot go to court and compel the government to pay. You have no job, and then you cannot compel your government to keep your soul and body together for you by giving you unemployment benefit. There is a distinction between unemployment in Nigeria and unemployment in western democracies. All these civilised democracies like America, EU countries, Britain, Italy, Germany, etc., when they say they are unemployed, and when they give you figures of unemployed people, it means you don’t have any work to do, but you are taking money from government. So, that should happen in the Nigerian society, otherwise, you cannot have social justice. And if you don’t have social justice, legal justice is a failure. Therefore, the award of the SAN, as far as I am concerned, is to convince my colleagues, either in the inner or outer bar, that our next crusade should be to transfer economic right of the people from a non-justiceable chapter two of the constitution to fundamental rights, so that the government will have the duty, the obligation to give economic rights to our people, so that poverty can be abolished. We have always told the elite that nobody is safe if the poor are not catered for. Therefore, the award of the SAN on me will now be … I think my colleagues will now take me more seriously. I hope after September 10, the battle for the realisation of economic rights of the masses of our people is a sine quo non for the realisation of legal justice in our society. That’s how I see the award of the SAN, from the angle of the people. It is an elevation, what I will call from persecution, professional persecution to elevation and the need to serve the interest of the people of our country. Newswatch: Is it because of the absence of economic rights that you think everything is wrong in Nigeria even now? Fawehinmi: We have electoral democracy, not socio-economic democracy. The fact that you voted somebody into power does not mean that you have a democracy. Electoral democracy is different from socio-economic democracy. The last two and a half years, the poverty that has enveloped our people is more grinding, more dehumanising than the poverty we had before we had electoral democracy on May 29, 1999 . Newswatch: What makes you think so? Fawehinmi: Behold! Obasanjo inherited N85 per dollar. Today, one dollar goes for between N134 to N136 and this is reflected in all the things you buy in this country. This is because 99 percent of what we have in Nigeria are imported. Secondly, he inherited N134.50 per one pound sterling, today you go to any bureau de change, you need N190 to buy one British pound. That is the source of inflation in this country. Similarly, the cost of fund of borrowing is so high that nobody wants to start a business to employ people and you are spending 33 to 42 percent to get loan in an atmosphere beset with high inflation. Who do you want to sell to? The man whose purse is deflated? What do you want to manufacture? You want to bear the cost of your own electricity, water, import almost all inputs from abroad, and pay through this kind of exchange rate? And on top of that the cost of funds is between 35 and 42 percent. What business do you want to start? Therefore, people cannot be employed. America , the bastion of democracy has reduced interest rate seven times in the last eight months, they reduced again last night ( August 21, 2001 ). It is now about two or three percent the cost of funds in USA . In Britain , they have reduced interest rates four times. In Japan , it depends on the business that you want to do. In some places, there is a moratorium on the interest for up to five years. So, you see, democracy works there because they also built into their electoral democracy, socio-economic democracy. Democracy cannot thrive for long in an atmosphere of abject poverty. So, you have to solve the issue of poverty, you have to make everybody comfortable so that you can be inventive in the sustenance of democracy. It is not by electing people. Wait until 2003 and you will see the cutthroat, bloody contest that will attend to democracy in this country. Because of the poverty in the country, those who have stashed away ill-gotten money will come with this ill-gotten money to buy votes. But elsewhere in the advanced countries, you can’t buy votes because everybody is virtually satisfied. In Europe , unemployed people go on holidays. Every week they are given money. In Germany if you work and later you are out of work, you are paid 65 percent of what you were earning as gross rate for the first one year, the second year 63 percent. Thereafter, if you don’t find any job, the government will be paying for your house, everything until you have a job. So, they do go on holidays, the unemployed people. But if you are unemployed in Nigeria , your children will be driven out of school, the landlord will knock at your door, you will be starving, if you are sick, you will have to look for babalawo, and you will be given a wrong medicine. So, unemployment in Nigeria is invitation to starvation and death. You don’t succeed in a democracy like that. So, what we have today is electoral democracy, not socio-economic democracy. That is why I want to start the campaign amongst my colleagues after September 10; that for us to sustain this democracy and sustain the legal system in the proper sense of it and proper perspective, it is our duty to champion the cause of economic rights being made fundamental rights. Newswatch: How will the campaign be prosecuted? Fawehinmi: Oh! First of all I am opening up next week. I shall go to Calabar to re-unite with my friends at the bar conference. They will see my face for the first time in more than ten years. That’s the beginning. Thereafter, I will move from town to town, from one bar association branch to the other. Even in my preparation of the acceptance speech at the SAN award ceremony, you know I am the one to deliver the acceptance speech, I have been going round meeting the bar leaders, the judges, etc., to know their needs and problems. Once the conferment takes place, then you will see Gani Fawehinmi moving from one bar branch to another. And I am not going to limit it to the bar. You will see me from campus to campus. The battle has just begun, because they have given me what I need. Newswatch: Are you going to do this under the platform of your National Conscience Party? Fawehinmi: Well, that is on the political platform. Newswatch: You and Rotimi Williams are two foremost lawyers in this country but for some time now, you people have been at each other's throat. Is it a result of professional… Gani: No, no, no, no, I have no personal hatred for Chief Williams. He is a very good lawyer and I respect him a lot. He is one of the most brilliant lawyers. But you know the way he uses his own law is different from the way I use mine. He is a professional to the core. That’s where he stops. But I imbibed what the first lawyer in this country told us to imbibe. Christopher Sapara Williams, born in 1865, enrolled in Nigerian bar in 1888. He told us that “legal practice lives for the direction of the people and the advancement of the course of the country.” So, my own practice is added with the interest of the oppressed in the society. So, my own practice is from the angle of the masses, who are bearing the brunt of mis-governance of this country and they have been bearing the brunt of mis-governance over the years. That is why I go to prison. He can’t go to prison because he is just elitist in his approach. And I don’t blame him. That’s the way he has chosen.  But with all respect, I am people-oriented, I am people-focused. So, he can’t get into trouble with authorities. I mean, there are many things I have challenged which many people are not willing to challenge, so we are poles apart. We belong to the same profession, but you must know quite frankly, the hood does not make a monk. You are what you are before you wore the hood and gown. The hood and gown merely make you to achieve what you want to achieve. If you have the interest of the masses and you want to fight for them, then you use the profession you have, the instrumentality of the law. Newswatch: You were handling the Dele Giwa murder at the Oputa panel and General Babangida has failed to appear. How do you react to that? Fawehinmi: Babangida’s refusal to appear at the panel is the greatest assault on the moral integrity of Nigeria . Babangida’s refusal to appear is a slap on the face of justice in this country and it goes to show the extent the ex-heads of state have shown nothing but contempt to the people, whom they have ruled over the years. In 1991 Babangida used the same law that Obasanjo used to set up Oputa commission. In May 1991, Babangida set up the Justice Babalakin commission of inquiry, to look into the religious disturbance in Tafawa Balewa local government  area of Bauchi State . He invoked the same tribunal of inquiry act, Cap 447, laws of the federation to set up that tribunal. In 1992 Babangida set up the fuel shortage commission of inquiry headed by Justice Belgore. He invoked the same tribunal of inquiry act, Cap 447. When on the 4th of December, he was summoned by Oputa to come and say what he knew about the death of Dele Giwa, he ran to the court. His argument was that the tribunal of inquiry act, under which Oputa was set up is illegal. If it was illegal, why was it not illegal when he was head of state and he set up the two commissions. It is a moral question. Secondly, I am appalled and dismayed that even Oputa is negotiating how they will come to the tribunal. It is unheard of. Rule of law will collapse in Nigeria , if it doesn’t rule everybody. There should be no law for the rich and another for the poor. No different law for the powerful and another for the weak. Democracy cannot thrive or be sustained on double standards. That is why in America in 1974, they got rid of their president who was involved in the Watergate scandal. He resigned. The Americans say the law must rule by protecting the weak against the powerful. The law rules in India where their prime minister was jailed three years for corruption. The law rules in Britain where Jeffrey Archer, today, the former leader of the conservative party was jailed for perjury. The law rules in Indonesia where  Abubakar Wahid is now in detention and is being investigated by Sukanno Putri. The law also rules in Philippines where Gloria Aroyo put Joseph Estrada under house arrest for corrupt practices. The law also rules in Argentina where today, Carlos Menem is subjected to 65 charges. He ruled that country for 10 years. You remember Augusto  Pinochet who ruled from September 1973 to 1990, is being subjected to all sorts of investigation. You see, you cannot sustain democracy when you play double standards in the rule of law. Nigeria , if care is not taken, will weaken the confidence of our people in the sustenance of democracy with this kind of thing that is happening. I mean, I am going to be in that tribunal, I am going to come with two pictures of Dele Giwa, when he was in suit and when his body was decapitated. I want Babangida to look at the pictures and I hope Oputa will not stop me. If he does, I’ll pitch Oputa against the masses of this country. Let them decide if this man is just or not. Newswatch: Closely related to that, AIG Omeben (rtd) alleged that colleagues of Giwa refused to cooperate with the police. But the directors of Newswatch said you were a witness to their cooperation with the police. They said that it was actually Omeben who stalled the investigation. Fawehinmi: I didn’t read the publication but I knew that when I was investigating, Newswatch cooperated with me. But I also knew that when I came up with a book on the death of Dele Giwa, it was the same Omeben that locked me up at CID Alagbon while he was the AIG. I wanted to ask then why he locked me up. There are many questions to be asked. Newswatch:  You are the leader of the National Conscience Party. What’s your motive of setting up the party? Fawehinmi: In March 1994, we had the National Conscience, which I founded as a human rights activist and I gave six months notice to the government, that this organisation will transform into a political party. For two reasons: To fight the issue of June 12, and to force the military government to quit for the people to elect their leaders. Also to abolish poverty. They thought I was joking. People were coming to me, Gani they will kill you, they will shoot you and all those things. I said well, I am old enough to die. Even when I was younger I was not dissuaded by the fear of death. You see, let me tell you, when Dele Giwa was killed in 1986, that was the day I started living alone in this house. The other apartment  (another duplex) was rented out. I asked the expatriate then to leave the place. I put my family there and paid back his rent. The simple reason was if they had to shoot me or bomb here, I didn’t want my blood to splatter on innocent people. I took them as innocent people because I didn’t want them to be caught in the cross fire. In fact, it wasn’t long that I put these window blinds here. So, anybody could see me reading from outside. I was living here alone and I have been living here alone. Newswatch: Do you intend to register NCP? Fawehinmi:  Of course, we did not make any case of application during the Abdulsalami regime because I was the head of FACON that time. It would have been wrong for us to do so. Secondly, we asked for a sovereign national conference, Abdulsalami rejected it. So we said, we were not going to participate in the transition programme. So, we didn’t register. But when we saw what is going on now and we have so much apprehension that the people may run democracy aground. It is already happening now. So, we said that in any position, we will get the party registered. We were the first to submit our application. We stormed INEC on June 21 this year. With our application, constitution, programme, logo, flag and everything, we didn’t give them notice. They said it was an ambush. That was what Shehu Musa said.He presided and we addressed each other.  We talked for about one hour and he said they will get back to us. So far, they have not got in touch with us. We have our headquarters in Abuja and we have our staff there too. We are eager to contest all elections from local government to the presidency. Newswatch: Most people consider you as a principled man, someone who is capable of rescuing Nigeria from this quagmire. Don’t you consider it necessary to contest the presidential election in 2003? Fawehinmi: You see, my basic concern is to have a political platform where decent people, committed people to the course of the masses could use to run for elections. The issue of contesting a presidential election will depend on a number of factors. My health, that’s one. Two, I must see a prospect that there must be no rigging. I must see a prospect that there is fair and sincere election. There are three ways of rigging an election. And the first rigging has actually started. Can you imagine, two years and six months into democracy, the office charged with the responsibility of registering political parties – INEC, has not registered a single political party. Yet, they want to conduct the local government election next year. You are telling us that the already registered parties can go on. And they are organising all over the places. Those who want to get registered in time, you are delaying their registration. It was only recently that INEC submitted a bill to the national assembly. What has INEC been doing all these years? That’s the question. The second way of rigging: You rig during the election by stuffing the ballot box and all the things like that. After election, the declaration of result, by adding zero and that kind of thing. If INEC is capable of doing the first rigging by not registering political parties, by delaying it in order to put these parties at a disadvantage then INEC is capable of rigging during election and after the election. So, when I look at all the prospects, I will decide. But, of course, I am not bothered about failing or not failing. I am not concerned about that. I am only concerned about putting across the programme that will remove the people from the throes of poverty to that of comfort, as long as I am allowed to go round the country, put these views to the electorate. I have no money to give to them, I want to take them out of poverty. I want to give them comfortable life and social justice. If they accept the programmes, so be it. I think I can win Obasanjo. I mean it very sincerely. If it is fair. That is why I am saying that they should allow the military to supervise it. They should invite the United Nations, who will then call the member countries to send delegations to supervise this election to prevent unfairness. If that is done, I feel very confident in beating Obasanjo, hands down. Because the youths of this country will be at vanguard of those who will go and canvass votes for me. The students in the institutions of higher learning that we have are enough in numbers that they will go to the villages and canvass for a party of their choice. They will vote for the party that I represent. But, if they don’t do that, there will be massive rigging. You can imagine PDP voting N2.2 billion for local government election alone and they cannot vote N2.2 billion to build houses in their respective places that they govern. Can you imagine that after two years, Obasanjo has not put up a foundation of at least 10 million houses? I put up such a suggestion for him, and said look “if this democracy fails, it is you who will be the first casualty."  I have never met him.  I have never met Buhari, I don’t know Abdulsalami, I never met any of them in my life. I only see them on the pages of newspapers. And I said if the democracy fails you are the first casualty because no military man will go for governor. They just kill the president and go to the radio and say “Fellow country men…." Save us the agony of another military rule. Call all the governors together, let us try to build 30 million houses in five years. The federal government will bear 70 percent of the cost. You must contribute 30 percent. Let us lay the foundation from one place to another. When we solidify democracy, we can continue with our bitterness. But, for God’s sake, let us solidify democracy. He ignored that. Now look at the health problem in the country. People now go to babalawo to be able to save themselves from diseases. Our people cannot afford money for good healthcare any longer. The United Nations Educational and Scientific Organisation, UNESCO, prescribed for Nigeria 36 percent of fiscal allocation to education, Ghana 28 percent, South Africa 38 per unit. This man is not governing us. Seventy-seven times he has left this country. He does not stay at home to look at the problem of students at the University of Ibadan , farmers in Kaura Namoda, or the fishermen in Rivers State and so on and so forth. He likes being the president of the international community. He was not elected by the United Nations. He was voted for by the Nigerian public and they are suffering. The poverty is too much. I don’t know how he wants to do it to go beyond 2003. There is going to be a bloody election. The money they have stashed away, they will use it and if care is not taken, they will stultify and scuttle this democracy. So, we have a duty to intervene. That is why the National Conscience Party wants to contest. But if they don’t and we are back to square one, please I beg you, I will go to Ondo and take my rest instead of parading the prisons again. To parade the prisons for characters like Tinubu again and when we tell him to bring his certificate…. You know what they did to me on October 13. He almost killed me in the court premises. You have to kill me to stop this case. Now, we are at the Supreme Court. December, we will finalise it at the Supreme Court. Such a man does not have a moral authority to govern Lagos State . That’s why he is messing up with the money of Lagos State . Lagos State is broke. Can you imagine the man taking commercial loans for social services? Commercial loans generate interest. Social services loans do not generate interest. You are taking commercial loans. This man has sold the intestine of Lagos State . He only wants to carry the carcass. Newswatch: You mentioned contesting an election. It is believed in Nigeria that the problem may not always be the man at the top, but that some of his subordinates may not be as sincere as he is. How are you sure that if you go into politics, the people under you will not mess up your programmes? Fawehinmi: Oh my God. You have asked a very important question. There is nothing called government without a leader. A government reflects the type of leader you have. If you are the type who condons evil, evil will be perpetrated under you. If you are the type who fights evil, they know that you will throw them out in no time, and you will be ruthless in pursuing it. Obasanjo condones evil, he does not fight evil. That is why his anti-corruption programme is as dead as dodo, completely dead. Cold dead. How can anybody be telling me he is fighting corruption? First, he said Abacha stole. He asked them to return money. Then you are telling me, you stole one million, you return ten thousand and you are allowed to go free. Is that how to fight corruption? What of Gwarzo and others? Are they still not walking the streets? Tony Ani, what has he done to him? Has he arraigned him before any court of law? If you are taking part in a process of illegality, how do you fight that illegality? Then his best friend who sponsored his election – Babangida. What has he done to investigate him? He is telling us, go and investigate  him. Did he ask Nigerians to look for facts when he sent the SSS, the DMI, NIA, the police, Interpol after Abacha and investigated the accounts of Abacha? Why can’t he do that to Babangida? This man is not serious about corruption. He is only condoning it. Newswatch: You suggested a military-supervised election. Don’t you think that might pave a way for the military to try and come back? Fawehinmi: No, no, no. That’s a very wrong way of understanding it. One, military is part of the Nigerian project. The constitution provides for the military to secure the territorial integrity of Nigeria . If we are attacked, the military are going to do the same. Are you telling me that if you tell the military to go and attack an invader, the military will allow the invader to come because they want to scuttle this democracy? Secondly, are you also telling me that if you put military boys in charge of ballot box, that anybody could come there and stuff the ballot box? It is not possible. Police in itself is weak. Newswatch: How do you look at the issue of international organisations funding human rights groups in Nigeria? Fawehinmi: I have always opposed it from the word go. Today, Nigeria has at least 400 human rights groups. Most of them are funded from abroad. There is a danger. Does any Nigerian fund human rights organisations in Britain? Do Nigerians fund human rights organisations in America? Do they fund human rights organisations in Germany? You see, we are dealing with very clever people. Multinationals, they are very clever. I don’t want a second slavery. Some human rights groups are doing very well. By the type of leadership of some of them, they cannot be disloyal to this country. I cannot say the same for many others. I don’t want to go into names, you see they are my friends. But if they have to rely on foreign fund, then the fund must be regulated. I will advocate that there should be a law to regulate the activities of all human rights groups. There should be a law promulgated by the national assembly on how they should be registered, how they disclose their funding. Newswatch: Some of your past employees say you are a slave driver and do not pay good salary. How do you react to that? Fawehinmi: That is absolute rubbish. There is no lawyer that I bought a car for that I asked for a payback. I must have bought not fewer than 15 to 20 cars for lawyers. The present person there, is using two cars and one of them is Mercedes. Nobody pays back. All the cars you see parked there by staff, they don’t pay back. I don’t give loan for people to buy cars. Secondly, regarding salaries, I am shocked to hear that, because I don’t know of any lawyer who is earning less than N20,000 in my office. My deputy earns more than N50,000 a month. My wage bill is in millions every month. I want to know the establishment that pays in millions every month. We reflect this in taxes we pay to the government every year. I operate law, practice law, write law and publish law. We are talking of Nigeria law publication, the chambers and all the people that publish for us. This is a place where the gate-man earns N11,000 to N12,000 a month in our chambers. A place where a messenger earns N12,000 a month. He is given a motorcycle. I mean in our chambers, they serve refreshment free of charge on daily basis. We have the largest chambers in this country. Look at the secretaries. There is no secretary in the chambers who earns less than N15,000 a month – just for typing. Go there and find out what I am talking of today, the 22nd of August when you are interviewing me. And I don’t default. I have never defaulted in the last 37 years that I have been practising law in this country in salaries, never. So, I don’t understand. Newswatch: How far does your personal belief and crusade affect the way you run your chambers? Fawehinmi: Well, I run my chambers on system and I ensure absolute rigidity in the system. I don’t allow people to make costly mistakes. If they do, they are fired. That’s why people say I am ruthless. Yes, I am ruthless on the side of efficiency. When you see a person who brings a case, his life is involved. Therefore, everything must be committed to it. And if you don’t do it, you’re fired. I am pathologically committed to excellence. You know why I say so. If I write a letter, three people must read it. After that, they make correction. We are fanatical about correcting errors. If any error creeps in, that guy is in trouble. If we find anything, I will destroy it. That is why we take pains. Before you discover mistakes in our letters, it takes time. That is why people say I am a slave driver. Yes, I admit that. Newswatch: Would you attribute your heart ailment to your struggle? Fawehinmi: That is very obvious. I knew I was sick on the 21st of March when I attended the rally of the NLC. I was sick. I was told not to go but I said even to die in the midst of that struggle is a glory. Newswatch: Was it as a result of your incarceration? Fawehinmi: Yes, I started having hypertension 32 years ago when I started going to prison at Gombe. Newswatch: Some of your children are marked by prison names as you said. How many of them? Fawehinmi: About 10 of them are marked by prison names. Others are marked by police station names. Newswatch: You said you do not socialise, so what do you do as a form of relaxation? Fawehinmi: When I come in, I watch the CNN a lot, gather enough of information, make notes, go through the papers I have not been able to read as a result of office work. I like to drink coffee a lot. A lot of coffee, a lot of tea. I have more than eleven brands of tea. I am a tea connoisseur. I think that’s just it, I listen to some music. Newswatch  You don’t visit friends? Fawehinmi:  No, no, no. I have friends. With all respect to them, they are very good in visiting me. But quite frankly, I have friends here and I don’t know where they are living. Relations that I don’t visit for 20 to 30 years and they come here to say hello. So, that is one thing about me, I am not a sociable person. Newswatch: So, what is your religious life like? Fawehinmi: I am a Muslim but I am not a fanatical Muslim. I don’t think I pray five times. I pray but not up to five times. I do that every morning. I put everything together. Five times? Oh my God! I do what God wants us to do. I mean I help my neighbour. My scholarship programme has been on since 1971. I am doing the 30th anniversary of that scholarship this year now and it is going to cost me at least N1.5 million. Newswatch: As a Muslim what is your view on sharia? Fawehinmi: I am worried that somebody who stole a cow, his hand was amputated, but a director who stole pension fund in the same sharia (state) is flogged. I think  that is pure injustice. If a poor man’s hand can be chopped off, then the rich man, who even stole pension of somebody was flogged. They were even hesitant in flogging him. It took two hours before they could make up their mind. I don’t think this sharia law should discriminate. I think that director should have greater punishment. So, if a commissioner is caught now stealing people’s money, I think in Zamfara, his head should be chopped off. But they won’t do that. In essence, sharia is a way of life for the Muslim. Then the imbroglio on the sharia was caused by the constitution. You have sections that support sharia. You have sections that oppose sharia. So, the confusion is caused by the constitution. If you remember in 1988, when this matter was to be set up, during Babangida regime and the constituent assembly was set up to review the constitution, Aikhomu was sent by Babangida to go and tell them that they must not discuss sharia. He gave them four areas that they must not discuss. I think the controversy was caused by the constitution. Section 10 says that religion should not be imposed on the state. There should not be any discrimination on religion. Sections 175, 178, 265 and others allow states to create sharia courts. In addition, in other sections of the constitution, Sharia Court of Appeal is a superior court of law. So, what are we talking about? Newswatch: Are any of your children lawyers? Fawehinmi: Two of them are already practising lawyers and there are two others who will soon come out as lawyers. Two others say they want to follow suit as lawyers but I don’t think they will like to parade the prisons. Newswatch: Do you find time to eat on a regular basis? Fawehinmi: Ah! Now you have touched the sore area of my life. Food is my life. I love it. I am an eater, but a very selective eater. Fruits and vegetables have taken over my meal. Not just any food. I don’t know just any fruit that is in season that I don’t insist that it should be bought, and must be on the table. It is for me to pick what I want. That is how I relax After breakfast on fruits, then my special vegetable must be packed for me to take to the office. That vegetable contains 17 ingredients, All these ingredients are chopped, and they must not stay more than 3 minutes on fire so as not to lose their value. Once I take that, I do not take any other thing. If I have a bowl of Eba, I must have a bigger bowl of vegetable soup. That is how I eat. So, I spend a lot on food. Newswatch Volume 34 No 10, September 10, 2001

 

The Nigerian University – An Ivory Tower with neither ivory nor tower; Steve Okeche; Edu-Edy Publications; Owerri; 2008

By Bayode Ogunmupe


THIS book of 144 pages is an indictment of the Nigerian university system. It describes vividly the decline and decay in the nation’s university system. It prescribes copious ways to halt this deterioration of the sorry state of affairs.
Chapter one of this nine chapter book dwells on the meanings of the words of the book’s title: University, Ivory, tower, and ivory tower. It also gave us a brief history and genesis of the university.
Chapter two peeps into the Nigerian university system. After a survey of the evolution from the Academy of Plato through Aristotle’s Lyceum to the school of universal learning, Okecha taught us how universities were formed in Europe in the 17th century AD. Then, the system by which Socrates taught Plato, Plato taught Aristotle became obsolete. The second chapter therefore delved into the evolution of the university in Nigeria. The poor rating of our universities is the subject of chapter three.
It has been alleged that the system of branding of Nigerian universities by the National Universities Commission (NUC) contributed to the deterioration in academic standards of the institutions. This is because most of the staff of these colleges lacked the experience and research competence to run the various universities of technology and agriculture which NUC brought on stream in the 1980s.
In chapter five, the decay of the Ivory Tower is discussed in detail. Here, the author enumerated various factors responsible for the decline of academic standards in the universities.
Chapter six entitled Doctorates for Sale, see the vendors in Nigerian universities, educate the tall order of the NUC, that every academic schooled obtain a doctorate not later than December 2009. The problems arising from the enforcement of that directive are highlighted. The author also has suggestions to prevent unrest on our campuses. It is unfortunate that the NUC order will further deepen the deterioration of academic standards in our universities.
For the seventh chapter, the conditions of service in the universities are its main preoccupation. It avers that the remuneration and conditions of service of academics are nowhere comparable to those of political office holders, the private sector and the judiciary. Thus, that academics are poorly paid in comparison to others has been laid bare by the author.
The focus of chapter eight is the academic industry; that is to say creativity and research in tertiary institutions in the country.
The importance of brainpower in the enhancement of growth and development of our economy is herewith highlighted. Thus, we must here avow that the gross underdevelopment of Nigeria has been caused by the neglect of our universities. University dons could not undertake research because of poor pay, absence of research facilities in the colleges and the restiveness prevalent in institutions today.
Chapter nine offers up to forty suggestions on how we can overcome the decline and decay of our university system. This book contains vital information on the Nigerian university system. Moreover, reading it is a rewarding experience particularly for some whose children have to attend a university in the future.
However, The Nigerian University is a must read for private university proprietors, governors as founders of state universities, the presidency to enable them learn how to handle federal universities, and state and federal legislators to enable them enact good education laws.
Steve Okecha, the author was educated at Government College, Ughelli, Delta State, Ahmadu Bello University, and University of Uppsala, Sweden. He was leader, Organic Research Group, ABU before moving to Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, where he is currently Professor of Chemistry. Also, he had served as Deputy Vice Chancellor and Provost, Delta State University, Abraka, Dean of Graduate School; director of AAU’s Consultancy Services; he is married with five children.

Democracy As a way of life

Democracy as a way of life, by Bayo Ogunmupe


AS we celebrate the third anniversary of our fourth experiment in democracy, it is pertinent to ruminate about democracy as a way of life. From the facts of history, we can confirm that democracy as a form of government evolved over time. It did not appear suddenly somewhere, complete and perfect. It is always a matter of the degree of democracy extant at a particular point in time. Was ancient Athens a complete democracy? No, because Athens permitted slavery in much the same way the Magna Carta could not guarantee total democracy in England, since serfdom persisted and many rights were still denied the commoners. What then is complete democracy? The answer lies in the fact that democracy is more than a form of government, it is a way of life. This is so because democracy should be at work everywhere in our lives; not just in politics and government, but in our everyday habits and customs. We must exhibit democracy in our treatment of people of other tribes and differing religions'. We must show democracy in our attitude towards our fellow workers and neighbours.
A country may have a high degree of democracy in its form of government and yet a very low degree of democracy in other aspects of its life, such as ethnic relations, religious tolerance, equality of opportunity to find a job or attend college of one's choice. The form of government is an important part of democracy but that is not all. Often the most suitable governmental form for a democracy is a republic. That is, a form wherein the holding of office depends on voting rather than on hereditary succession. But if you stopped to think, you can probably name a country where the government was and still is a monarchy rather than a republic. The nation nonetheless has made great contributions to democracy.
We have just been discussing the case of England in the Middle Ages and in the 17th century. It is called Great Britain today. Also, it is interesting to recall that the democratic republic of ancient Athens did not elect representatives. The number of citizens had chances to fill officers in rotation or by lot. This arrangement is known as pure democracy because all voters were included not merely represented in the law making assembly. It is important, however, to be mindful of the things the majority tells the government to do. Would it be democratic if the majority started telling the government to persecute non-indigenes or certain ethnic groups or some religious minorities? In other words, in addition to having their way, a democratic majority must foster the desire to give everyone equal rights and opportunities.
It so often happens that a group captures the will of the majority at a point in time in a democracy. In the regime of President Shehu Shagari, the aristrocracy captured the will of the majority and ruled Nigeria until the Armed Forces took over. The bourgeousie ruled the United States in the administration of Ronald Reagan. And the plebians in turn wrested power from them through Bill Clinton. That is what happens in democracies. Perhaps you can now see why we must put democracy to work whenever and wherever we can. A complete democracy brings ever increasing opportunities of betterment to the whole people, not only in politics, but in education, ethnic relations, healthcare and all that goes to making a good community in which people are happy to live.
Historically, it is not easy to make great progress in every field of democracy at once. Let us reflect on the fact that the United States started with the fullest, political democracy which had existed up to that time, yet it did not abolish slavery until more than 85 years later and then only as a result of a bitter civil war. However, we must remember that there are honest differences of opinion about forms and aspects of democracy. For instance, many Nigerians sincerely believe that under the present circumstances it is more important to have an Ibo president than to have a great president. You cannot be sure of the truth about any political issue. Thus, your opinion must be given in humility. If you are inflexible, you close the door to learning more truth. One person can be right in a group and others wrong. Voting does not determine the truth, it determines the line of action the most people want in the full spirit of democracy. The French sage, Voltaire once wrote to his more radical friend, Helvetius: "I disagree with every word you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it." Even though we cannot attain a goal as full and quickly as we would like, it is good to have a goal to aim at. The best tribute we can pay to democracy is to put it to work.
Ogunmupe is a veteran journalist

Gani, the Icon

He has always been a thorn in the side of many a government in Nigeria . A tireless human rights campaigner and “senior advocate of the masses”, colleagues, ordinary Nigerians pay tribute to Gani Fawehinmi on finally being recognized by his peers and becoming a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN. But who is he really?

By Bayo Ogunmupe

IT WAS A HOT AFTERNOON. THE TEENAGE PRI-mary school boy sat at the bank of a river in Ondo. He had a bowl of gari mixed with water on hand. As he was doing justice to the meal, a senior student came around to bully him.  “Get back to school because the bell had just rung,” the senior student said. But the youngster stood his ground. He would not go until he had finished his meal.

While the argument continued, a snake fell on the young boy’s head. Without any hesitation, the boy grabbed the snake and threw it at the senior, who ran for his dear life. The young boy is now the controversial lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi. That radicalism has continued as the hallmark of Fawehinmi, the radical Lagos lawyer who was made a senior advocate of Nigeria in July. He will be conferred with the title, September 10 in Abuja .

His  path to greatness as a crusader for the public good started in February 1969. For a moment Nigerians forgot they were fighting a civil war. They became engrossed in one of the juiciest scandals inNigeria ’s history. The young lawyer sued the secretary to the Benue/Plateau State government, the late Andrew Obeya, on behalf of a factory-hand, Abashia who said Obeya had an affair with his wife, Hannatu,in a car parked along the Jos/Zaria Road , Jos.

Although this should normally be a private tussle between two citizens, the state government got involved on behalf of its official. The governor, the late Joseph Gomwalk made efforts to get Fawehinmi to withdraw the case. When that failed, attempt was made to kidnap him. “That also came to nothing,” said Fawehinmi at an interview with Newswatch last week.

He was later clamped into jail under a detention decree that allows people to be detained without trial. To ensure he was kept away, the military government later charged him to court for illegally bringing arms to a local government area.

“I was not tried but moved from place to place inNorthern Nigeria . I was in prison for seven months. It was when I was in jail that I heard of the birth of my first child, Mohammed. By the time I was released, the six separate suits I had filed against Obeya had been struck out by the courts,” he recalled.

Two years later, Benjamin Adekunle, popularly called “Black Scorpion” during the civil war era and now a retired brigadier-general, caused the detention without trial of one Amos Ayodeji. Again, Fawehinmi filed a suit in a Lagos high court to secure Ayodeji’s release. He succeeded. In retaliation, Adekunle ordered the detention of Fawehinmi himself.

In 1971, crisis engulfed the University of Ibadanover a peaceful demonstration by the students against the excesses of the university authorities. The police invaded the university killing one of the students, Kunle Adepeju. The nation rose against the Yakubu Gowon regime.

Gowon set up a commission of inquiry headed by Justice Boonyamin Kazeem of the Lagos high court. The students hired Fawehinmi as their counsel. When the report of the inquiry was released, more than 80 percent of the students’ demands were met.

Also in 1978, Fawehinmi sued the federal government for banning the National Association of Nigerian Students and detaining its leader, Segun Okeowo. In the course of the case, Fawehinmi was arrested by the police and charged with stealing a camera.

When he obtained bail, he filed an application ofhabeas corpus on behalf of Okeowo. He won and Okeowo was released after 43 days in detention. Of course, Fawehinmi was himself acquitted and discharged of his trumped-up charge by a magistrate.

Again, during the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida,the irrepresible  lawyer was detained in a bizarre twist to a case in which he was trying to bring officialdom to book. On June 17, 1988, he was arrested at his Anthony Village chambers together with two old but vociferous men – the late Tai Solarin, a famous social critic and Michael Imoudu, an old trade unionist whose advocacy of socialism in Nigeria has marked him out as a subversive in the eyes of every government since he organised Nigeria’s first general strike against the colonial government at the end of the World War II.

They were arrested at Fawehinmi’s chambers when they turned up at a conference offering alternatives to the government’s structural adjustment programme, SAP. SAP had become very unpopular causing a riot in which 12 people were killed. While in detention, Fawehinmi was flown from prison to prison, “igniting hypertension and ill health for me,” he said.

Fawehinmi also showed himself as a crusader for justice in the murder of Dele Giwa, founding editor-in-chief of Newswatch in 1986. He relentlessly attempted to institute a private prosecution for murder against the nation’s topmost intelligence officers at that time, Halilu Akilu, director of military intelligence and A.K. Togun, deputy director, state security service, SSS. He charged them for the murder of Giwa by parcel bomb. Giwa had been interrogated by the intelligence services two days before his death. Fawehinmi who had been his lawyer and friend strongly suspects that the security agencies sent the bomb.  The lawyer is still pursuing the case at the Oputa panel on human rights abuses.

Fawehinmi has indeed faced many trials and triumphs in his crusade for social justice. He toldNewswatch last week that he has been imprisoned 29 times. He has lived in 15 prisons and eight police cells across the country. He has been charged to court 13 times and his chambers searched 15 times.

Because of his human rights crusade for the masses, students of the Obafemi Awolowo University gave him the title of Senior Advocate of the Masses, SAM. All the people who spoke to Newswatch last week said he richly deserves the SAN title now bestowed on him by the Legal Practitioners Privilleges Committee of the Nigerian Bar Council.

Fawehinmi’s mother, Muniratu, in her 80s, supports him. She does not see anything wrong with her son disturbing the government because she believes that if government does what is wrong,  he will surely disturb them. She said Gani resembles his father in character and appearance. She told Newswatch that his father was fearless and if anyone did anything wrong and his father got wind of it, he would make sure justice was done.

She added that it was God’s time for Gani to become a SAN. She said they had denied him the title in the past because of his radicalism. “As a mother, I feel worried and bad whenever Gani is detained, I caution him sometimes. But I cannot stop him from doing what is right,” she said.

Adebayo Adefarati, governor of Ondo State said that Gani had not changed much, that Gani was his “boy” in secondary school. He described Gani as a very rascally boy who was very bold. “Where his seniors were afraid to talk, Gani will stand up and tell you what he feels about a situation,” he said.

Adefarati said that Gani had always been fearless, which was why his seniors advised him to study law.

Adefarati said after Fawehinmi was named a SAN,he wrote him a letter of congratulations, “where I  noted how extremely productive he had been. That Gani had contributed immensely to the practice of law in Nigeria is widely acknowledged,” he said. “All I can add on Gani is to acknowledge his courage and sagacity in public affairs. If more Nigerians had Gani’s courage, Nigeria would have been the greater for it,” he stated.

Newswatch watched Gani in his chambers and among his associates for two days. He arrives office at about 11.00 a.m. each day. A deluge of calls, letters and heavy mail are found waiting for his personal attention. Later in the afternoon, political associates, members of the National Conscience Party, clients seeking legal advice and legal assistance stream into the chambers. Despite its remoteness from the city centre, the chambers is a beehive of activities as late as midnight every day.

Yet, Fawehinmi attends to everyone, including foreign visitors, those from the remote corners of the nation, from his native city of Ondo , lawyers from other chambers seeking legal consultation and from people seeking financial assistance from him personally.

In the basement of his chambers are case files of thousands of cases he has handled and the current ones which he is handling. Named litigation section, it also houses bound copies of all the newspapers in circulation in Nigeria , including foreign ones.

Fawehinmi told Newswatch that his guiding legal principle was taken from the words of Nigeria ’s first lawyer, Sapara Williams who admonished every lawyer  “to live for the direction of his people and the advancement of the cause of his country.” Because of his passion for justice, having been imprisoned and beaten by the police unjustly in life, Fawehinmi compassionately renders free legal services for the members of his self-defined constituency – the poor, the oppressed, the cheated, the ignored and the persecuted.

He has indeed changed the course of legal practice in Nigeria . Never in the history of law has one man done so much for the legal profession. He practises law, writes law and publishes law. His Nigerian Weekly Law Reports, NWLR, comes out regularly with more than 250 pages every week. He is the editor-in-chief and founder of the NWLR. He is author or editor of various law reports and journals totalling 20.

Fawehinmi has also won landmark judicial pronouncements and cases in Nigeria . In December 1987, the Supreme Court determined the right of a private prosecutor to institute a private prosecution for murder. The credit went to him. “There are so many constitutional cases, which I am personally the plaintiff establishing so many principles,” he said.

Other notable cases won by Fawehinmi in the course of his crusade for justice in Nigeria include:Fawehinmi versus Shonekan; an action which exposed the illegality of Ernest Shonekan’s interim national government, ING, after Babangida “stepped aside.”

Edwin Anikwem, deputy head of Fawehinmi Chambers, told Newswatch last week that  “Gani Fawehinmi inspires us very much here at chambers. He is very caring, kind.  He gets work done.”

Some people claim that Fawehinmi is a slave driver, but Anikwem denied it. “I dare say, he is no slave driver. But he does not suffer fools gladly. Working with him is an experience. He motivates us to attain greater heights. We have come to imbibe his philosophy of using law for the betterment of society,” he said.

He continued:  “This runs in the veins of every member of staff of his chambers. Gani encourages people to succeed as a lawyer. He makes everything available to you, money and materials. There are many advantages in working with him. For instance, we benefit from information on law available in his chambers and his sister companies. Moreover, it is the only place I know where you are considered on merit. He gives you opportunities to excel. He is a driver in the sense of getting maximum efficiency, of obtaining perfection. Gani is very thorough as a professional. He is an exacting leader.”

For Tunde Adeleye, presiding bishop of the Anglican Church, Calabar diocese: “I appreciate Fawehinmi’s contributions to social criticism. I also appreciate his boldness. He has suffered greatly in the hands of government. His defence of the poor, the needy is commendable. I see him as a formidable social critic, man of learning and one who has become an icon and philanthropist.”

Odia Ofeimum, social critic and chairman, editorial board of TheNews magazine had this to say on Fawehinmi: “Whether he gets the title or not, every Nigerian in the law profession knew that Fawehinmi was bigger than whatever he could be given.  In fact, the very system of having SAN was doing itself a favour when it finally had Fawehinmi applying to become a SAN. That he is getting it after so many people he is intellectually superior to, actually shows a man who was more prepared to give than to receive. You don’t need to be a lawyer to appreciate Fawehinmi’s genius as a barrister. He has become a personification of radical law in Nigeria . Through his law reports, Fawehinmi has advanced the course of law more than any other lawyer in Nigeria . He has a strong sense for the defence of public morality.

“But Fawehinmi is not always right. I remember during the struggle for June 12, he took some positions which surely he will reverse today. He was requesting for the soldiers to intervene. That was extremely naive. There are other times when, honestly,  you would wish as a social critic, Fawehinmi was a little slower in responding to an issue because that way he would be able to get all the information before acting.”

Ofeimum went on: “Fawehinmi has not been a great builder of organisations. He has built a fantastic law firm tapping the skills of other lawyers. But as a politician, there are so many things which he does which I consider inimical to the survival of his political party. Thus, he is a better advocate than administrator.

“On Bola Tinubu, the Lagos State governor, Fawehinmi over reached himself. His emotions got the better of legal knowledge for not knowing that Tinubu has immunity and that the issue of Tinubu’s integrity bordered on morality not legality.”

Ebele Eko, a professor of English and deputy vice-chancellor, University of Calabar believes if Nigeriahas had more crusaders of Fawehinmi’s ilk we might have been spared that many years of military rule.

Ugochukwu Egesi, physician at the University Teaching Hospital, Calabar, said “Fawehinmi is the greatest advocate on the lawyers’ roll in Nigeria .”

In the opinion of Ogbadu Zakari of the federal inland revenue department, Lagos , “Gani Fawehinmi is truly the advocate of the masses for his penchant to defend the poor freely. But if he wants to rule this country, he must be ready to accommodate other people’s views. He should respect the viewpoint of others because no one has a monopoly of wisdom,” he said.

Williams Adebayo, a legal practitioner based at Ojodu, Lagos , said this of Fawehinmi: “Gani is a very successful lawyer and human rights crusader. His profound knowledge and understanding of the law has enabled him to use the law and the courtroom as instruments of protest and social change. Today, his success has been in the advancement of justice and the enhancement of human rights.”

In 1994, Fawehinmi formed the National Conscience Organisation as a human rights movement. “As an organisation, National Conscience is fighting for the economic rights of the down-trodden in Nigeria . The National Conscience transformed into a political party in October 1994 in defiance of a military order banning the formation of political parties,” Fawehinmi told Newswatch.

According to Fawehinmi, the National Conscience Party, NCP, was formed with two main objectives. Firstly, to rally public support for the actualisation of June 12 presidential victory of Moshood Abiola in 1993. Secondly, to provide a platform for the emancipation of Nigerians from economic, political, social and cultural slavery.

In pursuance of his political goals, Fawehinmi promises to be more committed to the ideals of justice. “First, justice is in two parts, you have legal justice relating to the courts and social justice relating to the masses. Social justice cannot be attained without economic fundamental rights.Nigeria today has no respect for the economic rights of the mass of our people,” he said.

Henry Akunebu, a lawyer, believes Fawehinmi has built a great name for himself and that politics should be his next vocation. “He has so distinguished himself as an advocate and defender of the poor that no Nigerian can boast of any higher ties with the Nigerian people. If he plans well, the presidency ofNigeria is within his grasp in the near future,” he said.

In the opinion of Akunebu, “if Fawehinmi is serious in his presidential ambition, he should reach out to other parts of Nigeria . He must establish a newspaper, radio or television in order to propagate his gospel of justice to the masses. It is essential that Fawehinmi reorganises NCP so that people other than Yoruba can take up its membership.”

Ayo Obe, lawyer and president of the Civil Liberties Organsation, CLO, told Newswatch, “that the recognition of Fawehinmi as a SAN is a well deserved honour.” But she doesn’t see it changing his crusading spirit. “I don’t see the honour changing him. I think Fawehinmi will continue to be SAN and senior advocate of the masses together.”

Brady Nwosu, a Lagos-based political consultant commended Fawehinmi for his courage, steadfastness and dogged devotion to noble ideals. “Gani Fawehinmi is a special gift  to mankind, particularly to Nigeria . He remains a personality in law you cannot ignore. Fawehinmi has long remained a lone voice in Nigeria ’s devious political firmament,” he said.

Olufemi Adekoya, a lawyer, described Fawehinmi as a brilliant, ferocious and rugged legal practitioner. “You know, it is not enough to be a lawyer, you must be willing to risk your life in the course of your profession. Fawehinmi is the only man in this country that has put his life on the line in the course of practising his profession,” he said.

Adekoya told Newswatch that Fawehinmi was the first human rights activist in Nigeria , which was why students gave him the title, senior advocate of the masses. He said he hated Fawehinmi’s excesses. One of which was his recommendation, on television  that Obasanjo should reduce the price of petroleum to six kobo per litre, which was unrealistic.

The lawyer also explained that sensational advocacy was unethical and that it should be avoided. But in the opinion of Adekoya, Fawehinmi is always emotional in the matter of Dele Giwa at the Oputa panel which was an unprofessional act. He said the SAN was delayed because of Fawehinmi’s style of advocacy.

Fawehinmi is also a philanthropist. Because of his experience of financial deprivation as a student, he instituted his own scholarship scheme in 1971. Every year 40 students receive scholarship awards from him.

For Fawehinmi’s family life, you need to visit his serene home at Ikeja  GRA. His home stands on a large expanse of land covered with flowers. There are three buildings in his courtyard, two duplexes and a guest chalet. Fawehinmi lives alone in the first building. His family lives in the other.

He has two separate areas for rearing chicken and goats. They are about 90.

The walls of his sitting room are covered by glazed newspaper headlines of Fawehinmi‘s travails. He told Newswatch the windows were not covered so that Abacha’s henchmen would not miss their target if they wanted him. He said his desire for the safety of his family informed his decision to live all alone, separate from the family.

Tolulope Fashipe, Fawehinmi’s younger sister, said her brother is a wonderful person.  She said Fawehinmi treats her with loving kindness and that he is a good family man. Fashipe said she is very happy for Fawehinmi, for the SAN honour.

For Fawehinmi’s elder brother, Wahid, a general merchant, “Gani is the dean of the family. He is just like our father, hates injustice. As a brother, he is very supportive, a good family man, responsive to our needs at all times.”

Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi was born on April  22, 1938 , at Ondo, Ondo State . He was educated atVictory College , Ikare; the University of London, England and the Nigerian Law School , Lagos .

He was called to the bar in 1965. He has practised law since then. He also wrote columns in the Daily Sketch, the Nigerian Tribune, and The Chronicle.

Fawehinmi won the American Bar Association Award in 1996, and Bernard Simons award from the International Bar Association in 1998. He was given the traditional title of Lomofe of Ondo in 1978. He is married to two wives and has 14 children.

As a Man Thinketh by Bayo Ogunmupe

THERE are various laws of success. The first for mention is that life is spiritual. “Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven,” Mat 18:18. This means that you have to convince the spiritual powers in heaven that you deserve greatness before you can enjoy wealth on earth. And if you obtained riches by hook or crook, they aren’t going to last, neither would they be enduring.
Two, there is the law of sowing and reaping. It is what you sow that you reap. And yet there is another, ‘As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Because thoughts are things, when thoughts are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence and a burning desire, they become even more powerful. However, if you want to succeed in life prepare well. Any enterprise built by wise planning becomes strong,” Proverbs 24:3.
What happens when you are not prepared? Your hopes wont materialize. The dividing line between winning and losing is preparation. The great Tennis champion, Arthur Ashe said, “The key to winning is self confidence and the key to self-confidence is preparation.” Your wishes of becoming a star wont make your dreams come true. You’ve got to prepare adequately to gain laurels. If you plan to keep growing, preparation must become your way of life. You must never stop asking, Jehovah, what do you want me to do? What will it cost me in time, effort and resources? What obstacles must I overcome? With that mindset, you are well on your way to fulfilling God’s purpose for your life. A good leader thinks ahead, your success in life is determined by how important you regard your goal and your ability to prepare for victory. Alexander Hamilton, a founding father of the United States, said, “Men give me credit for genius, but all the genius I have lies in this – when I have a subject at hand, I study it profoundly.” So if you want to succeed, prepare well.
Besides, your road to greatness lies in having a cause greater than yourself. How could David stand up to a giant? Because his people were being threatened and he cannot run away. A survey was conducted among centenarians, people who lived to be over 100 years. You will expect exotic diets, miracle drugs and strenuous exercise.
But no. the things that all these centenarians had in common was purpose. They had a compelling reason to rise every morning.
God created you for a purpose. At 12, Jesus said, “I must be about my father’s business,” Luke 2:49. Twenty-one years later, dying on the stake, He announced, “It is finished,” John 19:30. Those statements frame a fulfilled, God glorifying life. So ask Jehovah to reveal to you His purpose for your life. Until you find God’s purpose for you, you have not succeeded. As you go through life you discover there are many ways to gain wisdom. One, by writing down, reflecting on what you have learned through experience. Two, gleaning from the collective knowledge of others. “By pride comes nothing but strife, but with well-advised is wisdom,” Prov. 13:10. Three, thinking outside the box. Four, not rushing to closure. Growth is always a work-in-progress. Creativity is untidy and unnerving. The ability to stay focused with faith in the midst of change is the hallmark of maturity.
But the ultimate source of wisdom is Jehovah. A young executive told his secretary he didn’t want to be interrupted. But his boss needed him and walked in. when he found the young executive on his knees praying, he withdrew quietly, and asked the secretary, “Is this usual?” “Yes,” she replied. “No wonder I come to him for advice, said his boss. If you need wisdom ask God. “For the Lord gives wisdom, from His mouth come knowledge and understanding” Proverbs 2:6. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and it will be given to him,” James 1:5. “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hyprocisy,” James 3:17.
Our champion for today is Mark Elliot Zuckerbeg, the Jewish American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-creating the social networking site. Facebook, of which he is chief executive and president. Facebook was co-founded by Zuckerberg and his classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin and Chris Hughes while they were students at Harvard University. In 2010 Zuckerberg was named Time magazine’s Person of the year. As of 2011, his personal wealth was estimated to be $17.5 billion.
Zuckerberg was born in 1984 in White Plains, New York to Karen, a psychiatrist and Edward Zuckerbeg, a dentist. He and his three sisters were brought up in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Zuckerberg was raised Jewish, but he has since described himself as an atheist.
In High School, Zuckerberg excelled in classics before transferring to Phillips Exeter Academy where he won prizes in science and classical studies. At a party in his sophomore year, Zuckerberg met Priscilla Chan, a Chinese-American from Boston, Massachusetts. They have dated continuously ever since and in 2010, Zuckerberg invited Chan, now a medical doctor to move into his rented house. By the time he began classes at Harvard, he had already achieved a reputation as a computer prodigy. He studied computer science and built Facemash site. But Harvard shut it down because its popularity had overwhelmed Harvard’s server and prevented students from accessing the Internet.
President Barack Obama had aprivate meeting with Zuckerberg when the President dined with technology business leaders in California in February 2011. Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room in February 2004. He left Harvard without a degree, he didn’t complete his studies. He moved to California with Moskovitz and other friends. In July 2010, Zuckerberg reported that Facebook reached 500 million-user mark, agreeing that Facebook could earn more income from its phenomenal growth. In 2007, Zuckerberg was named by MIT Technology Review as one of the top 35 innovators in the world. A lawsuit filed by Eduardo Saverin against FAcebook and Zuckerberg was settled out of court. In the settlement, Facebook affirmed Saverin’s title as co-founder of Facebook. Saverin signed non-disclosure contract after the settlement. All in all, Zuckerberg affirmed that pursuit of paper qualifications is the purview of employees of industry, that life rewards creative entrepreneurs such as Zuckerbeg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and others, certificate or no certificate.

Sucess Secrets of of Champions

Ogunmupe: Success Secrets Of Champions

By Bayo Ogunmupe

RESEARCH has shown that people who become champions, the men and women who make it to the top of their career are those who accept that they and they alone are in charge of their own lives. They win by dreaming big, setting tough goals, putting plans on the table and damning the consequencies. Their pedigree is character, dedication and the pursuit of excellence.
Champions serve to demonstrate that winners are ordinary people who never have anything to prove.

So, what is holding you back? Three keys to living without limits are clarity, competence and concentration. Clarity means that you are absolutely clear about who you are, what you want and where you are going.   You write down your goal and you make plans to accomplish it.   You do something everyday to move toward your goal.   Competence means that you are very good in your chosen field.   You apply the 80/20 rule to everything you do, focusing on becoming outstanding in the 20 per cent of tasks that contribute to 80 per cent of your results. You dedicate yourself to continuous learning and self improvement. You must realise that excellence is a moving target.

Concentration is the discipline to force yourself to focus single-mindedly on one thing and stay with it until it is finished. Concentration is perseverance without distraction, keeping to your goals, when you apply yourself to your dreams, thinking in terms of possibilities you move ever closer to the realisation of your dreams. However, how badly do you want success? You can achieve anything if you want it enough. It isn’t so much whether you can win, it is much more a question of whether you are willing to pay the price. Paying the price may mean years of low income from part-time jobs, to give you the time to acquire the knowledge and skills that will allow you to live your dreams.

It might mean leaving your family and friend by moving to a new area, perhaps halfway around the world, where your talents are in demand. Whatever the price, you must decide if you are willing to pay the freight. Winners always accept paying prices willingly.

Once your dream is in place, the next step in your championship journey is to develop the dream into a vision. The vision is a more focused concept of how the dream will become reality. All great champions have a clear vision of how far their talents can take them. Goals are the fuel of desire. A winner’s next step is to break the vision down into manageable goals that will create and maintain maximum desire. The first step in creating burning desire is to decide exactly what you want.

Goal setting is essential for success. Goals, unlike dreams, follow a special set of rules. The power of goal setting should never be taken lightly in the making of champions. Setting goals allows you to focus your conscious and subconscious energy on a distant flag keeping you motivated along the way. Smart goal setting follows specific rules. They are: Specific, motivational, attainable, relevant and trackable.

A specific goal is to be the greatest journalist of all time. That is a long term goal. This can be broken down to short term goal of being the winner of the Cable News Network African Journalist of the year. This serves to boost your confidence in winning other laurels.

Two, the goals you set must have the motivational power to excite you enough to enable you invest time and effort necessary to realise your goals. That is why champions set big goals, because only big goals have the power to make them work harder to gain their objective. Three, although your goal must be lofty, it must be attainable given the time required with your dedication. Someone must have achieved goals near to it if it is attainable.

Four, your goal of becoming a champion must be relevant. For example, Nigeria is now in the throes of poverty and unemployment, an ambition to win the Nobel Prize for Economics, in order to pull off  an economic miracle of widespread prosperity would be a most relevant ambition.

Finally, for a goal to be trackable you must have a way of knowing if you are moving closer to your long term goal. That is, you must have past champions upon whose achievement you can build on. For your ideas to be on track in the field of economics for example, you must build on the works of development economists such as Karl Marx, John Mayuard Keynes and Amartya Sen.

Our champion for today is Robert Schuman, the French statesmen who founded the European Coal and Steel Community and worked for the establishment of the political and economic unity of Europe culminating in the European Union. Born in Luxembourg in June 1886, died in Metz in September 1963, Schuman was a member of the French National Assembly from 1919 till he was arrested by the Gestapo after the German occupation of France in 1940. He became a minister just before he was arrested and deported to Germany. He escaped in 1942 to France where he rejoined the French resistance.

After the war, Schuman rose to great prominence. He was Minister of Finance, then Prime Minister from 1947 to 1948 assuring parliamentary stability in a period of revolutionary charge and partisan insurrection. He led the Third Force, a coalition of intellectuals opposed to both the Communists and the Gaullists: forces intent on changing the French constitution by intimidation rather than the ballot box.

In the last days of his first premiership, he proposed plans that later resulted in the Council of Europe and the single market-European Economic Community. Become Foreign Minister in 1948, he retained the post in different governments till 1953.

As Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Schuman was instrumental to the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Schuman was a signatory to the statutes of the Council of Europe; the Treaty of Washington even though the French National Assembly declined to ratify it. He later served as Minister of Justice before becoming the first President of the European Parliament, which bestowed on him by acclamation the title: “Father of Europe”. He was one of the founding fathers of the European Union.

In 1958 he was given the Karlsprecis, an award by the German city of Aachen to champions of European peace, commemorating Charlemgne, ruler of what is today France and Germany, who resided and is buried at Aachen. Celibate and modest, Schuman was very religious, a Bible scholar and revolutionary thinker.

He was also a courageous political activist. In May 2004, he was being considered for beautification as a prelude to being declared a saint. A social science university was named after him at Strasbourg, France and the administrative headquarters of the University of Limerick is named Robert Schuman Building in Ireland.

His unalloyed testament was that he initiated and implemented the law paying social security benefits to the aged and the unemployed in France from 1947.

Sucess Secrets of of Champions

Ogunmupe: Success Secrets Of Champions

By Bayo Ogunmupe

RESEARCH has shown that people who become champions, the men and women who make it to the top of their career are those who accept that they and they alone are in charge of their own lives. They win by dreaming big, setting tough goals, putting plans on the table and damning the consequencies. Their pedigree is character, dedication and the pursuit of excellence.
Champions serve to demonstrate that winners are ordinary people who never have anything to prove.

So, what is holding you back? Three keys to living without limits are clarity, competence and concentration. Clarity means that you are absolutely clear about who you are, what you want and where you are going.   You write down your goal and you make plans to accomplish it.   You do something everyday to move toward your goal.   Competence means that you are very good in your chosen field.   You apply the 80/20 rule to everything you do, focusing on becoming outstanding in the 20 per cent of tasks that contribute to 80 per cent of your results. You dedicate yourself to continuous learning and self improvement. You must realise that excellence is a moving target.

Concentration is the discipline to force yourself to focus single-mindedly on one thing and stay with it until it is finished. Concentration is perseverance without distraction, keeping to your goals, when you apply yourself to your dreams, thinking in terms of possibilities you move ever closer to the realisation of your dreams. However, how badly do you want success? You can achieve anything if you want it enough. It isn’t so much whether you can win, it is much more a question of whether you are willing to pay the price. Paying the price may mean years of low income from part-time jobs, to give you the time to acquire the knowledge and skills that will allow you to live your dreams.

It might mean leaving your family and friend by moving to a new area, perhaps halfway around the world, where your talents are in demand. Whatever the price, you must decide if you are willing to pay the freight. Winners always accept paying prices willingly.

Once your dream is in place, the next step in your championship journey is to develop the dream into a vision. The vision is a more focused concept of how the dream will become reality. All great champions have a clear vision of how far their talents can take them. Goals are the fuel of desire. A winner’s next step is to break the vision down into manageable goals that will create and maintain maximum desire. The first step in creating burning desire is to decide exactly what you want.

Goal setting is essential for success. Goals, unlike dreams, follow a special set of rules. The power of goal setting should never be taken lightly in the making of champions. Setting goals allows you to focus your conscious and subconscious energy on a distant flag keeping you motivated along the way. Smart goal setting follows specific rules. They are: Specific, motivational, attainable, relevant and trackable.

A specific goal is to be the greatest journalist of all time. That is a long term goal. This can be broken down to short term goal of being the winner of the Cable News Network African Journalist of the year. This serves to boost your confidence in winning other laurels.

Two, the goals you set must have the motivational power to excite you enough to enable you invest time and effort necessary to realise your goals. That is why champions set big goals, because only big goals have the power to make them work harder to gain their objective. Three, although your goal must be lofty, it must be attainable given the time required with your dedication. Someone must have achieved goals near to it if it is attainable.

Four, your goal of becoming a champion must be relevant. For example, Nigeria is now in the throes of poverty and unemployment, an ambition to win the Nobel Prize for Economics, in order to pull off  an economic miracle of widespread prosperity would be a most relevant ambition.

Finally, for a goal to be trackable you must have a way of knowing if you are moving closer to your long term goal. That is, you must have past champions upon whose achievement you can build on. For your ideas to be on track in the field of economics for example, you must build on the works of development economists such as Karl Marx, John Mayuard Keynes and Amartya Sen.

Our champion for today is Robert Schuman, the French statesmen who founded the European Coal and Steel Community and worked for the establishment of the political and economic unity of Europe culminating in the European Union. Born in Luxembourg in June 1886, died in Metz in September 1963, Schuman was a member of the French National Assembly from 1919 till he was arrested by the Gestapo after the German occupation of France in 1940. He became a minister just before he was arrested and deported to Germany. He escaped in 1942 to France where he rejoined the French resistance.

After the war, Schuman rose to great prominence. He was Minister of Finance, then Prime Minister from 1947 to 1948 assuring parliamentary stability in a period of revolutionary charge and partisan insurrection. He led the Third Force, a coalition of intellectuals opposed to both the Communists and the Gaullists: forces intent on changing the French constitution by intimidation rather than the ballot box.

In the last days of his first premiership, he proposed plans that later resulted in the Council of Europe and the single market-European Economic Community. Become Foreign Minister in 1948, he retained the post in different governments till 1953.

As Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Schuman was instrumental to the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Schuman was a signatory to the statutes of the Council of Europe; the Treaty of Washington even though the French National Assembly declined to ratify it. He later served as Minister of Justice before becoming the first President of the European Parliament, which bestowed on him by acclamation the title: “Father of Europe”. He was one of the founding fathers of the European Union.

In 1958 he was given the Karlsprecis, an award by the German city of Aachen to champions of European peace, commemorating Charlemgne, ruler of what is today France and Germany, who resided and is buried at Aachen. Celibate and modest, Schuman was very religious, a Bible scholar and revolutionary thinker.

He was also a courageous political activist. In May 2004, he was being considered for beautification as a prelude to being declared a saint. A social science university was named after him at Strasbourg, France and the administrative headquarters of the University of Limerick is named Robert Schuman Building in Ireland.

His unalloyed testament was that he initiated and implemented the law paying social security benefits to the aged and the unemployed in France from 1947.