Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) who has died aged 71, was one of the most famous figures in Nigeria. Fondly referred to as "the people's lawyer" and "Senior Advocate of
the Masses", he used his legal training and resources
in fighting for justice for the Nigerian people.

Fawehinmi was not everything to everybody. You
either liked him passionately or hated him intensely. This was because of his boundless and sometimes suicidal energy with which he tenaciously and uncompromisingly pursued and crusaded his beliefs, principles and ideals for the untrammeled rule of law, undiluted democracy, all-embracing and expansive social justice, the protection of fundamental human rights and respect for the hopes and aspirations of the masses who are victims of misgovernance.

One of his most notable fights was the mysterious
killing of Nigeria's leading newspaper editor Dele
Giwa by a parcel bomb in 1986. Fawehinmi openly
accused the ruling military junta of General Ibrahim
Babangida of being complicit in the journalist's
murder. Fawehinmi took the case through to the
Nigerian apex court, the Supreme Court, but lost. For this, the regime tried to humiliate him publicly.
Babangida, when asked why his regime had detained the lawyer, told a magazine that it would have been out of place not to because all regimes before him had done the same.


Fawehinmi fared no better under the military regime of General Sanni Abacha in the early 1990s.
Fawehinmi led the fight against the cancellation of 12 June 1993 presidential election and the subsequent detention of the election's victor, Chief Moshood Abiola. His passport was subsequently seized on many occasions; his residence and chambers were ransacked several times. He was beaten up repeatedly and was exiled from one part of the country to another to prevent him from being listened to by the masses. Some of his books which
the military junta did not like were confiscated and
one of his Lagos houses where his law books were
kept was about to be set ablaze when the would-be
perpetrators were caught and apprehended by
neighbours. Yet he was undaunted and until his
death he continued to take on the ruling class, filing a law suit against the current civilian administration
just a few weeks ago.


He was called to the bar in 1965 and quickly set up a
practice in Lagos. The practice soon grew and he
became a mentor to many left-leaning lawyers and
academics. His friends and allies included the
celebrated musician Fela Kuti and his human-rights
crusading brother, the late Beko Ransome-Kuti. But
controversially, Fawehinmi supported the
candidature of a former Nigerian military ruler,
General Mohammed Buhari in the 2003 and 2007 presidential elections. Fawehinmi had fought Buhari over human rights abuses when the general was in power in the early 1980s.


In 1993, Fawehinmi was awarded the biennial Bruno
Kreisky Prize, an honour given to international
figures who have advanced human rights causes. In
1998, he received the International Bar Association's Bernard Simmons Award in recognition of his human rights and pro-democracy work. In 1994, he and some other notable Nigerians formed the National Conscience Party of Nigeria and he stood for the 2003 presidential election in 2003 under its aegis.


But Fawehinmi was more than an activist; he was
also a philanthropist and a sharp legal mind. He gave scholarships to many poor Nigerian students and revolutionised law reportage in Nigeria with the
establishment of the Nigerian Weekly Law Reports in the late 1980s, the publication becoming a valuable tool for law students and practitioners alike.


He was elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of
Nigeria (SAN), the highest legal title in Nigeria in
September 2001. In 2008, he rejected one of the
highest national honours, the Order of the Federal
Republic, in protest at the many years of misrule
since Nigeria's independence.

www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/gani-fawehinmi-lawyer-and-activist-who-fought-for-human-rights-in-nigeria-1783425.html

Had Gani Fawehinmi been alive today... Chai! He would have been nominated the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation

....