Being very blunt though naturally compassionate, I am not used to writing eulogies because I strongly believe that a life is celebrated by living it which to do so means using the resources for the grand and the great at the very core of our being to the fullest to the extent that one is happy with oneself for having done the best and so has to leave the rest when it is time to go.
In the case of Gani Fawehinmi, I just have to do it here and now for reasons that are personal. Before then, there is the need to immerse in the fundamental issues which the life everlasting of Gani Fawehinmi raises.
We never can know how it happens. Indeed it transcends the province of human understanding, one has to confess, how the humble ones, who in their innocence never would hurt a fly, have always in the end won the battle against those who use the state resources by transforming the common place into a terror-ridden terrain to bully as if tomorrow is not another day.
Name them in history and in our times. Who would have thought that Wole Soyinka who was sent behind the bars and rough-handled and harassed by the zombies, as Fela Anikulapo would joyfully call them, in uniform or out of it would win Nobel Prize and how they would all troop to Stockholm to sunbath in the glory that mocks and drowns their puniness and littleness and nobodiness? And what about Martin Luther King? When he fell we thought the story was all over only to discover that his was a rebirth in eternal glory here and there. And what about Mahatma Gandhi? He fasted until he became as thin as pin but never relented when those with the heart of the jelly fish would have thrown in the towel? And they are more even if they are few, this rare species that always remains endangered, to which Gani Fawehini belongs. Gone, they are born again into the radiance of glory in the hearts of people everywhere. That’s Gani Fawehinmi! His death is a rebirth to life eternal in the hands of history.
Now the Grand Silence of Gani can speak aloud, more than when he was around the corner here other than around the corner there. Why, says this voice which has become eternal now, did they do all that to Gani Fawehinmi? Indeed what was or were his offences? He wanted accountability and responsibility. He wanted that the books are balanced not by fattening the bank accounts of those who were elected to supervise the distribution of resources that they did not generate in the first place but to the benefit of the people who constitute the pool of human resources and the generator of same through the investment of what they have, what they can and the natural resources that belong to all. These are very simple demands that should not lead to sending machine guns and bull dozers and hooting and howling jet liners and combat planes so to say to bombard the dignified space of the person and the respectable space of the people.
He calls for respect for the simple demands of democracy. Free and fair election without a puppet electoral body bending the books by soiling the pens and rubbishing the people’s choice. OK, one can say that even in the land where democracy is still reigning supreme, things are not as neat as they should be. Yes, that in the end it is not the will of the people that prevails but the wish of those who financed the election. President Osama’s travails on the health issue shows that democracy could be more of a machine than a feeling instrument of change. But even then election remains free and fair in the United States. This is fundamental. Even then, if you have it really you get it in United States and this is irrespective of where you come from. These basic qualities are lacking in Nigeria. Also lacking in Nigeria is transparency. Lacking too is accountability. Lacking too is the readiness to leave the treasury alone. Lacking too is sacrifice. Yes sacrifice!
That’s what wins Gani the greatest prize that can ever be. It is the prize for exemplary achievement under difficult conditions. Sacrifice calls for transcending one’s personal need in the struggle to get a great name not only for oneself but for a people and through it, for humanity. There is the need to explore this exemplary divine gift that puts Gani on a pedestal that is beyond that of this world. Suppose he did not throw himself in the fray for Nigeria and the silent and helpless majority, what would have Gani done? He would have concentrated on his law practice and won cases and accumulated millions. Being very brilliant he would have served in many capacities in government and with his kind of personality, he would certainly have become well, the Vice President maybe and the President many times if it is allowed in the Nigerian Bar Association and on top of it all he would have enjoyed his sleep on the golden beds as most Nigerian politicians do and would have got himself mansions the like of Bayelsia Governor and many of that in Nigeria and abroad with a bevy of beautiful girls to supplement, well and, and, let’s face it, the list of what would have come the way of such a person like that in such a space as Nigeria, is simply endless. And the result of all this is that he would have lived to clock many more years until he needed the walking stick.
He knows what he could get if he parrots the mainstream and sails with the winds of business-as-usual – we speak in presence because Gani lives and shall continue to do so – but still he denies himself these luxuries and the promise of holiday in Rose Island and Lily Resort. He chooses the narrow path that leads to a difficult terrain. It is the terrain of abstention. The terrain of total self-denial. The terrain of unrest. Yes, such is the terrain of sacrifice. You don’t need to do all this if you are living for yourself alone. You don’t need to go through this terrible night of life if you think that you are here to cater to your needs and those of your family alone. Indeed you don’t need to walk bare-footed when you can ride in bullet-proof car that is paid for by the people if what you know life to be is drink, eat and be merry because well, isn’t it the way of Bliss?
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
Sacrifice calls for transcending the carrot of personal comfort. It is about what a person can do to make a people become proud of themselves and through charity that begins at home with the person, what a person can do to make everybody wherever they are to be proud of being a human being. The life of the silent ones who would never a fly hurt and who were harassed for no reason other than being exceptional remains the source of pride for peoples everywhere. This holds true for Gani Fawehinmi. That’s what sacrifice does.
In the final analysis, what matters to God and humanity is sacrifice which is rooted in eternal values because it is the heart of all values. Whatever is attained through and by sacrifice has always lived forever. In history and in our times, it has always been the winner. That’s why Gani Fawehinmi, the pride of sacrifice and the glory of silence shall continue to speak and demand the same thing that constitutes the core of his life – and the sacrifice at its centre – for as long as this space, this world, this humanity remain.
And this brings me to the personal experience I shall never forget. Gani Fawehinmi contributed two hundred naira personally to my flight ticket to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1978 for further studies. I got admission to do physics at the University of Goettingen – mathematics later got added and social science too – in 1978. At that time I was working as the Editor of African Spark which was founded by Dr Obarogie Ohombamu – God bless his memory –, a firebrand of Murtala owns undeclared assets in Kano fame. I went to the Surulere Chamber of Gani Fawehinmi to tell him about my problem. He issued two-hundred naira cheque there and then. And that was at a time when naira was riding high having reduced the German mark and the dollar to Lilliputians. My Thanks again, glorious soul.
Well, what Gani leaves behind and which because he lives remains is Sacrifice. Nigerians seemed to have banned the only word that could make the people great from their consciousness. Corruption is about lack of the spirit of sacrifice. See, Gani is not living now eternally because of the house or houses he owns or does not own, the car he rides or does not ride but he lives eternally through his achievements borne of sacrifice. The same holds for the good therefore the great and the grand of humanity.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });
It’s worthless, these mansions that shall get swept off with time and for which a Governor is even inviting the CNN to see as if it matters. You don’t need more than a place to put your head in this world. What the Lord demands and what humanity is waiting for is that which the person can give because it is given, that is the investment of talents rooted in determination and the struggle for that which constitutes a feather of pride on our caps and those of posterity and the conviction that we are here to do our best because every person is here for something special otherwise she or he will not be born.
Give it now, that special gift that you are to the world. This is not possible without sacrifice. You have to transcend the personal to reach the divine. And when this is done, then you have come home where you shall remain forever. That’s where Gani Fawehinmi is now. He is at home at last. Forever is the voice. Gloria!
[email protected]
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });