Gani Fawehinmi Wins Anti-corruption Defender Award Posthumously

caption: Chief Gani Fawehinmi (Senior Advocate of the Masses)

Ahead of the International Anti-Corruption Day on 9 December 2010, the late legal luminary and human rights and anticorruption activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, (SAN), has won the 2010 Civil Society Anti-Corruption Defender Award posthumously. His wife, Mrs. Ganiyat Fawehinmi will receive the Award on behalf of Chief Fawehinmi’s family at an event on Thursday 9 December 2010 at the AGIP Recital Hall of the MUSON Centre. The event will be chaired by the Minister for Information, Professor Dora Akunyili. 

Guests expected at the event include: Mr. Berend Jan Ronhaar, the Netherlands Ambassador to Nigeria; Mr. Bob Dewar, British High Commissioner to Nigeria; Ms. Linda Nwoke, the BBC World Service Trust Country Director; Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) and Justice Bunmi Oyewole.

Former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu won the award last year.

In a joint statement dated 28 November 2010, the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism; Socio-Economic Rights & Accountability Project (SERAP); Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC); Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), and Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), which made up the award jury said Fawehinmi deserved the award for his “consistent and unparalleled commitment to the cause of justice, transparency, accountability and development of the country.”

The statement signed on behalf of the groups by SERAP Executive Director Adetokunbo Mumuni said that, “Chief Fawehinmi was chosen for the 2010 Civil Society Anti-Corruption Defender Award for his demonstrably strong leadership, scholarship, integrity and honesty in both the practice of his legal profession and the cause of humanity. No Nigerian, living or dead, suffered the level of persecution he faced. He was detained in police custody or prison no fewer than 36 times. He was regularly in and out of jail for the cause of democracy, transparency, accountability and the rule of law. He was physically assaulted in the hallowed precincts of the courts and on the streets; his home and law office was sprayed with bullets and bombed.”

“But despite the risks to his safety and security, he never compromised the ideals, principles and the commitments that made him the Senior Advocate of the Masses, SAM, a title given to him by students of the Obafemi Awolowo University.”

“As a lawyer, Chief Fawehinmi saw law as an instrument against injustice, tyranny and bad government, fighting injustice wherever and whenever it manifested itself. He provided free legal representation to countless victims of human rights violations. He represented Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni activists in court. He handled about five thousand, seven hundred (5,700) briefs,” the groups added.

The groups also said that, “His unbelievable brilliance as a lawyer, pertinacity and courage as a human rights defender and humanness as a fighter against poverty distinguished him as the most celebrated anti-corruption defender of his generation.”
 
“This award is intended as an inspirational tool to recognise the courage, tenacity and contributions of outstanding leaderships who have championed reforms for better governance against formidable odds and risks. The award aims to recognize the important contribution of individuals and human rights and anticorruption non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working at great risk to expose and eliminate grand corruption,” the groups added.
Born on Friday 22nd of April, 1938, Fawehinmi had his early education at Ansar-Ud-Deen Primary School, Iyemaja - Ondo from 1947 to 1953 and his secondary school education at Victory College Ikare, from 1954 to 1958, where he sat for and passed his West African School Certificate Examination in 1958. On the 8th of December 1958, he was given a letter to his late father by the principal of the college, Rev. Akinrele. In it, the principal advised that Gani must be encouraged to study Law as a profession. While in college, he was popularly known as “Nation” because of his passionate interest in national, legal and political affairs. 

On the 29th of April, 1961, he left Nigeria by Sea with M. V. Aureol Passenger Ship for the United Kingdom. He arrived Liverpool on the 12th of May, 1961. He travelled by train to London arriving Victoria Station in the evening of that day.

On arrival in England, Gani received the result of his General Certificate of Education (G.C.E) Advanced Level which he took shortly before he left Nigeria. He passed very well. He then enrolled in the Holborn College of Law for the LLB degree of the University of London (External) in September 1961. He was in part II of the three year degree programme when his father died on February 5, 1963 and the source of his finance dried up. He was forced by financial circumstance to drop out of the Holborn College as a full time student. He took a full time job as a Toilet Cleaner in Russell Square Hotel in Southampton Row, London. He did other cleaning jobs which included working as a sweeper in the old Gatwick Airport between February 1963 and August 1964.

He literally taught himself Law for parts II and III of the LLB degree course and sat for and passed all his examinations. He came back to Nigeria in early September 1964 carrying a small suitcase containing: 2 pairs of trousers, 3 shirts, 1 pair of shoe (apart from the one he was putting on), 2 pants, 2 singlets, 2 pairs of socks and 2 black suits. 

On his arrival in Lagos, he enrolled in the Nigerian Law School for the compulsory three months course which he successfully completed.  Chief Gani was called to the Nigerian Bar on the 15th of January, 1965. In April 1965, he established his Chambers. 

As a result of his human rights and anticorruption work, he was arrested, detained, charged to court several times. His international passport was seized on many occasions. He was deported from one part of the country to another to prevent him from being listened to by Nigerians. Some of his books which the Federal Military Government did not like were confiscated. His Chambers at Anthony Village, Lagos State, was attacked and invaded by persons suspected to be government security men. 

On 26th August, 1995 Gani was arrested by the Federal Government Security agents of Abacha’s regime at the Port-Harcourt Airport on his arrival by air from Lagos and immediately deported back to Lagos through the same plane that brought him from Lagos to Port-Harcourt. The leader of the security men who arrested Gani at the Airport said to him:  “we have orders not to allow you to enter Port-Harcourt and to put you on the same plane that brought you from Lagos.”

Fawehinmi received several honors and awards, including: member of the Ghandi Foundation in 1971; American Bar Association Award for Human Rights in 1996; and the prestigious Bernard Simons Memorial Award by the International Bar Association (IBA) in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the rule of law in Nigeria in 1998. 

Signed
Adetokunbo Mumuni
SERAP Executive Director
28/11/2010