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The 10th Edition Of Fawehiminism And My Impression Of Pastor Tunde Bakare By Awopeju Idowu

January 20, 2014

FAWEHINMINISM is a yearly event, like a ritual, put up by the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Branch, which I call the ‘tiger Branch’. If there is any date or event I look forward to, it is January 15th.The date gives opportunity to the army of Fawehiminists home and abroad to converge for twin purposes.

FAWEHINMINISM is a yearly event, like a ritual, put up by the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Branch, which I call the ‘tiger Branch’. If there is any date or event I look forward to, it is January 15th.The date gives opportunity to the army of Fawehiminists home and abroad to converge for twin purposes.

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First is, to remind ourselves of the imperativeness of propagating the ideals and the ideas that Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAM, SAN) stood for.

Second, the platform is used to address ranging and burning issues of National importance. This year event was extraordinarily unique. Natural elements descending as early as 5am could not dampen our resolve to gather and converge at Motorways Centre and subsequently, staged a procession to Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park. Senior comrades like Onyekachi Ubani NBA chairman Ikeja, Dr. Muiz Banire, Barrister Ogunade, Barrister Funmilayo Tejuoso of Lagos State House of Assembly, etc were on ground to provide the needed morale booster to the flock of baby comrades, students and Civil Liberty Organization members, as we marched behind them. It was an epochal procession.

 
Incidentally, the guest speaker at the lecture hall was a foremost Fawehiminist, his Fawehiminism can be attested to in his Televangelism, you may not always agree with him but he is almost always right. He is no other person than the convener of Save Nigeria Group (SNG), Pastor Tunde Bakare. This writer has had the fortune or misfortune of listening to his rawest dissection and distillation of topical issues at different fora. But I saw him in another perspective during the said lecture, which I will explain shortly. As a pastor, he deploys Biblical injunctions with patriotic fervour to suggest corrections to the anomalies and abnormalities in our corruption- laden society. Many rogue politicians have been slaughtered on his altar, prominent among which is Baba Iyabo, who is not likely going to forget him in a hurry.
 
The topic he treated was; NIGERIA AT CENTENARY, A NATION UNDER BONDAGE? The finesse and panache by which he handled the topic was systemic and strategic, the industry that went into the preparation was self evident in the number of pages. It was a 19 - page jurisprudential thesis.
In his usual charming charisma, he held us spell bound as he took us through the epic developmental stages of our history. He minced no words in telling us where the rain began to beat us. Conspicuously, I am on the same page with his elucidatory expositions save for few diametrical views.
 
As I earlier said, I saw him in a different mood and mode entirely. Unlike some vainglorious big-wigs who are intemperate and intolerant of dissenting opinions, he received my comment and divergent poser that bothered on unbridled proliferation of religious centers with magnanimous equanimity. Even though I was not totally persuaded to subscribe to his non-radical submission on the poser, I still cherish and appreciate the way he laboured to school and scold me.
 
In his discourse, he re-echoed the popular misgivings towards the 1999 constitution as a document that lied against itself in its preamble 'WE THE PEOPLE '. Yet, he relied on the same document to dismiss and pooh-pooh my argument. That to me is unacceptable. You cannot approbate and reprobate at the same time. I agree completely that freedom of thought, conscience and religion as enshrined in the 1999 constitution is a fundamental right. However, it is incumbent on us to appreciate the fact that it is right that can be checked.
 
Nations that are serious about getting rid of home-grown colonization and its attendant iniquities don't fold their hands and allow religion to grow unfettered. It has been said repeatedly that leadership at all level is the clog in the wheel of our aspiration to fulfill our destiny as a people. I am tempted to ask, of what good for goodness sake is our huge appetite for religion and religiosity? Has it nipped crime and criminality in the bud? It is increasingly shameful that in our clan and clime, looters of our treasury and commonwealth have never been declared persona non grata. Rather, they are either conferred with chieftaincy title, honorary degree and or given preferential considerations by the spiritual heads. I will not be shocked the day somebody elects to offer prayer in a domestic airline due to fear of predictable crash. Ours is a paradise lost. Still, we are comfortable with frivolous religious jamboree. It is glaring to see that our needless and baseless claim to be the most religious country is tantamount to self inflicted bondage. No wonder Thomas Fuller said that a good life is the only religion.
 
With the way things are going now in this country, exegesis is relevant but no longer exigent. The only way to fight oppression is nothing but social revolution.
I cannot drop the pen without drawing the attention of the organizers to the way and manners the paparazzi conducted themselves. Many of them were disruptive, I have no grouse with their legitimate pursuit to profit financially from the programme but, they had no right to undermine the sensitivity of the lecture with their market-like attitude.
No doubt, with the unalloyed doggedness of activists in NBA Ikeja, there is hope of having light at the end of the tunnel.
Long live NBA Ikeja!

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The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters

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