Foremost Nigerian human rights attorney, Gani Fawehinmi is dead!

Saturday, September 5, 2009




Nigeria's foremost human rights attorney, Gani Fawehinmi is dead at 71.

GANI FAWEHINMI: DEATH OF AN ICON STATEMENT BY KAYODE OLADELE

I experienced a moment of grief this morning when I heard the news that Chief Gani Fawehinmi had died after a prolonged battle with man’s number one mortal enemy, cancer.
Chief Gani Fawehinmi’s sudden death is a national disaster which is being greeted everywhere with sadness, disbelief, astonishment, incredulity and great expression about the impact of his loss and socio-political significance of this great lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) to Nigeria.

It is a big loss to the nation which he served as a social crusader, constitutional lawyer, publisher, political thinker and human rights leader. He was a force in the socio-political history of Nigeria for several decades. No doubt, he was the greatest and dogged fighter of our time whose accomplishments in the struggle for the emancipation of the working and toiling people of Nigeria cannot be easily equaled. He was also crucial to those who abhor corruption and could easily be described as the Nigerian pillar of mankind’s oldest struggle - just and egalitarian society. But at least, he has left behind, an enviable and great legacy of honesty, hard work, patriotism, equal rights and justice which were the cause of his life.

We will remember him as the champion of the oppressed, a social crusader, a voice for the voiceless and the soul and spirit of democracy and human rights in Nigeria. His death will surely be missed not only by his immediate family, but by implication, an extended family that will most probably include the whole of Nigeria and the international community.



Tribute to chief Gani Fawehinmi by the Democratic Alternative (DA) 5 September, 2009

The inevitable has happened. Chief Gani Fawehinmi has gone the way of all true patriots of this land Nigeria and this world. All members of the Democratic Alternative join other authentic true patriots of our land to salute this unique man of honour, this man of courage, this man of the people, this man who truly loved his neighbour as himself. He was a valorous man who singularly, in his own confident manner and singular dedication added value to the concept and methodology of making the world a better place in his own time. Gani was a friend of the Democratic Alternative and cherished the necessity for the party he worked very hard to build National Conscience Party NCP to work closely and in harmony with the Democratic Alternative DA. He appreciated and expressed his admiration for the work being done in the DA.

In the same mind, he was a true friend of the exploited masses of the country. No wonder, the youths and students made him the Senior Advocate of the Masses SAM when the exploiter wielders of the Nigerian state power, to their own shame and self denigration denied him the professional honour of Senior Advocate of Nigeria that he had uniquely and richly deserved by sheer limitless contribution to the development of the law, a profession that he deftly used to pass irrefutable judgement on the exploiters of our land and people.Whilst members of the Democratic Alternative call on all the workers, farmers, youths , students, women and the unemployed to rise up in truth for the development of our land as Gani would want it, we equally warn the people to beware of his tormentors who will now shed crocodile tears by paying insincere tribute to this great man, this great Nigerian whom they tormented in his life time. Gani whom they jailed for speaking out on behalf of the people; Gani whom they sent violent men to attack in his home when they had sleepless nights as a consequence of his popular crusade; Gani whom they hated because he stood for truth, justice and fairness in the management of the immense resources of our land. Yes, they will come out with fake condolences. Beware of them.

The workers, farmers, youths, students, women and the unemployed can only truly celebrate this man of the people by coming together to build a mass political party with a programme for the rapid economic development of Nigeria to retrieve our people from the morass of poverty and deprivation to which the right wing politicians have sentenced them in sixty years of exploitation and cheating. Let us remove the exploiters from power. Let us come together and build a socialist economy from which the working people will derive a quality of life that is commensurate with the best that is available anywhere in the world. That is the objective we pursue in the Democratic Alternative and Gani loved it. Capitalism, in particular nurture capitalism that the right wing rulers are imposing on the country will only enrich a few and foreigners to the continuing detriment of the masses.All members of the DA commiserate with the family of a mentor, Gani Fawehinmi.

We know that Allah has accepted him into Al Janah, the paradise of love where Gani truly belongs. May his good soul rest in perfect peace.

For Democracy and Liberation
Dr Abayomi Ferreira
PresidentDemocratic Alternative

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