Oju e rekereke okunrin rogbodo wa jo ko wa ko mi oo
Oh, legend, come with me Fawehinmi,
please, come and join the dance Handsome huge man,
come dance with me.
A lot has been said and written about the life and times of the late legal luminary, Chief Gani Fawehinmi since his death became public knowledge more than two weeks ago. His demise drew out comments from friends and foes alike. In fact, in the words of Solana Olumhense, in his Sunday Guardian Column of 13th September, “everybody wanted to be seen to be seen to be ‘morning’ the great lawyer and humanist”. But how many did mourn him truthfully? Was it not an issue of people mining ‘Gani’s reputation and getting undeserved attention according to Olumhense quoted above? This poser shows that Gani’s death is a different stroke for different folks.Well, regardless of what was said or not said, the scenario that is now playing itself out has been predicted about three years back when the performance poet, Akeem Lasisi, dedicated a poem in his collection, Night of my Flight, to late Chief Fawehinmi. The poet, like a prophet, sees beyond the veil of time and weaves a beautiful local mat of words for Gani, the Great. As if he knows that death will soon knock on the SAM’S door and many including his sworn antagonists, will heap their tributes on him, he in the first stanza, asks:As the sun of the struggle still burnsCan I spread my carpet of songsFor the sturdy feet of the people’s priest And a beautiful carpet of songs the poet does lay! The second stanza he has an answer for the insincere mourners who vehemently opposed what Gani stood for in life but were the first to blow his trumpet in death:
I am not of the tribe of the gifted buriers
Who await the death of the seer
Before bathing his kernel In purple encomiums of crocodile tears
And “purple encomiums of crocodile tears” did they really shed. The dignified epitaphs such as “ a sincere critic” and Gani “was genuine” uttered by those who slowly and painstakingly made his lungs cancerous are not only ‘purple’ but ‘rainbow coloured crocodile tears’. They sent him to his ‘early’ grave at 71( considering the lifespan in the Fawehinmi’s lineage) and yet came out to greet his death with empty phrases of praise. What an insult!Lasisi understands their pranks and antics. He knows what they are capable of doing and he, in the third stanza, sings it out loud and clear:They mock the horse when the horse is still aliveMock the mare and mock its maneBut turn its tail to a tin godAt the prompted demise of the unsuspecting beastAfter bashing the hawks to their rightful place they belong – the abyss of history, the prophetic poet starts spreading his ‘shawl of songs’ for the ‘anointed priest’ of the masses. He proclaims Gani’s famed stand with the downtrodden which ‘the Niger witnessed’ ‘Benue applauded’ and ‘the Lagoon acclaimed with silver waves’. He eulogizes Fawehinmi’s sterling qualities which stood him out among his colleagues. The poet documents Gani’s bravery, courage and audacity before tyrants with only the wig and a strong principle as his weapons. Lasisi reflects the injustice meted out by a professional cabal to a man seeking a better use of the instrumentality of their profession. Gani was denied SANship for long :
The road to your SANhood a needle’s eye
Where politics of bitterness held sway
For a donkey’s years
Akeem, then attests to Gani’s strong belief in the equality of all men before God and the Law. To Gani, what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. Chief Mike Ozekhome, one of the numerous lawyers who once worked for Gani, confirmed this as well :He (Gani) accepted me into his chambers without a letter from anybody. I sim ply walked to him on November 21, 1981 and I said ‘Chief , I want to work with you. And he said what is your name ? And I replied , ‘Mike Ozekhome’, and he said, ‘are you ready to work? I said , yes sir’.In praising Gani’s insatiable desire for justice for everybody regardless of the circumstances of their birth, the poet posits :
You say birth is birth
Whether of the king whether of slave
Birth is birth, birth is birth…..
The royal fox and jungle rat
Must face a common music of the public court
Alluding to the incorruptible person of Gani, the poet asserts:
I want to carry the cross Of the masses
But I lack your principle of iron steel
That bends not in settlement floods
He strengthens the claim with a rhetorical question:
If they tickle my lust with s ministerial apple
Where looting is the order of the day
Kickback, the central clause of the contract law
Can I shy away as you’ve always done?
Lasisi brings his bridal chant to a moving end chronicling Gani’s endless struggles against injustice, corruption, mis-governance, abuse of power and poverty. He gives an insight into Gani’s incessant cries for a recalcitrant Nigerian society which appears to be deaf to all pleas for a change in the system of things. Gani sees and weep for a society bent on its own self-destruction.May be Lasisi has actually, without knowing it, reassured Gani when he reflectively put a question-statement to his barber of 38 years days before his exit. It is better captured in the words of the man himself, Joseph Ekpo :The last time I was with him was last August , on the 7th to be precise . I went to do his haircut and he looked at me in the eyes and said , ‘I have tried’( An interview in the Sunday Champion, Sept 12, 2009)And Gani did try! That is why Lasisi talks to Gani’s uncertainty with a couplet that runs through the final lines of his chant:
The tears you shed are worth the pain
The pain you take is not in vain
Gani, your life was never in vain. Your existence taught us a lot. You are, in the words of Walter Carrington, one of the most honest, most incorruptible and most fearless men Mother Nature bequeathed to the world. You live on in our minds.A word for the insincere mourners though:We will all die. That cannot be rigged nor purchased with billions, now floating over our heads. It is the pronouncement of God Himself and thus, we will all pass into history. But then, not everyone who passes into history belongs to the ages….. Gani has just become immortal – a legend(An article by Justice Kayode Eso in The Guardian, Monday, Sept. 14, 2009)A legend you are! That is why you are celebrated not mourned.
Omo aa boo Omo aa bo
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