Encore
About two weeks ago, I had discussed the futile attempt by a hired mob of miscreants who pretensiously tagged themselves “youths” or “students”, to stop me from speaking truth to authority at Gani Fawehinmi’s memorial lecture. Today, I will continue and expose these misguided hirelings for what they are today, a rented mob. Now, read on.
The futile attempt to prevent me from speaking truth to authority
It was my time to speak. There was bated animation. I was given the microphone. Amidst intermittent ovation and clapping (to the utmost shame and embarrassment of the hirelings), I spoke truth to authority. I recalled the history of my long standing association with Chief Fawehinmi (he fondly called me “Ozek baba”, or “mobile dictionary”, or “mobile library”). I recalled how I co-founded with him, the now famous Nigerian Weekly Law Report (NWLR), actually suggesting its name and colours, modelling it after the English weekly Law Reports, before its launching on 1st October, 1985.
I told the audience that if Gani, who fought tyranny and dictatorship across the length and breadth of Nigeria, using law as an instrument of social engineering, were alive today, he would equally defend those same people they are stigmatising as “corrupt” without a court pronouncement. He would have fought this government which engages in much impunity, nepotism, clannishness, disobedience to court orders, corruption and double face, with passion and vigour.
I recollected to the audience that in fighting tyranny and oppression, Gani had in 1984 (during General Muhammadu Buhari’s military government), defied the NBA (for which he was initially blacklisted and his name entered in the roll of dishonor by the NBA, which later recanted). Gani actually led me to defend so called “corrupt politicians”. This not because he was supporting corruption or believed in it, but, rather, because he fervently believed in upholding extant constitutional provisions that guarantee fair hearing and presumption of innocence to accused persons. Consequently, Gani led me and others to defend Colonel Peter Obasa, Chief Kila, Ibrahim Dikko, Isaac Idio Udoka, etc, who were accused of corruption and misappropriation of public funds. More on this later. I told the audience how I later founded the Universal Defenders of Democracy (UDD), which was launched by Justice (Dr) Akinola Aguda, in April, 1992. Hon Emeka Ihedioha, who later became Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, was my Director of Publicity. It was this platform that I used in securing court injunction against the detention of the “Kuje 5” (Gani, Beko Ransome Kuti, Femi Falana, SAN, Baba Omojola and Segun Maiyegun). I also used UDD to stop the execution of General Zamani Lekwot, who had been sentenced to death by a Special Military Tribunal set up under IBB military junta, over the Zagon Kataf crisis. I never knew General Lekwot. I met him for the first time 21 years later, at the 2014 National Conference, where we were both delegates. I was later to co-found the Joint Action Committee of Nigeria (JACON), with Chief Gani Fawehinmi and other leading lights in the human rights and pro-democracy movement. I was the National Vice Chairman, Publicity and Publications. It was this platform we used to finally push out the IBB junta in 1998.
Did gani ever defend persons accused of corruption?
The answer is a loud yes. Gani defended many people accused of corruption, embezzlement of public funds, etc. But, he was not himself corrupt. I will show these anon. Gani had, during his life time, exhibited his legal wits during encounters in the courts with the best lawyers in Nigeria. One of such epochal cases in which he appeared is recorded as Gani Fawehinmi vs NBA (1). In this case, Fawehinmi had dragged the NBA to court in 1984, over the Association’s decision, directing lawyers to boycott the Special Military Tribunals (SMT), established by the General Buhari military regime. To the Ondo-born late activist per excellence, he had a constitutional right and duty to defend any client. As a result, he shunned the NBA’s directives and appeared for his client, Col. Peter Obasa (rtd), a former DG NYSC, and his Deputy, Chief Kila, then standing trial before the Special Military Tribunal set up by General Muhammadu Buhari in 1984. Distinctly defiant, Gani subsequently instituted an action against the NBA, the General Council of the Bar (GCB) and three Elders of the Bar, Chief F.R.A Williams, Mr. Kehinde Sofola and Chief E.A Molajo, all of blessed memory, over his blacklisting.
Specifically, Fawehinmi, whose uncommon bravery, is said to have been traceable to his late grandfather, Lisa Alujonu (literally meaning “invisible spirit”), had in the suit, asked the court to determine whether his appearance before the SMT, Lagos zone, was legally and professionally justifiable within the context of the 1979 Constitution as amended by Decree No 1 of 1984, the LPC 1975 and the rules of professional conduct in the legal profession made by the GCB. He also prayed the court to declare that the decision of the NBA taken at its NEC meeting in April 1984 and ratified at an emergency meeting on May 8, 1984, in Lagos, that its members must not appear before the SMTs established under Decree No 3 of 1984, was unconstitutional, illegal, null and void. I will dilate on this case later.
So, when did it become a crime for a lawyer to defend persons who are merely accused of corruption, and whom government lawyers are themselves prosecuting, using the best legal hands the government could hire? When has it become a crime for a lawyer to work hard and accomplish his set objectives, by winning his cases, since the rented crowd had also accused me of using my deep knowledge of the law and expertise to “free accused looters”? They also funnily accused me of using “legal technicalities” to free accused persons. I will also show later how great Gani had confessed he also used legal technicalities to free Col. Obasa on one of the most serious charges against him. This was in an interview he granted to Bosah Iwobi, Babatunde Olugboji and Seye Kehinde, in the African Concord magazine of 20th May, 1991. You cannot cover the sun with your palm.
How i conquered the hired miscreants
Guess what. By the time I completed my speech, and the hired hands witnessed the lengthy standing ovation accorded me by the distinguished audience, they were silenced. Like cowardly dogs with tails between their legs, they vanished into thin air with their hirers, never again to be seen. They probably could not wait, nor stomach the outstanding award that was later given to me by the NBA. They were roundly dejected, disappointed and defeated, that I refused to be intimidated, while calling them rented crowd and paid hirelings, to their face.
Such is the sorry Nigeria we now live in our country, where dissenting opinions, plurality of views, objective critique of government actions and freedom of speech, are being regarded as treason or “hate speech”. God, don’t get tired of being a Nigerian and rescuing us.
Gani defended clients accused of “corruption”, not corruption itself
That Gani abhorred corruption is a known fact. That I also detest corruption is legendary. I am perhaps the first Nigerian who, at a Nigerian Police retreat in January, 2015, when I was invited by the then IGP, M.D. Abubakar, to review the Handbook of Police Code of Conduct, to have declared: “We must kill corruption before corruption kills us. Corruption is today the 37th state of Nigeria, and easily the wealthiest and more powerful. We must therefore fight it frontally”. But I added the clincher: “In doing so, we must fight corruption within the realm of our constitutional and legal regime, with respect for fundamental human rights of Nigerian suspects and the rule of law”.
That has been my mantra. I still stand today by those words uttered three years ago. At that ceremony was the then APC candidate, now President Muhammadu Buhari and Professor I. E. Sagay, the Chairman of PACAC, amongst others.
Let’s peep into history
In 1984, the Buhari Military Government had promulgated Decree No. 3 of 1984, the “Recovery of Public Property (Special Military Tribunals) Decree, 1984, for the trial of politically exposed Nigerians, who were accused of corruption. Some Nigerians were arraigned before the Tribunals, accused of serial corruption offences.
Gani was caught between and betwixt obeying “the compelling need” to defend persons accused before the tribunals, so as to “deal a lethal blow on corruption in public places”, thus, disobeying the NBA which had called for a total boycott of the tribunals, on the one hand, and his undoubted professional duty to defend any person accused of a criminal offence and whose innocence was presumed under section 33 of the then 1979 Constitution, on the other. He chose the latter. In Gani’s own words at his documented press conference speech titled, “The politics of the Nigerian Bar Association on Decree No 3 of 1984, (Trial of politicians and public officer”), he said as follows:
“On the 5th of May, 1984, the National Executive of the Nigerian Bar Association hurriedly assembled at the Nigerian Law School Auditorium. 134 members of the Nigerian Bar Association out of the total of about 7,637 members to garner support for a boycott of all Tribunals established under Decree No. 3 of 1984, by the present federal military government.
“I was the first to speak when the resolution for boycott was thrown open and I completely opposed it. Out of the 10 lawyers who spoke on that day I was the only one who was totally independent of the political goings-on in the last civil rule in the country both at the centre and in the states. Twenty-four other lawyers supported me. Twenty-one lawyers abstained from voting and the rest voted for the resolution. Most of those who voted in favour of the resolution were politicians who actively participated in the last civilian regime both at the centre and in the states.
“Appearance of lawyers before tribunals created under decree n0. 3:
“There is no doubt that Recovery of Public Property (Special Military Tribunals) Decree 1984, established Tribunals for the Trial of Specific but Special Offences. The federal military government is competent to promulgate Decree N0. 3 by virtue of Decree N0. 1 of 1984. Neither the Nigerian Bar Association nor any Court of Law in Nigeria can question the competence of the federal military government to promulgate Decree N0. 3 of 1984. Apart from tribunals established under Decree N0. 3, the following tribunals have been set up under other Decrees: Public Officers (Protection against False Accusation) Tribunals under Decree N0. 4 of 1984; Robbery and Firearms Tribunal under Decree N0. 5 of 1984; Exchange Control (Anti-Sabotage) Tribunal under Decree N0. 7 of 1984; Miscellaneous Offences tribunal under Decree N0. 20 of 1984 and Currency Offences tribunal under Decree N0. 22 of 1984.
“The nigerian constitution in relation to tribunals and criminal trials
Section 33 (4) of the 1979 Constitution Provides: “Whenever any person is charged with a criminal offence he shall unless the charge is withdrawn be entitled to a fair hearing within a reasonable time by a court or tribunal”.
This sub-section provides a fundamental right of every Nigerian charged with an offence to be tried by an ordinary court or by tribunal as the case may be. This sub-section has not been suspended or modified by Decree No. 1 of 1984…” (To be continued next week).
Thought for the week
“Human rights are not a privilege granted by the few, they are a liberty entitled to all, and human rights, by definition, include the rights of all humans, those in the dawn of life, the dusk of life, or the shadows of life”. (Kay Granger).