According to Saint Augustine, one of the leading lights of
western civilization, he said: “without justice, the nation-state is merely a
band of thieves.” “Justice is the first condition of humanity,” Wole Soyinka, Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate, opined in
his prison memoir, “The Man Died.” “Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” said by venerable Martin Luther
King, when he emphasized the importance of justice1. Without
argument, justice is said to be as old as mankind. Even philosophers and poets
have through all ages, focused on the problems of justice. Indeed, the concern
for justice, the demand for justice is as
intense as its denial. The most evocative
call for justice, arguably, came from the Old Testament biblical prophet,
Isaiah, who in the distressing condition of impunity and injustice lamented
that “justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off, for truth is
fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. So truth cannot fail and he who
departs from evil makes himself a prey.2
Before now, the prophet has railed woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees,
who write misfortune, which they have presented to the needy of justice, and to
take what is right from the poor of my People, that the widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless”.3
Realistically,
justice is the first and fundamental condition of humanity. Justice is the
organizing principle of collective action, whether at the level of government.
The dominant theories and systems of political government all stress the
importance of giving citizens a sense of justice. In fact, the sense of justice
has proved more important than the ‘fact of justice’ in constructing the state.
Where people perceive injustice (not withstanding whether injustice is actual
or not), the setting is set for combustible reactions. Wars and fierce contestation
ensue. The crisis of perception of injustice has resulted in the invention of
the art of the management of conflict. It is in respect of management (and
disguising) of perception or injustice that the institution of law plays a very
important public role.4
Unarguably,
pragmatism and doggedness have been very illuminating on most of Nigerian
lawyers in the quest to bringing justice to the reach of the down-trodden
individuals in the society. Judges as well have demonstrated praise worthy and commendable
high sense of judicial activism through proper interpretation of the law.
Some
of the political personages who have changed human history and executed
programs that furthered the aspiration of social justice were lawyers. Such
leaders like Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, and Mahatma Gandhi etc. had utilized
the institution of law to constitute new patterns of social discourse and new
notions of government.
In the case of Nigeria, the struggles of Chief Gani
Fawehinmi, for which he has received both official and unofficial honors,
derived from his determination and dedication to use law as both the logic and
terrain of social contestation for justice.
In
the demonstration of this justice and the rule of law, we would have to look at
the extent of struggle for justice and the rule of law by late Abdulganiyu
Oyesola Fawehinmi, popularly called Gani, who died on Saturday, September 5, 2009. He was a
quintessential lawyer, indefatigable human rights crusader and the scourge of
every usurper of public office in the land5.
|
Although
this should normally be a private tussle between two citizens, the state
government got involved on behalf of its official. As a human rights crusader, Fawehinmi,
who was then a young lawyer, volunteered to defend Abashia who sued Obeya for
adultery and assault. The late Joseph Gomwalk, who was the head of state, made
efforts to get Fawehinmi to withdraw the case. When that failed, attempt was
made to kidnap him from the Hilltop Hotel, Jos, where he used to stay; that was
unsuccessful. That compelled Obeya’s lawyer to settle Abashi’s suit out of
court. Eventually, Obeya himself was forced to resign from his job.
For
all his troubles, especially in making an unassailable case for his poor client,
Fawehinmi suffered what became his first extra–judicial detention by the
authorities. He was clamped in jail under a detention decree that allows people
to be detained without trial. But Fawehinmi was happy that through his legal assistance,
Abshia, the poor and underprivileged factory worker, had his pound of flesh in
his case against Obeya, a government official. That marked the beginning of Fawehinmi’s
rise to fame in legal activism.
Fawehinmi
had an uncontrollable love for the poor, the cheated, the oppressed, the persecuted,
the ignored and students. This passion is responsible for the selfless service
he rendered without charging fees for the protection, defence and advancement
of the Nigeria
people. It is on record that he handled more than one thousand, five hundred
briefs free of all charges for members of his self-defined constituency – the
poor, the cheated, the oppressed and the persecuted. One of such cases was in
1971 when crisis engulfed the University
of Ibadan over a peaceful
demonstration by the students against the excesses of the university
authorities. The police invaded the university, killed Kunle Adepeju, one of
students. The nation rose against the then Yakubu Gowon regime.
Gowon
set up a commission of enquiry headed by Justice Booyan Kazeem of the Lagos High
Court. Fawehinmi volunteered to defend the students in court free of charge
over the unprovoked killing of Adepeju. When the report of the enquiry was
released, more than 50 percent of the students’ demands were met.
In
1976, the students of the University
of Benin benefited from Fawehinmi’s
free legal services when many of its leaders were rusticated and some expelled
over a crisis in the institution. The student had contacted Fawehinmi over
their ordeal and he responded by filing series of actions in the Benin High
Court. At the end of the legal battle, all the actions taken by the university authorities
against the students were nullified.
In
1978, Fawehinmi sued the Federal Government, and then headed by General Olusegun
Obasanjo, for banning the National Union of Nigerian students, N.U.N.S., and
the detention of Segun Okeowo, its leader. In the course of the case, Fawehinmi
was charged with stealing a camera.
When
he obtained bail, he filed an application seeking the release of Okeowo from
illegal detention by Ishola Oluwa, the trail Judge. He won. Okeowo was later
released from illegal custody and he served as an administrative officer
briefly in Fawehinmi’s chamber before he was re-admitted by the University in
obedience to court order. Fawehinmi was himself acquitted and discharged of his
trumped-up charge by a magistrate.
In
1983, the students of the University
of Maiduguri enjoyed Fawehinmi’s
free legal services after a crisis. There was a riot by the students of the
institution on February 2,
1983. After the riot, many students’ leaders were rusticated and
some were expelled. Fawehinmi took up their case up to the Supreme Court. The Supreme
Court then compelled the University authorities to re-admit the rusticated and
expelled students. Okon Akiba, one of the affected students, is now a medical
doctor and health service manager of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation,
NNPC.
Fawehinmi
also showed himself a crusader for justice in the murder of Dele Giwa, founding
Editor–in-Chief News Watch, on October
19, 1986. Fawehinmi led the legal battle to unravel the
perpetrators of the heinous act.
As a
courageous lawyer, FAWEHINMI had, on several occasions, taken the government to
court challenging some anti- people policies. One of such notable cases was
against the military government of Babangida in 1991; it was an action Fawehinmi
instituted to force Babangida’s government to render account of crude oil
during the Gulf war in 1991. In 1993, he filed an action challenging the Interim
National Government, ING, of Ernest Shonekan and exposed its
unconstitutionality after Babangida stepped aside.
In
1994, he filed another action compelling the late general Abacha and all the
public officers who served under his regime to publicly declare their assets to
enable the Nigerian people know the extent of corruption in public places.
Again in 1998, Fawehinmi went to court to challenge the decision of General Abdul
Salami Abubakar, the then Head of State, to increase the pump price of fuel from
#11 to #25 per liter. He said that the decision would bring serious economic
hardship and pains to the people of Nigeria. This was actually an
indefatigable human rights crusader who fought against injustices and showed the
society that judiciary is the last hope for the common man.
He
considered how suicidal and outrageous it would be for the rights of the less
privileged to be denied and swept into the gutter.
Our
Judiciary should be commended for its resilience to uphold the individual
rights, especially the rights to fair hearing. This is because, of what use is
a right to fair hearing (or trial) and equal protection of law for a man who
cannot afford the “legal” cost of the fair trial. The right might as well not
exist. In the words of the eminent Jurist, “.T.A Aguda, he said:
If a
poor man is cheated of his legal right by the state or a member of the ruling upper
class who can afford the luxury of litigation in our courts, he may have no
alternative than to forgo that right and await justice from God… If however, he
is foolhardy enough to enter the temple of justice, he and his family may
regret for the rest of their lives. For in the process –in his pursuit of what
he consider to be justice-he may become bankrupt and die a pauper...7
From
the opinion of T.A Aguda, it is actually a thing of the past when the less privileged
in the society was humiliated and oppressed. This was the situation in the then
military regime in Nigeria.
The regime, in which fundamental human rights were swept into bins.
Judiciary today has strived to uphold and maintain justice and bring it to the door step of the poor masses in the society hence, it is believed to be the last hope for the common man. The Judiciary should preserve the fundamental rights of the citizens. The Proper role of a Judge is to do justice between parties before him. If there is any rule of law which impairs the doing of justice, then it is the province of the judge to do all he legitimately can do to avoid that rule or even change it so as to do justice in the case before him. The Judiciary should be seen as the last hope for a common man. As ESO, JSC puts it in the case of SAIDU GARBA V. FEDERAL CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION;8
…Contemptuous of the judiciary which must
command the full confidence of citizens at all times in order to maintain the Rule
of Law.
The
role of the Judiciary should be to safeguard the fundamental rights of the
citizens and to sustain the democratic process. Commenting on the role of the Judiciary
in the democratic process, ESO, JSC said in the case of ARIORI
V. ELEMO8 as
follows;
Having regard to the nascence of our constitution,
the comparative educational backwardness, the socio-economic and cultural
background of the people of the country and the reliance that is being placed
and necessarily have to be placed, as a result of this background, on the
courts and finally the general atmosphere in the country, I think the court has
a duty to safeguard the fundamental rights in this country which from its age
and problems that are bound to associate with it, is still having an experiment
in democracy.
Finally, for the Rule of law to
triumph under a democratic government in Nigeria, the three arms – Executive,
Legislature and Judiciary – must work pari-passu.
They must work like a relay team which needs the active participation of all
the members to win the race or like white and black keys in a piano’s keyboard
which must work together to produce melodious music. As ESO K. put it:
For the rule of law to be meaningful, the direction
should not be left solely to the executive and legislature. The court must
regard it as a duty to pursue the principles positively for it is only when
this is done that justice would be done and also seen to have been done”.10