In this interview, Mohammed, first son of late legal icon, Gani Fawehinmi, tells GBENGA ADENIJI why his father stood on the side of the masses
Why did your father opt for a life in the service of public good?
I believe that there were certain things he saw. My grandfather was a philanthropist and because of his wealth, he did not only take care of his children, but several other children on the streets, who needed help. My grandfather was not educated but God blessed him abundantly and he helped many people. My father experienced a little taste of poverty which made him realise why his own father chose to live for the masses.
He felt it was important for him to assist people in need. His first area of interest was education because he benefitted from education. He reasoned that, that was key to success in life. He had always wanted to rule this country to make an impact but he was not given the chance. They knew the kind of President he would have been because he was an honest and straightforward man.
He was a man who would rather die for his beliefs. He never believed in compromise and he called a spade a spade. As his children, we adopted the same behaviour. He did not provide other options for us. We had to go through the straight, narrow and sometimes curvy path. The moment you doubted his way of life, you could not be on the same page with him or in his good books. That was clear.
Since his father was wealthy, how come he experienced poverty?
When his father died, the money that was being sent to him while he was studying in England stopped. He then started to fend for himself by doing menial jobs. That was when he tasted another side of life. When he was in his father’s house, a lot of things were done for him by people who worked for my grandfather, who was the Seriki Musulumi of Ondo State. And from what I was told, my father used to carry the umbrella and stool wherever his father went.
The story of how he became a lawyer began after his father’s driver killed someone with a car. His father was called for questioning by a young lawyer who did not respect the position of a religious leader, which my grandfather shouldered then. My grand father was annoyed by the way he was treated despite his influence and position. That was when he vowed that my father was going to study law.
Your father was a radical lawyer. Did this reflect in the way he disciplined his children?
My father used wood, horsewhip, cane and wire to flog any of his children that erred. I tasted them all.
Can you give an example of when he beat you and what was your offence?
There were many instances. When I was in form three at the Federal Government College, Sokoto, I went to the Nigerian Television Authority in the state with some friends to dance. The dance was later shown on television. He was at home watching the television with my mother when he saw me dancing. My father was very angry and took the first flight the following day to Sokoto. He came to the school and when I saw him, he asked what I was doing at NTA. I told him we went there to learn about the music and culture of the people in that part of the country. He asked me if that was what he sent me to do in school. Then he started flogging me with the horsewhip he had brought with him.
One of our teachers in the school Mr. Ogunleye, came to my defence that it was part of the school’s project but my father told him that he would not want me to become an uneducated entertainer and that I should concentrate on my education. The school principal took a particular interest in me and he warned me not to engage in anything that would make my father come and flog me in the school again.
But unfortunately again, two junior pupils were fighting and I intervened. One of them was a cousin to the head boy, who was my class mate. He was rude to me, so I slapped him. He went to report the incident and I was suspended from the school for a week. When I got home, my father asked me why I was suspended and I told him. For one week, he was coming to my room every night to give me six strokes of the cane. He would also repeat the punishment in the morning. I did not enjoy any preferential treatment from him and I was always at the receiving end of every argument with my siblings.
Did you try to escape the regular punishment?
There was a time I wanted to run away. I did not want to see anybody. I contemplated it more than four times. There was a day he flogged me and I asked myself if Gani was actually my father, I thought if he was my father, he would not beat me so hard. There was blood all over my back on that day.
When he lost the Presidential election, what did he say to his family?
He came home and started laughing. He said he knew that enemies of the country would not allow him to rule the country even if he had won. He said he contested the election because he wanted to convict those who plundered the nation’s resources through the instrumentality of the law.
Was he also instrumental to your choice of career since his father influenced him to become a lawyer?
I had many influences in my choice of studying law. When I was young, I used to follow my father to the court. After graduating from the University of Lagos where I studied Business Administration, I realised that lawyers can also have time to relax and have fun, unlike my dad. He would drive into the court in his Peugeot 504 car while other lawyers would came in Mercedes Benz. After the court, some would go to have a nice time but my father would head straight for his chamber.
My father was more concerned with how intelligent his employees were. He had no emotion for failure and he never tolerated mistakes. He was a thorough person. When I was studying law at the University of Buckingham, he visited me about nine times whenever he had a chance, after leaving detention.
Since he was a busy man, did he have time for the family?
He was indeed a good father. Whenever he could, he would find time to stay with the family to crack jokes and many of us would laugh heartily. There was a day he cracked some jokes and my brother laughed so deep that he fell off the chair.
I also started coughing because we just finished eating bush meat and pounded yam. He was a very funny man. I also remember how men of the State Security Service came to whisk him away that night.
How did the children react each time he was arrested?
We were very young in those days. I was four years old when I saw him being arrested. It was like a scene from a James Bond movie to us. He would later tell us that he wanted to handle cases for them each time the security operatives came to arrest him. But when the arrests increased, my brother queried why they were always coming at night, for such cases. It was when we grew older that he told us everything that happened during his incarceration. But while we were young, he would only play with us whenever he was back.
Did his absence affect the children in any way?
We missed his closeness. Some of our friends used to tell us then that their father took them to one place or the other. But at that period, our own father would be in detention. It made us a bit tough. I would like to discipline my children but not too hard. I did not know why he chose to be hard on me but it was probably because two of his friends’ children were pampered and got influenced by bad company. It could be that my father was guarding against such situation.
What are the virtues you imbibed from him?
I have gained greatly from his hard work, research skills and honesty.
Did he have any special food?
Yes he did. He loved bush meat, vegetable soup, ewedu and pounded yam.
What was his social life like?
He was not a party man. I can count the number of parties he attended when he was alive. The social functions he attended were few weddings and other parties for friends and close relations.
How did the family face the task of closing his chambers since it was a legacy in itself?
He stated in his Will that we should close the chambers within two years of his death. It was a very distressing thing for all of us. Members of the staff who felt the chambers must continue were very emotional about it. Some people asked where we wanted the masses to go to, maybe because we were the only chambers offering free cases on a large scale. Since I have two step sisters, a younger brother and a nephew who are lawyers, we wondered where they would go. The chamber was a fountain of knowledge. I consulted with some of my dad’s closest friends who told me to forget about emotion and do what he told me. They reasoned that there would be a reason for his decision. We eventually closed the chambers on January 15, 2011 to coincide with the date he started practicing on January 15, 1965. He established his own chambers on April 22, 1965 which also coincided with his birthday.
Can you remember a time when emotions overwhelmed him?
It was when I had an accident. He was completely distressed. I never saw him cry like that. He continued crying until we got to England for treatment. On arrival in England, we drove straight in an ambulance to the General Hospital, Coventry. The hospital had about nine Magnetic Resonance Imaging scan and nine Computerised Tomography scan. Everything was in multiples there. We did the CT and MRI scans. Many of my siblings were there. After the scan, the doctor said I would be operated upon. That was when my father burst into tears. He was sobbing like a baby and my mother had to console him. The operation lasted for about four hours and it was successful because blood did not go into my brain.