- As NBA honours Gani Fawehinmi in Lagos
By Alex Olise
Those clamouring for the restructuring of Nigeria have been advised to be more liberal and to accommodate the divergent opinions of their Northernern colleagues in its agenda if the agenda is to sail through.
The advice was given on Wednesday by renowned lawyer Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) while delivering his lecture at the 16th Chief Gani Fawehinmi annual lecture/symposium organised by Ikeja branch of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) in remembrance of the late legal icon with the theme “Federalism and the Judiciary in Nigeria”
According to Agbakoba, restructuring which is a southern language need to be addressed by including some languages that will convince those from the northern part of the country to enable them understand the benefit.
“We need to lower the temperature of the restructuring language to convince our Northern Brothers that regionalism is good for us than the present federalism been practiced.”
However he warned that Nigerians should be ready to pay the prize if restructuring of the country will succeed. He described the late Gani Fawehinmi as a fearless lawyer whose legacy will never be forgotten in the history of Judiciary in Nigeria.
Another guest speaker at the event Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) who delivered lecture on the topic “is the Judiciary under siege by the Executives?”said impunity of the executive arm of government should not go unchallenged which is one of the major objective of late Gani Fawehinmi in his lifetime he never allowed the Executive arm of Government to suppress the citizenry, he fought for the masses until he left the earth.
Earlier in his welcome address Mr Monday Onyekachi Ubani who is also the chairman organising committee of this year lecture said “late Gani in his grave will surely be happy that the light he ignited in Nigeria has not gone dim one second.”
According to Ubani, the human right community in Nigeria is awake and alive to the glory of God.
In his address Prince Dele Oloke, the chief host who is also the chairman Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Ikeja branch described the late Gani Fawehinmi as a mortal was a human right colossus, a legal titan and a cheerful giver whose relevance to Nigeria society while he was alive remained unparallel and could not be diminished by his shortcomings.