An elegy for Gani: ‘Greet your friend Dele Giwa!’

Thank you God. What else do I do than to thank you God for Gani’s death? And Gani’s life too. Thank you for the gift of life. Thank you for the gift of this unique human being whom you gifted us then plucked away from us at the ripeness of season. Thank you for Gani Fawehinmi at 71.
Thank you for this transparent man in this transparent casket. This man now lying down in the deep sleep of eternity. This man sleeping undisturbed in the everlasting siesta. This man sleeping the sleep of a runner who had run a good race and is crowned with the green cap of victory. This man sleeping the sleep of a fighter whose head was bloodied many times but remained unbowed to the very end. This man sleeping unbowed to repressive tyrants who beat, tortured and locked him inside the walls of every prison in Nigeria.
This man sleeping in the sadness of his unfinished business of Nigeria still left in tatters after all these years of his one-man fight to liberate Nigeria from the shackles of poverty, from injustice, from the greedy few who have looted and are still looting the nation while the masses are enchained in poverty.
This man arrayed in celestial white robe matched with the green cap of his beloved Nigeria and whose body is being showcased for beggars to pay homage. When beggars die, no comets are seen, says the great William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar. Gani was not a beggar but he was a friend of beggars. He was a man of means who sacrificed his life to fight for the needy. The blind and the voiceless all came in to pay their last respect to their hero. This man who is the last of the true Nigerian heroes. A man for all seasons and a man for all reasons. A man of valour. A leader. A fearless leader who led from the front to face soldiers and policemen, charging, armed with their guns and tear gas to terrorize angry demonstrators fighting for their rights to a better Nigeria. An orator who would confront and convince anti-riot policemen and soldiers sent to kill, to lay down their arms. He would ask them: “Are you not Nigerians too? Is it not for you and for your children that we are fighting this oppressive government?”
God, thank you for this great man whose end is a grim reminder to us all that life’s tortuous journey ends not at Charlie Boy’s Bus Stop but at Death’s Bus Stop.
Thank you for this great tree that has fallen from the poached forest of our sick fatherland. In times like this, I go to the poets for inspiration and consolation. It was the great poet Maya Angelou who wrote in her collections of poems, ‘CELEBRATIONS: RITUALS OF PEACE AND PRAYER’ that: “When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants lumber after safety.
“When great trees fall in forests, small things recoil into silence, their senses eroded by fear. When great souls die, the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile. We breathe briefly. Our eyes, briefly, see with a hurtful clarity. Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines, gnaws on kind words unsaid, promised walks never taken.”
Gani was a great tree fallen. Gani was the lion of the legal trade held in awe by lawyers and judges alike. Gani was the god of thunder, breathing fire, arguing hard in the court of law in the quest for justice and righteousness. On the Day of Judgment, he would know how to argue when he meets his Maker. He would not even need to argue, because his good works on earth would speak for him.
Thank you God, for this man of peace now sleeping in peace. It was the Good Lord who said: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.” Gani was a peacemaker.
Again, the Good Lord said: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Gani in his life and times fought for the enthronement of righteousness but he was persecuted and reviled.
Without any doubt, Gani was a prophet. A prophet with honour among his own countrymen. Many years ago when he visited me in my days as the editor of the Weekend Concord, I told him in my welcome speech that: “God needs you.” Indeed God needed Gani to cry out in this wilderness call Nigeria, a land of plenty turned into a wasteland of sheer prodigality. A land blessed by God with oil and rich mineral resources that should make us live in comfort for many generations to come, but instead we live in hell, surrounded by the waters of poverty.
In the waters of the Niger Delta and everywhere in Nigeria today, you see riches, poverty and deprivation living side by side. The rich minority live in splendour while the poor majority wallow in abysmal poverty. And Gani cried.
Gani wanted a Nigeria where hunger, poverty and ignorance are banished for good. But he died in this unfinished business, ravaged by cancer. As you read this column, may cancer and incurable diseases of any sort not be your portion in Jesus name. And me too, the writer of this column. Me and my family. May cancer and incurable Egyptian diseases never be our portion! Thank God Gani has gone to rest, free of the agony and tortures of cancer, the big, fatal enemy. One day, one fine day, even cancer would be subdued. Man would find answer to cancer’s cure. Yes, Lord, you will find us the medicine, the ultimate solution to all incurable, terminal diseases that have become a final death sentence to the innocent and the guilty alike. Lord, speak your healing words to the world and set us free from all infirmities. Open the eyes of our doctors, our scientists, our researchers to the mysteries locked in your wisdom. Only you can cure cancer. Only you can cure AIDS. Only you can banish all sickness that have become our afflictions. Even doctors say so.
The very last time we met, Gani was such pathetic figure. He spoke in a weird falsetto that was not his voice. The body was Gani’s but the voice was not his. It was such a pity to hear him talk. The voice of the voiceless had lost his ultimate weapon. The drummer could no longer drum. The trumpeter could no longer blow his trumpet. Things had truly fallen apart and Gani was no longer at ease. He was no longer himself. And Gani without a voice is as good as dead. In the words of my colleagues Femi Adesina and Dimgba Igwe when we visited the Fawehinmi family on Tuesday, Gani died over a year ago. Yes, he died the day he lost his voice to cancer of the lungs.
God we thank you for Gani’s life and Gani’s death. The good that he did would live after him. The fire of his legacy would burn forever in our hearts like the flame of the Olympics. Gani was an Olympic runner crowned with the green laurels of a better Nigeria where equality, justice and prosperity reign for all. May this man sleeping sleep in peace.
Goodnight Ganiyu Fawehinmi. Goodnight our great lawyer. Goodnight and greet your friend Dele Giwa.