Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, has said the late human rights lawyer and pro-democracy activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, played a pivotal role in keeping Nigeria’s political space open for opposition parties and political associations.
Sani said Fawehinmi spearheaded the legal battle against stringent conditions imposed by the Independent National Electoral Commission on political associations seeking registration as political parties.
The governor spoke on Saturday at the public presentation of a book titled Gani Fawehinmi and Uba Sani: A Tale of Mentor and Mentee, in Kaduna.
He recalled that many human rights and pro-democracy activists became disillusioned during the struggle, but Fawehinmi refused to allow frustration to derail their commitment to democracy.
“At a serious meeting, we told Chief Fawehinmi, our leader, that we were beginning to lose faith in democracy. But he would not permit frustration to become despair. He told us to have faith in the judiciary, faith in the rule of law and faith in democracy itself. Rather than abandon the democratic process, we would use the democratic process to defend democracy,” Sani recalled.
According to him, Fawehinmi, alongside the late former Kaduna State governor, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, went to court to challenge INEC’s position, with the legal battle lasting more than two years.
“I recall that the ruling was delivered by Justice Dahiru Mustapha in 2002. INEC appealed to the Supreme Court, but in January 2003, the Supreme Court again ruled in our favour,” he said.
Sani said the court victory “opened the political space in Nigeria and paved the way for the emergence of more political parties.”
He added, “Therefore, whenever we celebrate political plurality in Nigeria, whenever new parties emerge and whenever citizens exercise their rights to organise politically, we should remember those who fought to make that space possible.
“Many of those proudly identifying with all sorts of political platforms today may not know that the freedom they exercise was secured through difficult struggles by people like Chief Gani Fawehinmi. Democracy has a history, and every freedom has a cost.”
The governor urged activists, politicians across party lines and academics to periodically remember the heroes who fought and made sacrifices for democracy in Nigeria.
He described Fawehinmi as more than a fighter for political freedom, saying the late activist was “a profoundly committed pan-Nigerian” who believed Nigeria’s greatness depended on the development of every part of the country.
Sani also recalled Fawehinmi’s commitment to education, noting that the late lawyer established the Gani Fawehinmi Scholarship Foundation, where he was entrusted with the responsibility of serving as its Northern Coordinator.
He said he persuaded Fawehinmi to establish a major scholarship programme for brilliant but indigent university students in Northern Nigeria because educational deprivation was particularly severe in the region at the time.
According to him, the programme awarded scholarships to more than 1,000 indigent students across northern universities. “Many of those beneficiaries have since become medical doctors, lawyers, academics, engineers and professionals who are contributing meaningfully to national development”, he said.
Sani recalled that 26 years ago, at the flag-off of the scholarship scheme at Arewa House, Kaduna, Fawehinmi challenged Northern leaders to confront the region’s educational crisis.
He said the late activist warned that failure to address educational backwardness could turn it into a monster, stressing that the warning remained relevant. “Many of the challenges confronting Northern Nigeria today are connected, directly or indirectly, to inadequate investment in human capital,” the governor said.
Sani described Fawehinmi as one of the most formidable Nigerians of his generation, saying he “possessed the rare courage to make principle more important than comfort and justice more compelling than personal convenience.”
“He used the law as an instrument of liberation, defended ordinary citizens against arbitrary power and contributed immensely to Nigeria’s struggle for democracy, accountability and human dignity,” he added.
The governor congratulated the author, Mrs Basirat Fawehinmi-Biobaku, for documenting the relationship between Fawehinmi and himself. He said the book was more than an account of a mentor-mentee relationship, describing it as a story of courage, democratic struggle, social justice, education, leadership and the responsibility of one generation to prepare another for service.
