Gani Fawehinmi | Human rights

Gani Fawehinmi

While covering the 2003 federal election in Nigeria, I joined a small group of journalists following the opening of the campaign of an unexpected presidential candidate, Gani Fawehinmi, the veteran human rights lawyer and campaigner, who has died aged 71. Fawehinmi was standing for his own party, founded in 1994, the National Conscience party (NCP), and although he had no chance of winning because of the patrimonial way Nigeria runs its pork-barrel politics, and the nature of its elections, he was making a statement about the injustices of his country's politics and society. This was highlighted by his holding the rally in Ajegunle, the best-known of the slums of Lagos – a symbolic identification with the common man.

For more than 40 years Fawehinmi played the role of national gadfly, constantly provoking over-mighty rulers, especially military ones, and defending their victims. The wave of emotion that has swept Nigeria on the news of his death, and the extravagant statements from across the political spectrum, is an indication of his wide popularity.

Ganiyu Fawehinmi (known to all as "Gani") was born in Ondo town, south-west Nigeria. His father was a timber merchant who was celebrated locally for having brought Islam to the town.

At secondary school at Victory college, Ikare, Fawehinmi was nicknamed "Nation" for his passionate interest in national political issues. From there he moved to Lagos to work for two years in the high court, and then travelled by boat to London to pursue his education, enrolling at the Holborn College of Law for an external degree. While he was in Britain his father died, which meant he had to take basic menial jobs (at one time cleaning toilets in Russell Square). Obtaining his degree in 1964, he returned to Lagos and, after a spell at the Nigerian Law School, he worked in the chambers of his elder brother before setting up his own practice in 1974.

From early on he began to establish his reputation as a "people's lawyer", taking on controversial cases that often got him into trouble with the authorities, especially under the several military regimes that have ruled Nigeria in the past 40 years, even if the brief regime of Muhammadu Buhari in 1984-85 gained his support purely for its anti-corruption stance. Fawehinmi's brushes with the authorities earned him frequent detentions and beatings. His passport was confiscated, and on one occasion his books were seized and his library set on fire. A champion of underdogs, he often took on pro bono cases.

He contributed avidly to newspapers, believed in media freedoms and often adopted journalists' cases. Most spectacular was the still unsolved one of Dele Giwa, the magazine editor killed by parcel bomb in 1986, when one of Fawehinmi's main targets, President Ibrahim Babangida, was in power.

The four years of the brutal dictatorship of General Sani Abacha between 1994 and 1998 saw Fawehinmi at his provocative best, including during the trial of Ken Saro-Wiwa, when he dared one soldier to shoot him. Under the ensuing civilian regime, he was still ready to criticise any abuse of authority or violation of the rule of law. Even when sick, he sought to re-open the Dele Giwa case, and from his hospital bed called on the present federal attorney general to be removed for his indifference to corruption, saying "he must be living in a world of self-delusion".

Restlessly energetic, crazily courageous, Fawehinmi displayed an individualism that sometimes annoyed his fellow lawyers, but he always enjoyed deep respect for his court performances, his often ferocious language and his legal and forensic talents. The Nigerian Weekly Law Reports, which he founded in 1986 and led as editor-in-chief, remain a part of his legacy, along with a library and a law firm employing more than 200 people.

Fawehinmi was made a senior advocate of Nigeria in 2001, but he declined an honour in 2008 in protest at the years of national misrule. A principled Muslim, he leaves several wives, children and grandchildren.

Nigeria has, in the turbulence of its politics, possessed a number of beacons of integrity, who stand out by their example, even if they seldom get near political power, for example the musician Fela Kuti, or the martyred writer Saro-Wiwa. It is a group of heroes whose inheritance will be more treasured than that of most of the country's politicians, and "Gani" will be in their forefront.

Abdul-Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi, lawyer and human rights campaigner, born 22 April 1938; died 5 September 2009

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