Mohammed Fawehinmi, son of late legal luminary and human rights activist, Gani Fawehinmi has on Tuesday said his father would have accepted Buhari’s honour if he were to be alive, contrary to speculations that he (Gani) would not.
The official investiture on late MKO Abiola, Baba Gana Kingibe and late Gani Fawehinmi took place on Tuesday (today) at the State House Conference Centre, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Buhari at the event conferred the posthumous award of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) on late Moshood Abiola, who won the June 12, 1993, presidential election.
The president also awarded Abiola’s running mate, Baba Gana Kingibe, and late Fawehinmi, with Grand Commander Order of the Niger (GCON).
He had also declared June 12 the Democracy Day in Nigeria from next year.
Recall that the regime of the self-styled military president, Ibrahim Babangida, annulled the June 12, 1993, presidential election widely adjudged freest and fairest in the nation’s history.
At the event, Frank Kokori, a frontline labour leader who was one of the most vocal advocates for the actualisation of June 12, said Mr Buhari was the least person expected to honour late Abiola. He said it was a confirmation that “Buhari has a great soul.”
He said, “If this is coming 25 years later, it means one day your country will remember you because some of us felt when we came out of Abacha’s gulag and we were not recognised. I just felt what sort of country is this. Like my personal experience as one of the most famous prisoner of conscience in the world, I saw that my country did not even appreciate the four years I spent in one of the worst cells in the world. And we did all these for our country and the country did not recognise us.
“So, now we are happy and we are very grateful to our president, the least president we expected who should have done this, Muhammadu Buhari. We thought people like Obasanjo should have done that for us long time ago. There was so much pressure. Not Muhammadu Buhari. We least expected it, so in doing it for us, he has a great soul and we appreciate it.”
Fawehinmi’s eldest son, Mohammed, said his late father would have accepted the award because June 12 was actualised and MKO recognised as president-elect.
On how he felt about the recognition, he said, “I feel very elated, I feel very proud, my family feels very honored that all the suffering was not in vain and that the Nigerian people have a chance of better governance in future.”
On the assumptions that his father would have rejected the award if he was alive, he said, “I know he would have taken it, I know my father more than anybody. There are two reasons why he would taken it, one, because June 12 was actualised, two, because MKO Abiola was recognised as president-elect. And you can see from the suggestion at the Senate that they are going to eventually declare the election result and he is going to be given all his benefits after 25 years which he has lost. So, for that reason that is victory for him because he went through hell and high waters to make sure that June 12 was actualised.”
Mr Fawehinmi’s wife, Ganiyat, on how she felt about the honour done her husband said, “I was a bit disturbed. Every time the security will come, turn our house upside down, even his office was broken into, they took away many files during IBB regime and they were not returned till date. So I just thanked God that I am alive to witness today and I know that my husband will turn in the grave for this June 12 that is being actualised because he really fought and died for it.
“I believe God has a purpose for it, I believe that is how God wants it because you can’t run a race ahead of God. So, God has a purpose of actualising it today which is exactly 25 years after ‘93 when Abiola wanted to be the president.”
