Murtala Opoola
25 December 2008
opinion
People mellow with age, so goes an aphorism. Apparently this does not apply to Kongi and Gani Fawehinmi. Kongi ala Wole Soyinka by age is well into three score and ten and above.
The hoary mane on his head says it all! So one would expect that after many a harmattan he should simply chuckle at many of the nation's limitations, reach for his glass of emu funfun and bush meat, which I hear he still savours and release a hearty belch and continue with whatever literary work he is working on at the moment. I am referring to the drama of the donation of prize money accompanying the Nigeria National Merit Award (NNMA)which he sent to the Judiciary as his own contribution for its "healing." In a sense he took the award but rejected the prize money. One does not have to be as wise as Solomon to know that it is his not so veiled way of saying he does not agree with the Supreme Court ruling that validated the election of Umar Yar'adua as president.
To be sure, the ruling left a bitter taste in the mouth but then in these matters the fact is not whether there were many irregularities in the elections. We are all agreed there were. The president himself, the chief beneficiary of the whole event said as much and even pledged to do a surgical work on the way and manner we conduct our elections. The electoral committee he put in place to draw up a new electoral law has just submitted its report. Let's hope he will not renege on its implementation. The problem however lies in the ability of the plaintiffs alleging that there were irregularities to show sufficient proof to convince the justices. The way the majority of the justices saw it the plaintiffs were not sufficiently convincing to cause them to overturn the election result. Surely, it is not as if Kongi needs the prize money, what with the Nobel prize money still resting and perhaps sweating in some bank vault still untouched. But sending such a handsome amount of money to the judiciary is a waste. It will simply be taken to government coffers from where it came. Or if no one is watching find its way to the deep pockets of some indolent civil servants.
Such a handsome sum of money should have been put into the literary awards Kongi hands out to aspiring writers every two years. What use can be better than investing the NNMA prize money in grooming some budding Kongi, Achebe or Pepper Clark? Therefore Kongi should swallow his pride and take back the money and do with it as I have suggested. After all he has made his point in the verbiage unleashed on those who gave him the award and the Justices who are the butt of his anger.
When I first saw Laokun Soyinka (Kongi's medical doctor son) decked in three piece suits posing with the other NNMA awardees and clutching the certificate I heaved a sigh. Thank God Kongi has seen it fit not to reject the award as many feared he would do, which is why rejecting the prize money is like giving the whole thing a twist in the tail. But while one was wondering what the import of Kongi's reaction was, up came Chief Gani Fawehinmi's outright rejection of the national honour of the Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR). Now it is not as if one does not know where Gani stands on issues of election mago mago, rikici and sundry other shenanigans that undermine wholesome values that should serve as prop for nation-building, but for God's sake Gani has become so predictable, annoyingly so by throwing back one honour after the other in the face of those giving him the awards. Gani's importance and stature in this country as a foremost lawyer and defender of probity in government is well recognized. His contributions to both the study and extension of the frontiers of the law are incontrovertible; which was why many people raised issues on the delay in making him a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). Gani has paid his dues professionally and in his commitment in wrestling with bad and lawless governments. Furthermore, he has also helped in giving other less endowed people the opportunity for education through awards of scholarships. For all this he deserves to be awarded an honour by the nation, and it does not matter what kind of government gives the award.
It will be trite to repeat the reasons he gave for rejecting the award. Yes, the government in place has a blemished mandate which the badge of legitimacy newly invested on it by the Supreme Court cannot wash away. True, almost two years on, it is still beating about in search of sustainable policies on which governance will be based. But warts and all, right now it is still the government in place, but as handicapped by limited legitimacy as it is, it has seen it fit to reward Gani for a life time of effort, commitment on social action and philanthropy. It is surprising that Gani of all people has not realized that the struggle to get a government that will be without the baggage of blemish will take time. And it will take many more Kongis and Ganis working to bring it about by first nurturing a citizenry willing to say no to actions capable of throwing up a bastard government. We all will rejoice when that time comes. Meanwhile the one in place which has thought it wise to recognized deserving individuals should be accorded the benefit of the doubt, at least that it means well. After all these awards are being given in the name of the nation, not in the name of the government in power at a particular moment.
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