Mohammed Fawehinmi, is the eldest child of late renowned legal luminary, Dr. Chief Gani Fawehinmi.Just like his father, Barrister Mohammed is a lawyer and he has made giant strides in the legal profession. He is also a human right advocate like his dad.
Despite being on a wheelchair due to a car crash he was involved in some years back, Barrister Mohammed has simply refused to be restricted or limited by it.
He has a chamber of his own known as Mohammed Fawehinmi Chambers and it is being run on a daily basis by this amiable legal luminary.
During the recent launching of Gani Fawehinmi Memorial Hospital established by Gani’s daughter Hafisat Fawehinmi-Oni who is a medical doctor, located at Agbara, Lagos State, City People’s Reporter, FEMI FABUNMI, caught up with Barrister Mohammed Fawehinmi, and he pours out his mind on many issues. Excerpts.
It has been 6 years since the death of your father, the great legal luminary Chief Gani Fawehinmi, what is running through your mind now?
In actual fact it is 7 years, he died 2009 September 5, yes we have been managing. We are very grateful to God, the only problem we have is the maintenance of most of his properties, some of the things he mentioned should be done haven’t been done but we are getting there.
The amount of work Gani put down was so enormous that I pray I am able to meet up, I am not talking about surpassing it now. I am not bothered about surpassing it because outside his chambers.
My sister has opened a big hospital and she did that in his name, it didn’t get to me as a surprise because I know she must have mentioned it to him. I can say authoritatively that she will do well, already she has gotten two awards in the state.
In Miami, she got an award for being the best Pediatrician, in Ohio, she got another as best Medical Practitioner.
For her she doesn’t need to do any advert I believe our father’s name will speak for us.
Your father would have been 78 years old today, if he were to be alive, how do you feel right now?
There is a part of me that breaks my heart but at the same time I thank God he passed the age of 70. We thank God, we didn’t find his body somewhere, he also didn’t die in car crash or plane crash, he died in the hospital peacefully while sleeping. God has given this family that honor and we give God the glory.
As you can see, we are all proud to introduce ourselves now because 6 of us are Lawyer, two are Doctors, one an Engineer about two did Business Administration one did Mass Communication. The last born is a girl and she is 10 years old she is doing well too in her studies.
How are you guys running the chambers now?
Oh! We already closed down the chambers as far back as January 15, 2011. Gani started his own practice in January 15, 1965, so we decided in accordance to his ‘Will’ that the chambers be closed down 2 years after his death.
We were first shocked that 6 of us are lawyers now, but we couldn’t have disagreed with the ‘Will’. I have started running my own chambers now, so I can imagine how to run a magnitude, because not all my sisters are practising. I have two brothers who read law, one practices like my dad which is Kamal, he is with Chief Mike Oshekome SAN, I practice, I have my own chamber, my sister is in charge of the publication.
Yusuf is a business man, while Aminat got the best result among all of us. Truth is we thank God for what he has done for all of us.
Has the ‘Will’ been shared now?
Sharing isn’t a problem he specified on how he wanted it to be shared maintenance is our problem now. It is a big responsibility oo, the man was a machine while he was alive, he had Nigeria Law Publication Chambers, library and so on, we are trying hard to maintain all of these.
Gani was a fighter, in fact he was interested in fighting for the poor, 7 years after his death has there been any change concerning what he stood for?
The main change is that Buhari came, although a lot of people are not happy about what is happening now. No light, no water, no fuel, but we are now identifying those behind corruption. If only these two assembles will stop this shocking and padding and stop this policking, the budget would have been passed.
All his trips went according to how I predicted it, he went to all the OPEC office all in a bid to ensure stability in the price of Oil.
See the amount we make on Oil, we may not be able to make in agriculture in such a small time 2 years or in 3 years.
Our leaders aren’t doing much of what we expected them to do, especially Minister of Science & Technology Minister of Power, Works & Housing, Minister of Special Duties, what we expect them to do is to hit the ground running.
See we have brilliant professors and students in our University, if we harness our potentials, they would build better and stronger cars because we have a harsh weather condition. Truth is, these people need to be pushed to do it
These same people we think cannot do it, are being snatched by America and England on a daily basis. We should be particular about education. Let what they teach and learn have practical values let the Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Chemical, Electrical Build Cars, Planes etc, we don’t need to always buy from America. We should try and look inwards for expertise to God who made me if I were to be Nigerian President today, I will make sure they build a Jet fighter in 2 months. I will supervise them, house them and give them whatever they need.
What is the name of your chambers?
It is Mohammed Fawehinmi Chambers.
Gani was the Presidential flagbearer of NCP, do you have plans to venture into politics, or does any of his children have plans to do so?
Even if we do have interest, we want to first stabilise, we would want to achieve something. See going into politics is like going back to school, being a politician is entirely different from being a regular person. Your mindset changes, calculation changes, even your ways of life also changes.
One has to have many things in mind how do I surpass those before me? How do I cater for over 170 million people? How do I create jobs? How do I create a company that produces cars?
I am happy for Innoson, he doesn’t have Ph.D, I don’t think he has a degree yet he has done so much. Our professors should also do something like that.
Our professors should also look into the power sector, by now we should not be talking about getting 10,000 megawatts by 2019, when I read that in the papers, I laughed at my big brother Fashola. I know he is more intelligent than that.
How can he be talking about 10,000 megawatts by 2019, 10,000 is too low now for Nigeria. This country can never be it with that.
Las Vegas alone gulps about 12,000 megawatts, there he is talking about 10,000 for whole country.
Another thing is there are some persons who operate local refinery, what the government needs to do is to accommodate them and fine tune the way they operate.
There is a lot we can do by looking inwards, if we try that our country will be a lot better.
Would you encourage any of your children to pursue law?
If they have the passion, why not, but I wouldn’t be pressurising them to do so.
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