Benjamin Omoike I Sunday, April 23, 2018
IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – Mohammed Fawehinmi, son of the late legal luminary, Gani Fawehinmi, has said president Muhammadu Buhari has failed to meet the aspirations and expectations of many Nigerians since he came into power in May 2015, even as he appealed to governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos, to drop in totality the amended Land Use Charge, LUC.
Fawehinmi lamented Buhari’s style of leadership, saying he had not fulfilled his campaign promises to Nigerians. While commending governor Ambode for his efforts in transforming Lagos, Fawehinmi said: “What I will beg you for is this Land Use Charge, please scrap it. We have seen what the governor has done all over the state. We appreciate the inernational global standard terminal.
“We were not happy when the governor shut down Lagos for Buhari. Althougn he (Buhari) was very close to my father, because he used to take advice from Gani. I was 14,15 years of age then.
‘When he was coming into power, he promised to effect change, but where has the nation’s economy grown to now? Cows are more important than human lives. Herdsmen are now killing Nigerians. You sent someone to Benue, three months later, he did not know whether the man obeyed the instruction or not. To show that Baba Buhari is old, the man is still serving as IGP. Baba Buhari has an advantage; anytime he is sick he runs to London so the Minister of Health does not find it necessary to improve on the health situation in the country,” Fawehinmi said.
Regarding the statue of his late father, unveiled by the Lagos state government, he said not only was it commendable, but that it also came to him as a huge surprise.
“In all honesty, he (the governor), is the man I least expected of this. We understood when governor Fashola started it by building a smaller statue; we were all glad as he remembered our mentor, our father and leader in the human rights struggle.
“But now seeing this, I started saying to myself that he has placed the name of Gani Fawehinmi on the global map. I want to laugh as I look at the faces of three past leaders, and unfortunately, one of them is dead, that’s Olusegun Obaanjo and Ibrahim Babangida. As for Sani Abacha, my father would have beaten the hell our of him in heaven, but to Obasanjo and IBB, I boo them today. The man they wanted to kill his spirit, is the one a governor of this country…one of the most outstanding, has unveiled his statue here. Let me see how they will come here and destroy it. Infact, they are old, we are only waiting to hear of their demise.
“But on a more serious note, I now believe that the idea of a man can be followed by a nation. Lagos state has set the pace by doing this. He is the first governor since independence to do such a gigantic edifice like this. I can tell you this is going into the Guiness Book of Records,” he said.
