A Corrupt President Cannot Rid The Country Of Corruption – Late Fawehinmi’s Widow

Widow of the late Human Rights activist Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Mrs. Ganiat Fawehinmi, has described political leaders in the country as having some mental disorders saying this is the reason they have remained corrupt beyond pardon.

Speaking during the 75th posthumous birthday organised by civil society groups in Lagos for her late husband, Mrs Fawehinmi lamented that the country had been taken over by a syndicate, and she pointed President Goodluck Jonathan as head of the syndicate.

Fawehinmi said any Nigerian who thinks the President is truly committed to the fight against corruption was enjoying self-deception as she stated that “a corrupt President cannot rid the country of corruption.”

She said the country was currently wallowing in self-pity as those appointed by the President including the country’s Minister of Petroleum, Deziani Alison-Madueke, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and a host of others have now decided to wreck the system while the citizens look on.

She therefore warned President Goodluck Jonathan not to seek a second term in office as she, with many like-minded Nigerians would campaign against his success at the polls.

“Ebele Jonathan himself is corrupt. Therefore, how can he effectively fight corruption?
“If he is not corrupt, why would he grant pardon to Alamieyeseigha instead of asking that he return all that the man had stolen?

“This is a government by syndicate. People have made up their minds that they are not going to vote for him in 2015. He is deceiving himself, except they rig that election for him and that in itself has consequences.

“I am as resolute as before and stand for anything that will change this country for good,” she said.

Fawehinmi noted that the insecurity in the country is the result of the insensitivity of the leaders of the country to the poverty in the land.

“Our leaders have mental problem. God will punish them. They would account for all the souls that were lost due to the Boko haram,” she said.

Fawehinmi recalled that her husband once discovered that the revenue generated from oil could cater for the educational needs of every child of school age in the country and still fix infrastructure.

“There is no light and we spend a lot of money on diesel yet we get huge bills. Many industries have gone to other countries where they manufacture and bring finished products to us.

“We must become resolute and take our destinies in our hands. Let them continue to teargas us; our heavenly Lord will continue to teargas them and their children yet unborn.

“We should begin to vote for people who mean well for us. There are so many families who cannot even afford a square meal.

“We must stop hailing all those rogues. They steal your money and you call them baba o,” she said adding that this must stop.

The widow of the late legal icon, further lamented that the Fawehinmi family had not been able to take care of beggars as stipulated in his will because the first trustees of her husband’s will have become a hindrance not making money available for the less privileged.

“In a decent society, I don’t think any organisation would clamour for his (Gani Fawehinmi) immortalisation especially considering what he has done for this country.


“But we don’t have leaders. There’s no security, infrastructure, no work for the youths. Is this a country?

“Those to whom he wants to grant amnesty have said they do not want it. Amnesty should come after a dialogue with the members of the sect, not granting it in a vacuum. And that is why we have advised him to change his advisers and bring in people who have brains and who can tell him the truth,” she said concerning the Boko Haram sect and their activities in major northern cities and communities in the country, adding that “there cannot be smoke without fire.”
Mrs Fawehinmi warned that the country was already drifting towards anarchy and must be rescued from President Jonathan at this stage.

The civil society groups led by Comrade Ayodele Akele had urged the government to, among other things, name the Human Rights Commission headquarters after him.