Falana: An Honour Well-Deserved

The fortunes of the human rights community and the legal profession in Nigeria received a major boost recently with the naming and confirmation of Mr. Femi Falana as the 2008 winner of the Bernard Simonds Memorial Award for the Advancement of Human rights by the International Bar Association, Human Rights Institute.

THE 2008 Bernard Simonds Memorial Award for the Advancement of Human rights by the International Bar Associations (IBA) Human Rights Institute to be presented to Mr. Femi Falana by IBA president of the association, Mr. Fernando Pombo at the ongoing IBA Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina is a boost to the human rights community and indeed the legal profession in Nigeria.

The award, instituted in 1995 in memory of the endeavours and accomplishments of Bernards Simonds, the late London solicitor and one of the greatest criminal defence attorneys of all times, who had deployed his rare art of forensic advocacy and prodigious intellect, not only in pursuit of justice but more importantly, in humanising the dehumanised, emasculated and defenceless in the society through pro bono legal interventions.

In tandem with the ideals and contributions of Simonds, the award is given yearly by the IBA, the largest and most influential association of lawyers of all hues and nationalities in the world to a member of the legal profession, with special bias in criminal law practice, who had distinguished himself, through outstanding contributions and achievements in the struggle for defence of human rights and social justice in a particular country.

To qualify for this award, the candidate or nominee must be a practitioner, who through personal endeavour in the course of the practice of criminal law, is judged to have made a substantial contribution to the promotion, protection and advancement of the human rights of all or any group of people, particularly their right to live in fair and just society under the rule of law.

This years recipient is a lawyer that needs no introduction in Nigeria, Africa and indeed the entire world, for his singular and highly remarkable attribute of being one of the most committed, consistent, courageous and dogged defender of the defenceless in our country.

As a lawyer to all manner of people, traversing a formidable array of victims of all kinds of human rights abuses, oppressed communities and displaced peoples, marginalised groups, expelled students, dismissed lecturers, restive labor unions, countless number of illegal detainees, injured factory workers, unpaid pensioners and restless journalists in the eyes of powers that be and most of which cases were handled by him at no legal cost to the litigants but on pure compassionate grounds, he has achieved memorable and spectacular feats, the facts of which abound in law reports and other media and as are readily attestable to by both his admirers and critics alike.

To these beneficiaries of his legendary legal interventions, including victims of all forms of human rights violations and all lovers of justice, true democracy and the rule of law in Nigeria and the entire civilised world, this award represents a fitting honour to an irrepressible icon of the legal profession, a foremost defender of human rights and social justice and a brilliant attorney, whose legal wizardry and forensic advocacy is unequalled in the history of the profession, for a life of selfless service to the down-trodden in society.

Beyond the epic rating and high dividends of this award as a catalyst for even more accomplishments on the part of the honoree is the profound message and morale, foreshadowing same, and which is the undeniable essence and value of selfless service and passion for the oppressed in the practice of ones chosen field of endeavor.

It is equally worthwhile to note that Falana is the fourth African and the second Nigerian to clinch the prestigious award since its inception. Others include Nelson Mandelas lawyer, who fought the great battle for his freedom from apartheid gulag; Lucy Banda Sichone, for her pioneering struggle and defence of the rights of the oppressed in Zambia; and our own scourge of oppressors and indefatigable champion of peoples rights, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), who won the award in 1998.

And as if to cap it up, only a few days ago, Falana was named as one of the few legal practitioners short-listed by the highest and most revered body of the legal profession in Nigeria for conferment of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the apogee of professional attainment and accomplishment in the legal profession, a rare privilege reserved only for the best and brightest in recognition of their substantial contributions to the growth and development of the profession.

This is yet another welcome development, which will definitely impact positively on the essence and propriety of this ingenious practice and therefore perpetuate its relevance.

It also portrays the present administration as one that places merit and due process above mediocrity, irrespective of political or ideological differences and persuasions in the conduct of public affairs, contrary to the unfortunate and sordid dispositions of our past rulers.

As long as contributions to the advancement of human rights, total commitment to the core ideals of the profession, substantial pro bono legal services to indigent citizens, advancement and growth of law and the legal profession, through advocacy and legal publications and other principled interventions remain the abiding parameters and hallmarks for this award, then it is obvious that Falana has excelled in all and therefore should be accorded the rare honour of being asked to TAKE A BOW when he appears before the council to defend his nomination for the conferment of the highest honour in the legal profession in Nigeria.

-Agbedo is Executive Director of Global Centre for Defence of Human Rights (GCDHR), Lagos