Nonagenarian Wins 2022 Gani Fawehinmi Integrity Award

That integrity will eventually be recognized and rewarded no matter how long it takes is the message the HEDA Resource Center, with the support of MacArthur Foundation, reinforced last Saturday, December 10, when Pa Muibi Shonubi won the 2022 Outstanding Integrity Award fifty one years after his notable act of integrity and valour.

“What we are doing today, which is also World Human Rights Day, is to appreciate, honor, recognize and celebrate those Nigerians who, despite the allurements of corruption, stand firm and do the right thing, even if they stand alone, just like Gani Fawehinmi”, Sulaimon Arigbabu, Executive Secretary of HEDA, disclosed.

The Annual Awards concluded the two-day event at the Colossus Hotel, Opebi, Lagos. Day 1, Friday, December 9, unveiled the 6th Edition of ‘A Compendium of 100 High Profile Corruption Cases in Nigeria’, a publication of the Human Resources and Environmental Development Agenda. “It names those Nigerians who stabbed this country, those who hurt this society through their acts of corruption”, Arigbabu said.

The awards, the 5th in the series, had three categories: Outstanding Integrity Award, Outstanding Impact Award and the Valuable Whistle-Blower Award.

Professor Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB Registrar and 2018 winner of the Outstanding Integrity Award, who chaired the occasion, eulogized the late constitutional lawyer as an “inimitable variant” and model of integrity, adding that “Not only was he extremely protective of the oppressed across all sectors using not only his legal expertise but also volunteering his material resources to provide succor for the unprotected.” He described the Awards as well-deserved and devoid of lobby or payments.

Olanrewaju Suraju, the Chairman of HEDA who participated by video call, said that though “Gani was better known for his litigation against rights violations, perhaps the worst crime in his reckoning was corruption.”

“The issue”, he argued, “is not only about financial corruption, but also moral and ethical lapses and the forging of credentials by public office holders” and seekers. He called on Femi Falana, SAN to expose such people to stop the anomaly in Nigeria.

Prof Sylvester Odion Akhaine of the Department of Political Science, Lagos State University, in his lecture, ‘The Only Game in Town – Politics and Accumulation in Nigeria’, noted that the history of integrity in Nigeria should not be substituted with the national malaise that began in 1999 as “Nigeria once had leaders like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who spent his time thinking about Nigeria’s problems and proffering solutions”; and others like Pa Ajasin and Ambrose Alli who saw governance as service to the people.

He lamented that the level of corruption is now such that “Those of us who engaged the military under Generals Bangangida and Abacha will wonder if what we have today is the expected outcome of that historical engagement.”

Continuing, he said, “Nigeria is a rentier state”, ruled by political scavengers. “It is like the Gold Rush. That’s the sense you get from politics. From 1999, everyone thinks ‘if I go into politics, I will be able to make it.’ ”

He added that as principal investigator in a recent work in Lagos, he was shocked when a respondent said, “You don’t need to go to school to play politics. Those who didn’t go to school are occupying political offices.” “This,” he noted, “tells you the perception of politics, which means every Tom, Dick and Harry can go there”.

Quoting a 2007 paper, he averred “It is on record that since 1960, thirteen different governments have ruled Nigeria. One thing that is common to them all is corruption, which has inflated the cost of governance to the detriment of overall development of the nation. Cost of governance in Nigeria is not a direct effect of prosecuting policies of government for enhancement of the living standards of the people, but a result of inflated contracts and other vices” for the personal enrichment of people in government.

“With the Nigerian advocate facing the challenge of corrupt practices in governance, access to political office becomes a do or die affair. The Nigerian nation state serves as a source of acquiring personal wealth by public office holders. So you can see why politics has become the only game in town”, the professor submitted.

In his overview of the awards, HEDA Programme Consultant, Mr Shina Odugbemi explained that the plaque was the winning entry of Raji Yusuf of Yaba College of Technology in an art competition and the design philosophy is that a life of integrity requires a golden soul with unique mental attitude and incredible courage to stand alone in the midst of multitudes engaged in mind-boggling corruption.

At the awards, Pa Muibi, a 90 years old native of Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State, won the Outstanding Integrity Award for his 1971 conduct as a taxi driver in Ibadan.

On the fateful day, Pa shonubi conveyed passengers from his park in Shasha to Moniya in Ibadan. He later discovered a bag full of money in his boot and drove to Iyaganku Police Station where he handed it over. Following his action, “Announcements were made in the media and the money eventually returned to the owner”, the citation by Odugbemi read.

For his noble and rare act of valour, he was mocked by society and nicknamed “Muibi Arowomagbe”, a metaphor for folly in someone that finds money but doesn’t take it.

The attendant backlash and name-calling soon drove him out of his park to Iyana Liberty. But unending mockery and discrimination in the new park forced him to relocate to a village in Ijebu Igbo with his family where he turned to farming.

“Today, given the level of moral decadence and poor value system in our society, the name is regrettably almost synonymous to foolishness, as against honesty that it ought to represent.”

Odugbemi also recalled the corruption case of Prof Olojede’s predecessor in JAMB who is on the Compendium; adding that “Whatever you do, there is record, which HEDA is chronicling. So as Olojede and Pa Muibi get awards, Ojerinde appears on the corruption list”.

In his reaction, Pa Shonubi thanked HEDA for the honour, saying that he never imagined that his action of 51 years ago would be appreciated by anyone so long after.

Other nominees in this category included Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, and Victoria A. Samson, Ibadan-based businesswoman and owner of BOVAS filling stations.

Ininbehe Effiong, a young lawyer and activist, won the Outstanding Impact Award (OIA) for his activism and strides in human rights litigation, ahead of Dr Chido Onumah and Rafiu Tolani, Esq.

The Valuable Whistle Blower Award (WBA) winner was Richard Oghenerhoro who beat John Ibhaluobe Ebosele and Comrade Ibrahim Ali to it.

Arigbabu disclosed that selection of winners started in July with 481 nominations that were pruned down to the nine finalists honored. He pledged that HEDA will not only continue to celebrate outstanding people of integrity that are deserving but not usually recognized, it will also immortalize them.

Other dignitaries at the event included Femi Falana, SAN, who counseled that monies collected by JAMB should be paid to TETFUND to improve education and not to the Federation Account where they could still be misappropriated, charging Professor Oloyede to see to it.

Also present was veteran broadcaster, Ambrose Shomide.

The event, organised by the Human and Environment Development Agenda, HEDA Resource Centre, and supported by MacArthur Foundation, was in honour of the late human rights icon, who died of cancer in 2009.