The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, on Thursday, recalled how he began his legal practice under the tutelage of the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, a renowned human rights activist and lawyer.
Bakare, who spoke at the Gani Fawehinmi Annual Lecture 2026, held to mark the 22nd anniversary of ‘Fawehinmiism’, recalled how he won his first Court of Appeal case just 21 days after being called to the Bar and working under Fawehinmi.
The event, held at the Airport Hotel, Ikeja, honoured the memory and legacy of Fawehinmi and was organised by the Ikeja Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association.
Bakare, who was the keynote speaker, detailed his experience with Fawehinmi, whom he said was once his boss.
He explained how he learned diligence and excellence from the late lawyer while working in his chambers in the early days of his legal career.
“Diligence was another value that defined the career of Chief Gani Fawehinmi,” Bakare said, adding that the late lawyer demanded the same rigour from his team.
“I demonstrated this competence early enough under the tutelage of Chief Gani. Within my first 21 days of being called to the Bar, I won my first case at the Court of Appeal,” he said.
Speaking to the theme, ‘Integrity Deficiency in the Justice Sector: Whither the Legal Profession?’, the cleric advised legal practitioners to restore integrity to the judiciary.
“Learned colleagues, if we want to restore integrity to the legal profession, we must first restore the values of diligence and excellence.
These values must then be transmitted from one generation of lawyers to another. That is how we can rebuild institutions in the judicial sector.”
He said the Bench and the Bar must wake up to their identity as the judicial branch of government, noting that “a degree of activism is required to achieve this—the kind that Chief Gani Fawehinmi modelled as a lawyer, and the kind that the likes of Justice Kayode Eso and Justice Chukwudife Oputa modelled as judges.”
Also speaking, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, identified fear and favouritism as some of the challenges hindering the delivery of justice in the judiciary, urging stakeholders to uphold integrity to avoid what he described as the imminent collapse of the system.
“One of the problems we have is that we no longer challenge things that are wrong. We have come to accept bad behaviour. Evil and corruption have become the normal way of doing things, and nothing worries us. And it would appear that insisting on doing the right thing is actually seen as abnormal.
“We fear so much for our safety. So if you want to be a Senior Advocate, you’re supposed to take everything because you don’t want anybody to victimise you. And when you have become a judge, you have to be conformist so that you will not wrong the Chief Judge,” Osigwe said.
He added, “And whether we like it or not, society is watching, and one day we pray that people will not say, ‘What do we need lawyers for?’ or ‘What are the courts there for if they cannot give us justice?’”
Osigwe said he was always excited to be part of the NBA Ikeja lecture in honour of Fawehinmi, noting that the late lawyer “represented the best the profession had to offer. He showed excellence in a way that every lawyer should aspire to.”
He advised lawyers to demonstrate, through words and actions, that integrity can be upheld.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the NBA Ikeja Branch, Adeniyi Quadri, said Fawehinmi believed and lived by the creed that the law is not neutral in the face of injustice.
“For him, the legal profession was not merely a career but a platform for social engineering, moral resistance and nation-building.”
He said it was therefore no accident that the branch continued to celebrate his legacy “at a time when public confidence in institutions, including the justice sector, is under severe strain.”
He added, “On behalf of the NBA Ikeja Branch, I reaffirm our unwavering commitment to sustaining the ideals of Chief Gani Fawehinmi—courage without compromise, advocacy without fear and integrity without negotiation.”
The Chairman of the Occasion, Justice Oludotun Adefope-Okojie (retd.), also said she was happy to celebrate an outstanding jurist who went beyond the love of money to fight for justice.
“While I do not denigrate the prosecution of election cases with their attendant monetary rewards, Chief Fawehinmi went for weightier matters—matters of justice and civil rights.
“He defended the Ogoni Nine in the fight for environmental justice in Ogoniland, Rivers State, led by Ken Saro-Wiwa.”
She added, “In the deliberations of today, it is important that the NBA is in the vanguard. It must proffer solutions to the decongestion of the courts. The NBA must come alongside the heads of courts to proffer solutions to issues affecting the judiciary.”
The event concluded with a panel session featuring policy strategist and law and governance expert, Dr Sam Amadi; legal affairs journalist and author, Richard Akinola; and Otunba Olumide Oniyire (SAN).
The event also featured the presentation of the maiden Gani Fawehinmi Integrity Prize to Justice Hadiza Hamisu Ali-Jos (retd.).
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