A human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana
(SAN), has said the late Afrobeat maestro, Fela Anikulapo, remains his
most interesting client.....
He recalled that Fela used to walk up to
him to inform him ahead of his plans to violate the law, telling him to
get ready to defend him in court.
According to Falana, Fela had a penchant
for breaking the law, but he got away with a lot of violations because
he always prepared his defence ahead.
A video clip circulating on the Facebook
captured Falana as saying this during a lecture organised as part of
the activities marking this year’s Felabration and Fela’s 79th birthday, which was marked posthumously.
Falana said, “I was Fela’s lawyer and I can tell you here, he’s been my most interesting client.
“Fela, for many of us, had propensity for criminality – for many people. But here was a guy, Fela, who would tell you, Femi, I wan commit this offence Ah, no nao.
And he would say, ‘No, I am going to breach the new colonial law, it’s
your business to defend me.’ And as far as Fela was concerned, he would
do it. And one thing I found very interesting was that he would have
done his own work, all you then needed to do as a lawyer was just to
look for the law to back up his own defence – a defence that you cannot
challenge in any court. And that was how Fela got away with a lot of
violations of the legal system.”
Falana also recalled how Fela spiritedly
fought the military and campaigned against the white colonialists by
delivering lectures and circulating a book titled, “How Europe
Underdeveloped Africa,’ among undergraduates in Nigerian universities.
Falana said, “As an undergraduate, one
of the most valuable books I ever came across was ‘How Europe
Underdeveloped Africa,’ by Walter Rodney. Fela it was who circulated and
publicised that book in Africa. As far as Fela was concerned, that book
had to be a compulsory read for every African undergraduate. You hardly
would find such a book now. Fela would come to campuses with lorry load
of books. Fela, in two years, delivered about 60 lectures on our
campuses in the 80s, just to challenge Africans to drop our colonial
names; to challenge us to decolonise our minds.
“Fela fought the African soldiers. Fela
knew soldiers were a danger and Fela told all of us, when soldiers
invade a town, they loot, they rape, they steal and that, therefore, we
have to fight the army.”
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