Popular rights lawyer, Femi
Falana (SAN), has said though the late Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo, had a
propensity for criminality, he 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.
Falana stated this during a
lecture organised as part of the activities marking this year’s Felabration and
Fela’s 79th birthday, which was marked posthumously.
He 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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Fela the enigma, Fela the legend, Fela the organiser, Fela the achiever, Fela the successful, Fela the brave, Fela the great. And more. Fela will never die!
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