Human rights advocate and senior lawyer, Femi Falana, has called for the rechristening of streets bearing names of colonialists to reflect names of Nigerians who made huge sacrifices towards the development of the country.
Falana said some of the foreign names honoured in Nigeria were colonial criminals and therefore do not deserve the honour of having streets named after them.
He spoke on Sunday at the unveiling of a statue at Ojota by Lagos State government in hour of Gani Fawehinmi, arguably Nigeria’s most vocal lawyer and justice advocate during his time. Fawehinmi passed away in September 2009, at the age of 71. He would have been 80 this year.
According to Falana, streets such as Lugard, Bourdillon, Kingsway, Leventis, James Robertson, etc., should be renamed to bear indigenous names of exemplary citizens, rather than ‘colonial criminals,’ many of whom were slave traders who stole the nation’s vast resources.
He applauded Lagos for the Fawehinmi statue, which stands 44 feet high making it an imposing figure to behold at the Ojota Park.
“While Lagos State has decided to honour those that worked for the masses unlike one state governor, who honoured someone six months ago, and we warned him to pull down that statue because he is honouring a criminal. Today, that president that was honoured in Owerri, Imo State, is now standing trial in South Africa.
“We are happy that is not the case in Lagos. But I implore Lagos State government to rename all those streets named after criminals, especially colonial administrators, who came to Nigeria to cart our resources away.
“We must change those names immediately. It is a shame that our governments are still honouring criminals. Some of them were slave traders. We are even still paying them pension,” he said.
Speaking further, he said: “Gani stood for justice, accountability, relevance, transparency in government and was a torn in the flesh of dictators.
“He lived at a time that it was a risk for any activist to engage in human rights work in the country. He conquered fear and dictators were often afraid of him.
“During the military administration, when we were both jailed, I found him to be a very committed individual to fundamental change, that is, change from poverty to prosperity for the masses.
“He is gone but lives forever because great people don’t die but pass on, while their message remains forever. We were wondering when the previous statue was collapsing, but the one we have today will stand the test of time,” Falana said.
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, who was represented at the event by Idiat Oluranti Adebule, the deputy governor, said the erection of the statue in memory of Fawehinmi was an affirmation of state’s commitment to celebrate personalities whose actions had helped to define the fortune and spirit of Lagos State positively over the years.
