Mohammed Fawehinmi

By Yahaya Balogun 

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”

With shock and profound sadness, Muhammed Fawehinmi has succumbed to death at age 52. He was said to have died briefly after complaining about shortness of breath or breathing difficulties. Muhammed Fawehinmi was the older scion of our late indefatigable strong man, lawyer, and human rights activist, late Chief Gani Fawehinmi. Mr. Mohammed Fawehinmi was a graduate of Business Administration of the University of Lagos in 1991. The humbled man obtained an LLB degree from Buckingham University, England. Mr. Muhammed was called to Nigerian Bar in 1998. He has had over 20 years of experience in the practice of law.

In 2003, the amiable and humbled Muhammed had a terrible accident on a Lagos road that affected his spinal cord and permanently confined his ambulation to a wheelchair. Nevertheless, the young Fawehinmi managed his father’s Law firm, though not to the best of his ability and the measurable expectations of his late father–Chief Gani Fawehinmi. The 2003 Lagos accident punctuated and changed Muhammed Fawehinmi’s life and ambition forever.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Fawehinmi was not married before his death. With sadness, he said in an interview in 2018 that the Lagos accident affected his life in many profound ways. “I just felt that I shouldn’t bother any woman with my condition. I didn’t want anybody to marry me out of pity. Even though I always have females around me, not every woman can stay with a person with a disability of my kind. “Most of the women I have met in recent times are not the ones that can stay with a man, and they are the type who would want to attend parties and keep all sorts of friends instead of looking after me. Of course, a few have come close to what I want, but the temperament is nothing to write home about.” Late Muhammed conclusively lamented.In a nutshell, life is full of mysteries and joy. But the puzzles of life have always dwarfed the profundity of man to enjoy life to the fullest. Only a mind with mindfulness will be able to manage the mundane life with what life brings carefully. The sudden death of Muhammed Fawehinmi reminds every sane man and woman with mindfulness, the teachable moment in everyone’s life. Life is what we make of it. Everyone who humbly understands life should be counted among the fortunate ones who have attempted to understand life.

Today, virtually everyone dwells ignorantly in the voids of the world. The hearts of homo sapiens are full of arrogance, ignorance, amnesia, and empty pride. But, at the same time, life is a teachable space for us. The fool will wake up every morning with the arrogance of empty-self; he goes out with ignorance and thoughtlessness of what the day will bring to fore. He gyrates around like a hydra-headed monster pushing an empty barrel around with amplifying noise. He grumbles, laments, and behaves with belligerency and idiocy as if the world belongs to him. He wines and dines with recklessness and forgets the certainty of his expiry date. The fool forgets that life is a mixture of a void full of nothingness. The fool only remembers the exigencies of life with consciousness only when he’s confronted with threats, opportunities, challenges, and acts of selfishness. Only the smart and mused ones in the midst of the foolish understand life and thread it softly, softly with caution, love, and every act of humankindness. If only a man understands life, he will be concerned about his legacy and what posterity will bring after kicking the bucket. Every minute in a man’s life inches him to his timely or untimely grave. The empty-headed one amasses wealth at the expense of his soul; he dwells a void globe with glorified beauty, so empty!

In reality, with the time difference, the dead ones alive cry for the dead ones being committed to mother earth. In contrast, both have appointed time to be answerable to the inevitable end–death. Death is a necessary end, and it will come when it will come. We all owe death a debt—the inevitable end! What will people say about you after you are no more in this void world? Folks, what legacy do you want to leave behind? These, among other questions, are crucial questions begging for existential answers. There are some names the future generations will ruefully avoid naming after their generational children. Likewise, some names will be jostling the next generation’s minds to name after their children–amongst these names is the quintessential Fawehinmi. A golden name that has stood the test of times and etched its reputation for generations to come. How those of us mourning the death of this humbled man and who attempted with profound regret to outpace and replicate the beautiful legacy his father left behind will matter in the end. My undying message to the late Muhammed Fawehimmi and his numerous families is that:

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”

To live in the hearts of the beautiful minds, you have left behind is not to die. Muhammed Fawehinmi and his father, Gani Fawehinmi, are on an endless journey to eternal life. Before their eternal exits, they have both become kindred spirits in the ethereal world. They have memorably played their parts quintessentially in this troubled world. Sun re, Muhammed Fawehinmi. Those who have created a hemorrhaged society for Nigeria should shamefully avoid attending your funeral. May they not sleep until the inevitable sleep catches their unending nightmares.

May, the souls of the impeccable Nigerians ( Muhammed Fawehinmi and his dad) and other deceased and good Nigerians rest in perfect peace. May Almighty God give the Fawehinmi’s families the fortitude to bear his irreparable loss. May God bless the souls of these vintaged Nigerian generational figures (Muhammed and his father–Gani Fawehinmi). They fought for us to live in the mess of survival and swamped land they’ve tried to clean unsuccessfully.

Goodnight, Muhammed Fawehinmi.

Yahaya Balogun wrote from Arizona, the United States of America.