The prolonged faceoff between the federal government and members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, yesterday claimed an important casualty: Former ASUU president Professor Festus Iyayi was killed when a police convoy belonging to Kogi State governor Idris Wada rammed into the ASUU bus in which he was travelling. He was said to have died on the spot.
With the death of Iyayi, it is likely that today’s ASUU meeting in Kano over the ongoing strike will be put on hold and the strike may linger.
The former ASUU president was on his way to Kano to attend the ASUU NEC meeting in the company of three other lecturers of the UNIBEN chapter of ASUU when the vehicle they were travelling in was hit by a police escort vehicle in the convoy of the Kogi State governor in Banda, about 9 kilometers to Lokoja, the state capital.
According to eyewitnesses, the governor’s convoy had, while trying to avoid potholes, rammed into the bus conveying Iyayi . Following the impact, the vehicle was forced out of the road and somersaulted several times, killing the professor of Business Administration instantly.
The state commander of FRSC, Mr Olakunle Motajo, also stated that the accident, which occurred at about 11:45am, involved a Toyota Hilux in the motorcade of Gov. Idris Wada and a Toyota Hiace bus belonging to the UNIBEN ASUU chapter.
“Iyayi was in the union’s bus with two others, including a woman (who was revealed to be national welfare officer, Dr Ngozi Iloh), who sustained a fracture in her left arm, while the other had bruises. But the other escaped unhurt,” Motajo said.
The corpse of Iyayi has since been deposited at Kogi State Specialist Hospital in Lokoja where other injured victims are being treated.
The FRSC sector commander told journalists that a preliminary report on the accident revealed wrongful overtaking on the part of the government vehicle.
The governor, who was returning from Abuja, later visited the emergency ward of the hospital to commiserate with the victims. He thereafter set up a panel to look into the circumstances leading to the incident.
He was also at the hospital mortuary to see the remains of the late Iyayi and directed the management of the hospital to give the victims the best of care.
Some members ASUU who were seen standing in groups refused to speak with the press; they were only lamenting that the governor’s convoy killed Prof. Festus Iyayi and shouting unprintable invectives.
According to the special adviser to the governor on media and strategy, Mr Jacob Edih, the escort vehicle was on the convoy of the governor. “The convoy was on a speed of 80 kilometres per hour when a bus collided with the escort van,” he said, adding that “in the storm it was discovered that a renowned academic and respected human rights advocate, Prof. Festus Iyayi, who was in the other vehicle died in the accident”.
Iyayi’s death has thrown ASUU, the University of Benin community and indeed the entire academic community into shock.
Reacting to the news, Prof. Friday Okonofua of the University of Benin accused Kogi State governor Capt. Idris Wada of being responsible for Iyayi’s death. “It is the governor of Kogi that killed him. He was killed by a reckless convoy. He killed one of our most distinguished academics who has won laurels all over the world. We would hold the governor of Kogi responsible for his death,” he said.
Jonathan mourns
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has joined the throng of people who have expressed their shock and sadness at the loss. President Jonathan said that he was saddened over the death of the former president of ASUU, just as he expressed dismay that the deceased lost his life while contributing to the bid to finally resolve the current strike by the academic body which has unfortunately disrupted academics in most of the nation’s universities for over four months. Special adviser to the president on media and publicity Dr Reuben Abati noted in a statement that Jonathan, on behalf of himself and the federal government, commiserated with the leadership and members of ASUU “on the tragic death of Iyayi.
Iyayi’s death a big loss to academics - Mark
Senate president David Mark has lamented over the death of forefront academic and former president of ASUU Dr Festus Iyayi, saying that Nigeria has lost an academic giant.
He also consoled with the Katsina State governor, Ibrahim Shema, over the death of his father, Alhaji Shehu Shema.
Reacting to the untimely death of Iyayi through a ghastly motor accident, Senator Mark noted the giant strides of the university scholar which brought international fame and value to the nation.
He noted with pain that Iyayi was one of the leaders of ASUU dialoguing with the federal government on how to resolve the lingering strike action by the university teachers.
Tambuwal expresses shock
Also extending his condolence, speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, through a statement by his special adviser on media and public affairs, Malam Imam Imam, described the deceased as a respected teacher and unionist who gave his all for the progress of the education sector.
“Iyayi’s lifetime of struggles will no doubt inspire many upcoming lecturers and unionists to render selfless service to their country,” Tambuwal said.
When LEADERSHIP broke the news to the former vice-chancellor of the University of Benin, UNIBEN, Edo State, where Iyayi served the union in several capacities, Prof. Grace Alele-Williams, she expressed disappointment over the development, blaming it on poor governance which, she claimed, has made all channels of transportation unsafe in the country.
Alele-Williams, who was the VC when Iyayi was the ASUU national president, said although her administration had it rough in the hands of Iyayi-led ASUU, she would be sad for many days over the death.
“God have mercy! How can Iyayi die now? He just clocked 66, I think. This is a big loss to this country. It is irreparable and I don’t think I am going to get over this shock soon. Please, I cannot say anything again,” she lamented.
Similarly, the immediate past president of ASUU, Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie, who said he was yet to come to terms with the news, described his predecessor’s death as a colossal loss. He told LEADERSHIP that he was in touch with his colleagues who had gone to the scene of the accident in Lokoja to retrieve the body.
“Dr. Iyayi was not the only one in the car. The ASUU national welfare officer and the chairman of UNIBEN chapter of ASUU were also involved in the accident. You can imagine what we are losing. It is really unimaginable,” Awuzie said.
The welfare officer of ASUU, Dr (Mrs.) Ngozi Ilo, and UNIBEN chapter ASUU chairman were said to be in critical conditions but, as at the time of filing this report, their whereabouts could not be ascertained.
Meanwhile, another former national president of ASUU, Dr Dipo Fashina, simply refused to comment on the matter, saying it was too traumatic. Fashina was also at the meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan and might well be in Kano for the NEC meeting.
The current national president of the union, Dr Nasir Fage, also told LEADERSHIP that he would call back as soon as he rounded off the meeting he was holding.
Meanwhile, the union’s national treasurer, Dr. Ademola Aremu, has described the incident as a demobilising factor to the ongoing efforts to resolve the over four-month -old industrial action, saying the development would clearly affect the morale of members.
Aremu, who said he was very sad, noted that Iyayi’s death was avoidable if governance in the country had been better handled.
In a similar development, the former welfare officer of the Obafemi Awolowo University chapter of ASUU, Dr Chijioke Nwasomba, who claimed both his Master’s and PhD theses were focused on Iyayi’s works of art, said the late scholar would be greatly missed by the circle of human rights fighters and academics.
Nigeria has lost a complete humanist - Ribadu
The presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2011, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has described the death of the academic, writer and unionist, Prof Festus Iyayi, as shocking and a monumental loss to the country.
In a statement by his media aide, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, Ribadu described late Iyayi as a committed unionist who spent his life fighting for a just society and died in the course of it.
He said the late academic paid his dues in all the callings he chose for himself as a writer, academic and unionist. “But more edifying fact is that he tailored all the three personas into one direction – that of struggle for a better society,” he said.
“The breed of activism is once again deflated with the passage of Iyayi and in him Nigeria has lost a sincere patriot, proficient writer, thorough academic and dodged unionist. Personally, I have lost a friend who was always willing to provide a pillar of support,” Ribadu added.
Iyayi’s literary works deal with issues that border on challenges facing the Nigerian poor that are still with the larger populace, Ribadu said, adding that his novels treat issues of labour relations, insensitive economic policies and dangers of individualism from a pragmatic Marxist stand.
To immortalise the memory of the late Iyayi, Ribadu repeated his call on the federal government to immediately bring an end to the lingering ASUU strike and move to improve the standard of the universities, a cause the late unionist died fighting for.
Some remarkable achievements of the late Iyayi
1. His brilliance was first recorded by the public in 1968 after he graduated from Government College, Ughelli. He was a zonal winner in a Kennedy Essay Competition organised by the United States Embassy in Nigeria.
2. He received his master’s degree in in Industrial Economics from the Kiev Institute of Economics, in the former USSR, and then his Ph.D from the University of Bradford, England.
3. Passionate about country, he returned to Benin in 1980, and became a lecturer in the Department of Business Administration at the University of Benin.
4. He became president of ASUU in 1986. He was later removed from his position as a member of the faculty.
5. In 1988, when the union was banned, he was detained.
6. In that same year, he won the Commonwealth Prize for Literature for his book Heroes.
7. His published books include The Contract, Awaiting Court Martial and Violence, for which he was most popular and a poignant work about the moral, economic and political violence unleashed on a poor, jobless Nigerian in his 20s, Idemudia.
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