Iyayi: Tribute To A Colossus

By DenjaYaqub

Exactly 25 days after the death of one of our most unswerving leaders, Baba Omojola, whose burial proceedings are still ongoing, death has again taken one of our best via an auto accident. The cause was the culture of impunity often displayed by convoys of public office holders, who seem convinced that the capacity to “fly” on the road adds to their power, even when it clearly exhibits the depth of their contempt for the people.

Professor Festus Iyayi, an embodiment of meekness, cerebral dexterity and dependability, was murdered in his prime by a vehicle in the the convoy of a governor still recovering from an earlier accident caused by reckless driving.

Born in Ugbegun, Edo State, in 1947, Iyayi started his education at the Annunciation Catholic College in his village and later went to the famous Government College, Ughelli, Delta State. From there, he went to the Kiev Institute of Economics, now in Ukraine, where he studied Industrial Economics. He also earned a doctorate at the University of Bradford in England. He thereafter returned to Nigeria and from 1980 till he died, taught at the department of Business Administration at the University of Benin. He spent his last sabbatical with the Nigeria Labour Congress, where he added value to the work of Africa’s largest trade union federation. He was an award-winner from the early stage of his education. Iyayi got his first award as an essayist in 1968, when he won the John Kennedy Essay Competition, organised by the Embassy of the United States of America in Nigeria. He was then in his final year at Government College, Ughelli.

A writer of high repute, his book, Heroes, did not only enjoy popular reading across the globe, it won him the esteemed Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1988. He also wrote other thought-provoking novels such as Violence (1979), Contract (1982) and Awaiting Court Martial (1996). These books offer a compelling depiction of the decadence of the Nigerian society; a society infamous for leaders that gleefully flaunt stolen wealth.

To the millions who bear the brunt of the imperious presence of the profligate ruling elite that is exceptional in its contempt for good governance, Iyayi committed the entirety of his productive life.

He was a conscientious organiser, who had been involved in the development of ideologically-focused organisations of the Marxist flank as well as mass organisations committed to the desired change for a country that is so endowed with all that is needed to lead in development.

Iyayi did not only organise and lead intellectuals, he was deeply involved in organising peasants in remote areas of his native Edo State. He was a leading light in the socialist movement in Nigeria, from the Socialist Congress of Nigeria, SCON, to the Socialist Party of Nigeria. He was part of the ideological substratum of the radical student movement in the 80s, when students spoke with one patriotic voice under united, strong and vibrant auspices.

At the level of human rights and pro-democracy struggles, he succeeded Dr. Beko Ransome- Kuti as President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR. He was similarly actively involved in the Campaign for Democracy. As a writer, he was part of the Association of Nigerian Authors, encouraged by the commitment of personalities like Ken Saro-Wiwa.

The most open attestation of his activism is his leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU. He was elected President of ASUU in 1986 at a time when the imperial structures of international finance capital used the opportunity provided by the anti-people regime of General Ibrahim Babangida to unleash a wide range of neo-liberal policies that have  nearly ruined all components of our collective socio-economic and political existence.

ASUU, under Iyayi’s leadership, was a leading voice against the manipulations of that regime, most especially the economic sting called Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP. He led ASUU to team up with Nigeria Labour Congress, National Association of Nigerian Students, and several others to challenge the introduction of SAP and other policies designed to hand over our country to neo-liberal institutions.

He fought for quality education and the right of every Nigerian to have education regardless of class barriers. He saw scholarship as a major tool for the development of any country and to achieve this, only education that is people-driven in access, content and essence is required. He put all of his energy, resources and intellect into this struggle and, indeed, lost his life in the cause of the struggle as he was killed on his way to a meeting scheduled to advance the cause of the struggle for qualitative education in Nigeria.

He suffered so much state attacks in the course of his involvement in the struggles of our people, the most ferocious and traumatic being the state-sponsored evacuation of his family from his official residence as a lecturer at the University of Benin, following his removal as staff of the university along with Professor Itse Sagay and Dr. Osagie Obayuwana, both of the Law faculty at the time, as well as Tunde Fatunde of the Faculty of Arts.

This was part of the orchestrated obliteration of quality education in Nigeria, which was carried out by the Babangida regime on behalf of neo-liberal institutions, especially the International Monetary Fund, IMF, which abhorred resistance to their design to seize our economy.  The systemic attack on education started with the annihilation of the culture of critical intellectualism when the regime, in open declaration of its disdain for quality education, claimed there were lecturers that taught what they were not paid to teach. Consequently, people like Iyayi who, in the perception of the regime, fell in this category, were hounded out of the system. The students’ movement was not left out and today, the result is evident in the catastrophic recession in our education system. Intellectualism has not only been destroyed, teaching and learning infrastructure in the system have totally collapsed.

The demand for proper funding for the effective revitalisation of the structures that will ensure quality education are the main issues in contention leading to the current strike by university lecturers. Iyayi was committed to the struggle to actualise these demands until he was cut down in an accident that was avoidable if drivers in the governor’s convoy had learnt a lesson from their boss’ previous accident.

•Yaqub, an Assistant Secretary, Nigeria Labour Congress, Abuja, wrote this article for TheNEWS, Abuja