ASUU Strike: Auto Crash Claims Ex-President

Former president of the Association of Senior Staff of Universities, ASUU, Prof. Festus Iyayi is dead.  He died yesterday morning in a car crash on his way to Kano to participate in today’s National Executive Council Meeting of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) expected to declare an end to the over 4-month strike.

ASUU President Dr. Nasir Fagge confirmed his death  to newsmen. He said the sad news was broken to the union few hours after the incident.

Prof. Iyayi was born in 1947, in Ugbegun, Ishan, Edo State, was president of ASUU from 1986 to 1988.  In 1968, he left the shores of Nigeria to pursue his higher education, obtaining a M.Sc in Industrial Economics from the Kiev Institute of Economics, in the former U.S.S.R., and  Ph.D from the University of Bradford, England.

In 1980, he went back to Benin and became a lecturer in the Department of Business Administration at the University of Benin.

A well known author, with four books to his credit (Violence, The Contract, Heroes, and Awaiting Court Martial), Prof. Iyayi won the Commonwealth Prize for Literature for his book Heroes in 1988.

Meanwhile President Goodluck Jonathan has commiserated with the leadership and members of ASUU on the tragic death of its former President, Dr Festus Iyayi.

This was disclosed in a statement issued in Abuja by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati.

The president extended his sincere condolences to the family, friends and associates of the former ASUU president.

Abati said that the president joined ASUU and the families in mourning the renowned academic and award-winning writer.

He recalled that Iyayi rose to national prominence in the 1980s with his courageous leadership of ASUU and struggle for a better working environment for teachers and academics in the nation’s university system.

Abati said the president “is particularly dismayed by the fact that Iyayi has sadly lost his life while going to contribute to efforts to finally resolve the current ASUU strike.”

He said that the president prayed that God will comfort all who mourn Iyayi and grant his soul eternal rest.

In the mean time, ASUU is expected to announce the suspension of the five-month strike that had paralyzed academic activities in the nation’s varsities at today’s  meeting as it considers the reports of congress held by the various chapters of the union to guage lecturers position on the strike and the concessions made by the federal Government.

Academic Staff Union of Universities, in University of Ibadan and Ahmadu Bello University chapters, have voted for the suspension of the strike  during chapter congresses.

As at press time yesterday, 20 of the 28 chapters that had concluded their meetings supported the suspension of the strike, while the remaining eight preferred that the varsity teachers pressed on with the strike.

The teachers in the University of Abuja, for instance, supported the suspension of the strike but listed conditions that must be met by the Federal Government.

A source at the meeting on Monday said the congress demanded that the withheld three months salaries of the lecturers must be paid.

“Members also demanded for commitment on funding. We also want assurance from government that no lecturer will be victimised on the account of participating in the strike. We also asked that the template for sharing the earned allowance should be prepared within the next two weeks,” the source added.

The conditions were not the same for Nasarawa State University, which voted for continuation of the strike.

Chairman of ASUU in the school, Dr. Theophilus Lagi, said after the congress that as far as his members were concerned the strike should continue.

L-R: Zonal Controller, Rivers State Road Traffic Management Authority (TIMARIV), Mr Uche Molokwu; representative of Rivers Commissioner For Health, Dr Okere Iragunima and Assistant Zonal Coordinator, NEMA South-South Zone, Mr Godwin Tepikor, at Post Crash Development Seminar in Port Harcourt yesterday.