In memory of Festus Iyayi

Forget the trauma university education in Nigeria is currently going through, no thanks to the ongoing strike action by academic staff and Federal Government’s reluctance to meet the lecturers’ demands fully.

Pocket your anger, if you have any, towards the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian University (ASUU) and Abuja for the near five months forced stay-at-home they have jointly imposed of the hapless students.

Look instead at the contributions of ASUU over the years to Nigeria’s development and the calibre of its leaders and you’ll appreciate what a tragic loss the death of one time ASUU president Professor Festus Iyayi is to the nation.

Death as the saying goes is a necessary end and will come when it will. But while no one can say exactly where and when he/she would take his/her exit from this world, it is always painful when the death is self-inflicted or avoidable/preventable so to speak.

In the case of Professor Iyayi, he did not invite death on to himself but death was visited on him by a driver in the unnecessary long and reckless convoy of Kogi State Governor, Captain Idris Wada Tuesday last week along the notorious Lokoja-Abuja Highway. He was on a mission along with his ASUU colleagues to Kano for the union’s NEC meeting to see how the crisis bedevilling Nigeria’s university system can be resolved and bring the students back to school.

One of the best known ASUU leaders of his generation, Iyayi together with the likes of current Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Attahiru Jega perhaps best epitomised the struggle for a better university education in Nigeria that ASUU is known for. Even if not a few Nigerians would raise questions over ASUU of today, (Federal Government’s sometimes irresponsible action notwithstanding) the contributions of the likes of Iyayi and the direction he took the ASUU of his era should serve as a guide to those presently at the helm at the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities.

His death, though painful, should bring all concerned in the protracted negotiation between ASUU and the Federal Government to their senses and act in the best interest of the nation. No meaningful negotiation is achieved if the parties stuck to their guns; the game is called give and take. That’s why it is called negotiation. I think we have gone beyond the level of apportioning blame; both parties would definitely have something to say to justify their different positions. But if the two parties truly have the interest of the nation at heart it shouldn’t be difficult to reach an implementable agreement and remaining faithful to it.

Iyayi would have died in vain if this strike should continue beyond this moment or happens again in the near future over the same issue of funding of our university system and remunerations for the academic staff. Those involved on both sides should act responsibly now.

And for Professor Iyayi to sleep well, those who caused his death should be punished. But I doubt if the driver of the convoy car that recklessly overtook the rest of the vehicles in the governor’s convoy and caused the crash involving the bus in which Iyayi and other ASUU officials were travelling would be punished. He is the driver to a ‘big’ man so to speak, and people like him are rarely punished for any offence committed while on duty. This is Nigeria where impunity like this happens.

But if we are in the same country and operating under the same law, then nobody should be above that law. I hasten to bring to your notice the story of one citizen Sulaiman Awwal from Kogi State that appeared in this newspaper last week and the kind of ‘justice’ the system meted out to him to justify the call for the punishment of the government driver that killed Iyayi.

Awwal, a fire prevention consultant was released from Agodi prison in Ibadan last week after 11 months awaiting trial in jail for the offence of manslaughter. How did he find himself at this notorious jail? Well, according to Awwal, he was driving from Saki in Oyo State to Ibadan the state capital on January 7, this year when an aged woman ran across the road around Moniya on the outskirt of the city and he knocked her down with his vehicle.

The villagers came out and mobbed him as he tried to rescue the woman and they handed him over to the police. Death came for the woman as she was being taken to hospital. Three days later Awwal was charged to court for manslaughter and remanded at Agodi prison by the Magistrate. He was there until Monday last week when the family of the deceased applied to the court to discontinue the case and the Magistrate duly struck out the case.

Don’t ask about his experience in prison, it was horrible. The concern here is what took him to prison? The vehicle he was driving had an accident and one person was killed by him in the process, the same way one of the drivers in Governor Wada’s convoy drove recklessly causing the death of Professor Iyayi. Shouldn’t that Wada’s driver be charged with manslaughter?

Well, if the Attorney-General and chief law officer of Kogi State would act in accordance with the demands of that office, yes the driver should be so charged. But would he? Let’s wait and see.

The death of Professor Iyayi in the hands of Governor Wada’s driver should finally draw Federal Government’s attention to the recklessness and lawlessness of drivers of government vehicles especially those who drive dignitaries including State governors, ministers, police and military chiefs and even local government chairmen.

When these drivers are on the road, especially when they are driving their bosses, often in a long convoy, they drive as if they are on a mission to commit suicide and any motorists unfortunate to stand in their way albeit legitimately, often have sad stories to tell. They drive without regard for traffic rules and regulations. Most times they drive above the normal speed limit and officers and men of the Federal Road Safety Corps are often helpless to act.

It is about time they are told and shown that they are not above the law and making an example out of the Kogi State governor’s driver would go a long way in letting them know that the immunity from prosecution extended to their bosses (governors) by the constitution does not cover them.

Beyond this however, the mentality of our public officers especially the political leaders that they are superior to the rest of us has to change. They enter the road blowing sirens to scare the rest of us out of their way; and woe betides that person that stands in their way. Many have gone the way of Professor Iyayi in the process and nothing happened to either the offending driver or his boss. This is part of the culture of impunity that we carried over into this political dispensation from the military era of the past. We have to purge ourselves of all the evils of the military era and embrace the rule of law and accept equality of all Nigerians for this nation to move forward. This is the only thing that can atone for the killing of Professor Festus Iyayi who died in the struggle to make our country especially university education in this country better.

May his soul rest in perfect peace. Amen.

 

The post In memory of Festus Iyayi appeared first on The Nation.

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