Newsgist-Former Asuu President Festus Iyayi Died In A Car Crash

Newsgist-A former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Festus Iyayi, is dead.
He was killed in an auto crash Tuesday afternoon, on the Abuja-Lokoja road in Kogi State, while on his way to Kano for an ASUU congress meeting.
The Union is yet to make any official comment on the unfortunate loss.
The late Iyayi was a renowned writer, university lecturer and an activist.

He was a member of different Nigerian literary organizations and also worked in the private sector as a consultant.The late university teacher was among ASUU leaders who met with President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja last week to deliberate on how to end the four-month strike by lecturers.
Another version of the news confirms that Iyayi was killed when a car in the convoy of the Kogi State Governor, Idris Wada, rammed into his vehicle.

A police source has disclosed that he gave up the ghost at the scene of the accident.
Recall that in December last year, Governor Idris’s convoy was also involved in another accident, leading to the death of his Aide de camp. Mr. Idris who sustained serious injuries in that accident was admitted at the National Hospital, Abuja.

                                     [Biography Of Festus Iyayi]

Iyayi was born in Edo state, Nigeria. His family lived on little means but instilled in him strong moral lessons

  about life. Iyayi started his education at Annuciation Catholic College in the old Bendel state popularly known as ACC finishing in 1966. In 1967 he went to Government College Ughelli, graduating in 1968. In that same year he was a zonal winner in a Kennedy Essay Competition organised by the United States Embassy in Nigeria.

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 USSR and then his 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.

As a member of staff of the University, he became interested in radical social issues, and a few years after his employment, he became the president of the local branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), a radical union known for its upfront style on academic and social welfare. He rose to the position of president of the national organization in 1986, but in 1988, the union was briefly banned and Iyayi was detained. In that same year, he won the Commonwealth Prize for Literature for his book “Heroes”. He was later removed from his faculty position. Today, Iyayi is a member of different Nigerian literary organizations and works in the private sector as a consultant.