Professor Festus Iyayi Died in a Road Accident

PROF IYAYI

The ongoing strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has claimed its biggest casualty, as the renowned writer, university teacher and activist Dr. Festus Iyayi died in a road accident on his way to the national congress of ASUU in Kano.

The President of ASUU, Dr. Nasir Fagge, confirmed his death to the reporters. He said the sad news was broken to the union in the morning of November 12, 2013, Tuesday.

The professor died on a failed portion of a Nigerian highway around Lokoja in Kogi state, according to ASUU.

He was born in 1947, in Ugbegun, Ishan, Edo State.

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 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.

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

In his writing, Dr. Festus Iyayi used to have a tough and even radical stance on social and political issues.

He was the President of ASUU from 1986, but in 1988 the union was briefly banned and Iyayai was detained.

May his soul Rest In Peace.