By Abubakar Adam Ibrahim
The death of (Nigerian) novelist and academic, Professor Festus Iyayi
in a ghastly accident along Abuja-Lokoja road has been greeted with grief and
outrage...
Staggering from the blow of loss, the Nigerian
literary fraternity is trying to come to terms with the death of writer,
academic and activist, Professor Festus Iyayi.
He met his death close to Lokoja Tuesday November
12 in a car crash involving the Kogi State governor’s convoy, which had been
involved in other accidents prior to this, one of which left the former
governor Ibrahim Idris injured.
Before to his death, Iyayi had built himself a
reputation as a an author of note with four novels to his name, (Violence, The
Contract, Heroes and Awaiting Court Martial.) He topped his literary laurels
with the Commonwealth Prize in 1988.
But in some circles, Iyayi is better known as an
academic and an activist. His reputation as a former ASUU president is solid,
having once been detained for his activism in 1988, and he had been travelling
to Kano for an ASUU meeting over the four-month long strike, when he met his
death aged 66.
Needless to say, his death has sparked outrage
and condemnation from writers, academics and activists, many of whom have
called for the arrest of the driver in the employ of the Kogi State government
who was involved in the crash. It has also brought to light once again the
notoriety of the Abuja-Lokoja road, with reports claiming that Iyayi was the
125th person killed on that road this year alone, according to official
figures.
The leadership
of the Association of Nigerian Authors was in Minna during the 3rd MBA
Colloquium when news of Iyayi’s death broke. The association later issued a
statement condemning the death as caused by “recklessness” without mincing
words or pulling punches in apportioning blame.
“In this time of great loss, the Association
would like to categorically excoriate the recklessness of those in the service
of public officials in Nigeria as well as the embarrassing underdevelopment of
infrastructure in the country. The untimely death of Festus Iyayi, professor
and novelist, was caused by the recklessness of officials in the employ of the
Governor of Kogi State, Captain Idris Wada, in an ungodly hurry to obscure
ends. The Lokoja-Abuja road, which poor condition has long been decried, also
claimed the life of multi-talented poet and dancer, Ify Omalicha, in March
2012. This state of affair, where we lose the best and the brightest as well as
those with unfathomable potential, is absolutely condemnable,” a statement
signed by Prof. Remi Raji, president of the association said.
However, the Kogi State sector commander of the
Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr Olakunle Motajo said it was rather too early to
categorically apportion blame as investigations into the cause and
circumstances of the crash have started and no conclusions have been reached.
So far, five people had been treated for injuries
from the accident, four in the governor’s convoy and one Dr. Ngozi Ilo, who had
been travelling with the late author. She was said to have sustained minor
injuries and have since been discharged.
Dr. Iyayi was said to have died as a result of an
object that pierced his heart during the accident.
Prof Remi Raji who said that the late writer has
been a lifelong member of the association maintained that he will still remain
relevant in death as he had been in life, saying, “Apart from his numerous
publications as a scholar, his four major novels – Violence, The Contract,
Heroes, and Awaiting Court Martial – will continue to be relevant in the
cultural and intellectual landscape of Nigerian literature as remarkable
fictional perceptions of our social realities. He will be greatly missed even
as his life work in intellectual activism, in the course of which he met his
death, is equally and appropriately lauded.”
Also reacting to this death, Publisher Mr.
Hyacinth Obunseh in his capacity as the president of the African Writers Forum
said, “The most saddening news of the passing of Prof. Iyayi comes as a rude
shock and calls for legislation to stop and punish the unbecoming recklessness
of senior government functionaries.”
He adds that the former ASUU president will be
greatly missed.
“His family, academics and the Nigerian literary
community will miss his contribution to the growth of our national life,” he
said.
Iyayi was born in 1947 in Esanland in presend-day
Edo State and was educated at the Annunciation Catholic College in the old
Bendel State and later at Government College, Ughelli. He furthered his studies
in Industrial Economics at the Kiev Institute of Economics in the former USSR
and obtained his PhD from the University of Bradford, England.
Upon his return in 1980, he took up a faculty
position with the University of Benin and almost immediately became an active
member of ASUU, rising to the position of the association’s president in 1986.
Two years later, ASUU was briefly banned and
Iyayi was detained for sometime. In that same year, his novel Heroes clinched
the Commonwealth Writers Prize thereby cementing his position as a writer of
reckoning in the country and beyond.
Reports indicate that a burial is being planned
for sometime in December as his corpse has been conveyed back to his native
Benin by his brother Peter Iyayi who is a lecturer at the Federal University,
Lokoja.
While the rhetoric and lamentations continue, the
reality remains that Nigeria has lost yet another shining lamp in the hallowed
halls of academia and literati.
* Courtesy of Sunday Trust
