By Igbotako Nowinta
Today, Comrade Festus Iyayi’s scale of relevance in our history is special, unadulterated, laden with scintillating memories. His sophisticated understanding of visionless political configuration, defective federation, electoral retardation and economic stagnation stood him out from the crowd. As a staunch enemy of arbitrariness in governance, he built alliances with the progressive extraction of the civil society to liberate Nigeria from the brutal shackles of the oppressors, which led to the birth of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) in April 1989. A radical per excellence, he knew that the system was fraught with endemic corruption and entrenched inefficiency; that the authoritarian Nigerian State centralizing both administration and fiscal resources, was forcing the people ever more firmly into subject states, he proved himself as a perpetual and indissoluble revolutionary till death in the struggle. Comrade Festus lyayi in his epochal works like ‘Violence, Heroes, Awaiting Court martial’ did not only distill and expatiate but condemned the arbitrary powers put in the hands of successive governments in Nigeria and the deliberate pauperization of the great majority of Nigerians.
Late Comrade Samoral Machel, ex-President of Mozambique, made a moving speech in July 1971, when Josina Machel, his wife, a leading Frelimo militant, succumbed to the cold hands of death, during the revolutionary war for independence.
In that glowing tribute, Samoral Machel made an endless epitaph for a courageous Comrade as follows:
”How can we mourn a Comrade but by holding the fallen gun and continuing the struggle? My tears flow from the same source that gave birth to our love, our will and our revolutionary life.
Thus, these tears are both a token and a vow of combat; the flowers which fall from the tree are to prepare the land for new and more beautiful flowers to bloom in the next season. Your life continues in those who continue the struggle.”
On November 12, 2013, Comrade (Professor) Festus Ikuoria Iyayi, was murdered in cold blood, while he and other members of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) were traveling to Bayero University, Kano, to consider calling off the longest nation-wide strike action in the history of Nigeria.
The manner in which a deep hole was pierced into his chest suggested that, he was shot at close range by a desperate paid agent of the then Goodluck Jonathan civilian regime.
Though, the driver who left his lane and deliberately rammed his car into the convoy of vehicles heading to Kano has been tried and convicted for murder, we know deep down that Comrade Festus Iyayi was assassinated by agents of the then Federal Government who were adequately financed to do the heinous crime.
What was Festus Iyayi’s offence? Because Comrade Festus Iyayi stood like the legendary rock of Gibraltar in his unlimited postulations for academic decency, progress, freedom and sanity, the enemies orchestrated his untimely death in that most barbaric and condemnable fashion.
On the 12th of November, 2019, torrents of tributes flowed ceaselessly as friends, colleagues and Comrades gathered on the Ugbowo campus of the University of Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria, to honor and mark the sixth anniversary of his painful exit.
It was paying gigantic tributes to the extraordinary memory of Comrade Iyayi that made the Authorities of the University of Benin to dramatically rename one of the busiest halls on the campus the ‘Festus Iyayi Hall’ of residence.
Six years ago, as we all gathered inside the Isiohor residence of the late Comrade Festus Iyayi, to express our shock, sympathy and agony with his immediate family members, that l told Comrade Bello Idaevo, a lecturer in the University of Benin that: ‘we are being forced to live daily with the sad reality of the demise of our indefatigable, compassionate and exemplary leader.’
We wailed, wept and cried because Festus Iyayi was too dear to us considering how he was snatched violently from us. Moved by Comrade Iyayi’s characteristic belief in ideas as the main weapon to fight the democratic battles and his engagement with other progressive elements within the democratic space, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, then Governor of Edo State, ordered that the Ugbegun Grammar School be rechristened Festus Iyayi Memorial Grammar School.
Today, Comrade Festus Iyayi’s scale of relevance in our history is special, unadulterated, laden with scintillating memories. His sophisticated understanding of visionless political configuration, defective federation, electoral retardation and economic stagnation stood him out from the crowd.
As a staunch enemy of arbitrariness in governance, he built alliances with the progressive extraction of the civil society to liberate Nigeria from the brutal shackles of the oppressors, which led to the birth of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) in April 1989.
A radical per excellence, he knew that the system was fraught with endemic corruption and entrenched inefficiency; that the authoritarian Nigerian State centralizing both administration and fiscal resources, was forcing the people ever more firmly into subject states, he proved himself as a perpetual and indissoluble revolutionary till death in the struggle.
Comrade Festus lyayi in his epochal works like ‘Violence, Heroes, Awaiting Court martial’ did not only distill and expatiate but condemned the arbitrary powers put in the hands of successive governments in Nigeria and the deliberate pauperization of the great majority of Nigerians.
In September 1995, l was elected the Edo State Chairman of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) and that historic engagement brought me closer to Comrade Festus Iyayi, who at that time just became the National President of the organization.
In 1995, l met a humane, humble, intelligent, considerate, focused Comrade. Thus began a wondrous relationship that blossomed until that tragic day of his demise in faraway Kogi State.
According to Comrade Samoral Machel, ‘how do we mourn a Comrade but by holding the fallen
gun and continuing the struggle?’ How do we really mourn and celebrate this amazing exponent of good governance and staunch foe of irresponsible government cum democratic deficit in global governance?
It is only by doing what we have been known to be doing on behalf of the oppressed in Nigeria that we will be doing a gigantic service to the magnificent ideas and deeds of Comrade Festus Iyayi.
Comrade Iyayi’s versatility as a clever writer spurred me to begin work on my first ever fictional work that l titled ‘the maggots’ which shall soon hit the pages of international readership.
Nowinta Igbotako wrote: Where we are – A call for democratic revolution in Nigeria.
