Ayayi was in a sitting posture with an obvious injury on the upper part of his left hand and a mass of blood on his chest within the region of his heart. He was gasping for breath, and then the breathing appeared to stop…” – Anthony Monye-Emina
The year was probably 1987. The doors of the Volkswagen beetle slammed shut. The young men who had arrived in the compound scurried in all directions. Shortly after, a hush fell on the compound, a military jeep pulled over at the same compound. About six men jumped down. The ground shook beneath them. Their commander was a handsome lieutenant. He was neatly dressed and bulky. He ordered the soldiers to check the Volkswagen for the “idiots…”
In those days, lecturers’ strikes could only be compared to James Bond’s movies. The young men who had run out of the Volkswagen were lecturers from different universities around the country. At least one of them was from the University of Ibadan (UI). They had gone to the court to get an order. The military had pursued them into the court compound. The judge had threatened sanctions against the military men not to touch the young lecturers within the court premises.
Of course, they were allowed to leave the court premises but were not allowed to roam freely. The beetle car probably chose to go through Polytechnic Ibadan compound to the premier university. The lecturers knew their route and their point of rendezvous. If those soldiers got you, you would be taken to Lagos and tortured. If any National Executive Council member of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) were arrested by the police or military in the 1990s, there were standby replacements for them. Struggle continues.
In those days when National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) was still an intellectual and functional movement, students always supported the ASUU struggles. Even when NANS refuses to join the action, it does not stupidly denounce it. It happens now that NANS has been compromised terribly. Local students’ unions would usually protest the arrest of ASUU members. Reactionary Vice-Chancellors usually attacked progressive ASUU lecturers in those days.
In 1987 at the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Festus Ojeaga Ikhuoria Iyayi was sacked. He had a Doctorate degree in Business Administration. He was ASUU National President when he was relieved of his job. The directive had come from General Ibrahim Babangida. Then, the UNIBEN was still basking in the euphoria of having the first female VC.
In my little understanding, I never believed that the reason the lecturers would send the government off balance would be the issue of salaries alone. Since 1992 till date, the demands of ASUU has shown greater concern for students and the education sector more than just the issue of welfare of its members. The demands have ranged from poor funding of education, poor facilities in universities, privatisation and greater involvement of students in the decision making process and so on. All of these are explained in a larger scope when investigated. The point is, if the Nigerian government would be reasonable enough to at least consider the future and respond to some of these demands.
The claim as usual is no money. Of course, no money to build the education system but there is abundant funds for looting and misappropriation. Then, they tell us to pay more for acquiring education, so that the quality can improve. Later, nothing changes.
The late Prof Festus Iyayi died in the struggle to free our education from the agents of backwardness. He was on his way to Kano where a National Executive Committee meeting was to hold. The meeting was meant to discuss how to resolve the then strike. There had been a congress in Benin before he embarked on the journey began. The bus conveying Iyayi and other ASUU officials had reached the dusty plains of Banda village near Lokoja, the Kogi State capital. Then, siren blared endlessly, signalling the coming of the convoy of the then Kogi State Governor, Captain Idris Wada. The convoy was reputed to have been consistently reckless. Before Iyayi’s death, it had been reported on the news even in Ibadan that that convoy was usually recklessly and dangerously without respect for other road users.
The last of the fleet of vehicles on the convoy veered off its lane and faced the bus conveying Iyayi and others.
The then ASUU chairman at UNIBEN, Anthony Monye-Emina, who was with Iyayi, recalled in The National Scholar of April 2014 in Page 62 and 63: “I asked the driver to watch the vehicle which kept coming at us even when the driver made to leave the road. At a point I thought it was a suicide attack…[the] pick-up truck… ram[med] into our bus on the side with a big bang causing it to somersault three times and then stood upright… Comrade Festus Iyayi was in a sitting posture with an obvious injury on the upper part of his left hand and a mass of blood on his chest within the region of his heart. He was gasping for breath, and then the breathing appeared to stop. I called several times but, he did not respond.”
We must all understand the legitimacy of ASUU demands and the union’s patience. In his private discussion with this writer, Prof Abiodun Ogunyemi said it took 50 letters written between 2009 and 2013, warning strikes and over 200 meetings to get the government renegotiate the 2001 Agreement.
There has been mass exodus of seasoned academics to Europe and America. We wonder why there is little meaningful change in our curriculum. The education system is rigid and no true lecturer is happy with the situation of things.
The state of facilities for research, teaching and learning is another source of disagreement with the government.
Going by the sarcastic words of Irish playwright, Bernard Shaw, it is only a reasonable man that will adapt himself to the world. Unreasonable fellow will persist in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
The statement is a message for those whose sole reason for being a lecturer is for survival and not for changing the education system. If things must change in Nigeria education sector, government must listen to the lecturers and accede to their demands. Without cooperating with ASUU, things may go worse for the education system.
Aderemi is a student of the University of Ibadan (UI)
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