Iyayi’s Death Was a Sad Development And a Set-Back - Babalakin Laments

A former Chairman of Committee of Pro-Chancellors and chairman of BiCourtney Group, Dr. Wale Babalakin, SAN, has expressed shock at the tragic manner in which the former President of Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof. Festus Iyayi, died on Tuesday in Lokoja, Kogi state, while on his way to Kano for a meeting of the National Executive Committee of the union.

Babalakin, who was the Chairman of the Implementation Monitoring Committee of the Federal Government of Nigeria/University-based Unions Agreement 2009, said Iyayi’s death was a sad development and a set-back to the current effort to halt the prolonged industrial action by ASUU.

In a statement issued yesterday, Babalakin commiserated with the leadership and members of ASUU as well as the immediate family members and friends of the astute professors,on the tragic death.

“I knew Professor Iyayi as a brilliant and committed scholar and an exemplary leader who wanted the very best for the Nigerian universities and the educational system in general,’’ said Babalakin.

He added that the best way to honour the departed academic would be to pay true respect to educational values, the type that Iyayi fought for all his life.

“Professor Iyayi would not have died in vain if the sad occurrence of Tuesday caused us to revisit and act on the agreements between ASUU and the Federal Government that were painstakingly negotiated with the prime desire not only to uplift tertiary education in Nigeria from its lowly, less-than-ideal state, but to also, ultimately, lead to the autonomy of universities in the country,’’ said Babalakin who is the immediate past Pro-Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri.