The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ASUU

  • Convoys of the high and mighty

    Convoys of the high and mighty

    OFFICIAL convoys in Nigeria are today seen as symbols of power and authority. As they blaze their ways through the over-chocked traffic in the busy Nigerian streets and broad expressways, they leave behind them tales of glamour, power, recklessness and blood.

    Over the years, the harvest of souls in this dangerous game of exhibition of raw power and grandeur has continued to grow, leaving behind the wailing of helpless citizens.

    The latest casualty is former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and popular award-winning novelist, Professor Festus Iyayi.

    The great don and man of letters was forced to bid the world farewell last Tuesday in Lokoja, when a vehicle in the convoy of Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State rammed into the bus conveying him and other colleagues to Kano for the National Executive meeting of ASUU.

    It was believed that the meeting the professor was to attend would have led to the university lecturers calling off their four-month old strike.

    All that has again been kept on hold.

    Iyayi was President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) between 1986 and 1988.

    Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Kogi State Sector Commander, Mr. Olakunle Motajo, who first gave an official account of the accident to newsmen, said preliminary investigation revealed that there was wrongful overtaken by the governor’s convoy. He said investigation had started.

    Dr. Sunday Abada, an ASUU member who was also part of the ill-fated ASUU delegation, had also given The Nation an account of how the accident happened.

    According to him, “About 15 union members from various institutions, moving in a three-vehicle convoy, were on their way to Kano to participate in the NEC meeting scheduled to hold in Bayero University, Kano (BUK) today.

    “We were on our way to Kano State for our NEC meeting holding tomorrow when a vehicle in the convoy of Governor Idris Wada on full speed left its lane and collided with the vehicle conveying our members along the Abuja-Lokoja Expressway. Prof Iyayi died on the spot.”

    Some residents of Banda community, who witnessed the accident, according to earlier reports, also said the two vehicles collided and the ASUU bus somersaulted three times before hitting a big tree in the bush.

    It would be recalled that the accident, which occurred at about 11am at Banda village on the Lokoja-Abuja Road, is the second fatal crash in one year involving the governor’s convoy.

    On December 28, 2012, Wada’s convoy crashed on its way to Lokoja from Ayingba, Kogi State.

    Wada’s Aide-de-Camp (ADC) died on the spot. The governor’s leg was broken. Other officials suffered varying degrees of injuries.

     

    History of convoy crashes in Nigeria

    Convoys of Nigerian officials have been involved in fatal accidents since the days of military administrations. In most of the cases, over speeding and reckless driving have been identified as the major causes of the crashes.

    While many observers explain away the habit of convoy drivers of military leaders, that of the drivers of civilian presidents, governors and other top officials since 1999 have remained a puzzle.

    It is on record that Nigeria has lost several lives as a result of this habit.

    In the year 2000 alone, it was reported that senior officials were involved in at least 15 fatal crashes, most of them in convoys.

    On June 8, 2001, one person was killed and several others injured when a car in the convoy of the then president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, “somersaulted and crashed.”

    An eyewitness account said the accident occurred when Obasanjo paid a visit to Sokoto. He said the driver lost control of his car at high speed as he was trying to avoid an oncoming truck. In the process, his car somersaulted several times, leaving a passenger dead and several others injured. He said the driver, who survived, however lost an arm in the crash.

    On Friday, October 9, 2011, a police sergeant was killed and another one injured in an accident involving the convoy of Zamfara State Deputy Governor, Ibrahim Wakkala Muhammad.

    Muhammad was travelling to Sokoto State to flag off the airlift of intending pilgrims for the year’s hajj when the incident occurred.

    In the first week of January 2013, it was reported that the convoy of the Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, Lawal Jimoh, was involved in a ghastly motor accident that killed a police escort.

    The Speaker was travelling to his Okene home town when a heavy duty truck ran into his escort van at Osara, along Okene road.

    Though the Speaker’s vehicle was not affected by the accident, the Speaker’s Chief Press Secretary, Austin Akubo, who confirmed the report admitted that a police corporal, Lamidi Akeem, who was in the affected escort car, died at the hospital from injuries sustained in the crash.

    That was barely a week after Governor Idris Wada of the same state had an auto crash which claimed the life of his aide, Idris Mohammed.

    It was on December 28, 2012, that the governor’s convoy was involved in the fatal accident that killed his security aide while the governor, Wada, broke hs leg. Two other top officials reportedly got injured in the cash..

    On April 19, 2013, it was reported that Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, narrowly escaped death, as his convoy was involved in a near fatal accident along the Orlu/Owerri road.

    In that incident, the governor’s official car was involved in a head-on collision with a Mercedes Benz car, whose driver rammed into the governor’s convoy after losing control of his car.

    Just this month, November, there was controversy when two innocent pedestrians died as unidentified government convoy allegedly caused an accident in Lagos.

    Media reports said the two pedestrians were killed, while no fewer than nine others were injured after a tipper rammed into pedestrians at the U-turn end of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.

    Eyewitness accounts and Federal Road Safety officials said the tipper was avoiding a government convoy of seven vehicles that allegedly drove recklessly into the expressway from a side road around 11.30 am that day.

    Although it was not immediately established which government official was in the said convoy, a report quoted an eyewitness as saying: “It was a convoy of about seven vehicles. There were four jeeps and three escort vans. The escorts were riot policemen.”

    According to some eyewitnesses, about 11 persons were hit, while two died on the spot.

    Since the number plates of the vehicles in the convoy were allegedly covered, there is still controversy over the owner of the guilty convoy.

    There is also the crash involving the convoy of Governor Adams Oshiomhole along Auchi-Warrake Road in Etsako Local Government Area of Edo State, where three journalists died.

    Reports claim the accident occurred when Oshiomhole’s back-up vehicle, conveying security personnel and the government house press bus, collided with a tipper.

    Shortly before then, the convoy of Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State was involved in an accident along the Ogoja-Abakaliki Expressway in Ebonyi State. The governor was on his way back from the funeral of Governor Martin Elechi’s mother in-law. The accident reportedly occurred because the driver did not see the potholes.

    Also, the convoy of Delta State governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, was involved in a crash on the Asaba-Ughelli expressway. It was gathered that the accident happened when the driver of a commercial vehicle, who came face to face with “the lead vehicle in the convoy at a very sharp and narrow bend, lost control and somersaulted repeatedly into a nearby bush, leaving the occupants with wounds.

    Few months earlier, two persons died while six others were wounded when their vehicle had an accident while travelling in the convoy of Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu to Lapai area of the state for a campaign rally.

    Another five persons died when the convoy of Katsina State Governor Ibrahim Shema crashed. The Aide De Camp, ADC, to governor Shema and four others lost their lives in that crash.

    The list appears endless.

  • Convoy culture: The world over

    Convoy culture: The world over

    THE sudden death of former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and popular award-winning novelist, Professor Festus Iyayi, in an auto crash involving the convoy of Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State, last Tuesday has sparked wide condemnation for the recklessness associated with the drivers of public office holders, with growing demand that the Kogi State Government be sued for the tragedy.

    According to reports, Iyayi was killed instantly when one of the governor’s pilot cars tried to overtake a truck and rammed into the vehicle conveying him and other union executives to Kano.

    And as the anger generated by his untimely demise continue to rage, a number of questions are begging for immediate answers. One of such is the issue of who is really liable for deaths and other occurrences as a result of convoy crashes?

    Is it the government, governor or the driver? There are other suggestions that the officers in charge of protocol in the organisation involved should be called to question. There are mentions of the immunity being enjoyed by some government officials and how that prevents any liability on their parts.

    Issues are also being raised about what could be the real reasons why convoy drivers engage in neck breaking speeds. Questions about whether such convoy drivers are not expected to obey speed limit regulations are also rife.

     

    Why convoy drivers speed excessively

    Between 2010 and 2013, about ten convoys belonging to state governors have been involved in fatal crashes leading to loss of lives and properties. While last Tuesday’s convoy crash in Kogi that claimes the life of Professor Iyayi is the latest, the crash involving the convoy of Governor Adams Oshiomhole along Auchi-Warrake Road in Etsako Local Government area of Edo state, where three journalists died, is still very fresh in our minds.

    Other convoy crashes that are still in our minds include the crash involving

    the convoy of Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State, the crash involving the convoy of Delta State governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan on the Asaba Ughelli expressway and the crash involving the convoy of Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu.

    The bus carrying the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP supporters lost control while on speed. The victims were among the advance team to the area where the governor was scheduled to inaugurate a clinic as part of his state-wide campaign for second term in office.

    Others include the crash involving the convoy of Katsina State Governor, Ibrahim Shema, in which his Aide De Camp and four others lost their lives.

    Giving an insight into why convoy drivers over-speed, a transport expert, Chief Olu Lekomo, said arrogance and overzealousness on the part of the convoy drivers and protocol officials attached to public officials should be blamed.

    Lekomo, a former Director in the Federal Ministry of Transportation, while speaking with The Nation, lamented that the convoys of public officers, especially governors, take delight in intimidating other road users by setting out to intentionally drive recklessly.

    “With annoying blaring of sirens, reckless maneuvering of their fast moving vehicles and other flagrant violation of traffic rules without due concern for other road users, these convoy drivers display deep rooted arrogance and overzealousness that have become part of convoy driving in this part of the world.

    “Bad as it is, this culture of arrogance on the part of drivers attached to public officials has been with us for decades now. It is some form of arrogance fueled by naked power and the desire to intimidate.

    “I may want to add here that we inherited this from the military. It is not just about the drivers, the protocol and security details attached to the officials also share the same mentality of brutish arrogance when on the road. It is as if they see themselves as the lords of the road whenever they are in a convoy.”

    While calling on concerned agencies to immediately set out to impress it upon convoy drivers and other officials attached to public officers that they are not lords of the road, Lekomo recounted how security details of a governor physically assaulted a road user for refusing to be intimidated out of the road by their convoy.

    “It was in Lagos on February 10, 2008 that the convoy of former Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State rammed into the car of a woman who was with her two children. Afterwards, security details in the convoy assaulted her physically and further damaged the vehicle accusing her of failing to halt completely to allow the convoy to pass.

    Similarly, Jonas Agwu of the Federal Road Safety Corps, (FRSC) accused convoy drivers of flagrantly abusing regulations guiding the use of the road. He would want them to stop seeing themselves as being above the law.

    “Convoy drivers are not special species of drivers to have a different speed limit; they are to comply with the national road traffic regulations provided for. It is clear; the maximum speed for any private vehicle on Nigeria roads is 100 kilometre per hour while commercial vehicles are 90 kilometres per hour which convoy drivers often flagrantly abuse. They are not expected to run more than 100 kilometres per hour, convoy or no convoy, they are to comply with the traffic regulations.

    “They should also obey and operate under the ambit of the law. Whenever you see multiple crashes involving convoy drivers, it is because of excessive speeding”, Agu explained.

    But aside the arrogance on the part of the drivers themselves, it has also been established that some governors sometimes compel their drivers and security details to violate speed limits and undermine safety.

    A recent report compiled by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) after a round of trainings organised for hundreds of governors’ drivers across the nation, submitted that on many occasions, executives have been known to urge their drivers to move at frightening speeds.

    According to some of the drivers who participated in the training, due to everyday struggles to keep with schedules or skirt exigencies, the governors encourage over speeding, and sometimes assume the wheels themselves under an apparently unfit state of mind.

    “Many complained of being forced to work under unsafe conditions and hours. Some of the drivers claimed they were usually forced to drive above the stipulated speed limits to catch up appointments and that safety was not always the major concern of their principals.

    “In virtually all the states, provisions were not made for rest rooms for the drivers where they can refresh themselves while on duty in their primary offices as well as out stations, the report adds.

    “There were no safety managers in the convoys’ pool to ensure pre-trip, vehicle, driver and the route assessments as prescribed in the Road Transport Safety Standardization Scheme (RTSSS).

    “The drivers themselves are randomly selected with no guidelines of processes stated for their appointment.

    “While majority of the drivers were employed with Ordinary National Diploma, Senior Secondary School Certificate, and Training Test, some got the job without any qualification at all.

    “In written test, out of the 604 that enrolled, only 72 scored A while 137 recorded B and 207, C. Eleven earned E while 20 failed,” the FRSC said in its report.

    Agu, who said that where violations were confirmed, irrespective of those involved, there would be penalties, warned convoy drivers to be mindful of how they move on the road.

    “It’s the same law for everybody; it does not matter whether it is a governor’s convoy. For driving without adhering to the rules, there will be sanctions.”

     

    Convoy crashes: Who is liable?

    Going by his recent actions and utterances, Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Femi Falana argues that should a convoy crash and lead to loss of lives, the public official who owns the convoy should be liable.

    Falana, a SAN, who stated that Kogi State Governor, Idris Wada, should be held responsible for the killing of the former ASUU president, Prof Festus Iyayi, explained that the governor would be vicariously liable for the criminal negligence of his driver who killed the erudite professor.

    “Governor Wada should bear responsibility for the tragic road accident that claimed the precious life of Professor Iyayi. The FRSC should henceforth monitor Governor Wada’s movements to prevent him from killing more people on our bad roads. The speed limit imposed on all drivers should apply to all citizens alike,” Falana argued.

    And perhaps as an answer to the question of immunity being enjoyed by the governor, Falana said the driver who drove the vehicle that killed the professor should be immediately arrested and tried for manslaughter.

    “In particular, drivers of governors who commit traffic offences must be brought to book. In this case, Governor Wada is vicariously liable for the criminal negligence of his driver who killed Festus.

    “The Kogi State government should be made to pay huge compensation to ASUU and the family of Professor Iyayi. Governor Wada’s drivers who killed his ADC last year and Professor Iyayi yesterday should be arrested and prosecuted for manslaughter. Unlike their boss they are not immune from prosecution for criminal offences,” he said.

    Another lawyer, Fred Aniagolu, held that the governor should take responsibility for whatever happens in his convoy. According to the pro-democracy activist, the convoy, having been attached to the governor, assumes the same identity as the governor.

    “While the driver involved can be questioned on his mental and physical state as at the time of the crash; so as to be sure he was not under the influence of any banned substance, it is the convoy owner that should answer questions on speed limit and similar regulations.

    This is because the driver is duty bound to keep at pace with the other vehicles in the convoy. So, a single driver cannot determine his speed limit in a convoy. The convoy moves at the same speed. So, if one driver is guilty of over speeding, then all the drivers in the convoy are equally guilty,’ he argued.

    To buttress his point, Aniagolu cited an incident in the United State where former First Lady, Hillary Clinton had to appear in court to answer questions over the death of a Dallas Police officer in a crash involving her convoy.

    “The family of the veteran police officer filed a suit alleging that their relative died as a result of negligence on the part of Clinton who was being escorted by the convoy that crashed, leading to the death of Senior Corporal Victor Lazada.

    The case is still on and Hillary is still appearing in court,” he cited.

     

    Convoys the world over

    Recently, a governor’s convoy zoomed past the city centre of a state capital in southeastern Nigeria. With about half a dozen vehicles in front, the governor followed in a Range Rover, closely followed by nearly ten other vehicles ranging from buses to security vehicle and more gleaming cars.

    Moving at neck breaking speed, the convoy practically chased other road users off the road. With horns blaring unending and sirens blowing noisily, the long motorcade moved on, oblivious of the anger on the faces of the majority of the people at such brutish display of power and affluence.

    If you are amazed at the length and speed of a governor’s convoy, then wait until you sight the motorcade of the wife of the President, Patience Jonathan. Her long motorcade, including bulletproof and bombproof limousines, several escort vehicles and dozens of other vehicles, is usually a sight to behold whenever she steps out.

    At such times, drivers and commuters who find themselves on her routes always have bitter experiences to relay afterwards. As police empty the roads of traffic, forcing drivers to wait as her glamorous convoy drifts by, motorists are trapped in traffic for hours on end, while social and economic life of the affected community is brought to a halt abruptly.

    As if offering an idea of how many vehicles could be in Her Excellency’s convoy, President Goodluck Jonathan himself recently moved in a convoy of about 47 cars within Abuja to the amazement of many onlookers.

    After one of Patience Jonathan’s visit to Lagos recently, Governor Babatunde Fashola said, “Lagosians were needlessly inconvenienced…. It dawned on me the need for public officers generally to be more sensitive to the people we serve. It is particularly worrisome that this (she) is not an elected person.

    “I think we all must check how security agencies use the movement of high officers, especially VIPs, to disrupt citizens and taxpayers, whose money is used to fuel all the vehicles and all the apparatus that we use to block the roads against them. It should not get to the level that we close the roads in the state because VIPs want to pass.”

    Nigeria is not alone when it comes to the use of convoy to show affluence. President Ernest Bai Koroma’s motorcade in neighboring Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, has been described as massive.

    “Usually with about six or eight motorcycles in front, three other vehicles will follow. Then Mr. Koroma will follow in a Mercedes saloon. Most of the other six or eight vehicles that will come after the President in the procession are gleaming black 70 Series Toyota Land Cruisers.”

    But even Koroma’s motorcade will amount to nothing when compared to the usual convoy of King Mswati III of Swaziland. The Swazi regal convoy can be up to 20 cars long. The king’s favourite vehicles include a $625,000 Rolls Royce, a $500,000 Maybach 62 and a BMW X6.

    He also has 20 Mercedes Benz S600 Pullman Guards, costing $250,000 each, many of them armoured. Warrior guards in traditional dress including an “Emajobo” or loin skin travel with the king. “These men emerge from cars already sprinting,” said one local observer.

    But a peep into the convoy of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s former president will make the Swazi King’s look like a modest effort.

    When Mubarak travelled, his entourage included scores of cars. Any time he crossed Cairo, much of the capital would be roped off with traffic stopped for half an hour before he passed and 10,000 policemen standing along the route.

    Sharp shooters stood on the rooftops, a helicopter circled overhead and an ambulance accompanied him. A recent inventory of the presidential vehicle pool under Mr Mubarak released in Egyptian newspapers said that it included 950 vehicles.

    Many are wont to exclaim at the size of the convoy of African leaders. Many more are likely to aver that leaders of developed countries wouldn’t go to that excessive extent in putting together their motorcades.

    But a recent report from the United States of America (USA) that President Barak Obama and his family “travelled light” in a 20-vehicle convoy accompanied by SWAT team, Air Force One and nuclear codes on a holiday to the exclusive island of Martha’s Vineyard put a lie to such thoughts.

    The 20-strong convoy containing the presidential limousine includes an ambulance, right, a radar-jamming vehicle (in front) and a SWAT team van (next)

    Another member of the entourage is a military vehicle which carries the codes needed to initiate a nuclear attack.

    Earlier in the trip, the couple and daughters Malia, 12 and Sasha, nine, arrived by Air Force One which has armour-plated wings allegedly capable of withstanding a nuclear blast from the ground. They then transferred to presidential helicopter Marine One, preceded by a police helicopter which swept across the island.

    Meanwhile in the UK, Prime Minister David Cameron has since cut down on the use of police escorts, saying that it is an ‘ostentation’ to sped through the traffic by police escort and that police escorts will only be used for high security occasions such as state visits.

    For other times, the British premier will be travelling in his bullet-proof official car (usually a Jaguar) and cope with the traffic just like everyone else. This is the modesty Nigerians, nay Africans, are hoping to see in the convoy of their elected officials.

  • How a UNICAL graduate is coping with ASUU strike

    How a UNICAL graduate is coping with ASUU strike

    On Wednesday, last week, a non-governmental organisation, Foundation for Partnership Initiative for Niger Delta (PIND) took reporters on a tour of the United Ufuoma Fish Farmers Association’s cluster of fish farms in Ekpan, Delta State.

    The visitors were amazed by the size and scale of activities of over 500 farmers.

    The Mr Fischer Ogugu, President of UUFFA and members told exciting stories of their travails and triumphs.

    However, there was no story as gripping as that of a final year statistics student of the University of Calabar. When our reporter met Emmanuel Umukoro on that sunny Wednesday afternoon, he was obviously worn out from a hard day’s work. With his customary red cap perched on his head, he smiled and exuded satisfaction that spread through a striking face atop his muddy, weary body

    He was one student who is making the best out of a bad situation. He has spent the past four months, since the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) embarked on strike doing what he was doing on that Wednesday afternoon – earning valuable extra money that could take some burden off his parents shoulder.

    “My mum is a petty trader and my dad is a tailor,” he said. “Sometimes I don’t even think about my parents when I want to pay my house rent. I don’t disturb my parents because the money is like change to me, so I pay it on my own. Not that they cannot pay it, I just decide to do it on my own because as we say in Warri language, ‘na small small them de follow this thing’ (In life, it is easy does it).”

    The young energetic man had been doing what he was doing that day for the past four years. But as he recalled, the journey did not start very smoothly. “I can remember vividly the day I came to this place. I (had) just finished my secondary school in 2008. I said instead of staying idle, let me come here and find something to assist myself.

    “I found out that so many activities are happening here. After a hard day’s work I and my younger brother managed to make just N350. I told myself I would never come back,” he recalled with a gentle smile that lit up his dark skin.

    “I came again in 2009, a friend brought me back this time and after that day’s work again I was paid N3,500. I was so excited. And I said that money is really good.

    “There are so many things to do here, like packing of the fish, carrying loads. Carrying loads pay more; it pays quickly and very well, too.”

    In spite of his fortunate position, Umukoro was concerned that there were students and other able-bodied youths like him who do not have such opportunity.

    He said his relationship with the NGO has been particularly eventful and interesting. “I have worked with PIND. The first (demo) pond they started, I was the person that stocked it. I remember the doctor (PIND official) that started the pond, he was a UNICAL graduate, and when he met me, he was very happy and said I would be the one to stock the pond. The first fish they used I was the one that carried it and when they harvested, I was the person that sold the fish.

    Reflecting on the lecturers’ strike, he said: “This place has really helped financial so many times. I have been here for the past four months since the ASUU strike. I make an average of 1,500 daily and about 45,000 monthly.”

    But what really does he do? A lot, he said. With over 10 tons of catfish harvested and sold daily, there are so many things for Umukoro and dozens others like him to do at the farm. Hundreds of fish sellers, hoteliers and caterers from with the town, Warri and environs as well as from neighbouring and faraway states troop to the farm daily.

    Our checks revealed that about 100 youths from Ekpan and other parts of the twin cities of Effurun and Warri are engaged daily in the farm and similar ones in Ekpan, New Layout and Ugboroke area of the city.

    “My work here has really helped me in the sense that I don’t have time for negative thoughts. I can’t imagine myself thinking of evil things. When I leave here I go to help my parents and by the time I get home around 10 or 11pm, I am usually too exhausted to think of anything.

    “I am comfortable when compared with my counterparts from similar background who do not have this kind of opportunity to work. I was speaking with a colleague the other day and I asked him what he was doing, he said he was teaching. I asked how much does he earn and he said N7,500. I joked that he should just come here and I would pay him without doing anything and we laughed over it. He (his friend) said that I was speaking as someone who has made money. And when I told him the minimum money I make monthly is N30,000 he was really surprised.”

    This young man’s story is an example of how self-help projects in the Niger Delta with support from government and NGOs can help provide employment and reduce youths restiveness.

    With the UUFFA intervention and other similar projects across the region, PIND has started on the right track.

     

  • Lagos Assembly to ASUU: End strike in honour of Iyayi

    The Lagos State House of Assembly on Thursday appealed to university lecturers to end their strike in honour of their late colleague, Dr. Festus Iyayi.

    The House made the appeal in a statement issued in Lagos.

    The statement was signed by the Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Strategy, Security and Publicity, Mr. Segun Olulade.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Iyayi, a former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), died on Wednesday in a road accident on the Okene-Lokoja Road.

    He was on his way to Kano for a National Executive Council meeting of ASUU scheduled for Thursday.

    ASUU has since postponed the meeting due to the tragic event.

    “Since Iyayi was on a mission to end the strike, the union should consider ending the strike in honour of the late comrade,” the House said.

    It appealed to drivers to avoid recklessness to reduce road accidents, regretting that accidents on the Okene-Lokoja Road had claimed many lives.

    The legislature expressed sympathy with the deceased’s family and the academic community.

    NAN reports that ASUU embarked on an indefinite strike on July 1 to protest Federal Government’s non-implementation of an agreement it entered into with the union in 2009.

     

  • ASUU Strike: A pyrrhic victory?

    ASUU Strike: A pyrrhic victory?

    With the end in sight of the four-month 13 days strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), parents, students, university administrators, and even the lecturers are relieved that the battle is finally over. However, it has been a long arduous battle leaving many questions about whether the gains of the strike outweigh the losses or vice versa.

    The strike started on July 1 with the union adamant about the Federal Government implementing the 2009 Federal Government/ASUU agreement or nothing. They wanted the Federal Government to immediately inject N500 billion into universities for badly needed infrastructural development, and pay N92 billion as earned allowances to lecturers in line with the agreement and the Memorandum of Understanding that issued from it last year.

    Their rejection of the government’s N100 billion for infrastructure and N30 billion for earned allowances in August made the strike drag until President Goodluck Jonathan met with leaders of the union headed by Dr Nassir Fagge last week. Though the outcome of the meeting was not made public, it was reported that President Jonathan promised to release N220 billion yearly in the next five years, starting from next year. It is unknown whether the issue of earned allowances was broached.

    With the President’s promise of N220 billion as against the N400 billion originally documented in the agreement, was the strike worth it? Opinions differ among lecturers, parents, students on the gains and losses of the strike.

     

    Gains

    What the strike has achieved means many things to many people. For some, its strongest gain is that the Federal Government now understands that the academics are not pushovers and will not just accept anything shoved down their throats.

    Dr Thomas Ashiple, a lecturer at the University of Calabar (UNICAL), said from the way ASUU insisted that the government respects the agreement, it would be careful to avoid such situations in future.

    He said: “Irrespective of what people would like to think I feel the gains of this strike far outweigh its pains. I actually have a son in the University of Calabar, so I’m not just talking because it does not concern me. This is in the sense that it deals with the very foundation of everything that is wrong with this country. That is the need to do things right. The Federal Government had an agreement with the union on implementing certain financial commitments to better the educational system for everybody, but instead of looking straight at the matter and dealing with it, they resort to pandering to sentiments to deal with the situation which is what is wrong with this country. I believe if things go the way ASUU wants, it would not just be a victory for them in this matter. It would be way more than that. It would be a statement and it would set a proper precedent for the future.”

    Patrick Nsor, a parent, agreed with him, saying: “I would say the Federal Government has learnt a lesson which should go to all authorities in the country that we must always abide by agreements. What is happening right now is just the consequence of lack of respect for agreements. Besides this, I don’t see any other gain closing down our educational institutions can create.”

    For some others the strike is a success because the Federal Government has now released more funds to public universities. If ASUU had not been adamant, another parent (names withheld) said the money would not have been released and universities would still be suffering lack like before.

    “It has made the government to realise that tertiary institutions have been cheated for so long and that is why the President himself joined the negotiation with ASUU to show his commitment to solving the problem. I think ASUU has made a point and made government to meet some of their demands. At least, 70 per cent of ASUU demands have been met by the government. With this, I do not think government would toy with the future of the students anymore.”

    Dr Ismail Saheed, a Lecturer I in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ibadan, said the increased funding means universities can produce better graduates, which makes the struggle worthwhile.

    “I am in support of ASUU. The strike will make the government spend more on the education sector. It means that if the government agrees to the demands of ASUU, then there would be improvement in educational facilities, such as libraries, hostels, laboratories and lecture rooms. I believe this will add more to the quality of graduates we produce,” he said.

    Saheed also did not see the four months the universities were shut as a loss.

    “To me, the strike does not have any negative effects. Although some may think it will extend their stay on campus but if we look at the issue holistically, staying for long is not really the problem but the most important thing is to have schools with the necessary infrastructure to produce competent graduates,” he added.

     

    The Losses

    Many more people believed the losses were more than the gains. However, for the members of ASUU, the greatest casualty of the strike was Prof Festus Iyayi, who died in a motor accident on Tuesday on his way to Kano for the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of ASUU, where the final decision on whether or not the strike should end, was taken.

    Iyayi, a former president of the union, was at the forefront of the struggle, carrying placards with younger members when they took to the streets of Benin to protest government’s insensitivity in breaching the agreement about three weeks ago.

    Of his death, the ASUU Chairman of Kano State University of Science and Technology (KUST) chapter, Dr Abdulkadir Muhammad, said: “As I am speaking to you now, ASUU has lost Dr. Festus Iyayi of the University of Benin who died in a ghastly motor accident on his way to Kano to attend the ASUU NEC meeting on Wednesday. You can imagine the impact of this great loss to Uniben, Dr. Iyayi’s family and friends and the nation’s education sector.”

    A former chairman of ASUU-UNIBEN chapter, Comrade Idaevhor Bello, said the government was responsible for Iyayi’s death because it prolonged the strike.

    “Some of us hold the government responsible for his death. If the government had realised that they needed a functional education it would not have happened. It is the government’s disinterestedness in education that has resulted in the protracted ASUU strike,” he said.

    For many others, the four months lost to the strike would be difficult to recover by lecturers and students.

    Dr Muhammad said with the strike, the academic calendar is in disarray.

    He said: “The losses are greater than the gains because students in all the institutions have lost time of academic activities, a development which will adversely affect their academic performance, following the distortion in the academic calendar.

    “You can recall that before the beginning of the strike, most universities had conducted the post-UTME examinations and the new students awaiting their results are in confusion. The students are now redundant at home; while graduating students who were supposed to receive their call-up letters for national service have remained frustrated.”

    Prof Ayo Yussuf of the Department of Linguistics, African and Religious Studies, University of Lagos, said lecturers were as badly affected as students by the loss of time resulting from the strike.

    “It simply means for ASUU, we have lost our vacation. As soon as school resumes, we have to start teaching students and preparing them for examinations. If, for instance, a lecturer has 10 items on his course list and he has taught only eight before the strike, he must complete the remaining two when school resumes. Besides, we conduct researches, attend conferences and even supervise projects during strike. What I am saying is that ASUU activities are always put on hold during strikes, and we carry on from where we left once we resume,” he said.

    For Charles Effiong, a student of the University of Calabar, four months is a long time to lose touch with school work.

    “For me as a student, what is important is to go to school. The effect of this strike is already telling on me. Personally, I am beginning to feel that I am losing touch with my studies. It is to this extent that I feel the pain quite hard,” he said.

    Sarah Etumuniratu a 100-Level student of Political Science at the Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma, engaged in part-time work so earned money during the strike. However, that money would also have to go in paying rent for extra months in off-campus accommodation when school resumes.

    “The strike also has negative effects on those who secure accommodation off campus. It means they have to pay additional house rents for the four months duration of the strike which they did not budget for,” she said.

    A final-year student of the Delta State University, Etoh Mejire Andrew, said the extension of the academic calendar means greater financial burden on his parents.

    “An extra year in school ultimately implies additional financial cost for my parents in terms of campus accommodation and other logistics. It also means an extension in the service year. While I should have gone for youth service by June next year, it might not be possible as I will have to count five months extra,” he said.

    For some parents, the losses are so painful that whatever the strike may have achieved is difficult to celebrate.

    Mrs Marina Osoba, a parent, said everyone involved in the university system has suffered losses.

    “Well, definitely, there are no winners; everybody as regards the ASUU strike right now is a loser. The lecturers are losers because they have not been able to be productive or impact what they have; the students are losers because they have lost so much time, they have not been able to write their final year exams and they have not been able to move forward and even the schools themselves and the society have all lost. But, hopefully, this strike will be the strike that ends all strikes, that’s what I’m praying for.

    Another parent, Mrs Joy Godswill said the long strike made female students vulnerable.

    “I can’t start counting the losses because it’s just too painful to imagine. Most of the students have been whiling away their time in loss; talk of parties, clubbing, just name it. The female students are even more at risk; if you should conduct a research on this, you will find out that 50 per cent of the females are either pregnant, rushed into marriage or about to, not to talk of abortions,” she said.

    Another parent, who works at the University of Ibadan, Mr Murtala Lawal, said it was a shame that the strike had to go on for so long to get anything from the government.

    “Let us set the aspect of gain aside and talk about the losses. Keeping our children away from school alone is a big problem. If we want to talk about gain, is it on the part of the lecturers or the government? It is very cumbersome to discuss. As much as you know Nigeria, even in the family sector, if they don’t go on strike the government will continue to say they will fulfill their promise without fulfilling it,” he said.

    Prof Olu Akesusola, Provost, Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED), faulted the government for reneging on the agreement, claiming ASUU did not put the students’ interest at heart. He said prolonged strikes would only lead to the exodus of students from public to private universities.

    He said: “Proprietors of private universities are very intelligent. They studied public institutions system in Nigeria and realised it is replete with strikes. So, they conceived the private university idea to discourage parents who are sending their children overseas to study because of their disaffection with the system. They are saying: ‘Here, we can equally offer you what universities abroad can offer at competitive rates and in an environment where they (students) will also imbibe African culture. And true, they are winning the battle.”

     

    Is this the end of ASUU strikes?

    The thought of another lengthy strike in future is something stakeholders do not like. However, some believe the chances of a reoccurrence are high.

    On his part, Mr Yinka Odumakin, National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, said strikes cannot resolve the problems in universities. He recommends that ownership of universities should be decentralised along geo-political lines so that each zone caters for the needs of their institutions.

    He said: “I think that this ASUU strike cannot be resolved. ASUU has been on strike for 21years since 1992. Under Jega and between 1992 and now they just call it off and resume. Until we decentralise we can’t resolve this thing. For someone to seat in Abuja and says he is the minister of education and want to manage the education in Nigeria, it’s not possible. Let us return these universities to regions; let them be managed at that level.”

    Former Vice-Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Prof Wale Omole also says there is a likelihood that the strike would come again in future. However, if the Federal Government would respect the pact, there would be no need for strikes.

    He said: “This problem has been recurring since1992. This 2009 agreement was drawn from the one of 1992. Now government has promised to pay this for the next five years; so if next year they don’t pay again that is a problem. That shouldn’t happen. When government speaks it should be sacrosanct.”

    Former Registrar of the Lagos State Polytechnic, Princess Adetope Kosoko, added that for strikes to end in future, ASUU and the Federal Government must be in agreement on what can be implemented and how it should be done.

    “My own candid opinion is to get it right this time meaning that ASUU should ensure that whatever agreement they are going into with the federal government is an agreement that is implementable that our tertiary institutions will be rated highly,” she said.

     

  • ‘ASUU strike is needless’

    ‘ASUU strike is needless’

    The Vice Chancellor of the Adekunle Ajasin University in Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), Prof Femi Mimiko, has said authorities of the university were making efforts that would lead to the end of the proctrated strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    Prof Mimiko stated this when he received the participants of Course 22 of the National Defence Academy (NDA) during their tour of the university.

    When asked why the university joined the ASUU strike since the institution is funded by the Ondo State government, Prof Mimiko responded that before the strike began, there was no dispute between the university and its academic staff. But since members ASUU members in the institution were bound by the decision of the national body, he said, it became necessary for them to join the industrial action.

    “The university was established and funded by the Ondo State government. And now, we are on strike to compel the Federal Government to implement an agreement that it willingly signed in 2009. For some of us, it is difficult to understand why the government has refused to honour the pact. But ours is more of a sympathetic strike since we have no direct relationship with the Federal Government. Therefore, going on strike when there is no dispute makes the strike completely illegal,” he said.

    He added: “There is no amount of money that we get at the end of the day for infrastructural development and our personal emoluments that will justify the closure of the entire university system for four months.”

    Prof Mimiko stated that closing down campuses was no longer in vogue in many countries, urging ASUU to devise new ways of channeling its demands from the government.

    “The strike is not the solution. We must be courageous enough to look for an alternative. I am using this opportunity to appeal to my colleagues to come back to work. All of us must do something to get back to work,” he said.

    The NDA delegation described the infrastructural development in the university as impressive.

    The leader of the team, Commodore Yusuf Isah, said his team was in the state to undertake a study tour of its infrastructure to enable participants realise how the infrastructure in the state could enhance economic development.

    He said the visit to AAUA was to understudy the infrastructure and challenges of the institution.

    Prof Mimiko thanked the participants for considering the institution worthy of their tour.

     

  • ASUU strike and the politics of emotion (II)

    If there’s one thing the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike has achieved it is beaming the searchlight on tertiary education in Nigeria. Beyond attempts to play politics with our emotions, most Nigerians are now aware of the challenges facing, not just our varsities but the entire education sector. Is the university to blame for a student that cannot communicate effectively in English? Would there not have been a dysfunction somewhere at the base? But the question will remain, how he got into the university in the first place and how did he graduate?

    Another issue it has raised is where we place our priorities as a nation. Because of the prolonged nature, ‘strike weariness’ set in within ASUU ranks as voices of dissent started emerging asking whether strike is the best option to force the government to honour agreements it willingly signed.

    This, I must point out, is not a recent occurrence. As far back as 2009, Prof. Babatunde Munir Ogunsanwo who delivered the 49th Inaugural Lecture of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), said: “The union cannot claim the dearth of expertise in industrial psychology, sociology, law or crisis management, who should be able to synthesize an efficient alternative to strike actions which have done more damage to the public image of ASUU as a union of academics who are never contended but rather are ready to sacrifice the future of their students for the improvement of their personal emoluments.”

    Several current and former members of the union have also lent their voices on what some of them term the obsolete nature of strikes. Just like I’ve mentioned in this column in the past, I’m yet to see concrete and workable suggestion on how the union could’ve compelled a government that has other “serious things” on its mind to bother themselves with the ‘harmless’ ranting of some lecturers or professors.

    I must state here categorically that I’m not holding brief for ASUU, but I’m only interested in workable and constructive solutions on how to make our varsities competitive and attuned to the challenges of a technologically and knowledge driven 21st century. We are deceiving ourselves that we are in the present while in fact we are still living in the past.

    There is no better way to gauge this ‘strike weariness’ than the fallout of the union’s meeting with the president last week. Varsity campuses are divided on the issue of calling off or continuing the strike action. As at Monday this week, The University of Lagos (UNILAG), Lagos State University (LASU), University of Calabar (UNICAL), Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Federal University of Technology Minna and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso chapters voted that the strike should end. Some of them, however, did that with conditions attached.

    On the other hand, the University of Jos (UNIJOS), the University of Benin (UNIBEN) and the Nasarawa State University chapters voted for the strike, continuation.

    Dr. David Jankam, UNIJOS chapter chairman, who has been quite critical of government’s handling of the issue, said members did not see any substance in the dialogue with the Federal Government to warrant calling off the strike.

    “We have just rounded off our meeting”, he was quoted as saying. “As a matter of fact, our members voted overwhelmingly for the continuation of the strike. I can also confirm to you that five of the eight universities that make up the Bauchi Zone of ASUU have also voted for continuation of the strike, and the general saying is that the government has not shown any commitment so far.”

    Prior to the latest development, and as the politics of emotion continued, Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam, last week, in an interview with Thisday Newspaper, alleged that the strike embarked upon by the ASUU was aimed at bringing down the government of President Goodluck Jonathan. This is perhaps the fourth time the governor is making the allegation. Recollect that he is also the chairman of the Federal Government’s Needs Assessment Committee for Nigerian Universities.

    Let’s hear the Governor: “ASUU’s leadership is determined that PDP government must be brought down and the easiest way to do it is ensuring that every family is affected. And so, the Nigerian family will simply say, ‘look, to keep this government in place, our children will be out of school. So it is better that we kick this government out and bring another government.’

    “That is all they are doing. There is nothing to it. Otherwise, the Federal Government has touched on all the requests that led to the strike by ASUU. They have no basis rather than playing politics with the strike and then holding the nation hostage and destroying the future of this country.”

    Buttressing his claim, he said: “I feel that if it is not that they have introduced politics, you know people can’t say that they don’t have political leanings. ASUU’s leadership, we know where they are standing in this whole political process. They can’t deny that they are sympathising with opposition parties and they are determined to destroy the PDP government. That is what they are doing and it is nothing more than that.”

    I called a few ASUU members to see how they will react to the governor’s allegation. “I have never heard of a more preposterous allegation than this”, one of them told me “what is my business with the PDP or any government in power when all I’m asking for is for the necessary tools and environment to be able to pass on knowledge to young Nigerians. I feel pained that someone as highly placed as a governor can make such allegation.”

    That notwithstanding, the strike action will go down in history as one of the most discussed ASUU strike of all time. For me, the obverse side provides us an opportunity to critically and analytically look at the curricula and course contents in our varsities. There is a huge gulf between theory and practice in the country. The content of some of the courses taught in our institutions have no place in the 21st century, but unfortunately, I don’t see that being discussed in all the postulations I have so far monitored.

    For instance, 9/11 has changed the world and we have two broad narratives being written by the ‘good’ guys and the ‘bad’ guys depending on where you belong. In short, security issues are now on the front burner in most countries. Are we aware of this?Some members of ASUU, to the best of my knowledge, know too well that beyond the issues at stake they share part of the blame; they’re not claiming to be saints. Some of them teach with the sole aim of giving grades to their students because the facilities required to augment teaching are not there. I cannot be faulted if I say that the intellectual discourses that were characteristic of our universities in the 1980s and 1990s are long gone; our lecturers have mastered the art of dictating notes to students as the only mode of delivery.

    From the federal, state to private, our universities have failed to promote scholarship in the real sense of the term. Our lecturers and professors have become contractors and prefer executive positions to academic ones. Some have failed to serve as mentors to younger academics because they are not on their seats to offer direction and guidance. I wonder how many professorial chairs are truly funded by either corporate organisations or government. If the chairs are not funded, how will the professors conduct research? So many things are wrong with our universities. Beyond the strike we are on an intellectual war!

    University administrators are also partly culpable for the internal rot within the universities. However, it must be equally acknowledged that those internal problems are rooted in under-funding, under-staffing, and under-equipping of the universities as well as the devaluation of education and scholarship by successive governments and the substandard environment under which teaching and learning are taking place. This is the crux of the matter.

     

  • ASUU strike threatens national security

    ASUU strike threatens national security

    A former university teacher Dr Dan Mou has described the four month-old strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as a ‘threat to national security.’

    Besides, Mou who delivered the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOEd), Otto/Ijanikin, 33rd distinguished lecture, titled: ‘National security and democratic governance in Nigeria: From Obasanjo to Jonathan administration,’ said the prolonged strike has a dangerous effect both on the short and long terms. He, therefore, urged his colleagues to return to class.

    Mou, a security specialist, said: It (strike) is a threat to national security. The short term implication of what ASUU is doing is that it is discrediting the government with this strike; but in the long term, the future of our youths is being affected. There is no way we can continue like this and produce quality graduates.

    “We are in a knowledge economy. It is the education that is the driving force for all nations. So, if they (ASUU) treat education with levity now, it may not be good enough. I am an academic myself and all I’m saying is that when you distort education this long, it is dangerous. And as a people who earn a living in the education sector, I think they should have sympathy. It’s high time they went back into the class.”

    In Mou’s thinking, President Goodluck Jonathan should be praised for setting up the Needs Assessment Committee last year to appraise the state of public universities in Nigeria; an initiative Mou said has never been undertaken by any government before him.

    “I don’t think they the government has failed. Rather, they are a good crises-management team. Truth is for a long time there has not been a single government that set up a committee to take the inventory of the standard of infrastructures in our public universities. So, if a government is able to do that, that alones gives one a benefit of the doubt.

    So, what should ASUU do? The Nation enquired.

    He said: “The government has given you (ASUU) N1.3 billion in the midst of a budget cycle so you can use the N1.3 billion to start. But many of them are not familiar with the budget cycle. It is very difficult for the government to raise that kind of money because everything had to be budgeted for. So, I think ASUU should be wiser to take that money and then start lobbying the National Assembly and other agencies to get more money put in education against next year when the new budget is being done.

    “I’m afraid that soon, ASUU will start losing credibility because in a strike, you want to carry the students, parents and civil organisations and other stakeholders along. But some of them seem to be losing faith in ASUU.

    “But the question is whether ASUU has been captured by political interest and it’s being used against President Jonathan, ‘I don’t think so.

    “ASUU may not be completely autonomous, but is relatively autonomous and the leadership is credible enough. But I think some crisis-management or negotiation strategy has to be adopted here.”

     

  • ASUU suspends NEC meeting indefinitely

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) meeting scheduled to hold on Wednesday at the Bayero University Kano (BUK) has been suspended indefinitely by the National Executive Council (NEC).

    The ASUU National President, Dr. Nasir Fagge, who made the disclosure, while briefing journalists in Kano, said the union deemed it necessary to suspend the meeting following the sudden death of its former president, Prof. Festus Iyayi, in a ghastly auto crash in Lokoja on Monday.

    Fagge, who described Iyayi’s death as a great loss to the country, said the deceased was a strong pillar of the union.

    He said, ‘’You (journalists) have to bear with us because we are in a mourning mood over the loss of one of us, who was a strong pillar.”

    A BUK student who spoke to journalists on condition of anonymity, expressed sadness at the announcement, adding that, ‘’we are not happy with the situation because we have over stayed at home,” he said.

     

     

  • ASUU chief Iyayi dies in Kogi governor’s convoy accident

    ASUU chief Iyayi dies in Kogi governor’s convoy accident

    •Falana to push for trial

    Festus Iyayi, a University of Benin (UNIBEN) professor, writer and rights activist, is dead. The unionist died yesterday in an accident involving the convoy of Kogi State Governor Idris Wada. He was 66.

    The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) between 1986 and 1988 was in a three-vehicle lecturers’ party travelling to Abuja enroute Kano.

    The accident occurred at about 11am at Banda village on the Lokoja-Abuja Road.

    The lecturers were heading for Kano for today’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of ASUU where a vote on whether to end the on-going university teachers’ strike or not is to be taken.

    Wada was travelling in the opposite direction. He was returning from Abuja after an engagement in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    This is Wada convoy’s second fatal crash in one year.

    On December 28, last year, his convoy crashed on its way to Lokoja from Ayingba, Kogi State.

    Wada’s Aide-de-Camp (ADC) died on the spot. The governor’s leg was broken. Other officials suffered varying degrees of injuries.

    ASUU’s National Welfare Secretary and Head of UNIBEN’s Foreign Language department, Dr. Ngozi Iloh is injured. She was unconsciou. UNIBEN ASUU Chair Dr. Tony Moye-Emina and the bus driver were also injured.

    Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Kogi State Sector Command Mr. Olakunle Motajo said preliminary investigation revealed that there was wrongful overtaken by the governor’s convoy. He said investigation had started.

    Iyayi’s body, according to Motajo, had been deposited at the Kogi State Specialist Hospital’s morgue. The injured are also receiving treatment in the hospital.

    ASUU President Nasir Fagge describe Iyayi’s death tragic.

    A member of ASUU, Dr. Sunday Abada, in the ill-fated ASUU delegation, recalled how the accident occurred.

    Speaking to our correspondent on the telephone yesterday, he said:

    “About 15 union members from various institutions, moving in a three-vehicle convoy, were on their way to Kano to participate in the NEC meeting scheduled to hold in Bayero University, Kano (BUK) today.

    Abada, a senior lecturer of Political Science at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), said: “We were on our way to Kano State for our NEC meeting holding tomorrow (today) when a vehicle in the convoy of Governor Idris Wada on full speed left its lane and collided with the vehicle conveying our members along the Abuja-Lokoja Expressway. Prof Iyayi died on the spot.

    “It was later, at 4pm, the govenror led a group of reporters to the Specialist Hospital where the remains of Iyayi are deposited. We had to chase him away because we discovered that he was trying to politicise the incident. But I can confirm to you that only Iyayi died in the accident; the other victims are receiving treatment at the Specialist Hospital.”

    Abada said today’s NEC meeting could be put off because “ASUU is very interested in the welfare of its members”. He said the recklessness of drivers attached to Wada’s convoy could prolong the strike, noting that the lecturers stuck to all road safety measures as they drove on the highway.

    Injured Monye-Emina, who spoke to our reporter in a soft voice, said the governor’s convoy was on full speed. “The governor’s vehicle left its lane and rammed into our union vehicle. The impact made our bus to somersault several times. It was by the grace of God that I survived but we lost Prof Iyayi and I learnt Dr Iloh is critically injured,” he said.

    The Kogi State Government, in a statement on the incident said the governor’s convoy was “on a speed of 80 kilometers per hour when a bus collided with the escort van”. “Sadly, in the storm, it was discovered that a renowned academic and respected human rights advocate, Prof. Festus Iyayi, who was in the other vehicle, died in the accident. There were other victims with varying degrees of injuries from both sides.

    “The victims were immediately evacuated to the State Specialist Hospital in Lokoja on the governor’s directive. The injured are responding to treatment.

    “The Governor has ordered full scale investigation into the matter and paid a visit to the injured. Capt. Wada sympathised with the victims and their families. He wished the deceased a peaceful repose of his soul.”

    Lagos Lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) said last night that he would push for the prosecution of the driver who drove the governor’s convoy’s vehicle.

    But, he stressed that the Nigerian state killed Iyayi. “The trip would not have been necessary, if the President did not wait till now to resolve the ASUU matter. If the train had been working, may be they would have gone by train,” Falan said.