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Tag: Festus Iyayi

  • Omar unhappy with govt over bad Lokoja-Abuja road

    Omar unhappy with govt over bad Lokoja-Abuja road

    •Condoles with Oshiomhole, Iyayi’s family

    Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, has criticised the Federal Government for its inability to fix the Abuja-Lokoja road, which caused the death of former National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Festus Iyayi.

    Omar spoke in Benin, the Edo State capital, during a condolence visit to Governor Adams Oshiomhole and the family of the late academic.

    The NLC president described the late Iyayi as a committed activist who added value to the labour movement in the country.

    He said: “We believe that certain factors led to the demise of Prof Iyayi. The Federal Government is highly culpable on the issue of the criminal neglect of the Abuja-Lokoja road, whose contract was awarded over 10 years ago. While other roads have been completed, the Lokoja-Abuja road is uncompleted.

    “We believe that if not for the criminal neglect, this accident would not have happened. Also, the executive recklessness on the part of the Kogi Government is glaring. This is said to be the third time that the same convoy was involved in accidents.”

    The NLC president urged Nigerians to ensure that things are done well to avoid a repeat of such incident.

    Omar said the death of Prof Iyayi is not only a loss to his family and the state but also to the labour movement and Nigeria.

    He hoped the late Iyayi’s legacies would not be allowed to die with him.

    The NLC President recalled that the late writer and activist did his sabbatical at the NLC.

    Omar described him as a committed person who added value to the labour movement.

    He said the NLC would not forget the late Iyayi’s invaluable role in the last negotiations with the Federal Government.

    Oshiomhole said there were several lessons to be learnt from the death of the late Iyayi.

    He said: “The fact that he retired as ASUU president many years ago and yet always identified with ASSU was even part of their struggle decades after he ceased to be their president, is a testimony to the level of his conviction.

    “The way we generally drive on our roads is not good enough. Convoys are generally bad. It was not once, not even twice have I dismiss drivers in my convoy. It is a challenge. Some people think the best way to show power is to oppress. I think all of us must work to get our drivers and security detail to respect the right of the citizens.

    “I hope the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), beyond the symbolism of changing licences every year, should really get back to work and justify the huge resources the government spends on it.”

  • PAWA mourns Iyayi

    PAWA mourns Iyayi

    The Pan-African Writers’ Association (PAWA) has condoled with the family of late Professor Festus Iyayi on the death of the renowned writer and activist.

    A three member delegation of PAWA led by its Secretary General, Professor Atukwei Okai which visited the family of the late writer on November 17 eulogized Iyayi for his unflinching commitment and selfless devotion to the cause of African writers.

    Noting that Iyayi’s death has robbed the continent of an illustrious son, the delegation commended the deceased for his contribution as Programme Development Advisor of the association.

    A founding member of PAWA in 1989, Iyayi was a major literary figure in Nigeria and Africa with his published work Contract, Violence, Heroes and Awaiting Court Martial.

    Iyayi, Head of department of Business Administration in University of Benin died in a motor accident in Kogi state while traveling in a delegation to Kano as former President of Academic Staff Union of Universities to discuss the on-going strike by the union.

     

  • ASUU strike is subversive, says Jonathan

    ASUU strike is subversive, says Jonathan

    PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan believes the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is more of subversion than a mere trade dispute.

    But following criticisms across the country of the December 4 ultimatum he handed down to ASUU to call off the strike or risk mass sack, the President says government may review its stance.

    He spoke in Yenagoa late Friday at the Bayelsa State PDP Caucus meeting.

    The President is from that state.

    Responding to an observation by his former boss, Chief Diepreye Alamieyesigha, that the deadline given the lecturers coincides with the burial of Professor Festus Iyayi who died in the course of resolving the dispute, President Jonathan said the leadership of ASUU showed utter contempt to his person and office.

    He said never in the history of Nigeria has the President sat through a labour dispute meeting the type of which he had with ASUU.

    He said:”What was expected, having met with the highest authorities in the land for long hours, was for ASUU to immediately issue a statement within 12 or latest 24 hours to state their position whether they were accepting government’s offer or not. And if they are not accepting, they should state the reason for that.

    “But despite the fact that I had the longest meeting with ASUU in my political history, we did not start that meeting until around 2 pm and the meeting ended the next day in the early hours of the morning.”

    He said ASUU has ceased to act like a trade union.

    “I have intervened in other labour issues before now. Once I invite them, they respond and after the meeting they take decision and call off the strike.

    “At times we don’t even give them a long notice unlike in the case of ASUU that was given four days notice before the meeting. As you are meeting to resolve trade disputes, you expect the trade unions to get their officials ready.

    “As far as the government of Nigeria was concerned, all the critical people that should be in a meeting were there, so what else do they want?

    “After that, they didn’t meet until one week, despite the fact that you met with the highest authority. It was unfortunate one of them, Prof. Iyayi died.

    “The way ASUU has conducted the matter shows they are extreme and when Iyayi died, they now said the strike was now indefinite. Our children have been at home for over five months.”

    He said the ultimatum was proposed by the Committee of Vice Chancellors and that the Supervising Minister of Education merely “passed on the decision.”

    He promised to hold consultation on the deadline “so that we will not be perceived to be insensitive.”

    Focusing on the PDP caucaus meeting, he urged unity in the party, stressing that without unity it would be difficult to achieve much in 2015.

    The state chairman of the party, Colonel Samuel Inokoba (rtd), who presided at the meeting dismissed the G7 governors as the voice of anarchy who were out to destroy what the nation’s founding fathers started.

    He urged all stakeholders in the state to continue to support the President as he faces the daunting task of ruling the country as well as the governor.

    Alamieyesigha described the recent defection of five PDP governors to the APC as “a national embarrassment.”

    The meeting started on Friday night and ended in the early hours of yesterday.

    Meanwhile, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), and the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), are set to resume academic activities tomorrow.

    They made the announcement in separate statements in Nsukka and Enugu yesterday.

    The Registrar of the UNN, Anthony Okonta, said that “normal academic activities would resume immediately.”

    He asked students who have pending examinations for the 2012/2013 session to report to their respective faculties and departments in Nsukka and Enugu campuses.

    The ESUT Registrar, Chris Igbokwe, also advised students and academic and non- academic staff to report to the institution on December 2.

    He advised students to return to their campuses at Agbani and Enugu campuses as the second semester examination would commence on Monday, December 9.

    The Federal Government, on Thursday, directed all federal universities to resume work on or before December 4.

    The Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, said ASUU members who fail to report for duty that day should consider themselves fired.

     

  • Writing, as if life itself depended on it (1)

    Writing, as if life itself depended on it (1)

    Talakawa Liberation Herald 41

    [For Festus Iyayi: radical humanist; writer; neorealist artificer]

    Note: 

    This tribute to Festus Iyayi as writer is excerpted from a much longer essay that I wrote for a collection celebrating his 60th birthday six years ago. In the essay, I paid exclusive attention to Festus Iyayi the writer. In this excerpt, I have stuck to that decision. I do not know whether the collection for which the essay was written was ever published as I was never sent a copy by the Editor, Professor Wumi Raji. Raji did tell me that Festus saw and read the essay. As I mourn his transition with his family and other comrades, it gives me some consolation that he got to read some of the things I say in the tribute concerning how belated the essay was. The title of this tribute is the same one that I gave the longer essay for the collection. There was not the slightest intimation that he would be gone so soon! Thus, I have left intact the present tense of the active verbs that I used throughout the tribute. Festus is not completely gone from us; may his writings be a lasting, imperishable legacy to us and those that shall come after us!

    It is a challenge for me to give a precise, easily comprehensible sense of what I have in mind in the title of this tribute: writing, as if life itself depended on it. Writing is of course one of the greatest cultural inventions of all time. At different times and places human life, especially when conceived in terms of human progress, has received a tremendous boost from powerful or momentous written documents. But unlike verbal speech which is both a primary cultural activity and a social act that almost always entails trans-individual and intersubjective negotiation between two or more persons, writing is a secondary cultural activity; in all its most significant expressions, it is a profoundly lonely activity. For this reason it is not easy to think of any act of writing of which it could be said that life itself depended on it – except perhaps in a figurative sense. Of course more prosaically, life could be said to depend on writing if a particular writer’s psychological or even physical survival in a period of an exceptionally brutal incarceration literally depended on his or her writing. But in neither of these two instances, one figurative and the other literal, am I using this loaded, pregnant phrase – writing as if life itself depended on it – in this tribute to Festus Iyayi. Rather, what I have in mind here is a combination of both the subject matter and the effect of that extraordinary kind of writing in the presence of which the reader is taken (back) to the very roots of being. This is what one confronts most powerfully and unforgettably in perhaps the best among Iyayi’s works, the book of short stories titled Awaiting Court Martial. But this effect of a kind of writing that subliminally expresses what the Italian philosopher, Giorgio Agamben, has famously described as bare life is already present, already an insistent intimation in Iyayi’s works from the very first title, the celebrated novel, Violence. In other words, I am suggesting that Iyayi is a writer in whose best stories one confronts a kind of imaginative, belletristic writing that subliminally takes us back to the roots of Being, close to the edge of what it means to live without the illusions of religious or ideological mantras, or the blinkers people often desperately snatch from the pieties of conventional morality in order to shield themselves from the savage truths of an often cruel and unforgiving existence.

    Sometime in June 2006 at one of the many events organised to celebrate Femi Osofisan’s 60th birthday on the campus of the University of Ibadan, a fierce verbal controversy over the writings of Festus Iyayi took place between me and Pius Omole, then a Senior Lecturer at the University. Now, I should perhaps state that I am quite deliberately identifying Omole by name and institutional affiliation here when tact or simple courteousness demand that I keep his identity unrevealed. I am departing from that protocol of civility because the view of Iyayi’s writings that Omole expressed at that gathering, while very common among the mainstream of conservative or liberal literary critics and scholars in Nigeria, nonetheless enjoys the “protection” of anonymity. In other words, while most conservative and liberal critics privately express this view of Iyayi as a writer and some even express it in their classes, no one has publicly owned up to it.

    Now, it is precisely because I do not wish to perpetuate this anonymity of a view that I consider both lacking in any demonstrable basis in the corpus of Iyayi’s fiction and over-simplifying about the nature of engaged, committed writing in our country that I have put a particular name, a specific, individuated identity to it – that of Pius Omole as publicly stated in a verbal exchange between us. Thus, it is useful to give a profile of this view of Iyayi’s writings from the Right and the Centre of Nigerian literary-critical discourse that led to that vigorous controversy in June 2006, right in the midst of the celebration of Osofisan’s works.

    On one level, this view can be simply and unambiguously stated: Iyayi is a writer of the radical Left with an overriding, urgent social cause; for that reason, the value of his writings rests primarily on the Cause (deliberately capitalised) for and about which he so passionately writes. At face value, this view is factual and perhaps even unexceptionable: Iyayi, as the whole world knows, is indeed an engaged, committed writer and the causes for and about which he writes matter greatly to him. And if his writings have, in one way or another, served to advance greater critical awareness and discussion of those causes, so much the better for Iyayi himself and those on behalf of whom he writes.

    But this is all rather facile and this becomes clear the moment you bring into the discussion those who are either critical of the causes about which Iyayi writes or are indeed dubious about, or even downright hostile to those causes. For as soon as you bring into the discussion this perspective of fragmented or multiple readerships of Iyayi’s writings, then the matter gets very complicated. And this was precisely Pius Omole’s tactic in June 2006: he vigorously insisted that Iyayi’s value as a writer is determined solely by his value for those among the Nigerian reading public that share his social and ideological views. In other words, this implies that while Iyayi’s writings are obviously very important for radical-leftist critics and activists, they don’t hold up well outside the fraternity of the Left. Expressed in other words, this implies that with Iyayi, the imaginative works are little more than an extension into the realm of fictional writing of Iyayi the activist, the passionate and uncompromising Leftist who stands tall and implacable among the country’s radical intelligentsia.

    Of course, I immediately took Omole up on these assertions. I vigorously insisted that similar to what obtains in the works of other progressive, leftist writers like Femi Osofisan, Niyi Osundare and Odia Ofeimun, Iyayi is one radical writer about whose works no scholar or critic could be condescending. I stated that I was making this point emphatically because there are indeed radical Nigerian poets and playwrights the quality of whose writings invite and have indeed received a surfeit of patronising critical commentary, the kind of critical condescension that any self-respecting, sophisticated author would reject. But Iyayi, I insisted, is not a progressive, leftist writer of that kind. Resting my “case” on an exposé on the underlying, though unspoken assumptions of Omole’s assertions, I argued that Iyayi is one of the great radical humanists of postcolonial African literature, a writer whose passionate and eloquent advocacy of the revolutionary transformation of our society did not in any way compromise the quality of his writing, especially with regard to the dominance of realism in its diverse forms and expressions in our literature across the entire ideological spectrum occupied by our major authors.

    Of the underlying assumptions of Omole’s assertions during that verbal joust between us in June 2006, the most crucial is the idea that a work of literature or art cannot simultaneously serve a social cause and be a significant or even outstanding work. But this view, I countered, is refuted by innumerable works of literature and art from diverse cultural traditions of the world, from antiquity to modern times, and from classically realist to bracingly or joyously modernist and postmodernist styles and forms. In different times and places, I argued, works that were produced to protest war, slavery, the oppression of women and the poor, and the tyranny of specific social orders and institutions have been very successful in pursuit of those causes at the same time that they have moved even readers who were not particularly open to the causes advanced by the works.

    The refutation of this fallacious claim about Iyayi as a radical writer is what drives this tribute. This I intend to do through a particularly focused attentiveness to a major shift in fictional form, style and themes that occurred in Iyayi’s writings in the 1990s. This radical shift in his writings has very rarely been noted; for that reason, it has not been subjected to critical inquiry. I am using it as a point of departure for this tribute because, as I hope to demonstrate, it says a lot, heuristically, not only about Iyayi’s own writings but also about committed, radical literature in Nigeria in the postindependence period. I must emphasise here that it is a deliberately symptomatic cognitive mapping of this decisive shift in Iyayi’s writings that I carry out in this tribute because, as I shall be arguing, what at first sight appears to be so particular, so striking in Iyayi as an engaged writer, is indeed highly revealing of broader currents in Nigerian writings of a distinctively radical, leftist orientation. This is the interpretive burden of my central arguments in this essay, this claim that the shift that appears so marked, so distinctive in Iyayi’s writings is in fact symptomatic of a whole shift in radical, engaged writing in Nigeria in the last three decades. Before coming to it, a few words about the belatedness of this essay are perhaps useful.

    Writing now for the first time ever on Iyayi as a writer, I am struck by how odd, how strange it is to me that he who should have been the very first about whom I ought to have written is the last, using that word “last” in its specific connotation of something that comes as the latest in an ongoing series. This is because, simply stated in its most essential aspect, no other Nigerian writer of imaginative works, either of my generation or within the ranks of self-identified progressive authors in our country, has been closer, in theory and praxis, to my own ideological and political views and to my work as an activist than Iyayi. I shall have more to say on this point later in this tribute. For now, let me simply say that I am so amazed at this belated realisation of this silence of mine on Iyayi’s works – which I have admired for a long time and which I so vigorously defended in that verbal exchange with Pius Omole in June 2006 – that I am moved, probably as an act of symbolic reprieve for the oversight, to raise here the shades of that biblical saying in Matthew 20, verse 16: The last shall be the first and the first shall be the last!

    To be continued

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Iyayi’s family deny shift in burial plans

    Family of late Festus Iyayi has denied reports of a change in plan in the burial date the former President of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
    Iyayi died in a road accident that involved the convoy of the Governor of Kogi State, Idris Wada and the family announced first week of December as the tentative date for Iyayi’s burial.
    There were  reports at the weekend that the family had postponed the burial indefinitely following a  cut suspected to be bullet wounds found on Iyayi’s heart.
    This, according to the reports was to allow proper autopsy and investigations to be carried out.
    Spokesman for the family, Prof. Robert Ebewele said the family has not change the burial plan.
    Prof. Robert told the Nation that whatever rumours going round was not recognized by the family.
    “Let the expert talk. Whatever we are hearing is not recognized by the family. ASUU is getting a pathologist but we have not changed the burial plan.”
  • ‘I’m yet to recover from Iyayi’s death’

    ‘I’m yet to recover from Iyayi’s death’

    Dr Karo Ogbinaka, the chairman of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has said he has not recovered from the shock of Prof. Festus Iyayi’s death.

    Iyayi, a former president of ASUU, died on November 12 in an accident near Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, on his way to Kano to attend a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the union.

    The meeting was expected to deliberate on the way forward for the four-month old strike of the union, after the Federal Government made a fresh offer.

    Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, Ogbinaka said: “I still cannot believe that Iyayi is dead because I was at the scene of the accident where it happened.

    “I witnessed the gory scene with blood stains all over the place as I can still remember struggling to assist our dear colleagues; believe me, it was too painful to see Iyayi die the way he did.

    “There was confusion in Kano and at the scene of the accident. Indeed it was a terrible and shocking sight to behold; we are indeed, deep in grief.”

    The union leader said the NEC suspended the Kano meeting to honour Prof Iyayi.

    According to him, the NEC members have been meeting with the family of the deceased to give him a befitting burial.

    He said: “We think we should give the NEC some time to get over the entire arrangements and then have some time to put themselves together before they start considering reconvening the postponed meeting.”

    Ogbinaka said it was only when the ASUU national executives were fully settled that they would assemble state executives for a decision on the protracted strike.

  • NMA seeks probe into Iyayi’s death

    NMA seeks probe into Iyayi’s death

    The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) yesterday urged the Federal Government to constitute an official enquiry into the accident in which a former National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Festus Iyayi, died.

    Besides, it called on the Federal Roads Safety Commission (FRSC) to end reckless driving by convoys on the nation’s roads.

    The President of the association, Dr Osahon Enabulele, spoke in Benin, the Edo State capital, after he led a delegation of the members to the family of the late Iyayi.

    Other leaders of the association with Enabulele included the Secretary-General, Dr Akpufuoma Pemu; the state Chairman, Dr Emmanuel Ighodaro and a former NMA President, Dr Dominic Osaghae.

    Enabulele said: “While we mourn the extremely sad and tragic death of this dogged and courageous fighter for socio-economic and political justice in Nigeria and an unrepentant crusader for the restoration of standards and excellence in university education, we are pained that his death followed another despicable act of recklessness and impunity by executive convoys.

    “The NMA, therefore, calls on the Federal Government to institute an urgent official enquiry into the circumstances that led to Prof. Iyayi’s death, while machinery is urgently put in motion by the FRSC to end the recklessness of executive convoys, whose intolerable impunity has sent many innocent and productive Nigerians to their early graves.”

    The union leader also urged the government to fast-track the repairs and dualisation of the Abuja-Lokoja-Benin highway

    He said: “We restate our call on governments at the Federal, state and local government levels to be more committed to the development of the transport system, particularly in fixing and regularly maintaining the several bad roads and death traps that dot Nigeria’s highways and landscape.”

    The union leader said Nigeria, especially the academia, would miss Iyayi’s inspirational literary works and frank contributions “to the resolution of several questions bordering the existence of the Nigerian state”.

    Enabulele added: “While we hope this will be the last act of recklessness of executive convoys, we pray for the speedy recovery and perfect healing of all those who suffered various degrees of bodily injury.”

    The ASUU leader urged the Iyayis to be consoled that the late activist lived a good life with many accomplishments several people would wish to achieve in their lives.

    Oriabure, the son of the late Iyayi, thanked the NMA for the visit.

    He hoped the association would continue to give a voice to the voiceless, health care to ordinary Nigerians and fight for the common interest of the masses, which his father fought and died for.

  • Wanted: Laws to regulate convoy

    Wanted: Laws to regulate convoy

    IT was not the first time the Kogi State Governor,Captain Idris Wada’s convoy would be involved in an accident. In the first one, which occurred last year, he suffered a broken leg and lost his Aide-De-Camp (ADC ), Idris Mohammed. With that, the public thought the governor’s convoy would be more careful on the road. No, it didn’t. Last week, the convoy was involved in an accident in which frontline university teacher Prof. Festus Iyayi died. The accident occurred at Banda Village on the Lokoja-Abuja Road, while the late Iyayi and others were heading to Kano for a meeting of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The late Iyayi was ASUU president between 1986 and 1988.

    Driving in a convoy is an age-long practice worldwide. It is a perquisite of public officer since many leaders because of their schedules need to attend functions with support staff, sometimes, at short notice.

    But, that privilege, comes with a sense of responsibility in other climes, has been consistently abused by many Nigerian leaders. Today, many convoy users have become a nuisance to their compatriots as they endanger the lives of others through over-speeding and violating traffic rules.

    It is always a horrific experience whenever a convoy of any high profile personality is encountered on the road, particularly in a traffic jam. The security men attached would jump down from their vehicles, intimidating other road users with horse whips to pave the way for their bosses, while the vehicles blare deafening sirens.

    In the last few years, convoys of government functionaries have been involved in accidents, which have left observers wondering the calibre of the country’s rulers. Although some of the accidents are caused by the bad road,the overzealousness of the officials aides is a contributory factor.

    According to Prof. Mike Ikhariale, from the local government councils to the state governments, through to the Federal Government, the story is the same: multiple ghastly car accidents involving top government officials. Many of the crashes resulted in fatalities.

    Unfortunately, it is only the Lagos State Road Traffic Laws (LRTL), 2012, that provides for the prohibition of sirens and to check conducts of persons driving, propelling or in-charge of a vehicle on the highways.

    Section 1(1)(d) provides for the prohibition or restriction of the use of sirens, and the sounding of horns or other similar appliances either in general or during specified hours or in respect of specified area.

    Although the National Road Safety Law, Cap 141, 2004, made no mention of the use of convoys or sirens, it provides for the prosecution of traffic offenders who exceed the approved speed limit of 100km per hour.

    However, most of the public officers and their drivers have not been apprehended nor prosecuted by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) for traffic offences, neither have the police arrested them for manslaughter or reckless driving under the Road Traffic Laws, 2004.

     

    Accidents involving public officials’convoys

    On April 19, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha was involved in an accident with a Mercedez Benz car in Orlu; the convoy of the late Kaduna State Governor, Patrick Yakowa, on Novemeber 12, last yera, while on top speed, killed a young orange seller. Similarly, on January 2, the police escort vehicle of the Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, Momoh Lawal, collided with a truck at Okene killing the Speaker’s escort, Constable Akeem Lamidi. Still in 2012, the convoy of the Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, was involved in an accident, leading to the deaths of three journalists, while that of his Nasarawa counterpart, Tanko Al-Makura claimed the lives of three of his aides with many others sustaining various degrees of injury.

    There was also that of Senator Danjuma Goje in December last year, which, allegedly, ran over one Haruna Maigari and injured two others, in addition to his convoy accident of 2008 while he was governor of Gombe State. Three persons died in the said accident. In early 2011, five people, including Katsina State Governor Ibrahim Shema’s ADC, Aminu Ibrahim, died in an accident involving the governor’s convoy.

    The Deputy Governor of Gombe State, David Albashi, died in a hospital in Germany, on November 3, 2011, following injuries he sustained in an accident in August of the same year. The convoy of Senator Ajayi Boroffice of Ondo State was, likewise, involved in an accident in which a 58-year-old woman reportedly died. There was also that of Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, at Ibusa.

    In 2005, the convoy of former Governor of Ogun State Gbenga Daniel was involved in an accident in which five journalists died, while in 2007, six aides of the then Niger State Governor, Abdulkadir Kure, died in another convoy accident.

    Nine others, including eight journalists, lost their lives in a similar accident that involved the convoy of former Plateau State Governor Joshua Dariye. The list is endless.

    Former Edo State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice Chief Charles Uwensuyi-Edosomwan(SAN) observed that there have been too many needless deaths caused by reckless government VIP convoys for those concerned to sit down, take a deep breath and sensibly review their own conduct and responsibility as they relate to it. First, the whole thing has deviated from security concerns for VIPs to just costly ego trips. The longer, rougher and more reckless the convoy, the more reflective of the personage. Everyone from governors, federal and state legislators to ministers and local government councillors are guilty of this phenomenon and they go about it with raucous abandon to the detriment of other road users.

    “I don’t know any law that justifies the crazy speeds, the hair-raising overtaking or passing at dangerous bends, bridges and slopes. One needs to see the scary sight of a 30 vehicles-long convoy speeding without care, overtaking on pothole-ridden highways to experience a kind of fear that would churn the pit of one’s stomach. The question one often asks is: why don’t the concerned VIPs see the need for them to bring their convoy drivers to obey traffic laws? Another would be: why so many vehicles in their convoys?

    “It isn’t hard to see that the FRSC are too puny and helpless to take on a ravaging state governor’s convoy. So, I don’t believe the FRSC can do anything about this menace on the highways,“ he said.

    He pointed out that Iyayi’s death just as those of many that have died from convoy accidents was avoidable and the irreparable loss to his family, colleagues and the country ought to be an epiphany to all that power drunkenness should not be a feature on our highways.

     

    What has been done?

    Disturbed by the frequent accidents involving convoys of public officials, the FRSC had, in the last two years, organised special trainings for the drivers. According to FRSC’s boss, Osita Chidoka, about 300 of the 700 drivers who participated in the training were not licensed.

    The report issued after the trainings indicated that 241 drivers suffered from high blood pressure while some had various sight problems – astigmatism, myopia, hypermetropia and other eye-related issues. The commission also disclosed that most of the state governors did not allow their drivers to participate in the exercise, including Captain Wada, who has reportedly ordered the training of the state’s drivers following last week’s accident.

    The FRSC further claimed it has developed a category of driver’s licence for convoy drivers to ensure that every convoy driver must be trained for this special assignment, though there is no law backing such a policy.

     

    The way out

    Observers believe it is time the Federal and state governments toed the steps of Lagos by enacting viable laws that will regulate the use of convoys. Some have insisted that it was a waste of taxpayers’ fund which should be abolished.

    Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) expressed deep concern over the arbitrary use of sirens by convoys of public office-holders. He described the practice as an abuse of office.

    It is wrong for public officials to constitute themselves into a nuisance with their movements. It amounts to terrorising the people who elected them, said Fashola.

    “Let us get rid of all these sirens. We use this thing around all the time as if we are in a perpetual state of emergency. From the day I became governor, I have not used sirens and I do not intend to use it because I detest noise. I have told my (state) commissioners that they will be sacked if they do it. People elect us as their leaders to manage public transport on their behalf and we (now) choose to escape from it with the arbitrary use of sirens. I think the practice is an abdication of duty,” said Fashola at a function last week. Chief Niyi Akintola, SAN, argued that the recklessness has persisted because Nigerians have not challenged these officials.

    “A leader is first and foremost a citizen and no law permits any citizen to go against traffic or drive recklessly. It is about attitudinal change and leadership.

    “Nigerians need to keep challenging them. If they try to intimidate people in traffic, people should resist it. Stay put and if they hurt or damage anyone’s vehicle, drag them to court.

    “Only police vans and ambulance are permitted to drive against traffic. So,  people should fight the lawlessness out,” he said.

    To Mohammed Dele Belgore (SAN), convoys for governors are not a bad thing but the lengths are bad and wasteful.

    He said a three to four vehicle convoy should be sufficient.

    “Also convoys should be orderly and must only be used on the strict condition that it would obey the road traffic laws. The laws that apply to other road users – maintaining speed limits, maintaining certain distances between vehicles, overtaking, driving on the right side of the road, respecting other road users’ right of way, etc must apply to public officials’ convoys.

    “I have been at a traffic light with a British prime minister’s two vehicle convoy once in London. They were totally unobstrustive. Our leaders must not use convoys as a tool of oppression.

    “Much depends on the user of the convoy. The fact that unsavoury incidents are recurring with the convoy of the same set of people speak volumes about those people’s perception of their position and the rights of other road users,” Belgore said.

    Education Rights Campaign (ERC), in a statement to mourn Prof. Iyayi, called for the abolition of convoys.

    It said Iyayi’s death would have been avoided if roads are safe for travelling and governors and other elected officials stop their habitual recklessness and disrespect for the rights of other road users. ‘‘According to a report by the Federal Road Safety Corps, an average of 11 people were killed daily in road accident across Nigeria in 2012. The deaths occurred in 6,269 road traffic crashes.

    ‘‘Combined with this is the “big-man” elitist mentality of corrupt government officials like Governors, lawmakers and Ministers who once they assume the mantle of leadership immediately become uncomfortable with their old humble means of transportation and now junket about in convoys of ten cars or more, blaring sirens wildly and deliberately driving recklessly along roads thus terrorising ordinary Nigerians who supposedly voted them into office.

    ‘‘The Kogi State Governor’s convoy was responsible for this accident. According to records this is one accident too many by the Kogi State Governors’ convoy. We demand appropriate disciplinary sanctions within the ambit of law for the driver in the convoy who was responsible for this accident. ‘‘However, while the driver is a small fry, the capitalist ruling elite comprising Governor Wada and all other governors and government officials who have penchant for long convoys are the main culprit.

    ‘‘The ERC demands abolition of convoys. It is an unconscionable waste of public funds. In a rational society where there is socio-economic justice, efficient and comfortable means of mass transportation and security of lives is guaranteed and there will be no reason for an individual to move around in convoy of several vehicles.

    ‘‘The only reason public office holders have to go around in convoys is to screen and protect themselves from possible backlash from the hopelessness and mass misery in the midst of abundance which their neo-liberal capitalist economic policies have created in society. Over 100 million Nigerians are poor in a population of 170 million. Logically, the one per cent who have created this unjust condition can only move about successfully with “adequate” security which long convoys provide. This to us stresses all over again the need for a revolutionary transformation of society.

    But Executive Director, Accident Prevention and Rescue Initiative Fidelis Nnadi said the law enforcement agencies must make regulations that will eliminate poor quality drivers from the steering.

    He said speed checkpoints should be established by the FRSC and its counterparts on major highways and roads to apprehend and prosecute violators.

    ‘‘There is urgent need that penalties for road safety violators should be reviewed to include a life ban for any driver guilty of fatal accident that involves life. The administration of motor vehicle in states should be vigorously implemented,’’ Nnadi said.

    Human rights lawyer Bamidele Aturu said the one too many accidents was enough reason for a clamour to put an end to convoy use.

    ‘‘It is a matter that can create basis for Nigerians to demand a stoppage of convoy use but I am sceptical those people at the National Assembly, may not be willing to pass such law because they are culpable.

    ‘‘The convoy craze is an empty pomposity and madness caused by the undue privatisation of the country by the elites. They feel they own Nigeria and everything in it and so, let everyone else fly into the bush when they are passing.

    ‘‘People must insist it is no longer acceptable. I will be at the fore front of those calling for a law to sanitise and restrict the use of convoys. If one officer is going about in fleet of cars, it contributes to environmental degradation and depletion of the ozone layer, adding to the high cost of maintaining such luxury.

    ‘‘So, I suggest that no public official should go about in a convoy of more than three cars- an ambulance, the official vehicle and a bus to convey all other personnel in his fleet.

    A Lagos lawyer Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa said they should be allowed additional vehicles not exceeding two when on official journeys.

    ‘‘A code of conduct must be established, for the running and maintenance of such convoy. They must, for instance, comply with all road traffic regulations, so that they do not constitute any threat to other road users.

    ‘‘Such convoy, must not engage in the molestation of other motorists, or otherwise conduct themselves, in manner that may be inconsistent with the dignity and honour, expected of the office of the governor, or other head of the convoy.

    ‘‘Furthermore, the FRSC should, as a matter of urgency, draw out rules and regulations to guide the movement of convoys. Being an exception to the usual traffic regime, there must be an official template, to judge thugs and such other criminal elements, who violate and abuse extant traffic regulations, in the name of convoy. It is not enough for FRSC officials to just sit in their offices and be apportioning blames. It should drive the process of sanitizing the movement and deployment of convoys by public officers.

    In this instant case, it is important for the governor of Kogi State, to examine himself, to purge his fleet of reckless and lawless drivers and security operatives, who accompany him. Surely, His Excellency could not be drunken with the allure of power, to be putting his life and other law abiding road users, in danger of their lives, two times in a tenure. And going by the unguarded reactions of the governor’s spokesperson, there must have been other occurrences, of fatal accidents, attending His Excellency’s very frequent trips that have not been reported.

    Another lawyer Tope Alabi said nothing is wrong with the use of convoy, but the problem lies with the users.

    ‘‘The manner should be checked. In the first place, driving convoy requires specified expertise and demonstrable competence. How expert is the driver? Is the driver not under any influence of alcohol? Is the driver well informed on the rules guiding the operation/driving of convoy? Is the driver aware of the legal implication of reckless driving of the convoy?

    ‘‘All these questions and observations are to be answered and noted. The Governor of Lagos State should be emulated because he uses his convoy in a civilised manner and does not pose danger to the members of the public neither does he use/blow siren.

    ‘‘He always plies the road like a common man. When there is hold up, he stays and endures same like a common man. The other governors can follow his examples in the use of convoy. If this is done, then, safety is sure.

    Lagos lawyer Akanwa Theopilus lamented that it is most unfortunate that most of our leaders have failed to lead by example. “In fact, they have exemplified lawlessness much more than the led and I consider this highly insensitive. Use of siren and long convoy of cars by a public officer is not necessarily a matter of law, but of choice. The governor of Lagos State has limited number of cars in his convey and does not go on siren. He patiently stays in traffic like every other Nigerian. But when our president visits a place like Lagos, the route he is to ply must not be used by common citizens until he comes and goes. No body is above the law even the Kogi State governor. He does not have the licence to kill a citizen and nobody has such powers except as provided for by the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria”, he said. He advised that the security agencies should gear up to commence a criminal charge of reckless driving and murder against him when he leaves office. This once again affirms the need to urgently abrogate section 308 of the constitution to make way for accountability and good governance.

    National President Arewa Youth Consultative Forum Yerima Shettima called for a law to limit the speed of public officers, especially while driving in the municipality. According to him, the trend is rather ugly and uncivilised. “A bill should be sponsored at the National Assembly to limit the number of convoy that usually accompany public officials,” he said.

     

     

  • In memory of Festus Iyayi

    Forget the trauma university education in Nigeria is currently going through, no thanks to the ongoing strike action by academic staff and Federal Government’s reluctance to meet the lecturers’ demands fully.

    Pocket your anger, if you have any, towards the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian University (ASUU) and Abuja for the near five months forced stay-at-home they have jointly imposed of the hapless students.

    Look instead at the contributions of ASUU over the years to Nigeria’s development and the calibre of its leaders and you’ll appreciate what a tragic loss the death of one time ASUU president Professor Festus Iyayi is to the nation.

    Death as the saying goes is a necessary end and will come when it will. But while no one can say exactly where and when he/she would take his/her exit from this world, it is always painful when the death is self-inflicted or avoidable/preventable so to speak.

    In the case of Professor Iyayi, he did not invite death on to himself but death was visited on him by a driver in the unnecessary long and reckless convoy of Kogi State Governor, Captain Idris Wada Tuesday last week along the notorious Lokoja-Abuja Highway. He was on a mission along with his ASUU colleagues to Kano for the union’s NEC meeting to see how the crisis bedevilling Nigeria’s university system can be resolved and bring the students back to school.

    One of the best known ASUU leaders of his generation, Iyayi together with the likes of current Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Attahiru Jega perhaps best epitomised the struggle for a better university education in Nigeria that ASUU is known for. Even if not a few Nigerians would raise questions over ASUU of today, (Federal Government’s sometimes irresponsible action notwithstanding) the contributions of the likes of Iyayi and the direction he took the ASUU of his era should serve as a guide to those presently at the helm at the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities.

    His death, though painful, should bring all concerned in the protracted negotiation between ASUU and the Federal Government to their senses and act in the best interest of the nation. No meaningful negotiation is achieved if the parties stuck to their guns; the game is called give and take. That’s why it is called negotiation. I think we have gone beyond the level of apportioning blame; both parties would definitely have something to say to justify their different positions. But if the two parties truly have the interest of the nation at heart it shouldn’t be difficult to reach an implementable agreement and remaining faithful to it.

    Iyayi would have died in vain if this strike should continue beyond this moment or happens again in the near future over the same issue of funding of our university system and remunerations for the academic staff. Those involved on both sides should act responsibly now.

    And for Professor Iyayi to sleep well, those who caused his death should be punished. But I doubt if the driver of the convoy car that recklessly overtook the rest of the vehicles in the governor’s convoy and caused the crash involving the bus in which Iyayi and other ASUU officials were travelling would be punished. He is the driver to a ‘big’ man so to speak, and people like him are rarely punished for any offence committed while on duty. This is Nigeria where impunity like this happens.

    But if we are in the same country and operating under the same law, then nobody should be above that law. I hasten to bring to your notice the story of one citizen Sulaiman Awwal from Kogi State that appeared in this newspaper last week and the kind of ‘justice’ the system meted out to him to justify the call for the punishment of the government driver that killed Iyayi.

    Awwal, a fire prevention consultant was released from Agodi prison in Ibadan last week after 11 months awaiting trial in jail for the offence of manslaughter. How did he find himself at this notorious jail? Well, according to Awwal, he was driving from Saki in Oyo State to Ibadan the state capital on January 7, this year when an aged woman ran across the road around Moniya on the outskirt of the city and he knocked her down with his vehicle.

    The villagers came out and mobbed him as he tried to rescue the woman and they handed him over to the police. Death came for the woman as she was being taken to hospital. Three days later Awwal was charged to court for manslaughter and remanded at Agodi prison by the Magistrate. He was there until Monday last week when the family of the deceased applied to the court to discontinue the case and the Magistrate duly struck out the case.

    Don’t ask about his experience in prison, it was horrible. The concern here is what took him to prison? The vehicle he was driving had an accident and one person was killed by him in the process, the same way one of the drivers in Governor Wada’s convoy drove recklessly causing the death of Professor Iyayi. Shouldn’t that Wada’s driver be charged with manslaughter?

    Well, if the Attorney-General and chief law officer of Kogi State would act in accordance with the demands of that office, yes the driver should be so charged. But would he? Let’s wait and see.

    The death of Professor Iyayi in the hands of Governor Wada’s driver should finally draw Federal Government’s attention to the recklessness and lawlessness of drivers of government vehicles especially those who drive dignitaries including State governors, ministers, police and military chiefs and even local government chairmen.

    When these drivers are on the road, especially when they are driving their bosses, often in a long convoy, they drive as if they are on a mission to commit suicide and any motorists unfortunate to stand in their way albeit legitimately, often have sad stories to tell. They drive without regard for traffic rules and regulations. Most times they drive above the normal speed limit and officers and men of the Federal Road Safety Corps are often helpless to act.

    It is about time they are told and shown that they are not above the law and making an example out of the Kogi State governor’s driver would go a long way in letting them know that the immunity from prosecution extended to their bosses (governors) by the constitution does not cover them.

    Beyond this however, the mentality of our public officers especially the political leaders that they are superior to the rest of us has to change. They enter the road blowing sirens to scare the rest of us out of their way; and woe betides that person that stands in their way. Many have gone the way of Professor Iyayi in the process and nothing happened to either the offending driver or his boss. This is part of the culture of impunity that we carried over into this political dispensation from the military era of the past. We have to purge ourselves of all the evils of the military era and embrace the rule of law and accept equality of all Nigerians for this nation to move forward. This is the only thing that can atone for the killing of Professor Festus Iyayi who died in the struggle to make our country especially university education in this country better.

    May his soul rest in perfect peace. Amen.

     

  • 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.