The National Executive Council (NEC) Meeting of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) scheduled to hold today in Kano has been postponed, according to information reaching News Express.

Scheduled for the Bayero University to discuss the the outcome of Monday’s branch meetings by ASUU to discuss the federal government’s fresh offer aimed at ending the almost five months strike that has paralysed life on Nigeria’s university campuses, the NEC Meeting has been shifted in honour of former ASUU National President, Prof. Festus Iyayi, who died yesterday on his way to Kano for the meeting.

News Express had broken the news of Prof. Iyayi’s death, which occurred around 11am at Banda village, about three kilometres to the Kogi State capital Lokoja, after the last police vehicle in the convoy of Kogi State Governor, Captain Idris Wada (retd.), lost control and hit the union bus in which Iyayi and some other ASUU leaders from the University of Benin (UNIBEN) were travelling, forcing it to somersault.

The 66 years old Iyayi, a professor of Business Administration and Head of the Department of Business Administration at UNIBEN, was the only casualty.

Mourning the late award-winning novelist, Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, yesterday called on players in the education sector, including the federal government and striking lecturers, to rededicate themselves to the pursuit of excellence at the tertiary level in honour of the deceased.

The governor in a statement by Felix Ofou, his press secretary, said the highest honour that the late Prof. Iyayi deserved was the return to the pursuit of academic excellence in our universities and other higher institutions, arguing that anything short of this would have meant that the late activist might have died in vain.

Uduaghan recalled Iyayi’s heroic struggle and sacrifice for the working class as well as the university system, pointing out that the history of strikes and strive for higher academic goals in the country cannot be said to be complete without glowing references to the part played by the deceased while still alive.

The Delta State chief executive, himself an alumnus of UNIBEN, paid glowing tributes to his alma mater for providing a place of pride for the renowned poet, author and academic colossus who engineered new heights and defined the intellectual and working class struggle in a manner never experienced before his time; standing strong and speaking truth to power and championing the cause of the oppressed.

He therefore commiserated with the family of the deceased, UNIBEN, the people of Edo State, ASUU, the academic community and the nation at large on the painful loss and asked God to grant them the fortitude to bear the untimely passage of such a titanic labour leader.

•Photo shows late Prof. Iyayi.

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