A Tribute: Festus Iyayi And The Urgency Of Now By Bayo Oluwasanmi

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There is no question that troubles the human soul than the cold, stubborn, obtrusive, universal fact of death. Hardly a day passes which does not remind us of death. In these days of evil, death is continually intruding into the circle of our friends, relations, acquaintances, our families and of course our heroes.

It is easier for us to divert our minds or steel our hearts when sorrows and tragedies come, but there is no making terms with death. Death is indisputable fact which we all have to face and meet one day. It is inevitable, unavoidable, and inescapable. What we’re not sure is we know not where it lurks or when it may smite us down.
And so two weeks ago death came calling for one of our own – Comrade Festus Iyayi – unannounced and unexpected. The circumstances that led to his death further illustrates that Nigeria is under siege by the predators ruling the country.
Comrade Iyayi was snatched from us along Lokoja-Abuja Road in the company of ASUU members on their way to Kano to deliberate on the latest development on ASUU strike. He was killed by one of the escort cars in the convoy of the Kogi Sate Governor, Idris Wada.
Nigerians should be up in arms by the wanton cruelty and gross violation of law of decency by primitive governors and the rest of the ruling class. The time for taking action is running short!
We have no more tears left to shed for our beloved comrade and compatriot. We cannot explain the loss. We cannot justify the death. Nothing can comfort our stricken hearts in this time of widespread sorrow and grief. I’m persuaded that we have good and sufficient reasons in believing confidently, unhesitatingly, exultingly, that though our comrade is dead, he lives again.
But mourning cannot continue forever, especially in the face of economic crisis, corruption and poverty, and the unrepentant elected prodigals who have literally high jacked the country for their personal enrichment.
Comrade Iyayi will qualify for immediate sanctification that greeted other martyrs who pitched their tents with the poor and the oppressed in the fight for justice, liberty, freedom, and equality. They will for ever live in our memory.
He was a soldier of conscience. He was brilliant and brutal – with truth. We salute him for standing up for what is right, no matter the consequences. We salute him for withstanding the hideous mistreatment from the political tyrants, economic saboteurs, and academic prostitutes. 
The veneration of our beloved Comrade Iyayi in the hearts of his friends, students, colleagues, admirers, and his many sympathizers will reside on the glorious plane as others who paid the supreme price so that others could live.
The sincerity of Comrade Iyayi’s commitment to the poor was never in doubt. As a scholar activist, he fought for the expansion of civil liberties and the rule of law for all particularly the marginalized, the outsiders, the excluded, and the voiceless – the very foundations of the liberal state.
As a profound humanist, he was always in the forefront demanding, defending, and promoting the rights of the poor. Comrade Iyayi was a thorn in the flesh of tyrants who are immune to reason and tolerance. He was a classic, original, and unafraid writer and non-conformist who always told the bitter truth to power. Ask IBB and his retarded military despots about the pressure and public scrutiny exerted on them by Comrade Iyayi.
He was fierce and fiery, charming, and mesmerizing. Comrade Iyayi was always organizing, coordinating, and mobilizing the powerless to fight the ruling brigands and pirates of different sizes, shapes and forms.
Nigeria cannot survive without the Iyayis. The best way to preserve his memory is to translate and transform his struggles into the urgency of now. In truth, the oppressors would want us to keep quiet. But by asking us to shut up is like asking for democracy without elections. Therefore, we must take the fight to the oppressors at the National Assembly and Aso Rock.
 We have been violated by degradation by poverty. The statement by Dr. Martin Luther King Junior that “we live on lonely island of poverty in the midst of vast ocean of wealth” aptly sums up the abysmal poverty faced by the poor in Nigeria.
The evidence of rot in all sectors is well known and deeply disturbing. We live in a permanent state of crisis because of sectarian violence, pervasive corruption, and broken infrastructure. Nigeria’s oil wealth is being administered with comic incompetence. The government rakes in N57bn annually from oil, yet 45 million youth are unemployed, 100 million Nigerians are destitute. No word or words could adequately and graphically describe other maladies that plague the country. They are too frightening to cite.
We must organize and not agonize. That’s what I believe Comrade Iyayi would want us to do. The protest movement that bears his signature remains waiting to be renewed and strengthened. The depths of hatred and suspicion in Nigerian society as a result of corruption and inequality are very palpable. The possibility of violence cannot be discounted. We must demand our equal and fair share of the commonwealth. We must reject and eject the jesters and the buffoons, the nincompoops and the scalawags from Abuja.
I have never heard of a war that proceeded from dance halls. We cannot wait. We cannot be patient. Our children are shackled by chains of poverty. The promise of democracy has not been made real for us. It doesn’t matter whether you are Igbo, Hausa, or Yoruba, we all want good life for our families, good jobs, decent housing, healthcare, running water, good roads, and uninterrupted supply of power, safety and security.
Comrade Iyayi would want us to be committed to the struggle and not complacent, stand up and not sit back or sit down, shout and not silence. We have prayed enough, dreamed enough, we need to awake and keep fighting on his behalf. Every struggle makes a greater struggle necessary. We must create a new movement in memory of our beloved comrade and we need those who can lead it.
Comrade Iyayi’s death should spur the new militancy, propels the whirlwind of change, restore our faith, polish our hope, and renew our activism. And that’s the urgency of NOW!

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