The 2015 Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State, Obong Umana Okon Umana has paid paid tribute to celebrated socialist and activist, late professor Eskor Toyo.
In a statement on Saturday, Mr Umana extolled the virtues of the late renowned economist who had taught him during his undergraduate days in the University of Calabar. “I would like to say that as our teacher and professor, Eskor Toyo helped in shaping our lives. As his young students in the Department of Economics, University of Calabar, we looked forward to every lecture. We were captivated and overwhelmed by his brilliance and passion. He made us dream about the day primitive accumulation of wealth under capitalism will inevitably come to an end and the dictatorship of the masses will replace the dictatorship of the bourgeois.”
Recalling Toyo’s activism as a lecturer in the University of Calabar, Umana praised the deceased for his resilience and expressed confidence that his ideas will endure through the ages.
“I can recall the day in class Toyo shouted in his trademark deep voice that the sitting military head of state should vacate office immediately since he had failed the masses. Toyo offered to take over and we gave our full support. Sadly we had no guns! We had so much fun under Toyo as we dealt with the contemporary issues of economic development.” He said.
“Pofessor Eskor Toyo was a man nobody could ignore. He was deep and brilliant and could hold his audience spellbound for hours. As a Marxist, he dreamt of a country where egalitarianism will reign supreme and the political and economic chains of neocolonialism will be broken. Not a man to be silenced by power, he spoke for the masses loudly and eloquently at a time the military held sway in Nigeria. As his students at the University of Calabar, we admired him for his courage and intellect. For him there was more to life than the primitive accumulation of wealth.”
“Professor Toyo was powerful and rich but not in materialistic terms. He was rich in ideas and powerful in advocacy. He was rich in honour and integrity. He fought for the masses at the expense of his personal comfort. He fought a good fight and was consistent to the end. He was the Professor of professors. Toyo was a renowned global political economist. As his ideas endure through the ages, so will Eskor Toyo our Prof.”
“May his soul rest in perfect peace.”
