… calls on CONUA to return to the fold for progressive growth
The Tutorial Employees Union of Universities (ASUU) has expressed deep sorrow over the passing of its pioneer president, Biodun Jeyifo, who died on Wednesday, February 11, on the age of 80.
Christopher Piwuna, the incumbent president of ASUU, in a heartfelt tribute, on behalf of the union, described Jeyifo as a principled mental, fearless advocate for tutorial freedom, and a steadfast defender of college autonomy in Nigeria.
Piwuna, within the letter sighted by BusinessDay, stated Jeyifo’s management on the formative stage of ASUU laid a stable basis for the union’s enduring wrestle for improved welfare for lecturers and the revitalisation of the nation’s greater training system.
“The Tutorial Employees Union of Universities (ASUU) acquired with deep shock and unhappiness the information of the demise of our former President, Comrade (Prof.) Biodun Jeyifo (BJ).
“He handed on on the age of 80. Till his transition, he was an Emeritus Professor of Literary Criticism and Cultural Principle at Harvard College, USA,” the tribute reads.
ASUU within the tribute described comrade BJ was an excellent scholar, a principled unionist, a Pan-Africanist, and a Marxist revolutionary.
“His brave and selfless management strengthened our Union and impressed generations inside and past the academy.
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“Although a person of nice simplicity, his contributions to the evolution of ASUU and to the wrestle for a greater Nigeria won’t ever be forgotten,” the union emphasised.
The union states that the story of comrade BJ’s life and occasions can’t be written irrespective of his enviable contributions to the expansion of ASUU on the Obafemi Awolowo College, Ile-Ife.
Jeyifo, who was later awarded a well-deserved D. Lit (Honoris Causa) by the identical College in December 2018, in his acceptance speech on the ceremony, declared: “Ife is the birthplace of ASUU; at the moment, ASUU is in a state of profound and crippling disaster on the College.”
ASUU emphasised that Jeyifo’s transition requires sober reflection on the appalling state of our universities and the problem of collective motion to reverse the ugly developments.
“As BJ rightly endorsed in Ife, “contradictions are there to not crush us if we research them rigorously” and take steps to resolve them,” the union famous.
In the meantime, ASUU invitations all its erstwhile members who now check with themselves as members of CONUA to return to the fold for the transformative and progressive growth of the Nigerian College System.
This, the union stated, was a need comrade Jeyifo cherished till his final days.
“We should always resolve to not stand by his grave divided! It is a solemn plea to honour his reminiscence.
“As we have fun BJ’s lifetime of integrity, service, and enduring impression, we await additional particulars of the funeral preparations from the household. Might his revolutionary soul relaxation in energy!” the union prayed.
