The Ugbegun Grammar School in Ugbegun, Edo State, home town of the late Professor Festus Iyayi is to be rebuilt and named after him by the Edo State government.
The plan, according to Governor Adams Oshiomhole, is to immortalise the former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) who was laid to rest yesterday.
Iyayi died last month in a motor accident on the outskirts of Lokoja, Kogi State, while on his way to Kano for a meeting of the National Executive Council of the union.
Speaking at a reception held at the school yesterday after the burial, Oshiomhole also said a water scheme would be constructed at Ugbegun and named after the deceased to remind the people about him and what he fought for.
The governor said: “Some of the things we can remember about the late Iyayi are his consistency, commitment and doggedness and he paid the ultimate sacrifice. He lived and died in the struggle and therefore we can say in truth that the struggle was his life.
“We celebrate that God used him and his colleagues in ASUU such that today in every home the issue of the state of education is on the front burner. It will no longer be convenient to downgrade the issue of education and because the future of a country is defined by its education and its human capital, what Iyayi and his colleagues have done and are doing is to put our future on discourse,” he said.
He added: “how do we remember him? How do we immortalise his name? When I visited his family house this morning (yesterday), I said since Iyayi was also a contributor to how a worker could become the governor of Edo State, now that a worker is now the governor of the state, this community of Ugbegun, by next Monday I will deploy one of our industrial rigs to provide a water scheme which will be named as Festus Iyayi Water Scheme for the benefit of the people of this community.
“Iyayi struggled for the proper position of education and education is only about nations. The people of Edo State will agree with me that one of the areas that government has tried to make a difference is rebuilding public schools that are as attractive as any private school in the state.
“I also want therefore that this school called Ugbegun Secondary School beginning with the new budget which begins in January and by the special grace of God not later than February, we would have passed through all the processes and we will build this school to the new standard of Edo State. The school will be renamed Festus Iyayi Memorial Secondary School.”
The reception was graced by the President of ASUU, Dr Nasir Fagge, INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, two other former Presidents of ASUU, Dr Oladipo Fashina, and Dr Abdullahi Sule-Kano, Senator Odion Ugbesia, member of the House of Representatives, Peter Akpattasson, ASUU Chairmen and members from across universities in the country, among others. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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