Tinubu Mourns Passing Of Esteemed Scholar, Former ASUU President Biodun Jeyifo
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has expressed deep sorrow over the demise of famend literary scholar and former President of the Educational Employees Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Emeritus Biodun Jeyifo, who handed away on Wednesday.
In an announcement issued on Thursday by his Particular Adviser on Info and Technique, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, the President prolonged his condolences to the household, pals and associates of the distinguished educational, describing his passing as a profound loss to Nigeria and the worldwide mental neighborhood.
President Tinubu paid glowing tribute to Professor Jeyifo’s towering contributions to African literature, postcolonial research and cultural idea, noting that he could be sorely missed for his scholarly depth and his masterful interpretations of the works of Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka.
The President additionally recalled the management qualities Jeyifo dropped at ASUU throughout his tenure as president of the union.
He highlighted the late scholar’s temperance, foresight and knowledge, which, he stated, helped form constructive engagement and negotiation frameworks with authorities authorities geared toward enhancing working situations for lecturers and strengthening the training setting in Nigerian universities.
In response to the President, Professor Jeyifo’s steadfast advocacy for tutorial freedom and social justice will stay a defining function of his legacy.
He additional famous that the late mental’s affect prolonged past the classroom into political and cultural journalism, the place his concepts and writings impressed generations of students, writers and activists, a lot of whom he mentored.
President Tinubu condoled with ASUU, the Nigerian Academy of Letters, the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, the College of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo College, Oberlin School, Cornell College and Harvard College, establishments the place Professor Jeyifo studied, taught or made important scholarly contributions to African literary research and analysis.
Describing him as “a towering determine and excellent world citizen,” the President stated Nigeria and the worldwide educational neighborhood had misplaced an mental big who devoted his life to the production of information and the promotion of human dignity.
“I share a robust private relationship with him. His contributions to literary and cultural development and to society at massive will probably be missed,” President Tinubu acknowledged.
Professor Jeyifo was broadly considered certainly one of Africa’s most influential literary critics and public intellectuals.
Over the course of his profession, he earned a number of honours, together with the celebrated W.E.B. Du Bois Medal in 2019, in recognition of his scholarship and contributions to world mental discourse.
President Tinubu prayed for the repose of the soul of the departed scholar and for consolation for his household and the educational neighborhood he leaves behind.
Wale Igbintade
Times Nigeria