Festus Iyayi (29 September 1947 – 12 November 2013)[1] was a Nigerian leftist writer, best known for advancing his politics through realist novels depicting the sociopolitical environment of contemporary Nigeria.
In that same year he was a zonal winner in a Kennedy Essay Competition organised by the United States Embassy in Nigeria.
As a member of staff of the university, he became interested in radical social issues, and a few years after his employment, he became the president of the local branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), a radical union known for its upfront style on academic and social welfare.
[6] He was later removed from his faculty position by the Alele Williams administration and he got back his job after winning the court case against the school authority and the government with the help of human rights lawyer Femi Falana.
[citation needed] He died in a ghastly motor accident caused by a reckless convoy of the then Kogi State governor Idris Wada while on his way to Kano State to attend the National Executive Council meeting of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) concerning a four-month strike embarked upon by the union.