Omole is the son of a former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and lecturer in the University of Benin, Prof. Festus Iyayi. In this interview with JAMES AZANIA, he talks about the fond memories he shared with his late father
Can you please give a brief profile of yourself?
My name is Omole Iyayi. I am a lecturer in the department of Business Administration, University of Benin, same department my father was. I am the third child of four children comprising three boys and a girl. I graduated from the department of Business Administration in 2007 and I also did my M.Sc. in the same department. My elder brothers did their masters abroad and my younger sister is currently doing her masters abroad. But we all earned our first degrees in UNIBEN.
Did your father influence your interest in lecturing?
How I got into lecturing was really not straightforward. After completing the youth service scheme, I searched for a job for some time and returning to the university became an option. It thought about lecturing until something else comes along. But along the line, I found myself turning more and more into a lecturer. Once I got into lecturing, I became influenced and encouraged to stay in the system. It was not planned at all. The influence of lecturing has begun to shape me.
What grade did you earn in your graduate level?
I finished with a First Class. The grade also provided a footing for my lecturing.
Did your father influence his children on their career choices?
He always believed we should find something we love and pursue it to the fullest. Like him, he determined to be in the university because he always saw himself lecturing and writing. Those were what he had passion for. He always told us, ‘find something you are good in and pursue it.’ There was no influence from him regarding our career choices.
What memory of your growing up years with him can you recall?
They are many. From the birthdays we celebrated to the times he would disappear and was nowhere to be found. We would wonder where he was during those periods. I remember when we were staying in BDPA opposite UNIBEN. It was one of those times he got missing in the night and somebody knocked on the gate. We were wondering who it was until we realised it was him. I could recall that we all rushed to the gate. We didn’t know what was happening; as far as we knew, he travelled. It was later we found out that he was whisked away by the military. It was when we became mature that we understood why he was taken away frequently. We did not know then. My mother did an excellent job by keeping the true picture of things away from us until we were old enough.
Considering his busy nature then as ASUU president, how did he create time for his family?
Though parenting is for two people, despite the nature of his work, we never really felt his absence much because my mother was always there for us. Whenever he was around, we would feel his presence with his love.
How often did he take his family out for picnics?
We normally had family outings at Saidi Centre. We used to go to Palm Royal, Club Sandwich and Benin Motel Plaza. We also went to the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research, Benin City, for family picnics; carrying ludo board and cards along.
How did he relax when he was at home?
He watched televsion, but sometimes he preferred to work on his laptop. He also enjoyed watching TV with his family. I can’t really point to any particular programme he liked watching. He watched what we preferred to watch. He didn’t like football but because we like football, he would sit and watch it with us.
What are the values you have imbibed from him?
One of the most important things he taught us is how to be principled. He encouraged us to tell the truth always. I also imbibed his hard-working nature.
How has his name helped you when people realise you are his child?
The name, Iyayi, has always come in handy from time to time in UNIBEN. I remember when I wanted to collect my call up letter for mobilisation for the National Youth Service Corps. When I got there, there was a crowd. I wondered how I was going to do it. Luckily for me, my father sent me on an assignment and I told him that once I embarked on it, I would not be able collect the letter on time.
He said there was no problem,that once I got to where I was to collect the call up, I should call him. I did and he came. People around greeted him ‘Prof’. and we passed. When we got in, they asked for my name. I signed and collected it.
We do not like to announce his name, but once people hear the name, they say “Ah Iyayi, your father is the Prof? Alright no problem, sit down. What can we do for you?’ There are places we go to and we would not be afraid, because we know that if we identify ourselves by his name, we will get attention. There are certain situations when we know we could use the name, but there are times when we also wanted to test our own worth.
But people do not do anything illegal for us because they knew what our father stood for. Even in making our requests, we cannot make a request like, ‘Oh, I did not pass this course and my name is Iyayi. How can you help me?’ It’s not possible. There was no way we could say such or mention his name for that kind of arrangement.
What are the values your father cherished?
He was hard working; lecturing, writing and giving talks. He also didn’t bear grudges. I don’t know how he was able to do it. He was fond of defending those who had wronged him. He would defend them strongly, especially when they were victims of injustice.
Whenever we reminded him that the person he was defending once wronged him, he would say he cannot stand injustice. It mattered less to him whether the person was his friend or enemy. He was a principled man and he loved to say the truth always. He was fearless, humble and never used his influence even when he should.
How did he handle disagreements with your mother?
Well, there was no need for argument. I never remember witnessing any misunderstanding between the two of them. There is one thing, he advised us that it is not a good thing to insult one’s wife. He said if one insults one’s wife by calling her a fool, there is a tendency for her to respond in same manner. He never argued or insulted our mother. He respected her. My father told us long ago to always maintain our cool even when we are angry. Whatever disagreement they had, they always settled between themselves.
There was no argument or shouting which required the children to take sides with any one of them. No matter what happened, they understood themselves. There was no disagreement we had to settle for them.
How do you feel each time he expressed his displeasure about socio-economic and political imbalances in the country?
I always understood, because the things he expressed displeasure over were things we could all relate to. When he expressed his views, we always knew where he was coming from.
What was his idea of discipline?
He was not a father who spared the rod. There was a brown belt we all remember. There were things we did and our mother would handle. There were some things we did that she would decide to report us to our father. There were times when the ‘crime’ was big enough, the brown belt would emerge. At some point, he started using his background in psychology. At that period, there was no need for any kind of beating again. He would just talk to any erring child and such child would see the disappointment on his face. Some of his verbal lashings were even worse than the beatings. When we were younger, he never spared the rod on certain issues.
What was his favourite meal?
He liked pounded yam and black soup with bush meat being a strong Ishan man.
Did he have any special mode of dressing?
My father liked wearing native. He was a proud African man. He preferred wearing native attire to suits. Sometimes, he wore a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.
What was his schedule like?
My father was a very busy man. He delivered lectures here and there and supervised students. He always found a way to fit everything in. That was why he usually left his laptop on because he always had to submit one paper here or meet another deadline there.
How close were you to him?
My closeness to him went beyond a father-son relationship because I also worked in the same department with him in UNIBEN. We found reasons to work together on papers, research works and publications. He was my lecturer, colleague and boss. We talked about research ideas, papers to write and that brought us closer. So, it was more than a father-son relationship.
How often did he call or visit his children who were then studying abroad?
I don’t think there was any need to visit, in fact, at a point, the children were supposed to come home on visits.
How sociable was he?
He preferred to keep to himself. If he went for any social event, after 30 minutes, he would see the host or hostess and leave. He liked staying at home or among his close friends.
What was his last discussion with you before he headed for Kano to attend the ASUU NEC meeting?
He was planning a trip to the Republic of Panama in Central America for a conference on corruption. He called me on phone that they would be going there through Washington, US, and that I should try and book a hotel for him in Washington. I told him I would do it. Later, he called that the participants for the conference would be sharing rooms, hence there would be no need for me to book the hotel. That was the last discussion I had with him.
Did he have any premonition about his death?
No, he did not have any premonition. In fact, there were no black cats or broken glasses.
Your father was a realistic novelist. Have you taken after him?
In my house I am the worst. My elder brother and sister have written poems and done some literary works. But for me, when I think of how to rhyme words, my head lets out pain. So, for that reason, I did not take after him in that regard.
Having read his award-winning novels, what kind of person did you make of your father?
I knew him before I read his novels. Whenever I read his works, I always try to connect them with what I know of him rather than try to use the novels to build some profiles of him. When one reads his novels, one will notice that they mirror the struggles of the common man and the oppression in the society. I see him in his novels.
Would you have wished he was not involved in activism?
It is not possible because activism was part of him. It’s part of his identity, so there’s no way I could wish it was not part of him. It was part of what made him who he was and there was no way I could have wished he didn’t partake in it.
What do you miss most about him?
May be it has not dawn on me yet, because I have not really started thinking in that line. I think it may hit me later.
What lessons did you learn from your father’s death regarding the situation of things in Nigeria?
Nigeria is very unique; where a governor’s convoy is involved in an accident and then the governor flees the accident scene. In other countries, it’s not possible. In fact, for the average citizen, fleeing from the scene of an accident is a crime on its own, then for a governor or any state official, he or she will stay and show concern because such convoy has an ambulance.
The lessons I learnt from my father’s death is that Nigeria today is lawless because there is a culture of impunity. There are no consequences for wrongdoing. While I have known this for long, it has now really hit home, as it affected someone dear to me. I have often read about stories of convoys or government attitude to certain issues and how nobody cares. But this is the first time it happened close to me. Normally, if there is an accident you should be thinking of how you will assist the victims to a hospital, but instead, you fled the scene.
It just shows you the attitude of our government officials. They don’t care about the common man. They are only interested in themselves.
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