Biodun Jeyifo, ASUU pioneer president, dies at 80

Biodun Jeyifo, renowned scholar, literary critic, and pioneer national president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has passed away.

Jeyifo’s death marks the end of an era for Nigeria’s academic and intellectual community, where he was widely respected for his principled leadership, activism, and enduring contributions to university unionism and scholarship.

He was an alumnus of the University of Ibadan and a former lecturer and literature teacher at the then University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State.

Jeyifo, who died on Wednesday, February 12, 2026, at the age of 80 in the United States of America, was regarded as one of Africa’s most distinguished literary scholars.

Before his death, he held dual appointments at Cornell and Harvard Universities, where he served as a professor of English and a professor of African and African American Studies and Comparative Literature, respectively.

Jeyifo was born on January 5, 1946, and his strides to greatness started right from his secondary school days at Ibadan Boys High School.
As a student, he led a protest to demand reform in the school system by publicly reading a charter of demands on behalf of the students to the school authority.

For this singular act, he was suspended and only sat his school certificate examinations and A-levels as an external candidate. However, he surprised even his enemies with his exceptional performance, and later gained admission to study English studies at the University of Ibadan, where he graduated with first-class honours.

He was a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters and a globally respected intellectual, holding emeritus professorship in two prominent American universities.

Part of his career trajectory was that he moved abroad for his PhD and came back to take up a lecturing role, and later joined the now-defunct Ife Collectives, as a build-up to the formation of ASUU.

Christopher Piwuna, the incumbent president of ASUU, in his tribute, said Jeyifo is known in the union and by colleagues as a solid academic and intellectual.

“He was our first president and has made us proud here in Nigeria and around the world as a giant intellectual. Besides, he remained committed to our struggle to the end. It is sunset for us in the union,” he said.

Idou Keinde, the ASUU chairman at the University of Lagos, described Jeyifo as a dogged leader, whose efforts laid the foundation to making the union formidable.

“Though I didn’t meet him in person, I was reliably informed through the record about his impact and efforts right from the formation of the union.
“He was instrumental to the formation of ASUU, and his doggedness and contribution led to the sustainability of the union against all odds till he left the stage,” he said.

Keinde further explained that he believes that Jeyifo inspired many to have confidence not only in ASUU but for them to appreciate him as a member of academia.