ESKOR TOYO: EXIT OF A SUPER COMRADE

“Toyo left in people’s hearts a cathedral of impact and inspiration for them to serve creditably in all dimensions of humanity’s duty posts…Our best tribute to this colossus is a genuine pledge to hold fast to the tenets of integrity, courage, altruism and professionalism that he lived by.”

Pebbles with Igbotako Nowinta

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I can never forget that day in 1996, inside the Banquet Hall of the University of Benin. It was a massive gathering of socialists across and within the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Professor, comrade Eskor Toyo was in his usual best in marshalling his articulation on the way forward for the socialist movement in Nigeria.

Also, the late Professor and comrade, Festus Iyayi was one of those saddled with the responsibility of organizing a hitch free ‘national conference of socialists in Nigeria’ in Benin City, Edo State capital.

Days leading to the conference I remember that comrade Festus Iyayi locked himself up in his office then along Ugbowo-Lagos Road, Benin to finalize last minutes hosting arrangements, where he graciously allowed us to operate the secretariat of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) Edo State branch.

Then I was chairman CDHR in Edo State, while comrade Iyayi was the national President of the organization.

On the floor of the conference, Comrade Eskor Toyo left no one in doubt as to where he stood on the question of how to actualize a socialist system in Nigeria.

With walking stick in one hand, the legendary dyed-in-the-wool revolutionary roared like a wounded lion and declared: “I am passionate about this struggle”
Indeed, Professor Eskor Toyo was more than passionate about the struggle for actualizing an egalitarian society in Nigeria.

He was a titan of revolutionary struggles in Nigeria; and it is a truism that he gave the struggle everything, including at last, his own precious life.

Therefore, when the cold hands of death finally caught up with the ‘old lion’ in December 2015, the left in Nigeria was devastated because as a magnificent fighter, he operated like a thunderous storm in the cloud of unmitigated struggle.

He On March 2, 2016, few days leading to his final burial program, Comrades in Edo State, led by Comrade, Pa Jonathan Ihonde, a doyen of the struggle gathered at the Ken Saro-Wiwa Gallery, inside the confines of the office of the Environmental Rights Action (ERA), Benin City, to pour endless tributes on Comrade Toyo with the theme: Life, Times & Works of Eskor Toyo.

Yours sincerely was there to grace the occasion. In his tribute, Comrade Jonathan Ihonde noted correctly: “In the 1950s and 1960s, he was a mobile nomadic revolutionary who lectured and raised the consciousness of workers. In this way, he lectured Nigeria railway workers, radicalized and raised their consciousness.

“He urged them to form a party of their own. In these struggles he ran into troubles with the authorities and fellow fighters for an egalitarian Nigeria which left him seriously bruised and traumatized. But he never gave up.

“He was secretary to Michael Imoudu, labor leader number one. As secretary to Imoudu, Eskor participated in the 1964 general strike in which he, Imoudu, Dr. Allen and Olu Adebayo were arrested. I met Comrade Eskor in 1964 before the strike action.”

On Friday and Saturday 4 and 5 of March 2016 respectively, Comrades from all walks of life gathered at the University of Calabar and in Toyo’s home town (Ekim-Oron) to bid him a befitting farewell, as passionately rendered endless tributes and orations dropped down like an uninterrupted torrential rain fall.

Perhaps this tribute by Tony Eyang, Chairman, the University of Calabar Branch of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU-UNICAL) summarized the extraordinary personality of comrade Eskor Toyo as thus: “Toyo left in people’s hearts a cathedral of impact and inspiration for them to serve creditably in all dimensions of humanity’s duty posts…Our best tribute to this colossus is a genuine pledge to hold fast to the tenets of integrity, courage, altruism and professionalism that he lived by.”

Asuquo Otu Ita, known as Professor Eskor Toyo who was born into the Eyo Otoyo family in Ekim, Akwa-Ibom state, Nigeria, on April 21,1929, rose to be Head of Department of Economics, University of Calabar.

He obtained a PhD in Macro-Economics, in Warsaw, Poland in 1973; wrote amongst numerous publications, Class Struggle in Nigerian Politics & Neo-colonialism and Self -Reliance.
He was National Trustee, ASUU till death; Fellow, Nigerian Economic Society and survived by children and grandchildren.

Like a Siamese twin he never separated himself from the masses of Nigeria. He was known to have said that he ‘died’ long ago because of his inability to help establish a socialist government at the center in Nigeria.

All said, for me, Comrade Professor Eskor Toyo was a fantastic and indefatigable revolutionary; he was nothing but a super Comrade that was betrayed by turn coats characters working for the status-quo in Nigeria. May his gallant soul rest in perfect peace!

Nowinta wrote: Where We Are – A Call for Democratic Revolution in Nigeria.