A renowned world-class scholar, literary critic, intellectual giant, trade unionist, and pioneer President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Biodun Jeyifo, died yesterday at the age of 80.

He died a few weeks after his 80th birthday, which he celebrated in January when he clocked 80, with friends, colleagues, former students, and associates gathered in Lagos to celebrate the Marxist, unionist, literary scholar, and teacher of many teachers at an event described as “an international symposium.”

Born in Ibadan, Jeyifo, fondly known as BJ in literary circles, and called by his students, colleagues, and admirers, earned a First Class in English at the University of Ibadan in 1970, a Master’s from the same institution in 1973, and a Doctorate degree from New York University in 1975.

Jeyifo, an alumnus of the University of Ibadan and a former literature teacher at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU), died in the United States of America.

An Emeritus Professor at both Cornell University and Harvard University in the United States, Jeyifo, at the University of Ibadan, where he had already produced some of the continent’s most influential writers and scholars, distinguished himself as the first student in the English Department to earn a First Class Degree.

The immediate past President of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL) and a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Ibadan, Prof. Francis Egbokhare, said of his death: “We are trying to survive the shock of his death.

He described Prof. Jeyifo as “an exceptional person and scholar who never wavered even in his old age. He is one of the few consistent academic and literary critics. He is a very frank person, who will not say one thing and do another. Academia has lost a literary giant. We shall miss him greatly.”

The current President of NAL, Prof. Andrew Haruna, and one of his former students at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), described Jeyifo, fondly known as “BJ,” as a distinguished scholar who had a remarkable academic career at the then University of Ife before later holding dual appointments at Cornell and Harvard Universities.

An international event was held in his honour at the MUSON Centre on January 5, 2026, to mark his 80th birthday, celebrating his immense contributions to literary criticism and African intellectual thought.

“May his gentle soul rest in peace and may God comfort the family he left behind,” Haruna said on a WhatsApp platform sighted by New Telegraph.

Also, Prof. Akachi Ezeigbo said: “Oh, so BJ has gone? What a sad loss to his immediate family, his friends, mentees, and all of us who knew him and his work. I recall at a celebration that was held for his birthday in the Theatre Arts auditorium at the University of Ibadan several years ago, which I was privileged and lucky to have attended from Lagos, he jokingly said he prayed and hoped to attain the age of 70.

“This year, 2026, just recently he was celebrated at 80. And now he has left a few weeks after. May his great soul rest in peace.

“As we grieve, let us thank God for keeping him all these years, many were not so blessed and for the extraordinary and fulfilled life he lived, the impact he made, and the enduring legacy he left behind.

“May God console his family and all of us. Amen.”

Prof. Segun Awonusi, a retired UNILAG lecturer and Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, said that “another Iroko falls in the literary forest of great men. May the great BJ not take okun (millipede) or ikolo in the land of the ancestors. Eternal rest grant him, O Lord.”

Emeritus Professor Olu Obafemi, also a Fellow of NAL, said: “A great Commander, on many battlefronts, has left without a single defeat and he was unbowed, unconquered, unconquerable. It is still too early and too painful for me to write a fitting tribute for BJ. Emeritus Professor Biodun Jeyifo never failed any promises he made. May his immortal soul rest in perfect peace after many won battles and no known losses.”

A scholar and one of his students, Sola Adeyemi of the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom, on his Facebook handle described the late Jeyifo as one of the most formidable and beloved figures in African letters: a critic of rare moral clarity, a teacher whose influence spanned continents, a playwright and poet whose creative imagination was inseparable from his political commitments, and a family man whose gentleness at home stood in striking, endearing contrast to the intellectual ferocity he could summon in debate.

One of the most defining chapters of Jeyifo’s early career, according to him, was his role in the founding and consolidation of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Extolling his virtues, he said Prof. Jeyifo’s passing marks the end of an era in Nigerian and African literary scholarship, for he belonged to that generation of thinkers who believed that literature mattered not merely as an aesthetic pursuit, but as a vital instrument for understanding, challenging, and transforming society.

“In a career that stretched across more than five decades, he helped shape the intellectual architecture of modern African criticism, leaving behind a legacy that will continue to animate classrooms, theatres, and scholarly conversations for years to come,” he stated.