UNILAG: Jonathan’s gesture backfires - Students protest renaming after Abiola

[DT]

Students at the University of Lagos yesterday staged a protest against President Jonathan's announcement renaming the school after the late politician Moshood Abiola.

The students said they want to hang on to the famous 'UNILAG' brand even if the 50-year-old institution has dilapidated because of neglect. In his Democracy Day broadcast yesterday morning, President Goodluck Jonathan announced renaming the university popularly known as UNILAG to Moshood Abiola University in honour of the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

Abiola died in detention on July 7, 1998, barely a month after the death of his jailor General Sani Abacha.

Jonathan said the name change for UNILAG is meant to honour Abiola "for making the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of justice and truth."

Abiola, he added, "deserves recognition for his martyrdom, and public-spiritedness and for being the man of history that he was."

Apart from renaming UNILAG after Abiola, the government "will also establish an Institute of Democratic Studies and Governance" in the university, Jonathan said.

But within a couple of hours of the announcement, thousands of students flocked to the university's main gates, some in flip flops, hair nets, and even pyjamas to oppose the decision.

They also moved into the streets around Akoka and Yaba areas, chanting slogans and waving placards that say they prefer to stick with 'UNILAG'.

"The president has erred by not consulting anybody before taking arbitrary step in changing the institution's name," Fustino Babatunde, a 400-level student said. "The name UNILAG commands respect everywhere. It opens doors for us, but with the sudden change of name, we have been short changed as students of the great university."

Another student Adeola Omoboriowo said Jonathan's decision was "rash and unbecoming of a democratic leader." She said Abiola had not made any contribution to the success of UNILAG to merit having his name tag on it.

She said, "If you talk of Tai Solarin University of Education, we all knew what he did for the school. If you talk of Obafemi Awolowo, we knew what he did for University of Ife. But what has MKO done for UNILAG except that he worked briefly as an accountant with Lagos University Teaching Hospital?"

The announcement to rename the university comes as it mourns its vice chancellor, Prof. Babatunde Sofoluwe, who died just over two weeks ago.

"If the (vice chancellor) was not already dead, this news would have killed him," said Karo Ogbinaka, chairman of the UNILAG chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities. "We will fight this with everything we have."

Student Jide Olabiyi said it was insensitive to announce the name change when the school community was still mourning the death of the vice chancellor.

'Taken by surprise'

Acting Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Rahman Bello, said the name change announcement was a surprise.

Addressing the protesting students, Bello said the decision did not go down well with staff and management of the university because they were not consulted.

"I want you all to be calm and remain law abiding. I also want to thank you all for the matured way you have gone about the protest," he said. "I wish to let you know that the news of the change of the name of the university took us by surprise because no consultations were held with us.

"All I want from you now is to go home quietly, go about your normal activities and do not do anything that could lead to the closure of the institution."

He said the renaming came at a time when the university community was planning to hold a service of songs in honour of the late vice chancellor.

For his part, a professor of International Law at UNILAG, Prof. Akin Oyebode, said they were caught unawares. "The time was no doubt wrong. If at all there would be a change of name, it ought not to be at a time we are still mourning the passage of our late VC," he said.

Prof. Oyelowo Oyewo, Dean, Faculty of Law, also criticised the renaming of the institution. "This is the country's first federal university; there was need for wide consultation before changing its name. That a democratic institution in honour of the late Abiola would be established in the university was a welcome development. Renaming the university after him, I think it did not go down well," he said.

But a constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), said the president should be praised for his effort to immortalise Abiola, adding that he, however, made a wrong choice in choosing UNILAG.

"The president should be praised for his effort to immortalise Abiola. It was done out of good intention but he chose the wrong institution," Sagay said, quoted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). "UNILAG is too well established and has its own individual personality which will be difficult to overshadow."

He said the president could have named one of the nine federal universities being constructed by the government in honour of Abiola.

Mr Bamidele Aturu, a human rights activist, said the president had the power to change the name of the institution but added that approval of the university's council is required.

"If the UNILAG council did not approve the name to be changed, then there will be a problem because it means that due process has not been followed," he said.

Later yesterday, the police said they had curtailed the protest by students.

"We have brought the situation under control after some students of from the university took to the streets protesting its renaming," state command's spokesman, Mr Joseph Jaiyeoba, told NAN. "They were pacified and persuaded to return to the campus and embrace dialogue. The situation has been brought control and everywhere is now calm."

Daily Trust