UNILAG: WHY IT WAS PLACED UNDER THE KNIFE.

There have been a lot of issues from various quarters as a result of the democracy day shocker by the president. It was a cool morning, listening to the annual president broadcast which I actually expected earlier than that. I heard how his policies had impacted greatly on the unemployment rate, and also on the power project on going  and so on. And to my amazement, it was the declaration of the change of the name, University of Lagos to Moshood Abiola University. I asked myself. Why did he place it towards the end of the broadcast? Did he anticipate the reactions of the people ahead? Many question but a few answers.Even though almost everyone gave him kudos for this gesture, but the question striving for immediate answer in the mind of an average person was that, why the University of Lagos and not University of Abuja, University of Ibadan, Abuja Stadium, or any of the new federal universities etc?

 I want everyone to understand that the choice of the FEC including the president was a clear picture of what we have been degenerated to as a people. My question is, if the president had gone to rename an institution outside the southwest region as Moshood Abiola, would he have been fully applauded? Would it have been fully accepted by the Yorubas ( The Afeniferes, Egbe Omo Oduduwa, Oodua People’s Congress, Yoruba Elders’ Forum etc)? Some even said that, the University of Abuja should have been the best because of its centrality. Dr Jumai( A Northerner)  in one of his articles to challenge the proposed  National conference that, if Nigeria should split, Abuja will go to the north. What a statement. Yes! He could be right. We may claim to be one as nation but in practice we are not. In one way or the other, there is this fear that this country will split one day. Therefore, this has a bearing in our sense of judgment towards delivery. This is what we display in our daily dealings with one another. God forbid! If Nigeria splits tomorrow and Abuja moves to the North, then what will become of the name?  This is the scare.I was listening to one the Ijaw leaders on the television before the recent south south economic summit. He was challenging the South South leaders to wake up and take advantage of the presidency and do something for their regions because the opportunity might not come again. Everyone is scared of what will happen to his race tomorrow. This is one of the reasons why development remains uneven in our nation today. So, do we expect the Yoruba race to celebrate him for taking the name outside the Southwest?

To buttress my point on our division, and Incase you do not know, all the federal institutions in the Southwest especially the colleges belong to the Yorubas. Is that a shocker? Kindly follow me. I do not want you to be deceived by the so called federal character that the constitution portrays. It goes beyond that. The federal institutions are expected to deal fairly and equally with every citizen of Nigeria irrespective of gender, tribe, language etc. But this is not in reality. Let me ask you a question. What do you understand by catchment area in our college admission allocation? Is it not give some privileges to some perceived people by lowering the cut-off points for them and allow others to come in on merit? For instance the catchment areas under the University of Lagos are Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Oyo, Ondo, Kwara and Lagos. The implication of this is that, there will never be anytime the Ibos or Hausas will out number the Yorubas in that school. In other words, they are telling you that the college primarily belongs to a particular region. This is the same thing that applies in all other federal institutions especially the Universities in all the six geopolitical zones.  Is something not dividing us even though we daily claim to be united? Every tribe is fighting for its interest.

Therefore, apart from political reasons and for acceptance, I do not think the president had any better place to place the name than the southwest to please the Yorubas. Then, he was left with Ondo, Osun, Lagos,Oyo,Ogun and Ekiti.  Out of these states, the only states that can really boast of federal presence in terms of giant’s institutions are Lagos, Oyo, Osun and Ogun. Some of them are even just because of the federal schools there. Now he was left with four. Then what must be sacrificed? Osun is out of it because of the Obafemi  Awolowo University. He was left with three. Moshood Abiola Polythecnic is in Ogun, Moshood Abiola Stadium also in Ogun, and then it will be ill advised to place the name in Ogun except if the state must be changed to Moshood Abiola State. So Ogun is out. He was left with two. Lagos  and Ibadan.

Apart from the fact that the biggest investment of the federal government in Ibadan is the University of Ibadan, it is also the first institution in Nigeria. It has sustained it number position in the global ranking of the Nigerian universities for a long time. University of Lagos has not been able to match this fit despite its glorious brand. The best position the University of Lagos has attained is 3^rd on the table. Let us go politics a little. What benefit can Ibadan offer PDP and the government in the short and long term? Is it economy or number in the period of election? Ibadan cannot boast of half of the population of Lagos state even though it claims to be largest city Nigeria if not in Africa. So, the president was left with Lagos.

The question now is what are the giant federal government monuments or institutions in Lagos. There is Tafawa Balewa square, University of Lagos, National Stadium Surulere, The Lagos Airport and the third mainland bridge.Tafawa Balewa is gone, the Lagos airport is gone as well and the National stadium is in comatose. I don’t think it should be any of the  stadia that can be destroyed tomorrow. Where is Onikan stadium today? Imagine if Onikan had been renamed after Awolowo. It would have been a great mockery especially with our poor maintenance culture. So, he was left with two, University of Lagos and the third mainland bridge. If you were the president, which of them would you have chosen for an Icon? I think the answer is obvious.

I do not despise the fact that there should have been some consultation with the university community but the truth must be told. Even the protesting students did not even help matters. Some of them were shown protesting on the television and the major reason for their protest was that the name “Moshood” was not beautiful. Could you imagine that from undergraduates and you expect the president to change his mind based on that? I felt so embarrassed. I expected them to hide under school facilities, degradation environment etc. I was really disappointed. One of the alumni said you do not name an Iconic global institution like Unilag and Harvard after individuals. I think that was wrong. In fact, it was a university that renamed after John Harvard when he became the university earliest benefactor in 1636. James Buchanan Duke renamed Duke university after his father , Washinton Duke in 1904. While Cornell University was renamed after historian as Ezra Cornell University. Even the famous John Hopkins University was initially university of Baltimore 1876.Yale University was renamed after a Welsh business man in India, Elihu Yale and many more. These are topmost schools in the world in which the most rated school in Nigeria(University of Ibadan) cannot be compared with.University are not made by names. They become global centers by research discovery, scholarship, endowment fund, products etc.

This is where corruption, personal interest, fear of tomorrow, sentiments, favoritism, nepotism etc have led us as a people. MKO could have been immortalized anywhere in the country without any caution as it was done to Tafawa Balewa and Muritala Muhammed in Lagos those days if we are truly one. Well for the protesting students and the alumni, I am afraid you may have to live with this change as others are doing currently. God bless.