Memories of the late Chief Moshood Kasimawo Abiola came alive recently when President Goodluck Jonathan, in a live broadcast, departed from the norm that characterised the reign of his predecessor to announce the renaming of the University of Lagos after the departed business mogul and winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
In the telecast, President Jonathan rationalised the decision stressing the need to strengthen the nation’s collective memory. “Late Chief M.K.O. Abiola deserves recognition for his martyrdom, and public-spiritedness and for being the man of history that he was. We need in our land more men and women who will stand up to defend their beliefs and whose example will further enrich our democracy”, Jonathan had stated.
The announcement prompted students to storm the Lagos-Ikorodu Expressway as early as possible in the morning of Tuesday May 29, shortly after the announcement, which many of them including members of their management and staff members described as shocking. Swiftly, the rampaging students moved in into the road thus casing untold vehicular gridlock in many of major routes in the metropolis. They defied the dissolution of the students union as they mobilised themselves – forming a huge mass that eventually formed a procession that moved from the campus located at Akoka area of Yaba to Jibowu to demonstrate their discontent.
Led by the mobilisation officer for education rights campaign, South-West, Mr. Oloyede, the protesting youths urged government to rescind its decision on the matter. “We are not saying that the late Chief MKO Abiola should not be immortalised, but UNILAG is not the appropriate representation of the late business mogul, who was more popular in the area of sports than education”, the student leader claimed.
Though he was not physically present at the series of marches national president, University of Lagos Alumni Association, Prof. Olayide Abass; along with a former vice-chancellor of the institution, Prof. Oye Ibidapo-Obe; all the workers’ unions, including the Academic Staff Union of Universities, faulted the decision which they described as “illegal, provocative, absolutely incongruous and antithetical to democratic norms”. The alumni association threatened to drag Jonathan and the federal government to court over the name change. Abass said that the President did not have the power to change the name of the university, which he said was created by an Act of Parliament.
According to him, “It’s either the president does not have a sense of history or that those who are his advisers are not in tune with the nation’s law. UNILAG is the first federal university in the country that was created by an Act of Parliament, so if he wants to change the name, he should go back to the National Assembly and press for the amendment of the university law. He is not a lawmaker and so does not have such power”.
Speaking in the same vein, the chairman of the local chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr Karo Ogbinaka, added a new twist to the issue when he said President Jonathan embarked on the move to gain cheap popularity, calling on him to rename University of Abuja after Abiola if he wanted to score a mark.
While accusing government of perfidy on the issue, Ogbinaka stated that “The minister of education, Professor Ruquayat Rufa’i, was here. She did not discuss anything with us. She colluded with government and took decision. It’s quite bad.”
In its reaction, the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) who acknowledged the place of Abiola in the political history of country but would rather want the highest possible honour done to him just as he deplored what it? termed indecent manner in which the action was carried out.
The group, in a statement, signed by Mr. Yinka Odumakin, said the action was illegal as it was done in presidential fiat saying President Jonathan must not act in a way that would suggest that he is a maximum ruler. “We restate our demand that M.K.O Abiola be given a befitting honour for the sacrifices he made for democracy in Nigeria in a decent and worthy manner.”
On the flip side however, the leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Pa Reuben Fasoranti described the move as a decision coming late but in the right and positive direction. On the home front, two of the daughters of the late business mogul, Mrs. Lola Abiola-Edewor and Mrs. Hasfat Abiola-Costello, commended the Federal Government.
Speaking through his media aide, Abiola-Edewor, a former federal lawmaker, in a statement issue in Abeokuta, further condemned the protest by students of the institution, adding that her late father had been denied his rightful place in the annals of democracy in Nigeria.
In her reaction, Abiola-Costello, a special assistant to Governor Ibikunle Amosun on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), said the honour was long overdue, adding that it was a right step in the right direction.
Abiola, an accountant, politician, businessman and philanthropist, died on July 7, 1998, in the custody of the federal government, four years after he had been arrested and detained by the late miliatry dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha for daring to declare himself president-elect after winning the 1993 poll later annulled by Abacha’s predecessor, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.
The annulment and the death of Abiola enraged the citizens. Ditto the government’s continued refusal to acknowledge the place of Abiola in the nation’s democracy since the commencement of the Fourth Republic. Former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, a kinsman of Abiola from Ogun State and the late President Umaru Yar’Adua had ignored calls for the immortalisation of the late businessman who contested the 1993 poll on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party.
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