Unilag Don Slams Jonathan Over Name Change

A senior lecturer at the University of Lagos, Akoka, Dr. Joseph Awoyinfa of the Faculty of Education, has slammed President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to rename the institution after the late Moshood Kashimawo Abiola.

Speaking with P.M.NEWS today, Awoyinfa said that the decision has only shown the insensitivity of President Jonathan, adding that renaming an institution such as Unilag without following due process is a confirmation that his government is an unpopular one.

According to him, “Out of the numerous problems facing Nigeria, is renaming Unilag the next thing on the President’s agenda? He is simply an unpopular leader and what he did is just to get cheap publicity, but it won’t work.

“Unilag is a first choice institution and the only one that was established with an Act of Law, so if at all the President wants to change the name, he should have simply followed the same process. You can’t change a 50-year old institution’s name just like that.

“Of course, we all know the late Abiola deserves to be honoured, but there many other ways that could have been achieved. Being someone that contributed so much to the development of sports during his life time, one of the national stadia should have been named after him. Besides, I see President Jonathan as a heartless person because he shouldn’t have even made this decision at a time the institution is still mourning its Vice Chancellor who was laid to rest today.”

On Tuesday, during his Democracy Day speech, President Jonathan had declared that the University of Lagos be renamed Moshood Abiola University. The decision was greeted by protest from students and staff of the institution, who took to the streets to make their grievances known.

During the first day of the protest, there was stampede at the ever busy Ikorodu Road as hundreds of the protesting students took over the major road. The protest took another dimension yesterday as the students took to the streets simultaneously in Akoka and environs and also blocked the Third Mainland Bridge for several hours. All roads leading to the campus in Akoka were also barricaded.

The development however prompted the school authorities to announce that the campus be shut for two weeks in order to ensure that the protests did not degenerate into violence.

When our reporter visited the campus this morning, only few students were spotted.

Meanwhile, there are speculations that the school authority’s decision to shut the campus for two weeks may soon be reversed.

—Bayo Adetu