This is one gift horse which, contrary to traditional
saying, must be inspected thoroughly in the mouth.
Primary from all of us must be a plea
to the MKO Abiola family not to misconstrue the protests against the naming of
the University of Lagos after their heroic patriarch.
Issues must be separated and
understood in their appropriate contexts. The family will acknowledge that,
among the loudest opposing voices to Jonathan’s gift horse, are those who have
clamoured tirelessly that MKO Abiola, the Nigerian nation’s president-elect, be
honoured nationally, and in a befitting manner.
Next is my confession to considerable
shock that President Goodluck Jonathan did not even think it fit to consult or
inform the administrators of the university, including Council and Senate, of
his intention to re-name their university for any reason, however laudable.
This arbitrariness, this act of disrespect, was a barely tolerated aberration
of military governance. It is totally deplorable in what is supposed to be a
civilian order.
After that comes the bad-mouthing of
MKO Abiola and the Nigerian electorate by President Jonathan who referred to
MKO as the “presumed winner” of a historic election. While applauding the president
for finally taking the bull by the horn and rendering honour unto whom honour
is due, the particularities of this gesture have made it dubious, suspect, and
tainted.
You do not honour someone while
detracting from his or her record of achievement. MKO Abiola was not a presumed
winner, but the President-elect of a nation, and thus universally acknowledged.
It is sad, very sad, that after his
predecessor who, for eight full years of presidency, could not even bear to
utter the name of a man who made his own incumbency possible, along comes
someone who takes back with the left hand what the right has offered.
However, there is hope. Legalists
have claimed that there is a legal flaw to the entire process. The university,
solidly backed by other tertiary institutions nation-wide, should immediately
proceed to the courts of law and demand a ‘stay of execution’. That should give
President Jonathan time to re-consider and perhaps shift his focus to the
nation’s capital for institutions begging for rituals of re-naming.
After all, it is on record that the
House of Assembly did once resolve that the Abuja stadium be named after the
man already bestowed the unique title of “Pillar of African Sports”.
He deserved that, and a lot more.
What he did not deserve is to be, albeit posthumously, the centre of a fully
avoidable acrimony, one that has now resulted in the shutting down one of the
institutions of learning to whose cause, the cause of learning, President-elect
MKO Abiola also made unparalleled private contributions.
Let me end by stressing that my
position remains the same as it was when the University of Ife was re-named
Obafemi Awolowo University.