Femi My brother, you are quite right there. It seems to me that politics was the overriding consideration in the decision to rename the University after the Late M.K.O. Abiola of blessed memory, this should not have been so. My humble opinion is that University of Lagos should be drawn into the murky waters of Nigerian politics. Besides if proper consultations of with all the stake holders were undertaken before the change was announced I doubt that we would witness the kind of demonstration and outpouring of anger among the various stake holder who have already voiced their regret over the change and urged its reversal. I believe that, were chief M.K.O. Abiola to be alive today, he would like late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who in 1986, rejected such an honour after University of Nigeria was renamed after him, do the same thing. This is really a disservice to the memory of Chief Abiola, because the last thing anybody should do is to drag his name to the mud after he had lived his life and earned his image as a great philanthropist and businessman; democracy Icon and a pillar of sports in Africa. everyone is I spoken to is agreeable to having an appropriate honour done to the memory of M.K.O. Abiola. There is no reason why anybody should choose to paint Abiola as a controversial figure after his death. As I write this the Alumni, ASUU, and the non- Academic staff members of the University have all rejected this sudden change of name. From available information the Senate of the may follow suit as many senior professors in the university have also voiced their opposition to this change. The university does not belong to members of the Federal Executive Council but to all its stake holders who ought to have been properly consulted. The name University of Lagos, symbolizes all its past achievement and and its present standing in international education sector. It is what it is today, partly because of what itself good name brings to it. I am also talking in terms of what image the numerous people across the world have about the university and its graduates over the years. The name change make a mess of the efforts of the past years to build a brand that is capable of attracting national and international goodwill the every university so very much deserves. The name change takes the university back to the level of new universities in Nigeria that are still struggling to find their feet both in terms of track record of academic standards, quality of learning and level of human resources development, as it will now be faced with the unenviable task of convincing the public that the name change should not affect its image and integrity. The track record of any university includes its name and is part of what attracts quality academics and students to it. But the question should therefore be asked : "What was wrong with the name University of Lagos that warranted a desperate desire to change it or reposition the university?'. If it is just a change of name, do you change a good name which any institution has built without hurting that institution or truncating its past glory standing a risk of reversing its progress? --- On Tue, 5/29/12, Femi Kolapo <fj_kolapo@hotmail.com> wrote:
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