The students have not portrayed any irresponsible nature, nor are they protesting because they want to dishonour Abiola. At this stage, the students, and the people want genuine and concrete transformation, not an irresponsible and arbitrary attempt at cheap populism which has backfired spectacularly and has already exposed the Jonathan administration to unnecessary ridicule.
This is either a misguided attempt to win some low-cost popularity in the South West - in which case there can be no clearer evidence of the disconnect between the Jonathan administration - holed up behind a wall of security in Aso Rock - and the Nigerian people: or it is a clever attempt to bring down both MKO Abiola and the University of Lagos at a stroke. Already some are claiming that Unilag students are ignorant of history and that the protests against the renaming show that Ibrahim Babangida was correct in annulling the June 12th election because Yoruba people didn't really want him as President.
The fact is that nobody can point to any serious connection between MKO and education in general, or the University of Lagos in particular. What MKO was known for was his support for sports, a support which - through the Youth Sports Federation Of Nigeria (YSFON) - earned him the title 'Pillar of Sports in Africa'. That is why people called for the National Stadium to be named after him. So even if Jonathan wanted to regionalise the honour he wanted to do Abiola and did not want to pick the National Stadium at Abuja, he could have tried the one in Lagos.
It seems that legislation is required to effect this change. It would be better if the administration quietly forgot about it and concentrated on more substantive matters,
Ayo
I invite you to follow me on Twitter @naijama
Honestly from reliable sources, those things that should be taking into stand weren't...in addition to this, what is the correlation between the Late Abiola and Education. He fought for Democracy not education. If he was named after the National House of Assembly, that would have been remarkful and more meaningful enough. In any case, i don't see any reasonable point students protesting. Its not the first to be changed and won't be last i think. Democracy to our leaders of now is not by the people anymore. They assume the mind of the citizens and think for them not minding their opinions and contributions to the country's developmentSent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.From: Femi Kolapo <fj_kolapo@hotmail.com>Date: Tue, 29 May 2012 10:07:08 -0400ReplyTo: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.comSubject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Protest from students of the new re-named school-MAU--I doubt that most students will question whether late Abiola deserves national honor. The question rather is whether students (and alumni) and the community were taken into partnership in the decision to change the name of their school. Did government envisage that students and other interested parties may have views and opinions that required discussions and negotiations before such decision was made?
Another way to look at it is to ask whether another king could tomorrow ascend to our authoritarian throne and arbitrarily decide that the name of the university should be changed again to Wok & Chop University?
Democracy and respect of the citizen by the government goes beyond the ballot box transaction. Relationship between Nigeria,together with its governments and its young (beginning from elementary school level) should model respect and democracy.
f.j. kolapo> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Protest from students of the new re-named school-MAU
> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> From: orelikesdat@yahoo.com
> Date: Tue, 29 May 2012 12:02:32 +0000
>
> It is disheartening to find the students of the University of Lagos now Moshood Abiola University protesting due to the fact that the President of the federation honoured the late Abiola. Why are they protesting? That's my question. They have portrayed irresponsible character of themselves and showed that they have not been fully educated,which have amounted to their gross ignorance of what they should do instead.
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
>
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