USA Africa Dialogue Series - UNILAG: BEYOND THE NAME CHANGE CONTROVERSY

 

UNILAG: BEYOND THE NAME CHANGE CONTROVERSY by AYO OLUKOTUN Much of the past week, was taken up with the controversy and vociferous students' protest over the change of the name of the University of Lagos to Moshood Abiola University in a Democracy Day broadcast by President Goodluck Jonathan. Ironically and sadly, the storm precipitated by the decision gathered fury precisely at the time the University of Lagos community was mourning its former Vice-Chancellor Professor Tokunbo Sofoluwe who was buried on Thursday. As several observers have noted, the timing of that announcement defied the civility and courtesies that should have been extended to a community grieving the painful loss of a distinguished academic and versatile administrator. This writer was part of a solemn assembly that gathered at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the university in honor of Sofoluwe a few days before the shocking announcement of the change of name and can testify that the dirges evoked a much loved helmsman . Obviously, the Jonathan administration had sought albeit in an incomplete and as is increasingly evident in an ill-starred manner to atone for a vivid injury, a gash in the psyche of the nation by reinstating the winner of the annulled June 12 1993 elections, Bashorun Moshood Abiola in the national memory. The gesture may have come too little and too late but it nonetheless stands in contrast to the contentious bypassing and dimunition of Abiola's historic contribution to the evolution of our admittedly imperfect democracy. There are those who feel for example that a more thorough going revalidation of June 12 by proclaiming post-humously an Abiola presidency would have been more of a restitution than the entirely symbolic and misdirected renaming of one of our premier universities. Nonetheless, it is proper to recognize that this is a gesture in the right direction to the extent that it seeks to right the scales of a seminal wrongdoing. One worries however that not much thinking appears to be going into decision making under the current administration if we judge by the way government has sought to carry out the renaming of the University of Lagos. For example, it is obvious that the decision would have benefitted from input by the university community and other critical stakeholders in the university project. Had such consultations been made it would have been pointed out that the executive cannot unilaterally void a name that was instituted by an Act of Parliament in 1962. Such consensus seeking which is routine in a proper and functioning democracy would also have preempted the tornado that broke out in the wake of the announcement or at least forewarned of its possibility. One is forced to inquire or wonder aloud about the quality of advice which the president receives on sensitive national issues such as these; it is also a little enigmatic to consider that the president himself is a doctorate degree holder and is therefore not a stranger for example to the collegial nature of decision making in a university itself a prototype of a democratic public sphere. There is the issue too that names are in the language of socio linguistics signifiers and carry emotional connotations which speak to the quality of the brands that they represent. At age 50, the university of Lagos can be regarded as a developed brand name ably marketed as the "university of first choice" by one of its successful vice-chancellor Prof Oye Ibidapo Obe. This of course is related to the fact that the university like many others conducts International Relations as a non-governmental actor which implies that a change of identity would have international consequences. It is to be regretted that these ramifications were not considered before the peremptory announcement of the change. Marketing scholars tell us that branding or rebranding efforts can come to nought if the brand that is being developed had not been internalized by its stakeholders who are expected to live out the brand. In this sense a change of identity connoted by a change of name should have been bounced off the prospective users of the new identity namely the university community. The point also bears wider application in a nation where too often important decisions are made according to a vertical geography of power in which the people are taken for granted or are "consulted" in a mechanistic and ephemeral manner. Those who have argued that acceptance of Abiola as a great hero should automatically translate into acceptance of the honor done him by the government are mistaken to the extent that there are equally valid ways of honoring a national icon without tampering or in some sense diluting the brand of one of the nation's oldest institutions. In this respect, a number of suggestions have been made which include for instances the renaming of national sporting edifices, the declaration of June 12 as democracy day or the award of the most eminent national honor to the democracy martyr. These would have been valid and uncontentious ways to do deserved honor to a man of substance who paid the ultimate price in the crucible of democratic struggle. Irritating and ominous is the fact that rather than strike a conciliatory posture following the outbreak of protests government spokesmen such as  the Minister of Information took a hardline stance and declared flatly that "there is no going back" on the decision in effect daring the protesters and demonstrators to do their worst. Is this the language of democracy or of sinister authoritarianism? Indeed that damning posture evokes the anxious days of the fuel subsidy removal protests when government officials talked down at protesters flatly asserting in the words of one minister that "they had been called out to protest". This is another way of saying that government is all knowing and all wise while those not in government are all stupid or mischievous or both. It is interesting that rather than face the issue squarely we are now being bombarded with another outrageous fib to the effect that the spontaneous protests by the UNILAG community against the arbitrary change of name were masterminded by a political party. Certainly this is not the atmosphere for constructive dialogue but one of intimidation, pigeonholing and demagoguery. If you relate this to the gathering suspicions of a second term agenda by the president then we are been forewarned that like happened before in our recent history increasingly severe reprisals may be meted out to those who speak their minds or who differ from the administration's position. It is conceivable that the social and economic frying pan that this country is increasingly being turned to through a mixture of squander mania by the political class and harsh neoliberal policies tend to give bite and lend a certain distemper to social protests. If the protests had seemed vehement and emphatic then perhaps government ought to consider whether in the language of semiotics their resonance is a referendum of sorts on the lackluster performance of the administration on wider governance issues

Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
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