GANI'S LAST COMMENT ON UNIVERSITY OF IFE: SOME REFLECTIONS
I'm torn between bringing this up in the 'Politics' or 'Education' section but settled for this section because the issue at hand has more to do with politics.

I have always known this, and indeed, almost every Nigerian will agree with this. But Gani's Fawehinmi's choice of University Ife as the only ivory tower worthy of having his corpse further reinforces this belief.

Gani's choice of Ife is not a surprise to anybody with a sense of history. Ife students are known for their stance against oppression. Ife campus politics is usually as hot and intriguing as the national one, but unlike what obtains at the national level, you don't win elections by the depth of your pocket, but rather by your antecedents, what you have to offer and your intellectual worth, and if you get good judgment on these criteria and get elected into office, Ife students will not hesitate to send you packing if you derail on getting there( like Tunde Fagbohungbe 1991, Hemhem 2004).

National activists like Femi Falana, Bamidele  Aturu, Fred Agbaje,Lanre Arogundade all started their activism in their days in Ife. Falana was Students' union PRO 1980/81 session and Arogundade the last NANS president from Ife(1984).

It should also be noted that the now generally quoted SENIOR ADVOCATE OF THE MASSES title for Gani was conferred on him by Ife students in 1988.
From the sixties through seventies and eighties and even till today, University of Ife(now OAU) has been at the forefront of genuine national struggles for the emancipation of the oppressed  masses from the clutches of the cabal that has continued to feed fat while the larger populace are being pauperized.

Ife students fought successive military governments to standstill despite having no more than their pens and placards. The June 1998 pro-Abiola protest is a case in point.

More recently, Ife students have protested strongly against anti-poor national policies like hostel privatization, tuition fees introduction, unchecked proliferation of glorified secondary schools in the name of private universities etc. Many national policies have been reversed in the apst because of the agitation of Ife students and lecturers.

It is only in Ife that a fumbling minister with all his security can be refused entrance into university campus by students(Bayo Ojo, 2005); It is only in Ife that a presidential candidate with past anti-students antecedents(Ali-Must-Go crisis of 1978) can be taken to the cleaners by students(Obasanjo 1998); It is only in Ife that a serving powerful head of goverment agency can be grilled and confronted with questions about his hypocrisy in a public lecture(Ribadu 2007). Such is the place of Ife in national consciousness.

All these have not come without a price. While Gani Fawehinmi and other pro-masses radicals are being sent to jail, Ife, being an institution rather than individual, is being punished in it's own way. Successive governments have continued to neglect the school because of the radical nature of it's students and lecturers. Obasanjo revenged the 1998 Ife ignominy by totally ignoring the school throughout his eight years rule while a school like ABU got a multi-billion naira ultra modern teaching hospital complex.

NB: This is not an endorsement of Gani's wish that 'his corpse be given to University of Ife if they request for it' rather than given an immediate burial as prescribed by his religion, Islam. As a Muslim, I do not approve of that, but I feel his choice of Ife requires some reflections.

Is ile ife in osun or oyo?

Osun