coogar:

democracy my arse.
do unilag students get to vote who the vice chancellor or chancellor
of their school would be? why haven't they fought for that and yet
want to fight for the renaming of their school which belongs to the
federal government. these useless students pay peanuts as fees heavily
subsidized by the same government and yet they have the chutzpah to protest?

personally, i think nigerian university students should be paying N1 million per session.
if the students pay through their noses to bag their degrees, they would be more
responsible in school. the act of thuggery would fade into oblivion in naija unis.
the federal government should remove their subsidy in federal schools. it's time
to teach these touts some lessons.

coogar:

you really agree with the don on this?

what difference does it make? unilag, maulag or malulag?
the university is owned by the federal government...the vice chancellor
was appointed by the federal government. the federal government pays the
salaries of the staff.....are you saying they cannot name their own establishment
any name they so wish?

if you build a house and rent it to tenants, you need their blessings to paint it?
gate it? put a borehole or whatever? i just believe nigerians have their priorities
misplaced. does the change of name devalue the certificate? does it increase the fees
paid by the students? jonathan is indeed a mumu. if i were the president, i would have
deployed a thousand s.w.a.t. teams to make those unruly tools some target practice.

aikuda: I don't understand why some people think those who are opposed to the renaming are against MKO. Most Lagosians love MKO, the issue is why the presisdent who ( mind you I have consistently supported on other issues) will make this kind of blunder. I doubt this was his intention, but he has been able to divide Nigerians with the name of an individual that is very dear to ours hearts. How stupid can a president be? This is what you get for not consulting others. And who says the institution belongs to him? For pete's sake this a premier Nigerian university. The FG is not the only stakeholder. Don't students pay school fees in the school? A univeristy is different from other institutions - the name can make a difference in how successful graduants become in the job market. In a country where things are done RIGHT, pollS will be taken to see what people think about the name change before any attempt is made. No, not in Nigeria. We dey pass through democracy, but democracy no dey pass through us.

And @ Beaf, I am very disappointed on your take in this (sorry I singled you out). I have always followed your comment and thought you are different from the crowd of pessimists here. But this is taking it too far. The president is wrong on this one!

odumorun 1: I strongly disagree with Wole Soyinka on this.

The furore regarding the renaming of Unilag is elitist posturing of the worst kind, dressed up in the garb of democratic protestation. This has nothing to do with anger that the council of the university was not consulted. The university and its senate and governing council do not fund the school. The school is funded by the federal government from the federal purse representing millions of hardworking Nigerians most of whose kids will never enjoy the benfit of a university education let alone a prestigious one like Unilag.

The storm in a tea cup is another example of middle class Nigerians, particularly yoruba ones (the most snobbish and self regarding version and yes i am a Yoruba) refusing to be associated with a person largely revered by the poorer classes. The same happened when Uiversity of Ife was renamed in 1987 in honour of Obafemi Awolowo, when a few hundred students largely of middle class origin demonstrated their objection, while the poor people in the town, carpentars, shoe makers, tailors and others who benefited from awo's reforms celebrated.

This is all about a few priviledged and educated yoruba people wanting to retain what they see as an eleitis label placing them apart from the majority of the population whom they secretly despise. If the school had been named after Barack Obama would they be protesting, even if it was done without consultation - Of course they wouldn't - they'll probably be fantasising about getting an easy visa ride in the American embassy.

Wole Soyinka is a radical and progressive Nigerian but his elitism is a well known flaw which is why he has never inspite of his undoubted courage been able to buod a mass following for his ideas.

Unilag is funded by the majority of the people of this country, not the students or their lecturers. Most ordiany Nigerians respect the sacrifices people like abiola made - they, not the spolit middle class kids kicking up a fuss in Unilag are the majority. The noisy minority in Unilag should be ignored. they will son go back to their Ipads

If they don't like the name when they receive their degrees let them rip them up. They don't own the school, the people do -i've not seen any demonstrations in mushin, shomolu, bere or sabongari against it.

If wole is not happy let him write a poem about his fury. He is a great man, but on this occasion he is wrong

Bawss1: Soyinka expresses my position on this issue lucidly.
Excellent

odumorun 1: I strongly disagree with Wole Soyinka on this.

The furore regarding the renaming of Unilag is elitist posturing of the worst kind, dressed up in the garb of democratic protestation. This has nothing to do with anger that the council of the university was not consulted. The university and its senate and governing council do not fund the school. The school is funded by the federal government from the federal purse representing millions of hardworking Nigerians most of whose kids will never enjoy the benfit of a university education let alone a prestigious one like Unilag.

The storm in a tea cup is another example of middle class Nigerians, particularly yoruba ones (the most snobbish and self regarding version and yes i am a Yoruba) refusing to be associated with a person largely revered by the poorer classes. The same happened when Uiversity of Ife was renamed in 1987 in honour of Obafemi Awolowo, when a few hundred students largely of middle class origin demonstrated their objection, while the poor people in the town, carpentars, shoe makers, tailors and others who benefited from awo's reforms celebrated.

This is all about a few priviledged and educated yoruba people wanting to retain what they see as an eleitis label placing them apart from the majority of the population whom they secretly despise. If the school had been named after Barack Obama would they be protesting, even if it was done without consultation - Of course they wouldn't - they'll probably be fantasising about getting an easy visa ride in the American embassy.

Wole Soyinka is a radical and progressive Nigerian but his elitism is a well known flaw which is why he has never inspite of his undoubted courage been able to buod a mass following for his ideas.

Unilag is funded by the majority of the people of this country, not the students or their lecturers. Most ordiany Nigerians respect the sacrifices people like abiola made - they, not the spolit middle class kids kicking up a fuss in Unilag are the majority. The noisy minority in Unilag should be ignored. they will son go back to their Ipads

If they don't like the name when they receive their degrees let them rip them up. They don't own the school, the people do -i've not seen any demonstrations in mushin, shomolu, bere or sabongari against it.

If wole is not happy let him write a poem about his fury. He is a great man, but on this occasion he is wrong

OAM4J: I agree with the don.

Bawss1: Soyinka expresses my position on this issue lucidly.
Excellent

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. I deplored it at the time, deplore it till today, have never come to terms with it, and still hope that some day in the not too distant future, that crime against the culture of institutional autonomy will be rectified. Let us not compound the aberrations of the past with provocations in an era that should propel us towards a belated new Age of Enlightenment.

ndu_chucks: In my opinion,[size=13pt] any greatness that could be attributed to MKO Abiola was completely nullified by the level of theft and the disgraceful handling of the ITT contract which was supposed to rebuild Nigeria's telecommunication system. Abiola and ITT ripped us off of billions of dollars without building a single circuit to improve P&T, the old Nigerian communication agency. This, by the way was when the naira was pretty strong.

People like IBB, MKO, OBJ, and others need not be worshiped. IBB and OBJ belong in prison, period. These people and their likes do not deserve to be our heroes, we have quite a few Nigerians who qualify to be real heroes and who have unblemished characters.
[/size]
I'm surprised that some of the posters from the SW do not find MKO's theft deplorable. Folks need to do a bit of research and discover that billions were spent with absolutely nothing to show for it. SMH

LeoMax: I AM WAITING FOR JUNE 12, I WANNA SEE ANY WESTERNER THAT WILL SHAMELESSLY COME OUT TO HYPOCRITICALLY WANT TO CELEBRATE MKO ABIOLA. YOU PROVE THAT HE WASNT GOOD ENOUGH AFTERALL FOR A LOFTY "UNILAG" TO BE RENAMED AFTER

coogar:

unilag is a property of the federal government.
the students, academic staff, etc are just tenants/labourers.
they are no stake-holders...they can be hired n fired by who??....the same federal government.

ayobase:

Im still thinking oh how the president was wrong on this.
A Federal University renamed by Federal government after a Nationalist.
But the President wasn't wrong to have remaned FUT,Yola after Modibo Adama. A nationalist?

ayobase:

Im still thinking oh how the president was wrong on this.
A Federal University renamed by Federal government after a Nationalist.
But the President wasn't wrong to have remaned FUT,Yola after Modibo Adama. A nationalist?

A-ZeD:

Unilag is not the property of the federal government, its the property of Nigerians.

edicolove: I have never seen this level of celebration of emptiness, vanity and nothingness before in my life. I am still in shock. This is a total reality check of what we have become as a nation. A people of vanity. How can students go on the street and highways to reject in totality the only real symbol of democracy we have in Nigeria? And hear them: "the name has no swag". "The name is a brand". Countries have changed names. Cities, both ancient and modern, have changed names. What is in a common University that would warrant the desecration of our only symbol of democracy. But alas! This is Nigeria. A people that celebrate emptiness. Only in Nigeria you hear people addressed as engineer or architect or deacon so and so. I used to join the band wagon that say our older generation are our problem but now I see a young generation that is set to redefine absurdity. They k ow nothing but the fake life.
Just to ask, where have you ever heard that the students of a university are consulted in the naming of the University? They are just students sent there by their parents to read their book. But they are obviously not interested in reading, only interested in yahoo activities.
I thought I would wake up this morning to hear people dissect and shred GEJ's speech to bits and give him serious posers why we haven't seen some crucial progress in governance. Why we haven't seen good signs of much needed infrastructure. But the yahoo boys didn't disappoint. The renaming of UNILAG to MAU is now the headlines. They have effectively given GEJ a very soft landing.
On the other hand, they have wiped out in less than 24hrs a very important democratic milestone. June 12 is just 2 weeks away and I look forward to seeing how these bunch will come back to tell the rest of Nigeria to celebrate the man whom they have just spat on his grave.