“This is one gift horse which, contrary to traditional saying, must
be inspected thoroughly in the mouth”, he said in a statement entitled
“Goodluck Jonathan’s gift horse.”
“Primary from all of us must be a plea to the MKO Abiola family not
to misconstrue the protests against the naming of the University of
Lagos after their heroic patriarch. Issues must be separated and
understood in their appropriate contexts. The family will acknowledge
that, among the loudest opposing voices to Jonathan’s gift horse, are
those who have clamoured tirelessly that MKO Abiola, the Nigerian
nation’s president-elect, be honoured nationally, and in a befitting
manner.
“Next is my confession to considerable shock that President Goodluck
Jonathan did not even think it fit to consult or inform the
administrators of the university, including Council and Senate, of his
intention to re-name their university for any reason, however laudable.
This arbitrariness, this act of disrespect, was a barely tolerated
aberration of military governance. It is totally deplorable in what is
supposed to be a civilian order.
“After that comes the bad-mouthing of MKO Abiola and the Nigerian
electorate by President Jonathan who referred to MKO as the “presumed
winner” of a historic election. While applauding the president for
finally taking the bull by the horns and rendering honour unto whom
honour is due, the particularities of this gesture have made it dubious,
suspect, and tainted. You do not honour someone while detracting from
his or her record of achievement. MKO Abiola was not a presumed winner,
but the President-elect of a nation, and thus universally acknowledged.
“It is sad, very sad, that after his predecessor who, for eight full
years of presidency, could not even bear to utter the name of a man who
made his own incumbency possible, along comes someone who takes back
with the left hand what the right has offered. However, there is hope.
Legalists have claimed that there is a legal flaw to the entire process.
The university, solidly backed by other tertiary institutions
nation-wide, should immediately proceed to the courts of law and demand a
‘stay of execution’.
“That should give President Jonathan time to re-consider and perhaps
shift his focus to the nation’s capital for institutions begging for
rituals of re-naming. After all, it is on record that the House of
Assembly did once resolve that the Abuja stadium be named after the man
already bestowed the unique title of “Pillar of African Sports”. He
deserved that, and a lot more. What he did not deserve is to be, albeit
posthumously, the centre of a fully avoidable acrimony, one that has now
resulted in the shutting down one of the institutions of learning to
whose cause, the cause of learning, President-elect MKO Abiola also made
unparalleled private contributions.
“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.”
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