UNILAG to MAU: Alumni association advises University to ignore name change

Following a meeting held on Sunday, the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Alumni Association has called on the authorities of the tertiary institution to disregard the university’s change of name by President Jonathan until all the issues surrounding the name are resolved.

The Alumni Association also vowed to explore all legal and logical means to resist the name change.

Prof. Olajide Abas-Thomas, President of the Alumni Association, said the Alumni Association was going to take the issue to court.

“We are going to make sure that we fight this battle to the end. Aside taking this matter to court, we are also going to get contacts of those in the National Assembly who are old students of the university.” Prof. Abas-Thomas said.

The Alumni Association also appealed to students of the institution to stop any form of violent protest.

Meanwhile, the Concerned Advocates for Good Governance has urged the National Association of Nigerian Students to prevail on students of the university to embrace peace.

The National Coordinator of CAGG, Mr. Olusegun Bamgbose, said in an interview with Punch News in Port Harcourt, that the protest by the students was unnecessary.

“That UNILAG students’ protest is unnecessary. It is rather disheartening and disturbing that the crop of students in our universities would embark on such action even when the President meant well for the institution,” Bamgbose noted.

Also, the National Chairman, Action Congress of Nigeria, Chief Bisi Akande, has described the renaming of the university by President Goodluck Jonathan as “a right thing done in a wrong way at a wrong time.”

Akande stated this on Sunday in his Ila-Orangun country house, where he addressed a news conference.

He said, “The late MKO Abiola remained the hero of democracy in Nigeria. It is right to honour MKO because he stood for something that is right but it is not good to rename the university when its vice- chancellor had just died.

“It is undemocratic for President Jonathan to change the name of the school without consultations with the students, senate, alumni, stakeholders and the National Assembly, who can change the law establishing the university.”

-Punch

4 COMMENTS