UNILAG alumni urge varsity to disregard name change

The Alumni Association of the University of Lagos has called on the university authorities not to effect any change in the name of the institution until all the issues surrounding the name are resolved.

In a communique at the end of the association’s meeting on Sunday, the members also vowed to use all logical and legal means to resist the renaming of the university.

While appealing to the students to stop any form of violent protest, the association said it was capable of resolving the crisis.

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

He said, “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.”

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 THE PUNCH 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.”