By Wole Soyinka
This is one gift horse which, contrary to traditional saying, must be inspected thoroughly in the mouth.
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 horn 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 someday 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment