As students continue protest, block Third Mainland Bridge •MAU has come to stay —FG •Renaming noble, but procedure illegal - Afe
Written by Kunle Awosiyan, Chukwuma Okparaocha, Leon Usigbe and Yemi Banjo
Thursday, 31 May 2012
PROTEST by the University of Lagos community over the renaming of the institution became intense on Wednesday, as the students blocked the Third Mainland Bridge, leading to heavy traffic across the metropolis.
However, the university management has closed down the institution for two weeks, according to a bulletin circulated on the campus.
As early as 9.00 a.m., the students had stormed the Iyana Oworo and the Adekunle end of the bridge, calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to reverse his decision to rename the university after the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the late Chief Moshood Abiola.
According to the National President of Education Rights Campaign, Mr Hassan Taiwo Soweto, who led thousands of students in the protest, the university community would not stop the civic demonstration until the government changed its decision.
He said: “We have just learnt now that the management has closed down the university for two weeks but this will not deter us from mobilising ourselves. We will resist this undemocratic action by the government. We will continue the protest.”
The students were on the Third Mainland Bridge for almost three hours before moving to Idi-Araba to mobilise medical students at the College of Medicine to join in the protest.
Speaking further, Soweto said that the protest was more than the change of the university’s name but also about the plan of the Federal Government to increase
fees for university education across the country.
He said there were indications that the government was bent on implementing the recommendation of the Stephen Oronsaye Presidential Committee on
Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commission and Agencies, calling for the return of tuition fees in federal universities.
According to Soweto, students would be paying between N450,000 and N525,000, if the Federal Government finally gives its assent to it.
“This is one of the reasons for the protest and it is better we use this opportunity to express our discontent with the plan of the government to kill education in this country,” he said.
He stated that the students would carry the protest to Ikeja area of Lagos and end it at the venue of the funeral service for the late vice chancellor, Professor Adetokunbo Sofoluwe, on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Senate of the university was at a special session to honour its late vice chancellor, where it also discussed the new name of the university and ways to resolve the students’ unrest.
At the meeting, Nigerian Tribune learnt that a former vice chancellor of the university, Professor Oye Ibidapo-Obe spoke against the renaming of the institution after Abiola.
According to a source, Ibidapo-Obe actually told members of the Senate that the Academy of Science of which he was a key member rejected outright the decision of the government on the university.
So far, the protest had been peaceful as men of the Nigeria Police were on the ground to provide security and maintain peace across the metropolis.
Similarly, another major logjam whose cause could not be ascertained at the time of filing this report was also recorded at Ketu-Ojota area of the state.
At the Mile 12 area, Nigerian Tribune recorded hundreds of people who were said to be stranded as the commercial vehicles that should have conveyed them were said to have been stuck in traffic snarl. This development made some commercial bus operators, whose buses had successfully escaped the logjam, to promptly increase their fares.
One of such stranded people, who lamented about the development, said “the fare to my destination has been increased by more than 50 per cent just because there is a traffic logjam which has lasted for a couple of hours. This is not acceptable, because many of us are petty traders and any increase in transport fares, no matter how small, would affect us in many ways.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Government, on Wednesday, vowed that it would not go back on the decision, as it took the measure in good faith and in the spirit of democracy.
The Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, who gave the position while fielding questions from State House correspondents, after the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), meeting presided over by President Godluck Jona-than, reiterated that the gesture was in recognition of the supreme sacrifice paid by the presumed winner of the June 1993 presidential election, Chief M.K.O. Abiola.
While noting that Chief Abiola died in the pursuit of justice and truth, the minister said destiny and circumstances conspired to place a historic burden on his
shoulder, while he rose to the occasion with character and courage.
He said Chief Abiola deserved the recognition for his martyrdom and public spiri-tedness, saying that “the president took the decision as visitor to the institution.”
He also announced that FEC approved of a con-cessional loan of $89 million (about N13.4 billion) from the African Development Fund (ADF), an affiliate of African Development Bank (AfDB), to support the water and sanitation project of the Kaduna State government
FEC also approved two contracts worth about N4.9 billion for the construction and rehabilitation of roads in Abia and Edo states.
Meanwhile, President Jonathan has launched energy conserving Light Emitting Diodes (LED) bulbs, to enable Nigerians to reduce the cost of energy consumed.
Performing the ceremony at the State House, on Wednesday, he said he wanted Nigerians to pay as little as possible on energy consumption.
Procedure for renaming UNILAG illegal —Afe
A former pro-chancellor of the UNILAG, now Moshood Abiola University, Chief Afe Babalola, has described the renaming of the institution after Chief Abiola as noble.
He, however, described the procedure adopted by the Federal Government to effect the change of name as illegal and unconstitutional.
In a statement made available to the Nigerian Tribune on Wednesday, Chief Babalola said the controversy, which greeted the renaming of the university, was
unfortunate.
“It is my humble view that President Jonathan and his government be commended rather than be condemned for doing that which millions of Nigerians had, for well over a decade, clamoured,” he said.
See full details of Chief Babalola’s statement in tomorrow’s edition of the Nigerian Tribune)
SOURCE: Nigerian Tribune, 31 May 2012. http://tribune.com.ng/index.php
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