“By the order of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the institution formerly known as the University of Lagos is now to be known as Moshood Abiola University, Lagos. All former documents remain valid”. Those are the words uttered by the president that caused the students of the University of Lagos to loose their cool in more ways than one.
“By the order of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the institution formerly known as the University of Lagos is now to be known as Moshood Abiola University, Lagos. All former documents remain valid”. Those are the words uttered by the president that caused the students of the University of Lagos to loose their cool in more ways than one.
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People and personalities from different sections of society have condemned the pronouncement as illegal and insensitive. Illegal? I am not sure but that does not seem to be the real issue. The students that stomped on to the streets in protest didn’t make any legal checks before they did. Insensitive? Definitely and here lays the real issue. Insensitivity is becoming the hallmark of this federal administration. It is obvious that they did not give any weight to the interests of the staff, students and alumni of the school. One cannot imagine why they did not think it necessary to involve the various stakeholders of the institution before making such a decision. Even without the benefit of hindsight it is the sensible thing to have done. Probably they thought it would be a pleasant surprise. It was a surprise alright but not so pleasant. That being said people may be over reacting to the name change a little.
What is the big deal is about a change of name. Isn’t it just a name? Well, it isn’t just a name, it is an identity. There are various factors that define a person or people’s identity which include culture, history, experiences and so on. Hence UNILAG was not just a name but an identity with a unique culture, history and experiences which are inextricable from the name. People are nothing without their identity because it is from either personal or collective identity that we derive our pride and self esteem. When someone’s or a group of people’s identity is threatened you would expect adverse reactions such as what we saw. UNILAG was a proud identity of the students, staff and alumni. Now, that pride has been diminished although temporarily.
The staff and the other entities of the opposition were mainly influenced by the reaction of the students and alumni who all feel the same anger.
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Being so far away at Aso Rock in Abuja, one wouldn’t expect the president and his advisers to know and being so out of touch with the youth one wouldn’t expect them to understand either. For students and alumni, the UNILAG identity meant you were “cool”. It’s not like the school is academically in different league from the likes of UNILORIN, U.I, OAU, ABU and the rest. I don’t think you would have gotten the same reaction if any other university was changed to the same name.
Their being “cool” means they are the elite social community of all the universities in Nigeria. It means they have more style and charisma (Lagos swagger). The charisma is mostly due to the fact that it is a federal university located in Lagos where all the rich kids that weren’t schooling abroad-back in those days-went before the establishment of expensive private universities nowadays.
UNILAG was one of the most sought after universities in the country for admissions. Secondary school graduates from Lagos didn’t want to go anywhere else and those from other states all had UNILAG as their first choice. UNILAG had the coolest parties and clubs, the hottest girls and the newest fashion.
Going back to the change pronouncement, the president said “the institution formerly known as the University of Lagos is now to be known as Moshood Abiola University, Lagos”. That did not sound cool at all (no offence to all the Moshoods out there). The acronym structures do not help either. MAU, MAUL, and MAULAG all sound alike to a meat selling district. Notice that most of the complaints about the new name talk about how awful and unattractive the name sounds.
Moshood has some stereotypical attributes attached to it which is quite funny and unfortunate. An illustration of this is a joke someone made on twitter that said now that the university is going to be called Moshood Abiola University, all the students are going to start developing body odours, don’t ask me what the person means by that.
The coolness identity took time, effort and serendipity to develop and define. The UNILAG identity has developed for close to 50 years defined by the efforts, events and culture of its time. But the times have changed. UNILAG is really not the same UNILAG it was back in the day. One student mentioned that the only thing they had to hold on to was the name UNILAG and now even that has been taken away. So in a way the name change is kind of befitting of its current status. UNILAG students are not even supposed to be the sort of people to go unto the streets looking like they have been denied the right to bathe and clothe properly, but I guess the name change is already taking its course. I joke.
Jokes aside the name change is not so bad. If the students feel so bad about the new name they can take the initiative to define the way people call and perceive the name. M.A.U Lagos. If it’s pronounced separately and not together, it actually sounds Ivy League(ish). They can reach a compromise to get the federal government to sponsor a re-branding campaign to influence the perception, uphold its reputation and attract even more students and academic talent.
There is really nothing wrong with the new name or the idea of naming a federal institution after the family of our late sage M.K.O. Abiola. Although most of the students in university these days are 90’s babies or rather too young to understand the significance of the June 12 struggle, the protest was a knee jerk reaction to the initial “un-coolness” of Moshood, added to the fact that Mr. President cannot seem to do anything right in public opinion.
To all the students of M.A.U Lagos it’s not the name that makes you but you make the name. To the alumni you will still carry that name on your certificates with pride because you made the name the name did not make you. So all everyone just needs to do is “just be cool”. You feel me? Thank you, Thank you.
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