By Tosin Olakotan
- UNILAG Students protesting
A Lagos based lawyer and Master degree student of the University of Lagos is taking President Goodluck Jonathan and the Attorney-General of the Federation to court over the renaming of UNILAG.
Barrister Oluyinka Oyeniji filed the case against the President on Thursday, May 31, 2012, at the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, seeking the court’s interpretation of the 1967 Act establishing the University of Lagos.
Mr. Oyeniji’s case, with file number FHC/L/CS/575/2012, queries the following:
Whether the President is empowered under the University of Lagos Act 1962 amended in 1967 and as contained in Chapter U9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 as amended, to change the name of the University;
Whether the action of the President by declaring in his broadcast that the name of the University is ultra – vires the provisions of the Act establishing the University and therefore null and void and of no effect;
Whether the action of the President by declaring in his broadcast that the name of the University be changed is a breach of the doctrine of separation of powers which Nigeria practices under its Presidential System of Government; and
Whether the Honourable Court should, in the circumstances reverse the name of the University to its original state being the name with which the Act establishing it provided for in its long title, short title, interpretation section and the entire body of the Act.
At the moment, the school is under academic suspension for a period of two weeks due to the protests that took place almost immediately after President Jonathan made the announcement on Tuesday, May 29, 2012, during his Democracy day speech.
Professor Wole Soyinka has also written to condemn the President’s action in an article ‘Goodluck Jonathan’s Gift Horse‘.
Photo Credit: Nigerian Bulletin
23 comments
Interesting,i do hope The FG let it be,why Maulag,Unilag’s still the!….at least,theres Moshood abiola polytechnic
The change of unilag to maulag is a clear indication that president jonathan isn’t serious about confronting d major challenges facing this country.
Is he the founder of unilag or why gej can chanqe unilag to moshood abiola university lets say D truth it make no sense gej should quickly change the name back to unilag. Sooner or later they would change U I to adedibu university or wot dou feel
Think bout dix…unilag 2 moshood abiola uni..uniben 2 anenih uni…..ui 2 adedibu uni…..
We Nigerians shuld try to reason marturely, if the FG changed the name and did not increase the tuition fees or reduce the quality of learnin in dat school Why are U goin to court? I fink people go to skul to learn and obtain gud result to better their lives and society, if MKO was ur fada or blood brother will u go to court even if they change our country’s name to his name? What if the FG said u are the best LAW student of that skul and decide to rename d skul’s name to ur name will u go to court? Come on its not the name but the knowledge and Certificate, am sure u dnt have any Charity Project but u have money to sue ur Country
Changing Unilag-University of Lagos to Maulag- Moshood Abiola university is irritating, Unilag is a name that carried dignity through out the federation and abroad. Pls Mr President dnt do this to us I beg u in the name of God.
His excellency dr gej should pls leave unilag wit its original name,besides moshood abiola is not a lagosian,let him honour him in his own state.
M K O Abiola isn’t the best. Democracy day celebration is a day democracy and its damages should be revisited .
the boko haram sect is enough issue for a complete speech.
I tink d students does nt hav any rit to protest abt d new name, dia concern should be based on academics related issues nt administrative issues. They shld worry when there is increase in skul fees or when receivn low quality educatn. Moreover unilag is a federal uni, controld by NUC. And NUC is part of fed govt. So let d students of d uni stop intefern wit d decision of d govt and study their books.
Changin d skul name 4rm unilag 2 maulag i think is nt a problem.let d student get back 2 skul nd stop protestin…
Dere is no u wil statify people y espialy african,perharp d name change does not afet u guys but ur own is d big guy u guys are doig bcuz d name na (unillag)2 (maulag)take a lok at it no difet u just stat very soon u wil proud of it try nd faz ur studys plz
form one problem to another, this Mr GEJ is baby ruler. let him tackle the Boko Harams first!
– i dnt think president GoodLuck Jonathan have the right to change the of our prestigious university to MAU without a notice to Authority in charge and beside ogun state polytechnic have named after so let the FG reverse statement now because this is political
Jonathan had better rescind on his declaration. His govt is so clueless. Unilag has not protested for anything in the past decade, this is to show that any speech our president makes, we should expect violence. Unilag is a name known over the world, it is our heritage. We are africans, we know the effect a name has on its bearer, so lets stop hating and reason with our sense. The fact that u were not given adm into the university doesnt mean u should hate the school. We have immortalized Abiola enough. Many road are named after, a polytechnic is named after him, are we to put Abiola as our last name before we know that he is immortalized. him
Let presidet G.E.J stand and face what is problem in Nigeria not what is not problem in Nigeria.
Somtimes i woulder if u nigeria has sense of humans…divine u no get sense, are the students after the name or to get their result and come out of d school,walder unilag to maulag,u cant fight Goverment, na them them,
GUDLUCK IS A BIG FOOL INSTEAD OF 2 FIGHT BOKO HARAM HE IS BEAZY DOING ANODA TIN , OLODO RABATA.
GUDLUCK U ARE A BIG FOOL BOKO HARAM A BEAZY KILLING PPLE ND U ARE BEAZY CHANGING UNILAG TO MOSHOOD ABIOLA UNI.
gej is a toil who hv nt tink about d topic leadership,b4 tiching it.unilag is niger propaty in lag not mko prpty in lag
Exactly which “ideals” did MKO live by?
Conniving with the military thieves to steal
hundreds of millions of dollars, all in the name of
improving telecommunications infrastructure?
Bringing in a few hundred jobless Brazilians who
were aimlessly climbing telephone poles pretending they were doing something useful? Or
then using the stolen funds to indiscriminately
amass dozens, maybe hundreds of loose women
who we labelled his “wives”, all the while
producing children of indeterminate paternity, all
with the last name “Abiola”?
president. Abiola was not a scholar, and did not at all support
higher education; but he was a friend the coupists
(Gowon, IBB, Abacha, OBJ, and Buhari) ate with
them, corrupted with his ITT looting contract, they
anulled his corrupt presidential election, with killing
him. So, the young students of Unilag have read about the deeds of Abiola; with that they have the
right to protest. Born a Christian, because of greed
for wealth promised by the coupists, he became a
moslem. If Jonathan actually wanted to change that
name, why not name it and named it after Dr.
Okokon Ndem, who gave much to that university of Lagos that he graduated from; or Tar Solarin, or even
Wole Soyinka. Of course GEJ is playing the ethnic
card, here. And that behavior of Jonathan should not
be tolerated in a higher education. As much as you
cannot change the name Oxford University, or the
University of London in England; you cannot change the name of any federal higher institution in Nigeria
as well as the University of Lagos. I am not certain,
whether the man Jonathan knows what his Ph. D.
means, by allowing his foolish pride as a Nigerian
politician to overwhelmed his rat
Change of school name for wht ever reason witout d concert of d school managemnt is oncalfor it means he has no sense of human,a name dat is known internationally just want 2 b buried during 1 GEJ regimn it’s nt going 2 workout we student associatn $ d future of nigeria say No 2 change of name
Those pple saying jonathan has done right thing to change d name of d school are nothing but fools.how dare u pple are talking like mumu? If their brains are still working&reasoning so well,does it not looking like changing a 50yr old son of a family. If they can change d name of their first born&son @ 50,then they av senses. But if they also think it’s not possible,then must av used their senses as shoes like GEJ while in school. Idiot pple,jobless&visionless-mumu.