A recent subtle protest by the staff and students of University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) against renaming the institution after the late President Muhammadu Buhari calls attention to the faulty logic of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration’s freely rechristening a public institution overnight. Naming edifices to preserve the outstanding legacies of notable public figures is a global tradition, though often accompanied by clear thoughts and convictions. In the case of Buhari, neither the outstanding performance of the deceased nor the rational thinking of the living is evidently considered in the UNIMAID rechristening exercise.
Therefore, government should reverse the exercise and halt such self-serving ventures forthwith.
President Tinubu renamed the University of Maiduguri as Muhammadu Buhari University during a special session of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in honour of Buhari who died in London at the age of 82. Tinubu said renaming the University of Maiduguri after the former president was a fitting tribute to a man who dedicated his life to service, particularly to the North-East, where the institution is located and where Buhari played a critical role in combating insurgency.
To start with, Tinubu’s action is reminiscent of the odd tradition that dates back to the military era in Nigeria, where premier universities in Ife and Zaria, and so on, were named after Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello. They have never gone unchallenged, including the botched move by President Goodluck Jonathan to rechristen the University of Lagos as Moshood Abiola University. Despite the differences in outcomes, the illogicality is not lost on many.
Besides, it is a global norm to preserve the legacies of exceptional personalities and heroes or heroines of great standing. It is the highest measure of appreciation reserved for persons who are exceptional, whose stellar impact in public and private life leaves very little for doubt. It is also a motivation for the living to emulate the best of human qualities and live a purposeful life of significant good impacts worthy of generational recognition.
As appreciative as Western countries are, they do not rechristen their own Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, and Edinburgh universities after any noble figures or politicians. Barring a major institutional change like a merger or upgrading, universities rarely change names simply to honour people. The idea is not to rob Peter to pay Paul, as they say. Our universities of Lagos, Ibadan, Nigeria (Nsukka), Maiduguri and Abuja, among others, tower in comparison with those foreign A-rated institutions of higher learning. So, why is the Nigerian government treading where even the angels dare not step?
Higher institutions of repute are not just degree-awarding machines. They are the embodiments of soul, history, identity, and reputation already crested on certificates that have been issued to alumni for as long as they have existed.Alumni names have appeared on certificates, in research publications, in global directories, and in the memory of thousands who associate them with learning and human progress.A slight change in that identity robs the institution of its soul and dignity. It is an attempted complicit erasure of a past and an affront to the alumni and the institution. In other words, such institutions of high pedigree are better left in their traditional identity.
By the way, Buhari already has his name around Maiduguri. For instance, the airport bears his name. A medical centre in the teaching hospital bears his name, and the university’s Senate building already bears his name on it. But contrary to Mr Tinubu’s attempted justification, Mr Buhari has no known remarkable records in education in the region or anywhere in the country. Rather, and contrary to the government’s claim of containment of security threats between 2015 and 2023, data from the Council on Foreign Relations’ Nigeria Security Tracker (NST) showed that non-state actors killed 31,821 people between May 2015 and April 2023. Those are the deaths that were recorded
Lest we forget, it was the same Buhari that took Nigeria 20 years backwards in freedom, liberty and egalitarianism in just six months of toppling an elected government. He issued decrees that threatened to shoot people at the Bar Beach over examination malpractices! Yes, he was elected, but under his watch, Nigeria’s education sector also nosedived. Buhari’s presidency was responsible for the longest period of suspension of academic activities by public university lecturers in Nigeria since the country’s return to democracy in 1999.This was due to a funding crisis, which led to problems with staff welfare and the university’s revitalisation. During Buhari’s time as president, Nigerian public universities were shut down for over 600 days, including a nine-month shutdown in 2020 and another eight-month closure in 2022. That was disastrous.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), UNMAID branch, has rightly rejected the renamingof their institution after such a leader. It confirms that they were not even consulted before the declaration, which mirrors our value for national monuments, tradition, the people and citadels of learning. The union, in collaboration with the students, vowed to resist the name change, citing the need to preserve UNIMAID’s historical, cultural, and regional significance, which is valid.
A president with the title of the GCFR already has the highest honour conferred on him. It is an overkill, self-serving, political, impure and ridiculous to disturb the peace of a university just to honour Buhari or any politician. The very idea of renaming public universities after politicians is a lazy form of immortalisation and is laced with a paucity of thinking. If a leader had done something significant, there are other ways to honour him or her – not an established university, nor UNIMAID. Nigerian leaders should be thinking about the future, not some best forgotten past.
