WHEN my alma mater, the University of Ife (aka ‘Great Ife’) was renamed Obafemi Awolowo University by the military junta of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida on May 12, 1987, it was as if a dagger was driven into my heart. This was despite the fact that I had graduated from the school five years earlier. Also, the sage after whom the university was renamed richly deserved the honour, being one of the nationalists who fought the British and won Independence for Nigeria on October 1, 1960. Awolowo was also the trail-blazing first Premier of the Western Region; his government conceived the idea of the University of Ife that was eventually renamed in his honour after his death on May 9, 1987. His all-round achievements were breathtaking; more so in the field of education. His FREE EDUCATION programme gave the Western Region a head-start in post-colonial-era Nigeria.
Still, I felt as if something was wrenched out of me with the name-change. Not that Awo did not deserve the honour or any honour for that matter. Apart from fighting for Independence, and apart from his matchless contributions to the development of the Western Region, he was also the vice-chairman of the Federal Military Government of Gen. Yakubu Gowon as well as the Commissioner (today’s Minister) of Finance reputed to have helped navigate the country through the harrowing times of the Civil War (1967 – 1970) without borrowing a dime to prosecute the war. Before his death, Awo had also been the leader of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) whose political godsons won elections and governed what was then known as the LOOBO states (Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Bendel and Ondo states.)
I have gone on this historical excursion to show that my feelings or misgivings when Great Ife was renamed were not that Awo did not deserve the honour. I think it must have had to do with the sentimental attachment that students generally develop for their alma mater. Till today, I still harbour those feelings. Whenever anyone asks if I finished from the Obafemi Awolowo University, I waste no time in saying I did not, but that I finished from the University of Ife! When they retort that it means the same thing, I always insist it does not – or does it? University of Ife is University of Ife (Great Ife) and Obafemi Awolowo University is Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). I did not attend OAU; I attended the University of Ife – and that is what is boldly printed on my certificate!
When I write, you must have noticed that I never forget, whenever I mention Obafemi Awolowo University, to put in parenthesis ‘formerly the University of Ife, Ile-Ife.’ I am sure I am not alone in this feeling of nostalgia toward the University of Ife. Not a few believe that name-change destroys brands, distorts history, and creates double identities. I would have preferred that institutions, once named, retain their original names. We can always find other monuments to name after anyone. Or, if a university or any school is to be named after anyone, let it be done from the very founding of the said institution, so that whoever is going there knows where he or she is going; not that name-change catches you mid-air or a crisis of identity is created for you long after you have passed out of your alma mater.
The UNILAG name-change fiasco
The name-change at the University of Ife went rather peacefully. It was a matter that farts in one’s mouth, but immediately adds honey to it. Babangida, the Maradona and self-styled evil genius, must have primed his dubious honour done to Awo – that is how I still see it almost 40 years after – as blackmail. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was, however, not as lucky when he proposed to rename the University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos after Chief MKO Abiola, after the death of the business mogul and winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election, on July 7, 1998. Jonathan must have been aghast with the gale of negative reactions that attended his decision, which he announced on May 29, 2012. Ordinarily, he could have expected to be carried shoulder high for it; what with his two predecessors (Olusegun Obasanjo, himself Yoruba and Egba like MKO Abiola; and Umaru Yar’Adua) not deeming it fit to honour Abiola!
Characteristically, Jonathan backpedalled and the National Stadium, Abuja, was fittingly renamed MKO Abiola, the widely acclaimed ‘Pillar of Sports’ in Africa, by President Muhammadu Buhari on June 12, 2019. Was the protest against the renaming of the University of Lagos directed personally at MKO? No! I can still recollect that the same feelings I expressed about the name-change at Ife were those expressed by a cross-section of Nigerians – former and present Akokites inclusive. Brand destruction. Identity crisis. Psychological trauma, etc. Eventually, MKO got the national honour he richly deserved instead of being conscripted in death as a local champion. That was one reason many were also not happy with Awo being limited to the university he conceptualised in his own locality instead of the Leader of Opposition in the First Republic being honoured with something outside his own territory. What Babangida did was use Abu’s money to entertain Abu. In the real sense, he gave nothing!
Issues surrounding upgrade of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic
It is in this light that I seek to say a few words about some of the issues surrounding the upgrade of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo to the status of a university. Founded and named The Polytechnic, Owo in 1979, the school has witnessed a series of name-change, such that its alumni may find it difficult to recognise their school again or feel any joy or interest in identifying with it! It was renamed the Ondo State Polytechnic in 1990. Again in 2003 it was renamed Rufus Giwa Polytechnic in honour of Chief Rufus Giwa, a prominent Nigerian businessman-turned politician from Oke-Agbe, Akoko area of Ondo state, who died in a road accident on March 26, 2003 at the age of 60 years. Last year again, the Ondo state government approved the upgrade of the polytechnic to a specialized University of Agriculture and Agribusiness.
It would appear as if the actual name and specialization of this university in the making is not yet settled. There are those who feel it should be a full-fledged university or that more courses should be added to it. Ask JAMB how many Nigerian students indicate interest year-in, year-out in Agriculture and Education courses! Every year, the carrying capacity of Nigerian universities in those courses is left unfilled while courses such as Medicine, Nursing, Law, Engineering, Pharmacy, Accountancy, Mass Communication are unable to take more than a fraction of interested applicants. The new university, if it limits itself to Agric courses alone, may likely suffer the same fate driving it away from remaining a polytechnic. I have been a member of JAMB’s civil society and media team for many years, attending its stakeholders’ and other high-stake meetings and can volunteer that information to my state for free!
Rufus Giwa: To be or not to be?
The other controversy trailing the new university is whether it should still retain ‘Rufus Giwa’ in its name. Last Tuesday, 29th September, 2026, a public hearing on the conversion of the polytechnic to a university was held in the hallowed chambers of the State House of Assembly and I understand proceedings went very well. A major hurdle in the way of the university taking off the ground has, thus, been scaled. And, in my opinion, the minor controversy over whether the name ‘Rufus Giwa’ should or should not be retained need not detain us any further. Those for as well as those against have their points. This, then, is like the proverbial tse-tse fly that perches on a man’s scrotum – care must be taken when dealing with it.
I have expressed my personal feelings about naming public institutions after individuals. I wish other public places could be so named. I have also enumerated the deleterious effects of name-change executed mid-air. In the case of the school under discussion at Owo, name-change has been done repeatedly. This destroys brands, mutilates identities and makes alumni solidarity difficult. Tell me, under what name or names will the alumni of this school gather and organize themselves to give back to their alma mater?
When Gov. Olusegun Agagu changed the name of the Ondo State Polytechnic to Rufus Giwa Polytechnic in June 2003, many viewed it as political patronage. As an astute industrialist, an honour done Rufus Giwa in his areas of forte, just like the National Stadium renamed after MKO Abiola and not the University of Lagos – would have been fitting. I am not aware of Chief Rufus Giwa’s pedigree in the field of education in Ondo state or Nigeria at large. Awolowo earned his own honours with his contributions to the educational development of the Western Region and the many seminal books he wrote on Nigeria’s development. Besides, Rufus Giwa was not a former governor of Ondo state. We can cite the examples of former Gov. Ambrose Ali (Ekpoma State university); Technical University, Ibadan renamed after former Gov. Isiaka Ajimobi; University of Technology, Ogbomoso renamed after the second Premier of the Western Region whose government actually executed the take-off of the then University of Ife, and the Ekiti State University of Education named after former Gov. Bamidele Olumilua, among others.
It was within the prerogatives of Agagu to have immortalised a friend and supporter, especially one that was a prominent son of Ondo state who must have contributed one way or the other to the state’s development. His name should have been fixed on something more appropriate. But that having been done, I counsel that we allow sleeping dogs to lie! The task now should be how to kick-start the new university as well as ensure it does not become moribund before long. Courses that interest admission-seekers should be injected into its curriculum.
Olowo deserves commendations
Let me say, before I close, that I do not see anything wrong in the Olowo of Owo leading a strong delegation of Owo obas and elites to the public hearing on the new university. In fact, we should commend him for doing so. Few days after the hectic Igogo festival, Kabiyesi, who should be holidaying somewhere, prioritised the public hearing. I also do not see anything wrong in his aggregating the views of his people at the public hearing. Yes, he is the current chairman of the Ondo State Council of Obas and Owo and Akoko have been brothers from the time when eyes were on the knees, as they say, but, ultimately, all politics is local. Charity, they say, begins from home.
Now that the public hearing has come and gone, we should all let bygones be bygones. Let Owo and Akoko elites sheathe their sword. Those suggesting a tit-for-tat not only miss the point but are fruitlessly trying to compare sleep with death. The name of Adekunle Ajasin that the university at Akungba-Akoko answers is richly deserved. History records Ajasin as one of the brains behind the Action Group’s FREE EDUCATION policy in the old Western Region; he was also the civilian governor of old Ondo State when his administration founded the then Obafemi Awolowo University in March 1982. It was renamed the Ondo State University in 1985, relocated to Akungba-Akoko after Ekiti state was split from Ondo state in 1999 and was renamed Adekunle Ajasin University in 2004. Ajasin died on October 3, 1997.