I was stunned into a disbelieve because of the virulence and furore that greeted the change of name of UNILAG to MAULAG by the Visitor of the university who also is the President and Commander-In-Chief,  Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The reaction of a part of the stakeholders was spontaneous like they had the fore knowledge of what the president was contemplating for the Democracy Day. The pain and sadness that I have about the scenario is that the leading anarchists were Yoruba. I was expecting some maturity and a level of wisdom in the way the protest was organised and conducted. It was bad and agonizing that about three people died in the process. I think it was Gowon who made a cynical joke about the late Aminu Kano on one time during one of his incessant protests in those days that he was taped at the back to remind him that he was protesting against himself. Some Yoruba activists have all along been laying emphasis on the particular nationalist utopia, that does not exist and they go below the thin red line. It is a necessity that most of human actions should comply with logic system even though democracy allows one to almost behave the way they like, a times going against the law.

It is not dialectical that human eyes are always fixed on the dark spot and demerit because there can be evil in a particular good. By the laws of the dialectics, every good or qualitative change will still prepare its own negation or contradictions while a careful study of human life and our universe explain that good can come out from a bad situation. People search endlessly for a life time for the objective conditions not knowing that the subjective conditions have great role to play in certain situations. Some of us nurse grudges and hatred to the point when it becomes the deadly monster. We now have incontrovertible evidence that some people extend hatred to the dead and disallowing the departed from resting in peace in the grave. Not long ago, some Yoruba colluded with themselves to destroy the statue of Chief Obafemi Awolowo at Ibadan in the desperate bid to re-write history, but their project failed because the Sage remains our greatest and indisputable irredentist. Many Yoruba politicians are political calculators but they are yet not good in mathematics and its laws.

The name is what one puts into it. I have seen and heard about children changing their names because their fathers were wicked and have committed dangerous and terrible crimes. In this wise, the name has no value and cannot be consolidated any more. No body will like to bear names like Satan, Edgin, Amaymon or Mephistopheles because they are names of the fallen angels. The brand name of product is often promoted by any manufacturing company so that it will be able to dominate the market and to dwarf the market power of the competitors.

It may be true that some generations of the past and present administrators of UNILAG have made historic contributions into the name which is being changed or about to be negotiated, but the today's administrators cannot hang on to the fleeting and old glory. They should be ready to promote the new name, not by way of advertising but by great scientific outlook and weltanschauung. In Nigeria today, new and super dynamics is urgently needed to arrest the falling standard of education. That great challenge has been crying for attention before the nation. People must be ready to make positive contributions to public good.

Therefore I appeal to the administrators of UNILAG to rise up on their toes and shake off the dusts which has been generated by the change of name and face the challenge on the ground. George Wilhelm Frederic Hegel said during his contribution to the theory of state that when one acts as a moral agent, one then thinks less of his interests but of justice and public good.

Osunbote, Managing Director, Pentagon Books, writes in from Ibadan.

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