Renaming University of Maiduguri
When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu decided to rename the University of Maiduguri after his predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari, he did not envisage the huge controversy this decision would stoke. The decision was announced immediately after the special session of the federal executive council held in the State House, Abuja, on Thursday. The session was purposely […]
When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu decided to rename the University of Maiduguri after his predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari, he did not envisage the huge controversy this decision would stoke. The decision was announced immediately after the special session of the federal executive council held in the State House, Abuja, on Thursday. The session was purposely expanded to include the representatives of the National Assembly, the Judiciary, as well as family members of the late president.
The decision immediately went viral in the media space, and minutes later, there was a stampede to denounce it. One of the earliest hits to my WhatsApp portal was the angry one penned by Dr Umar Ardo. I have known Ardo since we both served as aides in the State House in the early days of the 3rd Republic. He was a lecturer at the University of Maiduguri and the Defence Academy in Kaduna before being appointed as a Special Assistant to the Vice President in 1999. I have always known him to be a man of strong but well-considered views.
Ardo is vehemently opposed to renaming the university which gave him all three of his degrees, and where he began his teaching career. He regards the gesture as lacking in ‘intellectual, cultural and moral grounding’. He argued that Buhari was ‘a career military officer and a politician, not an academic, educationist or intellectual in any public sense. His legacy, whether praised or criticised, is rooted in his military career, his ascension to the presidency, and his distinct governing style, marked by authoritarian tendencies, economic conservatism, and a controversial anti-corruption crusade. Renaming a university, a citadel of learning, knowledge, research and intellectualism, after someone whose relationship with academia is at best peripheral, if not outright tenuous, dilutes the institution’s identity and purpose.’
Ardo adds that the university ‘is neither situated in Buhari’s home state of Katsina nor in his geopolitical zone of the North West. It is in Borno State, a region with its own rich historical figures, political icons and educational pioneers who could be more appropriately celebrated in a naming gesture. Buhari did not attend, teach at or found the University of Maiduguri. Nor did he demonstrate any special affinity or leave an indelible mark on the institution during his presidency. In this light, the renaming appears arbitrary and lacking not only in cultural relevance to the host community, but also in geographical and emotional relevance’.
Ardo was immediately countered by Comrade Sanusi Maikudi, another acquaintance with whom we now share some platforms. He is a university lecturer who has served the Kaduna State Government in various capacities; his most recent posting was as Managing Director of the Kaduna State Water Corporation during Nasir El-Rufai’s tenure. Sanusi prides himself on being a ‘socialist politician, public intellectual and active citizen’.
He took on Ardo head-on, claiming that his piece, ‘reads as a deeply flawed polemic. It suffers from selective amnesia, cultural detachment, and partisan distortion. A more grounded and honest assessment would recognise this naming for what it truly is: a deserving tribute to a national figure with ancestral, military, and developmental ties to Borno and the wider North East’. Sanusi contends that Buhari has blood relations with Borno, from where his mother hailed, and he was governor of the Northeastern State with Maiduguri as capital. He said Buhari’s legacy in the North East is ‘both practical and measurable’.
Buhari’s presidency led the fight against Boko Haram insurgents and established the North East Development Commission (NEDC) to oversee the reconstruction and development of the war-torn region. As president, Buhari also invested heavily in building schools, hospitals, and roads in Borno and neighbouring states. Sanusi concludes: ‘Muhammadu Buhari is not just a retired general. He is a child of Borno, a servant of Nigeria, and a man whose name on a university wall reminds us that integrity still counts. And that, Comrade Ardo, is something worthy of honour.’
Thereafter, a deluge of commentaries emerged, mostly opposing the university’s renaming. There was a very critical voicemail from Baba Gana Kachalla Ali Gajiram, Zanna Garganma of Borno, that has made the rounds. He took his three degrees from the university and has been teaching there for the last 30 years. I have
heard many heads of departments from the university voicing their concerns over Hausa Services of the BBC, Radio France International and the German Radio Deutsche Welle.
The critics have no qualms about honouring Buhari, but they all contend that it is now overkill to name the university after him. There are at least four landmarks bearing Buhari’s name in Maiduguri. The airport was renamed Muhammadu Buhari International Airport in 2023. The trauma centre at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital bears his name, as does the University Senate Building. There is also the Muhammadu Buhari Academy, one of the mega schools situated along the PomPomari bypass of Baga Road.
From my perspective, what galls many is the whimsical manner in which these renaming exercises of national landmarks are accomplished without due consultation. How can a fifty-year-old university wake up to find itself renamed? I am afraid the Bola Tinubu government hasn’t got a good record of acceding to public opinion on matters relating to renaming national landmarks. I guess the university would have to live with it.