Friday, June 8, 2012

I almost died when Jonathan renamed Unilag- Ibidapo Obe



A former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos and now Vice-Chancellor of Federal University, Ndufe-Alike, Ebonyi State, Prof. Oye Ibidapo-Obe, in this interview with Olabisi Deji-Folutile says universities are usually named after cities because they play historical roles

As a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, what is your opinion of the UNILAG brand?

The name, University of Lagos, is a global brand and it took many years of hard work to build this brand. It took us 50 years to develop the UNILAG brand. We have all worked very hard to get the university to its present status. I remember when I took over as the VC in 2000, I worked very hard to change the level of the university as Eko for Show to another level. I coined the slogan- the university of first choice and now the university is the university of first choice in Nigeria. The proof of that is that the university is the most subscribed university in Nigeria and 1/3 of candidates applying for the top courses choose UNILAG. UNILAG is the nation’s pride, we should develop and nurture it. Clearly you can put it side by side with any university in Africa.

How did you feel when you learnt about the change of name?

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