Gown To Town: University Enterprises Since MKO Abiola Opened Nigeria’s Eyes On Ivory Tower Economy
The Oasis Reporters
September 11, 2026
By Greg Abolo
gregabolo@gmail.com
It was Chief MKO Abiola who contested the Nigerian presidential election on June 12, 1993 that first packaged the goings on in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions filled with strikes, demonstrations, boycotts and lots more negativities. He proffered what he would do if elected the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In his solution package, he said during the campaigns that he would treat the Universities as local government areas and solve it’s problems once and for all.
Multi millionaire philanthropist Chief MKO Abiola had dropped a coin into the river and the ripple effects got Nigerians who listened to him thinking about the freshly minted idea. The connotation was that as a local government area, the universities would be receiving allocations from FAAC, the Federal Allocation Commission whereby governments sat comfortably waiting for financial disbursements from the center before they can pay even basic salaries before other things, as it then was, and still is in the Nigerian economic dispensation.
Not really very cheery in futuristic terms, because crude oil that gave Nigeria over ninety percent of it’s foreign exchange revenue, can one day fall through it’s bottom. And it would be back to square one.
But as a campaign theme for the 1990s, it seemed grand and revolutionary.
Chief MKO Abiola went on to win the June 12, 1993 election with his running mate, Babagana Kingibe, both of the Social Democratic Party, SDP.
His opponent was Bashir Othman Tofa of the National Republican Convention, NRC.
He won the election with over 8 million votes to Tofa’s ∼6 million, winning 19 out of 30 states. The election is widely regarded as Nigeria’s freest and fairest.
What happened thereafter was that the military government led by General Ibrahim Babangida annulled the results, which led to years of political crisis and the date, June 12 is now celebrated as Democracy Day in Nigeria in his honor.
Academic institutions commonly referred to as Ivory Towers carry some connotations of research centers and scholars who live separately from “real world” problems, focused on books, ideas and theory. That is in a world that cries desperately for practical solutions for issues that beset daily living.
To do this piece of writing, I had to touch down on some private Universities first to have a little feel of their vibe and see if there are any changes in foot forward movement towards matching it with realities, between Chief Abiola’s vision and independent thinking for self help.
I reached Covenant University in Sango Ota, Ogun State, an institution owned by Living Faith Church, World wide, led by Bishop David Oyedepo.
While the rest of Nigeria struggles with endless darkness, including the rest of government Universities, Covenant University has power supply, 24/7, almost uninterrupted as if one is in Europe and not in Nigeria. They bake their own bread, prepare their own yogurt from their own dairy farm and are doing fine. In other words, the University took the Abiola message of an institution becoming a local government on its own. And it is thriving, both in research output and it’s relevance to the economy of the Sango Ota community.
I also visited another private university in the same Ogun State. Babcock University, Ilishan.
For breakfast, the easy to reach loaf of bread was Babcock University Bread.
Nice taste. Great start. But they can throttle it further.
What amazed me about the Ilishan community is the Cargo/International Airport in the modest town. The airport is straddled between Ilishan and Iperu. The Airport was conceived and construction commenced by the administration of Gbenga Daniel who was the governor of Ogun State from 1999 to 2007. His successors completely abandoned it until the coming of Governor Dapo Abiodun.
The Ilishan International Airport serves the Babcock University students who I understand have very many students of Nigerian parentage but born outside of the country in places as far away as Brazil, Canada, the UK etc by diaspora Nigerians who crave an efficient Nigerian education for their wards. With strong currencies abroad, the Nigerian fee is affordable for them. Luckily they have an airport there, and reaching their wards is just one neighboring airport on the other side of the street. Isn’t that just grand?
But for the people of Ogun State, it is a veritable transit point for religious pilgrims who need to pray outside the country. They no longer need to go to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos before traveling for Hajj. Ilishan is in the neighborhood.
Still, Dapo Abiodun, the governor of Ogun State needs to reach out to manufacturers to relocate to the surrounding areas and produce the much beloved Nigerian goods that Nigerians in the diaspora would need. Ogun State is a fertile farming region. Let the processing be done and shipping begins to truly make the airport a Cargo airport as well. It is billions in export revenue waiting to be harvested.
Greg Abolo in Ogun State.
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