The proposed renaming of Kwara State University after the late Second Republic Senate Leader and strongman of Kwara politics, sparked heated argument yesterday in the state House of Assembly.

At the public hearing organised by the House Committee on Education and Human Capital Development, stakeholders were sharply divided over "the Bill for A Law to change the Name of Kwara State University".

It would be recalled that the bill was sent to the lawmakers by Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, following request by the institution's Governing Council and members of the university community to name the institution after Saraki.

The bill, which has passed first and second reading in the house, was then subjected to public hearing by the House in line with Section 100 of the 1999 constitution.

While representatives of the state government and members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state supported the bill, opposition parties and some stakeholders kicked against the move to name the university established in 2009 after Saraki who passed away in November, last year.

The state Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, Alhaji Aliyu Lade, who presented government's position stressed that the proposal to immortalize Saraki with the university was in response to the calls and appeals made by people of the state.

He said Oloye as Saraki was fondly called, in his lifetime encouraged education in the state and sponsored several people, too numerous to enumerate, to acquire the best of education.

He was corroborated by the PDP chieftains and Saraki's loyalists who stormed the Assembly chamber, noting that the contributions of Saraki to the socio-economic development of the state could not be quantified.

But opposition parties including the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) as well as Afenifere Renewal Group, differed with the supporters of the bill, asking why Saraki deserved to be immortalized with the university.

A member of the state ACN caretaker committee, Dr. Saad Omoya, called for plebiscite on the bill for people to express their opinions, urging the House to be more careful so as not to "sow a seed of discord".

Also speaking, a member of Afenifere Renewal Group, Chief Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo, noted that the government could have put forward many names for the university to be named after and wondered why Saraki was singled out