By Abubakar Imam
“Can the reward of goodness be any
other than goodness?”
Quran 55:60
When I started this genre about five years ago, I made a vow never to offer my platform and pen to partisan politics and politicians except when such has to do with Ilorin Emirate’s sociocultural matters. In taking this decision, I neither detested partisan politics nor those who practise it. But it was made in order to insulate Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU), the umbrella sociocultural organisation of the good people of the southernmost Emirate, which my name is associated with among thousands of my illustrious compatriots and our friends, from politics and its murky waters. And I have, to the best of my ability, kept fidelity with the self-imposed restriction despite several intimidating temptations to do otherwise.
With this piece, I am however, voluntarily and temporarily suspending this golden rule. This is done solely to honour an honourable gentleman, Senator Saliu Mustapha (SSM), the one and only Turaki of Ilorin and Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, on the occasion of his 51st birthday! This year’s commemoration of the date of birth of this handsome politician, businessman, philanthropist and community leader falls due this Monday (September 25, 2023).
In doing this, I am exposing myself to an anticipated deluge of criticisms. Many would love it! A number would criticise it for different reasons especially from the prism of politics!! I humbly and anticipatorily accept the criticism that may accordingly come my way! This is because I am of the firm conviction that I owe Senator Mustapha a huge debt of gratitude for his unconditional support to me and my pastime. I have no other way of returning his good turn towards me besides reporting such to members of the reading public.
Many would want to know what he did that is so special. Without my solicitation or attached condition(s), Senator Mustapha built a website for me two years ago. The gentleman he sent to arrange it told me that the Turaki was only fascinated by my devotion to community development through consistent expositions on Ilorin Emirate and the exploration of the careers of distinguished heroes as well as the serialisation of historical events, and nothing more. He, therefore, felt that I should have a special platform to warehouse such periodic pieces for ease of reference and for posterity. Till date, I do not know how much was committed to the building of the facility.
In addition to that, his attendance of the public presentation of my work, “Ilorin Emirate’s Frontliners”, which held on Saturday (July 1, 2023) at the Banquet Hall, Government House, Ilorin earned him my admiration. His attendance, though not unexpected, was almost aborted!
I was reliably informed that he was actually dissuaded from attending the ceremony. Those who hatched the plot were possibly those who either disliked me or hated what I do and would stop at nothing to ensure that the book launch flopped!
A night before the event, I received a text message from an aide of the Senator, who insisted that I should ensure that the Chairman of the Central Planning Committee of the event, who is also the IEDPU National President, Alhaji Aliyu Otta Uthman, (fsi); and my humble self visit and convince his principal to come over, or risk his absence. I immediately conveyed the message to the President, who said that he met the Turaki at the Ilorin Emirate Grand Durbar a day earlier and he obtained a commitment from him with regards to his attendance. Despite the information, neither I nor the President visited the Senator. We simply left everything to fate!
The Turaki pointedly refused to be persuaded against his planned attendance of the event, I learnt. I wouldn’t have believed the story but for what the Turaki was quoted to have said in response to what he was reportedly told about yours sincerely and the book launch. The man who relayed the story to me in the presence of a few other compatriots never knew about what transpired between yours truly and the Turaki more than a year before his election as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Senator Mustapha earned my admiration further when he insisted that for the singular role I played during his turbaning (as I did for others) coupled with the fact that it was the IEDPU President, rather than the author, who invited him, he would come. He did come and eventually “sere be” (gave a good account of himself)! His most handsome donation, which was received almost immediately after the pledge was announced, remains the highest.
Apart from his huge donation, the remarks he made about me and the book at the event were also very pleasant, comforting, inspiring and reassuring. He was very sympathetic to my cause as he served would be readers the notice of possibility of coming across what they may have a different opinion about or feel outrightly uncomfortable with. He urged such individuals to offer corrections in the best of manners and avoid destructive criticisms or casting aspersions on the author.
Senator Mustapha’s admonition was very apt, efficacious and penetrating. Even before I got the fascinating “reviews” of the book from a wide spectrum of our community such as from a foremost legal luminary, an epitome of royalty and very distinguished Ciroma of Ilorin, Prince Abubakar Bature Sulu-Gambari (SAN); who said that the work “is the best Ilorin book I ever read in terms of knowing our frontliners and how we are related, particularly by marriage. It is a classic” and from a renowned wordsmith, celebrated journalist and accomplished former Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi; who submitted that “you did a good job”, commentaries from scholars and from those who spotted one error or the other as well as from those who do not agree with some of my positions therein had been very friendly. I use this medium to thank all the readers, not minding their positions and to seek the understanding of those whose profiles are not captured in the first volume published and particularly, those who feel uncomfortable with one aspect of the book or the other.
For his interventions and some other promises he made on the occasion of the launch of the book, I thank Senator Mustapha and would like to encourage him to continue with his styles. I believe that his dispositions would continue to reflect the fact that “the kindest is often the smartest”. This is because it pays to be good and particularly to those who have nothing to offer in return except genuine love and prayers!
Senator Mustapha, who was born in the city of Kaduna on Monday, September 25,1972 to a father who is an indigene of Ilorin and a mother who hails from Kabba Town, Kogi State, is the fourth holder of the prestigious title of Turaki of Ilorin. His birth took place a month after the death of the first Turaki of Ilorin, who transited to the great beyond on Wednesday, August 23,1972 (see Imam, 2022:39) and some months to the date the second Turaki, Dr Abubakar Olusola Saraki, would register his everlasting presence in the file of the greatest of the people of Ilorin Emirate, which culminated in his historic turbaning as an holder of Ilorin Emirate honourary chieftaincy title on Friday, April 12,1974 by the penultimate Emir of Ilorin,Alhaji Sulu Gambari, CFR, who reigned from 1959 to 1992. The birth of this celebrated Turaki also took place about two years to the date most ordinary people of Ilorin Emirate would, probably for the first time, set their eyes on the third Turaki of the frontier Emirate and distinguished former Senate President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki,CON, (see Magobon,1997:60)). Senator Mustapha is equally the 5th person who would represent the good people of Kwara Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly since the beginning of the ongoing 4th republic .
This amiable Senator has a lot in common with all those who preceded him in office as the Turaki of Ilorin. A perusal of the biographies of those distinguished gentlemen would show so many similarities and affinities in their respective birth, education, careers, marriages and dispositions. They all served as Senators. They were also born outside Ilorin. Their mothers and wives (with the exception of the pioneer Turaki whose wives hailed from Ilorin) are also not indigenes of Ilorin Emirate. They are also philanthropists with tremendous popular support across the Emirate and beyond. They also share one form of relationship or the other with the first voluntary Muslim organisation in Northern Nigeria, the Ansarul Islam Society of Nigeria, which was founded in 1942 by the pioneer Grand Mufti of Ilorin, Shaykh Muhammad Kamaluddeen Habeebulahi Musa Al-Adabiy, MFR,OFR,ORSA (1905-2005).
As a student of the history of Ilorin Emirate, I am not surprised that the Turaki, who was neither born nor raised in Ilorin, which is his ancestral home, is “dominating and influencing the pace of change in the geographical landscape called Ilorin Emirate” and in a remarkably monumental manner. This assertion is based on the fact that hardly does any public event hold anywhere in contemporary Ilorin Emirate without his name earning a pride of place. The history of Ilorin Emirate at least in the last one century is replete with instances of distinguished individuals, who, upon their return from the lands of their birth and/or sojourns, cultivated, secured and retained the profound affection of their people far beyond the affection most of their equally illustrious compatriots and contemporaries enjoyed.
The first Turaki of Ilorin, Alhaji Sanni Olanrewaju Buraimo Okin (MFR, OFR, OBE); was born in 1910 in Lagos where he was also educated and started his career. He didn’t come to Ilorin until 1934 (see Magobon,1997:51). Despite not being the only western educated indigene of Ilorin of those days, he was the only one who enjoyed the honour of accompanying the 8th Emir of Ilorin, Shaykh Abdulkadir Shuaib Bawa, on his visit to London, United Kingdom, to witness the coronation of the recently deceased Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 (see Imam, 2022:25). The same could be said of Shaykh Adam Abdullahi Al-Ilory,(ORSA), the founder of the famous Arabic Training Centre (Markaz), Agege, who was born in Wasa in the present-day Republic of Benin in 1917. He lived briefly in Ilorin as a young boy and was largely educated outside Ilorin. He only became known to the generality of the people of the community in 1960 as noted by Ahmad Abdullahi Onikijipa in his biography of the late intellectual luminary. Yet, he towered above most of his “professional colleagues” so well that he was described as “the greatest repository of knowledge and of historical facts about the Emirate” (see Jimoh,2022:517) while Sanni (2014: 28) agreed with John Hunwick, who presented him as “The outstanding Ilorin scholar, and perhaps the greatest that Nigeria has produced in the twentieth century”. What about Alhaji Abdulganiyu Folorunsho AbdulRazaq, (OFR, SAN); the first Mutawali of Ilorin and father of the hardworking Governor of Kwara State and Chairman, Nigerian Governors Forum(NGF), Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, CON? He was born in Onitsha in today’s Anambra State in 1927. He was also educated outside Ilorin. He was not only the first University graduate and lawyer produced by Ilorin Emirate but arguably its greatest “learned personality” and the pioneer of many endeavours in the annals of Ilorin. Another instance was Justice Mustapha Adebayo Akanbi, (PCA, CFR); who was born in Accra, Ghana in 1932. He also received all his education and worked largely outside Ilorin as encapsulated in his fascinating autobiography published in 2014. He ended up as not only the first and only Wakili of Ilorin so far but also the only frontline indigene of Ilorin of his status and era (to the best of my knowledge) who was largely spared of the virulent vituperations of the highly sophisticated Lagos-Ibadan press! He was rather styled by the press as “Mr Integrity”.
The second Turaki and third Waziri of Ilorin, Dr Abubakar Olusola Saraki, who was the community’s most influential politician, longest reigned political leader and extensively remarkable philanthropist so far was also not born in Ilorin. The late Dr Saraki, who was the Senate Leader of the Federal Republic of Nigeria between 1979 and 1983, was born in Lagos in 1933. He also had all his education outside Ilorin. Yet, he was the incontrovertible darling of the people of the community for four unprecedented decades (1972-2012). Alhaji L. A. K. Jimoh (b. 1940), who has earned a place for himself in the history of Ilorin as “the author of the most influential work on Ilorin Emirate” and “the most consulted authority on knowledge and information about Ilorin and its foremost personalities”, also spent his formative years outside Ilorin. He had all his formal education outside Ilorin, “the renowned sanctuary of saints, scholars and soldiers”. He only returned to and settled down in the land of his ancestors after his graduation from the University of Lagos in 1971. It was the same story with the late Prof. Shehu Ahmad Jimoh, OON, who was born in Sabo-Gida Ora in the present-day Edo State in 1944. Prof. Jimoh, who was maternally related to Senator Mustapha, was also educated outside Ilorin. He only settled and stationed himself in Ilorin after his graduation from my prestigious alma mata, the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 1967 and thereafter “served Ilorin Emirate creditably as a model educationist, seasoned public intellectual and golden voice” (Imam, 2016:195).
I can mention several other phenomenal personalities who shared similar trajectories with Mallam Saliu Mustapha as I remembered what his beloved dad, Alhaji Issa Mustapha, told me when I went to interview him in preparation for the piece I did on the Turaki prior to his historic turbaning in 2021.
Just as the Yoruba people believe that “Omo ki dagba ni oju obi e” (a child remains a “child” in the reckoning of his parents), his father was “afraid” that the Turaki was too young to become such a dominant and preeminent figure in Ilorin as he is today. He, therefore, enjoined me to “remain close” to the Turaki for the purpose of guidance, as if I am either an avatar or a sage and not a mere reporter! It was only when I reminded him that the Turaki was older than his last two predecessors as at the time they took the title that he heaved a sigh of relief.
I sincerely appreciate Senator Saliu Mustapha’s love, support and gestures, particularly his solidarity with me in the last three years and his consistent support to the Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union as an organisation as well as his general services to Ilorin Emirate over the years. I rejoice with him on his birthday. I also wish him many more years of sound health, greater prosperity, peaceful and rewarding services to Ilorin Emirate, the nation and humanity.
Imam is National Secretary, Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union.
