By Abubakar Imam
Yesterday, Wednesday, June 12, 2024, the frontier Emirate of Ilorin lost one of its prominent hereditary titleholders, the Galadima Ngari of Ilorin, Alhaji Umar Adelodun, to the cold hands of death. As not unexpected, his transition to the great beyond is being mourned by indigenes of Ilorin Emirate at home and in the diaspora. This did not exclude indigenes and friends of Ilorin Emirate who are observing this year’s Hajj in the sacred city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia, one of whom is the humble author of this piece.
As soon as the death of the elegant Galadima Ngari was announced, yours truly swiftly recalled that he was requested by the Danmasani of Ilorin and Chairman of Ilorin Emirate Durbar Committee, Engr Suleiman Ayinde Yahaya Alapansanpa, FNSE, to meet the deceased with a view to collecting his biographical information. This was in 2020. And he did.
I, therefore, felt that in celebration of the life and times of the late Alhaji Umar Adelodun, the information collected from him and later processed should be made available to all and sundry in order for us to know more about his profile.
Consequently, below is what was written on him. It was put together and published in celebration of his birthday anniversary four years ago.
“Ilorin is a simple sociocultural setting.Yet, she has elements of modern complexity, which is gradually creeping into her fabrics and with the potentials of turning things away from how they were conceived centuries back and managed along the line by her succeeding leaders.
One thing that is, however, going smoothly for her is the presence of some distinguished elders.This crops of statesmen do not only mean well for the community but are also doing everything to ensure the survival of her heritage of progress.
One of these surviving elders is Alhaji Umar Adelodun, the 11th Galadima Ngeri of Ilorin. The Galadima is not only a man of strong character but also a man who enjoys the rare blessing of a very rich and compelling profile just like the traditional title he holds, which also has a very fascinating history that anyone can be proud of.
Readers should, therefore, permit me to share these for the benefit of posterity as this distinguished Galadima celebrates his birthday today Saturday January 25, 2020.
One fact that does not need to be stressed is the significance of the position he holds.The title of Galadima is not a recent one in Ilorin. It is also a very common feature of every emirate. In other words, there is no emirate without this title and its holder.
However, the roles of the occupant of such a distinguished title may be slightly different from one polity to the other depending on their history and situation. Such variations may also be informed by the peculiarity of the personality holding the prestigious title as it is often said that “a title is as good as its holder”.
The Office of Galadima Ngari of Ilorin is like that of a Chief of Staff in a contemporary political administration. It is he who handles administrative matters of the palace and also serves as the welfare officer to the Emir and among members of the Emirate Council. This much is clear when one considers the privileged location of the residence of the Galadima to that of the Emir and how the progenitors of the Galadima Ngari family of Ilorin secured the location of their residence so close to the seat of power. We shall return to that shortly.
Alhaji Umar Adelodun, who is well-known among his contemporaries and school mates as Adelodun Edun, was born into the family of Alfa Saidu Suleiman Badiko, who died in 1990. His mother, who passed on in 1985, was Madam Wuraola Ayoka. His mother was a daughter to the Edun family who, however, gave birth to him at Muse compound, the ancestral home of his paternal grandmother.
When he was about 4 years of age, he was put under the care of his maternal uncle, Alhaji Ibrahim Adedoja, who was a successful plank seller and whose shop was located at Isale-Oja. The shop, which could be likened to the contemporary road-side assembly patronised by the elites, was situated behind the present day Isale-Oja Mosque.
Just like other children of Ilorin of his age, Alhaji Adelodun started the learning of the Holy Quran at a very young age. His teacher was simply known as Alfa Olomowewe. To ensure that he was more grounded, he was made to repeat the studies of the Holy Quran at Ile Agoro near Jamondo
Compound, along the present-day Edun Road.
Before going further, it must be stressed that the Galadima Ngari family of Ilorin is one whose place in the history of Ilorin cannot be mentioned in passing. This is due to the fact that it has produced some of the most distinguished patriots Ilorin Emirate would ever remain very proud of. These personalities included Alhaji Muhammad Olayinka, one of the founding fathers of the Ansarul Islam Society of Nigeria and the immediate predecessor of this celebrant and his son, Alhaji Saidu Olayinka, who distinguished himself in the public service of Kwara State as a Local Government Chairman, Director-General and Chairman of the Kwara State Civil Service Commission. Others were the legendary Shaykh Tajul Adab, whose mother, Madam Khadijat, was a daughter to this distinguished family who married Shaykh Abdulkadir, the fifth Imam Imale of Ilorin.There was also Shaykh Zakariyah Tajul Mumini, whose mother, Madam Ummul Kulthum, was also another daughter to the Galadima family. She was said to had served as “Omo-Iyawo” to Tajul Adab’s mother from where she was married to the Bakinni family of Omoda area, Ilorin.
To those who needed to be informed, Tajul Adab, according to Shafi Jimba, in his 1982 book on the history of Ilorin, was the most impactful Islamic scholar ever-produced by Ilorin. He was also the harbinger of the modern Arabic and Islamic scholarship in Yorubaland and teacher of the pioneer Grand Mufti of Ilorin, Shaykh Muhammad Kamaldeen Al-Adabiy as well as a direct and indirect mentor to several others who later became outstanding scholars and statesmen across Yoruba-speaking parts of Nigeria. The other, Shaykh Zakariyah Tajul Mumini, was the Grand Master of the Zumuratul Mumini (Mankodoro) class of Muslim scholars worldwide.The family also produced Alhaja Fatimata Sara Gada, the late mother of a former Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Kwara State and one-time National President of Ilorin Descendants Progressive Union (now Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union), Alhaji Yinusa Gada.
History has it that the progenitor of the Galadima Ngari family of Ilorin was Shehu Musa. Shehu Musa, a Fulani scholar, who was the first Galadima of the southernmost Emirate, migrated to Ilorin from the ancient city of Kano. He was said to have travelled down to Ilorin from the place now known as the emporium of Northern Nigeria when he heard about the intellectual superiority of the founding father of Ilorin Emirate, Shaykh Saliu ibn Janta. He was encouraged by the courage and faith of Shehu Alimi, which made him to chose a place close to Yorubaland, where there were fewer number of Muslim and insignificant presence of Islam, as the centre of his historic intellectual jihad. On getting to Ilorin, he studied under Shehu Alimi. He was not only blessed by him but Shehu Alimi was said to have gotten him a residence on the relocation of his eldest son and the first Emir of Ilorin, Abdulsalam, from where the residence of Galadima is now located to Gbagede.
As a young boy, Alhaji Adelodun became a pupil of the pioneer modern institution of Arabic and Islamic education in Ilorin, Az-Zumratul Adabiyyah School, Ilorin, which was established by Shaykh Muhammad Kamaldeen Al-Adabiy. At the institution, he was a contemporary of such distinguished personalities like Shaykh AbdulRaheem Aminullahi Oniwasi-Agbaiye, the immediate past Chief Missioner of the Ansarul Islam Society of Nigeria; Imam Saadu Adebayo Kuranga, the father of Prof. Suleiman Alege Kuranga; Alhaji AbdulRaheem Lawal, Alhaji Sheikh Ahmad Adisa Onikoko, a renowned authority on the history of Ilorin and seasoned journalist, Imam Salman Olarongbe Abdulkadir, the present District Head of Ballah and the third Mufti of Ilorin, Shaykh Sofiyulahi Kamaldeen.
Alhaji Adelodun, thereafter, formally started his formal education at Okesuna Primary School in 1943. His mate included the second Registrar of the University of Ilorin, Alhaji Abdulkadir Oba Alao; and a retired top official of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Alhaji Afolabi Yusuf.
He was subsequently admitted into the Middle School (now Government Secondary School), Ilorin, where most of those earlier mentioned along with Raji Adelu, Salau Oke-Oyi, Yusuf Oke-Oyi, Aliyu Pategi, Adamu Bussa were his classmates. Alhaji Adelodun recalled that their teachers in the School included Honourable Omo-Eko, who taught English Grammar and that the late Alhaji Abdulkadir Oba Agbaji, who retired from the federal public service as a Permanent Secretary, was their Geography teacher. Others who taught him and his contemporaries were the late Mallam Yusuf Idi-Ape, the father of the late Alhaji Ibrahim Ade Yusuf and the late Alhaji Saidu Ajao Gomih, who was the third Republic Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly while the Headmaster was, initially, Mukaddam Sule Olohuntele of Okesuna. Mukadam Olohuntele later became a Visiting Teacher and he was succeeded by Alhaji Abdulsalam Olomoda, the father of the late Senator Ayinla Olomoda, OON.
While in school, Alhaji Adelodun was at the same time serving as an apprentice under his uncle earlier mentioned as a Plank Seller. In the course of that, he was always on tour of places like Ijan, Omu-Oke, Egusi and Ikere-Ekiti where those materials were sourced.
He recalled that his desire to continue with his education met stiff opposition from his uncle who preferred him to remain with him in his business and more so because he had a delay in receiving the blessings of the womb. He could, therefore, not form part of the pioneer students of the Provincial Secondary School, Ilorin, when it was established in 1954.
He subsequently joined the services of the Ilorin Native Authority in the Office of the then Chief Secretary to the Authority, the late Alhaji Saadu Alanamu, aka Saadu Gbogbo-Iwe. Alhaji Adelodun was later transferred to the Tax Office. His involvement in the subsequent politics of the period during which he pitched his tent with the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) against the domineering Action Group/Ilorin Talaka Parapo alliance dominated by Alhaji Sule Moito, Alhaji Adebimpe Oniyeye, Chief J.G.Ekunrin of Oke-Ode and Alhaji R.A.Akande, cost him his Job as a Tax Officer.
The situation, therefore, forced him to return to plank selling. He did not do that for too long when he received a call from Alhaji Saadu Alanamu, who was then the Recruitment Secretary of the Northern Region, to come-over to Kaduna in order to pick a job in the Regional Service.
That was how and where he met the late third President of the Court of Appeal and late Wakili of Ilorin, Hon. Justice Mustapha Adebayo Akanbi, CFR, and a former National President of the Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union, Alhaji Abdullahi Atanda. He took the Regional job on June 6,1958. He was initially made a Store Officer at the Rural Water Supply in Kaduna South but his fear that those he was working with might put him in trouble informed the transfer he sought. He was later sent on a course at the Kaduna Technical School where he learnt Fabrication (Welding) Engineering. He completed the training in 1960 and was sent back to the same Rural Water Supply, Kaduna, as a staff member.
On the creation of Kwara State, Alhaji Adelodun was redeployed to Ilorin on October 1,1967. He was posted to the State Ministry of Works and later to the Kwara State Water Corporation where he was placed in the Corporation’s Power Station.
Alhaji Adelodun was, thereafter, redeployed to the Vehicle Inspectorate Division as the Vehicle Inspection Officer. He was in charge of the very busy Ilorin-Jebba Road. He did that from 1981 to 1989.
He was later moved to the Workshop of the State Ministry of Works as Works Superintendent. After a few years there, he was promoted to the rank of Higher Works Superintendent and posted to Share, the headquarters of Ifelodun Local Government Area Council from where he eventually retired in 1993.
As if the then civilian government of Alhaji Mohammed Sha’aba Lafiagi was waiting for him to retire from the civil service, Alhaji Adelodun was promptly appointed as a Member of the Kwara State Pilgrims Welfare Board under the Chairmanship of Alhaji Badmus Olarenwaju Yusuf. He was on the Board from 1993 to 1995.
Five years later, Alhaji Adelodun emerged as the 11th Galadima Ngari of Ilorin in the year 2000. He was appointed by the Emir of Ilorin and Chairman,Kwara State Council of Chiefs, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, CFR, among seven contestants who vied for the position.
Alhaji Adelodun’s contributions to community development are enormous. He was one of the foundation members of the Ilorin Descendants Union in Kaduna in the late 1950s. Among other heroes with whom he worked towards the strengthening of the Union in the erstwhile headquarters of Northern Nigeria,as recalled by him, were the likes of the late Justice Saidu Kawu, CON; the late Ambassador Garuba Gobir, the late Alhaji Yakubu Amori Gobir, the late Alhaji Yusuf Amuda Gobir, the late Alhaji Shehu Ahmed Okekere and the late Alhaji Babatunde Agaka, all of blessed memories.
Alhaji Adelodun is a happily married man. He entered the institution of marriage in 1955 through his marriage to Alhaja Fatima Binta, a daughter of the Magaji Oloje family of Ilorin. His second wife, who he married in 1957, is Alhaja Ayishat. In 1970, he married his third wife, another Ayisat, a daughter of the Sarkin Fawa family of Ilorin, who died in 2015 while his youngest wife is Alhaja Fatima, who he married in 2016.
Alhaji Adelodun, who has several honours and awards to his credit for his contributions to the development of our society, advises younger ones to desist from adultery and fornication if they want to live a healthy and long life. He also advised the younger ones to always be contented with whatever they have and that they must also run away from alcoholic drinks for them to live well and long”.
The 11th Galadima Ngari of Ilorin was a man of history. He was evidently born during a festive period, which informed his being named “Adelodun”. And he departed to the great beyond on the eve of Ileya festivities. What a coincidence!
I sincerely commisserate with the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji (Dr) Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, CFR, on the demise of the Galadima. I also sympathise with members of the Ilorin Emirate Council and the entire Galadima Ngari dynasty and most especially the immediate family of Alhaji Adelodun. I pray to Allah to forgive his shortcomings and reward his good deeds with Aljana fridaouz. Amin.
Imam is National Secretary, Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union.
