By Abubakar Imam
Towards the end of the year 2024, Pakata Area Development Association (PADA), the umbrella sociocultural organisation of the good people of Ubandawaki Ward in the Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State, changed its leadership. This was after the expiration of the tenure of the team led by Alhaji Umaru Baba-Offa, the immediate past past President of PADA.
The new President is the young, active, energetic and resourceful Mallam Murtala Alowonle. By his election and subsequent inauguration, Mallam Alowonle has secured the record of being the youngest President of PADA in its 52 years alluring history.
PADA was founded in 1974 from the ashes of the famous Egbe Oredegbe Pakata, which was presided over by the late Alhaji Saleeman AbdulGafar Ubandawaki. He headed the Group for 35 unbroken years with Alhaji Amori Gidado (d.1964) of Ile Tapa, Pakata, as Patron. The position of the late Alangua as “Giwa Egbe” gave his ancestral compound its alternate name as Ile Giwa. Alhaji Saleeman was the Alangua Ubandawaki from 1989 to 1990 when he died at the age of 75.
I don’t know the exact date of birth of Mallam Alowonle. But I am dead sure that he is a few years younger than I am as he is to many other card-carrying members of the Association.
But despite his relatively young age, Mallam Alowonle has left no one in doubt that he is in-charge. You need to attend the weekly meeting of PADA to see him display coherence, eloquence and other leadership talents.
His style, courage and candour always remind me of a track of a musical album of the late Lord of Fuji Music, Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, MFR (1948-2010), which he titled “Aiye”, where he says:
“Ato Baba ooo. Mon Pe Enikan Ni Baba oooo. Oke Apatapiti”.(I have come of age. Give me my respect. Oke Apatapiti)
It is as if the track was composed for the new PADA President. He is from Ile Apatapiti in the Alaran Lane of Ita-Uma axis of Pakata. He is also so young that some individuals may deny him of his well deserved respect as envisaged by the late Prophet of Fuji Music.
Interested readers are also enjoined to listen to two other albums of the same late Musical Legend of the Commonwealth titled “Superiority” and “Destiny”. His admonitions in the two albums perfectly provide answers to some of the issues surrounding the emergence of the PADA new President and the “challenges” ahead of him.
However, Mallam Alowonle is not the first young person to be saddled with leadership responsibilities in Ilorin. The first Military Governor of Kwara State, Late Brigadier-General David Lasisi Bamigboye, CON(1940-2018), was appointed as the Chief Executive of the State in 1967. He was 27, then. Alhaji Yusuf Amuda Gobir, OFR (1934-1975), became a Permanent Secretary in 1962 at the age of 28. The first Grand Mufti of Ilorin and founder of the Ansarul Islam Society of Nigeria, Shaykh Muhammad Kamalud-Deen, MFR, OFR, ORSA (1905-2005), embraced fame when he was in his 20s. The Chief Imam of Ilorin, Shaykh (Dr) Muhammad Bashir Saliu,OON (b.1950) was 33 years old when he was appointed into the office in October, 1983. The first Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria appointed from Ubandawaki Ward, Mallam AbdulGaniyu Bolaji Abdullahi (b. 1969), became an Honourable Minister and Member of the Federal Executive Council in his early 40s. Most of the past National Presidents of Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU) were also elected into the office in their early 40s.
There are many other examples of those who became leaders in various sectors at the current age of Mallam Alowonle, which space would not allow me to enumerate. The most important factor is not age but capacities, which Mallam Alowonle possesses in abundance.
I am delighted to say that Mallam Alowonle has never felt intimidated. He is committed and I believe that he has the capacity to succeed beyond expectations, going by the calibre of those who were elected along with him and the assuring support of active members of the Association and other leaders of the community, particularly the Alangua Ubandawaki Ward, Alhaji Yusuf Amuda Mahamood Ubandawaki and respected clerics as well as many eminent personalities across the length and breadth of our “adugbo”.
I understand that Mallam Alowonle and his colleagues on the leadership of the Association are determined to change its course of history. They want to do so many things and in fascinating ways that would make indigenes and friends of Ubandawaki Ward and Ilorin Emirate to be very proud of PADA.
But can they do it alone? No. They can’t. They need your support and mine. As genuine patriots, we must support him for his positive, stimulating and alluring aspirations to be achieved.
As a member, I am determined to support this young man in every way possible. This is to enable him and his colleagues on the Association’s Executive Council to succeed. I am determined to do that with regular attendance of weekly meetings and offer of my widow’s mite. My contributions would also include constructive criticisms and presentation of alternative and genuine options for the love of our people. I also promised to do every other thing within my province to promote the good image of the Association and the Pakata community at large, Ma Sha Allahu.
I pray to Allah to grant the PADA President all he would need to achieve far beyond the expectations of his sincere well-wishers and to the joy of all progress-loving compatriots.
Imam is Secretary, “Pakata Patriots”, Ilorin.
