By Abubakar Imam
Ilorin Emirate, the nation’s most culturally unique traditional polity, is blessed with so many enduring structures and institutions that have become part of its history.
The essence of some of these structures and institutions are often misunderstood or misrepresented by the people from whom they draw their legitimacy and are intended to serve.
In some cases, the achievements of these institutions are usually glossed over or underreported for some nebulous reasons. This is usually by those who know and mostly by those who are genuinely ignorant of the fact.
As one of its members, I have always been disturbed by the impacts of these negative perceptions, coloured perspectives and poor impressions. My recent attendance of a programme, on behalf of the National President of Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU), Alhaji Abdulmumini Ayo Abdulmalik, which was organised by a sister sociocultural organisation in Ilorin compelled this piece.
Since it is often said among our people that “aokin fi agba mon Shao”(it can never be too late to be enlightened on what one is ignorant of), I believe that the issue has to be continuously discussed. This is because what transpired at the programme shows that many of us still don’t know what IEDPU stands for and its achievements over the years.
While I remain delighted that I was able to enlighten those who attended the event on the structures, functions, mode of operations and achievements of the Union, I still feel there is the need for those of us who are currently operating the Union at various levels and places to continuously communicate with our compatriots. We need to because “knowledge is power” and also because everyone needs to be brought on board.
This intervention is, therefore, intended to further illuminate our people on what the Union stands for and has been doing over the years.
But before I continue, it is important to remind each of us that we must always speak with facts. While we may and must criticise the Union when it is necessary, such criticism must be done in a very constructive manner, for the love of our people.
This is because it is not good to destroy our institutions for any reason. If we do, we would be destroying the legacy of our illustrious forebears and doing a great disservice to the present and the future of our beloved community.
IEDPU is an open and democratic platform. It is also an apolitical sociocultural organisation that is peopled by Ilorin indigenes. It is interested in the peace, unity and progress of the people of Ilorin Emirate; whether at home or in diaspora.
It is also the only forum of indigenes of Ilorin Emirate that has stood the test of time. It is the major barometer through which the feelings and priority of the people of Ilorin are measured by the government and other stakeholders.
But because IEDPU does not play to the gallery, many are unaware of its consistent struggle for good governance, which has yeilded positive dividends. Many are also not aware of its services in the promotion of unity as well as peace building efforts between and among the people, the government and among the people of Ilorin Emirate and her neighbours.
Today, the Union has over 200 functional branches within and outside Ilorin Emirate. These include diaspora branches.
The Union is characterised by free entry and exit. Nothing is done without recourse to its constitution.
Three conditions are, however, required to become an active member of the Union. Firstly, being an adult and secondly, being an indigene of any of the Five Local Government Areas constituting Ilorin Emirate (Asa, Ilorin East, Ilorin South, Ilorin West and Moro). Thirdly, not being a criminal. Any indigene of Ilorin Emirate with these requirements becomes an automatic and active member once he presents himself to any branch of the Union located in his place of abode.
A group of branches in a geopolitical territory forms a zone of the Union. This is done for ease of administration.
The Union is currently divided into four zones.
They are Central Zone, which consists of all the branches of the Union operating in Kwara and parts of Kogi, Oyo and Niger States. The Northern Zone covers all the branches of the Union in other states of the erstwhile northern region with the exception of Kwara and some parts of Niger and Kogi States. The Western Zone comprises branches in Oyo, Osun, Lagos, Ekiti, Ondo and Ogun States as well as Republic of Benin,Togo and Ghana. The fourth of the zones is the Southern Zone and it consists of branches in the South-East and South-South states of Nigeria. The constitution of the Union is yet to recognise the formation and operation of chapters by some branches.
The Union also has the National Executive Council, which operates under the leadership of a National President who is statutorily elected by delegates from each of the branches every two years. The election of the National President, who is the Chief Spokesman of the Union, is done along with those of eighteen (18) other executive members who assist him in running the organisation.
The highest organ of the Union is the national conference that meets at least once in a year. The national conference can also be convoked at any other time when it is necessary.
So, the Union is not a secret platform but an open organisation that every qualified person is free to join as an active member. The Union also has cases of members who voluntarily opted out as a result of the demands of thier career, old age or on health grounds. Such people are seen as dormant members of the Union.
Having stated the above, perhaps we should go down memory lane a little. The interesting history of the Union began in 1941 and it assumed its present form in 1966 when it held its first annual congress. It is crystal clear that not many people have shown genuine interest in knowing or reading about who held one position or the other within the Union’s hierarchy either in the past or now and the achievements it has recorded over the years.
But it is important to say that the history of Ilorin Emirate and Kwara State would have been remarkably different if not for the roles played by the Union over the years. A perusal of chapter 21 of “Ilorin: The Journey So Far”, a book written by a former National President of the Union, Alhaji L. A. K. Jimoh, would provide more illuminations on the history, roles and achievements of the Union.
However, for the benefit of those who may not have access to the authoritative book and for the benefit of members of the younger generations, I want to say, with absolute conviction and authority, that the establishment of the Union is one of the greatest things that had happened to Ilorin Emirate even before the nation’s independence.
Though it remains the community’s umbrella sociocultural organisation, no other similar body in Ilorin has the record of its achievements in terms of longevity, spread, efficiency, fame and contributions. It has been the major mouthpiece of the good people of Ilorin Emirate even right from the colonial era when it fought against the imposition of unfair taxation on the people of Ilorin and their neighbours.
The Union also fought for the protection of the rights and privileges of customary land owners in Ilorin and the extension of infrastructural facilities to the indigenous segments of the Ilorin city by the state’s incipient military administration and succeeding ones .
I am also aware of the role of the Union in the mobilisation of the people towards embracing Universal Primary Education programme in the 1970s and the cancellation of the shifting system in primary schools(Ile Iwe Olosan) across the city of Ilorin in the early 1990s. Yours sincerely and his contemporaries who had part of their primary education through this archaic and inclement system would forever appreciate this singular effort.
The Union was also the strongest voice against the prejudiced and jaundiced urban renewal policy/programme of a past government of the State. It is on record that the Union succeeded in convincing the then government to reconsider that particular programme to the advantage of the ordinary people of Ilorin Emirate and Kwara State.
I am equally aware of several indigenes of Ilorin Emirate whose appointments were irregularly terminated by the power that be, which the Union successfully fought for. These included a staff of a federal institution of higher learning and the Chief Executive of a State-owned institution of higher learning who were recalled to their duty posts by their employers at the insistence of the Union.
In fact, the Union has become a sanctuary for indigenes and even other residents of Ilorin Emirate with one industrial relations challenge or the other. This is in addition to serving as a veritable training ground for members in the arts and science of public administration.
I am also aware of many indigenes of the Ilorin Emirate who live within and outside the community who found themselves in one “judicial challenge” or the other and were assisted by the Union to regain their freedom. This is done through the engagement and payment of lawyers who pursued their cases to logical conclusions and other means of legitimate interventions.
I can also not count the number of indigent indigenes of Ilorin Emirate who had their hospital bills settled by the Union. Many students of Ilorin Emirate origin also enjoyed either scholarship or bursary from the Union.
This has been the case as far back as in the 1980s. Some of the beneficiaries of this effort are today outstanding professionals, academics, teachers and administrators. One of them was the late Dr Ibrahim Saliu, who was sponsored by the Union for his B.Sc. degree in Industrial Chemistry at the University of Ilorin, which he accomplished with a Second Class (Upper Division) in 1989. He later returned to the University for his degree in Medicine and Surgery. One of such is also a brilliant alumnus of the University of Ilorin who is currently attending the Nigerian Law School. I also recall how the Union sponsored the education of a young man in the early 1990s who is now a secondary school Principal.
I also know a serving senior military officer who told me that, but for the Union, his desire to join the military and becoming what he is today wouldn’t have been achieved. He told me how arrangements were made by the Union for him which ensured his enlistment into the nation’s Armed Forces a few decades back. The man is now a two-star General who is occupying an important position in the nation’s Armed Forces.
The consistent media campaign against behavioural inadequacies embarked upon by the Union is also significant.The impacts of this enduring intervention are there for all of us to feel.
Perhaps, the greatest and most enduring impact of the Union is the establishment of schools and provision of educational infrastructures across Ilorin Emirate. Probably with the exception of the Ansarul Islam Society of Nigeria, the Union is next to no other non-govermental organisation in Kwara State, in this realm.
Before many of us were born, the founding fathers of the Union had worked for the establishment of the first community owned and ran primary school in the entire Northern region, which is now made up of 19 States and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The school is Ilorin United School and it was founded in 1943. The number and calibre of distinguished individuals who had the foundation of their education laid in the school would tell you how important the school is. A few of them include our Royal father, the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji (Dr) Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, CFR; the former Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Late Major-General Tunde Idiagbon; and a former Governor of Kwara State, Admiral Muhammad Alabi Lawal; to mention just a few.
Some elders of the community and the Union also joined hands to establish Ilorin Grammar School, Ilorin, in 1967. The school remains one of the best in Kwara State. Products of this school include two former Members of the House of Representatives, Hon. Mashood Mustapha and Alhaji AbdulGaniyu Saka Cook Olododo. The two gentlemen are also honourary chieftaincy title holders of Ilorin Emirate and former members of the Kwara State Executive Council. A former Chief Medical Director of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Prof. Sulyman Alege Kuranga; and the immediate past National President of the IEDPU, who had earlier retired as a Director in the Department of State Services, Alhaji Aliyu Otta Uthman, fsi, as well as Mr Sharafadeen Adedeji Abdulkadir, SAN, and several other outstanding professionals/statesmen.
In 1978, the Union extended its tentacle to Asa Local Government Area when it established Community Secondary School (later known as Government Secondary School), Ballah. The school has also produced hundreds of outstanding individuals and professionals including the Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Prof. Abubakar Olanrewaju Sulaiman. Prof. Sulaiman had earlier served as the Honourable Minister of National Planning and Deputy Chairman of the National Planning Commission.
During the first tenure of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, CON, the premises of the school was conceded to Nigeria Police for the operation of Police Secondary School, Ballah. Entire new structures were consequently built for the school by the Kwara State Government.
In 1980, IEDPU also took the lead when it led Ilorin community to establish eight community secondary schools across the Emirate. These include Barakat, Banni, Baboko, United, Ajumoni and Iponrin Community Secondary Schools. Each of these schools has produced highly responsible individuals including the current Commissioner of Police, Eastern Port Command, Mr Moshood Jimoh; and the Deputy Clerk of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Mallam Nasiru Mosadi. These two gentlemen attended Barakat Community Secondary School, Ilorin, just as my humble self.
Another school established by the Union is Ilorin Comprehensive High School, Ilorin. The school was founded in 1995. Two of its several outstanding alumni are Mr Yunus Abdulsalam, who recently emerged at the age of 38, as the youngest Senior Advocate of Nigeria produced by Ilorin Emirate; and Dr Zainab Yakub, who recently graduated from the University of Ilorin as its best graduating medical doctor.
The Union also established two other schools in the Oke-Fomo area and within the premises of Ilorin Grammar School. The schools are Ilorin Model Nursery and Primary School, Ilorin; and IEDPU Basic School, Ilorin. The first one was founded in 2002 by the old Ilorin Branch of the Union while the second one came into being a few years later.
As a pressure group, the Union at various times influenced the government to create more Local Government Areas and establish more schools across Ilorin Emirate. This was before and after the collapse of the second republic. This is still being pursued to this moment.
In summary, no positive development happened in Ilorin Emirate in the last 60 years without the inputs of the Union. It has been a major and strong promoter of the physical and human capital development of Ilorin Emirate since its establishment and so it will continue to be notwithstanding its challenges.
Even with the above and several other achievements that time and space would not permit me to enumerate, I am one of those who believe that though the Union has done a lot but that it can and should do more. This can, however, happen only with your financial and moral support.
More indigenes and friends of Ilorin Emirate need to appreciate the little and the much the Union is doing on their behalf by donating to its cause. We can also support it by joining the Union and offering constructive opinions and ideas for the love of our people.
Above all, we must remember that “ti a ba ta ara Ile eni lopo, aoni ri ra ni owan”(if we mortgage our collective patronage, we may not be able to get it back).
IEDPU is for every indigene of Ilorin Emirate. Let’s all come on board and promote it.
Imam is National Secretary, Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union.
