Ilorin: Where Settlers Are Indigenes
By Lanre Issa-Onilu
If a war were ordered to be fought against all settlers, wherever they may be found, then Ilorin would be a theater of war. The Hausa would be up in arms against the Fulani, the Yoruba would attack the Kemberi, the Baruba would wage war against the Nupe, the Tapa against the Tuareg Arabs, the Kanuri against the Kannike, the Gobir against the Beriberi and everyone against everybody. It would be one big milieu, where brothers would be pitched against brothers.
Take for instance, Justice Mustapha Akanbi, Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, who is a prominent leader and son of Ilorin just as Justice Alfa Belgore, a justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. They were related neither by blood nor tribe. While Justice Belgore's forefathers were Fulani who came to Ilorin from Bonsa, the present Kebbi State, Akanbi's were Kemberi who left first from Borno, then from somewhere in the present Niger State to Ilorin. In a war over rights of settlers in Ilorin, like it is being witnessed in some parts of Nigeria, they are supposed to be commanders of opposing armies. But to both of them, like every Ilorin man, such history is a shot too long. They are both brothers from the same Ilorin community. That is a bind that is firmer and thicker than blood.
It would be difficult to find a community with the Ilorin's complexity. Not less than 15 tribes make up the Ilorin Emirate and this has spanned nearly two hundred years. As if there is an unwritten consensus, all these tribes have evolved into one big united tribe that has come to be known as Ilorin. So, these days, when an Ilorin man is asked what tribe he belongs to, the usual answer is 'I am Ilorin.' To him, the past or his root is relevant to the extent that it would promote and serve the good of his town. But in the real sense of it, no one has been denied his root. The Fulani, Yoruba, Hausa, Tapa and the various other tribes still have some residual cultural likeness to their roots. But from one family compound to another, a keen observer would discover a mixed grill of cultures. This rather than divide has been one source of strength for the unity among the people of the town. For sure, not every Ilorin man is certain of where his forefathers came from. The ones who are certain feel no nostalgia about it. Because, here, he faces no hurdle because of what tribe his forefathers were. If he does face any hurdle at all, it can only be because of himself. Here, every indigene knows his forefather was a settler. Therefore, every settler is an indigene.
The people of Ilorin present to this country, a living possibility of unity in diversity. Instead of bickering over tribal affiliation or tying themselves to some distant past, they have managed to inaugurate a new culture bearing some residual traits of the various original tribes, yet leaning to no one in particular.
Here, every indigenous tribe has a say. For instance, Ilorin is divided into five main quarters: Balogun Gambari (Hausa), Balogun Alanamu (Yoruba), Balogun Ajikobi (Yoruba), Balogun Fulani (Fulani), and Magaji Are (Yoruba). While the people under the headship of Magaji Are are Yorubas of the Afonja extraction, those of Alanamu and Ajikobi are not. Yet, for the contributions of the forefathers of these two quarters (Ajikobi and Alanamu), especially in the defence of Ilorin community during the several wars waged by the Yoruba against Ilorin community, they earned these important positions, which make them kingmakers and members of the Emirate Council under the Emir of Ilorin. Ditto, the Balogun Gambari.
Even then, people are never treated as a tribe, but as members of the community. This has dovetailed into inter-personal relationship among the people of the town. In Ilorin, for instance, it can be said that there are no cousins. This is one word the Ilorin people can live without. But there are brothers. That's one word that is often on the lips of these people. It is assumed that the word brother conveys more closeness than cousin. So, when there are two Ilorins who are blood related, they may say they are cousins. But when they do not share same blood, they would say they are brothers.
Check out this collection of brothers: Dr. Olusola Saraki, Second Republic Senate leader, General Mohammed Abdullahi, Chief of Staff to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, United Nations undersecretary, Major General Abdulkarim Adisa, former Works and Housing Minister, Rear Admiral Muhammed Lawal, former Kwara State governor, Alhaji Akanbi Oniyangi, former defence minister. These are eminent Nigerians and Ilorin indigenes. But here, you have Dr. Saraki from one Arbaji in Sudan, General Abdullahi whose great grand father lived in Jos, where General Abdullahi was born and bred, Professor Gambari, Fulani from Wurno, Sokoto State, General Adisa, Beriberi from Borno, Ex-Governor Lawal, Yoruba from Oyo, and Alhaji Akanbi Oniyangi, from Sudan to Maiduguri to Lagos to Adanla, an Igbomina community in Kwara State, and finally, Ilorin.
It is instructive that none of these people has suffered any denial in their bid to realize their individual ambitions because they do not belong to a particular tribe. It is also instructive that the first Ilorin man to be elected governor in Kwara State is Muhammed Lawal of the Afonja extraction.
What actually attracted all of these tribes to Ilorin is not as important as what has been keeping them together for two centuries. A cursory appraisal may reveal faith. The people of this town are almost all Muslims. But a deeper look would show that beyond religion is the equity and justice that every settler turned indigene is certain of. It is such equity, where people can aspire to be what they want to be and are sure of no discrimination based on origin or root, that has produced these array of Ilorin leaders whose roots are as varied as they come.
There can never be an end to examples of the kind of unity, justice, and oneness that have bound these people together. No wonder, when in 2001, some members of the O'odua People's Congress, OPC left from different Yoruba towns for Ilorin to install a Yoruba Oba for Ilorin people who never asked for one, the OPC members were surprised to realise no one was waiting to welcome them. Instead, they met the police the community had summoned for protection who warded off the invaders.
This is the kind of consensus that the people of Plateau State, Ijaw and Itsekiri, Agunleri and Umuleri can still not build till today. That is why they still no the difference between a settler and an indigene. This is also what Nigeria's various ethnic groups have not been able to enact that some people now call for a Sovereign National Conference. Perhaps, instead of a conference, the Nigerian government may need to commission a study of the Ilorin example to bail out this country from disunity and its vicissitudes.
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