Kwara state which is known as the ‘State of Harmony’ was created by the military government on May 27, 1967 – Principal groups residing in Kwara state are the Yorubas, Nupe, Barubas and the Fulanis Known as the ‘State of Harmony’, Kwara state, it is the gateway between the South and North, the state was created in 1967 by the military junta of General Yakubu Gowon and 49 years after, 16 local councils have been carved out from it.

At its creation, the state was made up of the former Ilorin and Kabba provinces of the then Northern Region, and, was initially named the West Central state but later changed to “Kwara”, a local name for the River Niger. It is bordered by Oyo and Osun states from the South West, and Kogi and Niger states from the North Central, while Ilorin is its capital. 49 years after its creation, the state is reputed for its religious tolerance and multi-ethnicity composition.

The principal groups residing in Kwara state are the Yoruba, Nupe, Baruba and Fulani and they are original indigenes of the 16 Local Government Areas in the state; namely, Asa, Baruten, Edu, Ekiti, Ifelodun, Ilorin East, Ilorin West, Ilorin South, Irepodun, Isin, Kaiama, Moro, Offa, Oke-Ero, Oyun and Pategi. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Muslims saying their prayers AFP PHOTO / PIUS UTOMI EKPEI The state, which is endowed with diverse culture and tribes, is a home to some northerners and southerners who are striving in their various trades.

A resident of the state, Mr Awosanmi Olaitan, who claimed to have resided in Kwara for almost 40years,said that it is peaceful, adding that he had adopted it as his state of origin because of some of his childhood friends are indigenes of the state. Religion The state is divided politically into three senatorial districts, Central, South and North. Yorubas are found in the Southern part of the state, Baruba, Nupe, Northern part; Fulani and Yoruba are indigenes of the Kwara Central. Each of the three senatorial districts is recognised for its peculiarities.

For instance, Kwara South senatorial district is grouped along three ethnic tribes, Ekiti, Ibolo and Igbomina in which the indigenes of this district are Yorubas and practice Islam, Christianity and Traditional religions.

According to an Ilorin-based Journalist, Osasona Kehinde, who hails from Oke-Ero local government area of the state, the district is a typical Yoruba setting and its people co-exist harmoniously. He added that despite the advent of Islam and Christianity, the people of Kwara south have not totally jettisoned their traditional belief.

It also gathered that as part of culture and tradition, every town and village in the district still observes the annual yam festival and celebrates masquerade festival till date. In the Central, Ilorin, which is the capital of the state is the political and religious headquarters of the district. The district is under the authority of the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari and it is named the Ilorin Emirate. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Yoruba men As reputed, Ilorin as a town is dominated by people of diverse backgrounds but with a common front.

Since it was founded centuries ago, the town is known and synonymous with Islam and to this end, Islam is the only faith practice by the bonafide indigenes of the town. However, its residents, who are Christians are enjoying freedom of worship. Culture Kwara is noted for Durba, Ere Olomoba, Weaving, among others.

The Kwara North indigines of the state are Barubas and Nupes and their ways of life are resemblance to the Ilorin people but a Nupe man is accustomed with Fish and Rice, while a Baruba is at home with Pounded yam. Development After 49 years of existence, the state could be categorised as developed in terms of infrastructural development as it plays host to the federal owned University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Federal Training Centre, Ilorin, State Colleges of Education, Ilorin and Oro, Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, the Schools of Nursing and Midwifery, Ilorin, Kwara State University, Al-Hikma University and Land Mark University (a private University) located in Omu Aran.

Also, NTA and notable media out-stations are sited in the state alongside an International Airport. Kwara non-indigenes are of the view that the state is harmonious and a beckon of hope to settlers. Mr Emmmanuel Ogor, an indigene of Abia state, who plies his trade in the state, said he is happy and contented to be a resident of the state, explaining that since 1999 he relocated to the state, his family and business has not for once been attacked.

“I relocated to Ilorin in 1999 from the East and since then, I don’t have any regret living and transacting business in the town. I will say, I am happy to be a resident,” he revealed.

Also, Aliyu Haruna, a trader and an indigene of Sokoto state, who said he was born in the state some 45 years ago, described it as the most peaceful in the country, and, however, commended the people of the state for their hospitality and religious tolerance. “I have no reason to regret living in Kwara and considering the number of years I have spent here, I think I am now part of them.” Meanwhile, the present governor of the state is Abdulfatah Ahmed, who is currently running his second-term in the office. The Senate president, Bukola Saraki is an indigene of Kwara state.

SOURCE: Naij

Ilorin was a small town in the Oyo Empire by the beginning of the 19th century. Afonja, Baale of Ilorin, who also held the title of Are Ona Kakanfo of the Oyo Empire, rebelled against his king, the Alafin of Oyo, in 1817. (There is no space here for the reasons for his rebellion). In order to sustain his rebellion, he was desperate to build a large and powerful army. To that end, he did a number of desperate things.

First, he invited the people of nearby villages to move to Ilorin and turn Ilorin into a large town. Many people so moved, but most refused.

Secondly, he reached out to many prominent friends all over the Oyo country, and invited them to come and live in Ilorin. Some accepted his invitation and came. Among these was a rich trader named Solagberu from Kuwo. Another was a man named Alimi, a Fulani man who had long lived in the Oyo country peddling charms from town to town. Afonja employed Alimi to make charms for him and his army.

Thirdly, Afonja decided to exploit a religious situation that was causing trouble in the country at the time. A Jihad movement had started in Hausaland in the north in 1804, generating wars and stormy Islamic evangelism there. It was started and led by an immigrant people called Fulani. The Fulani immigrants were few among the large Hausa nation, but very many of the Hausa who were already Muslims sided with the Fulani – and thus made it possible for the Fulani to defeat the ancient Hausa kings and make themselves rulers over Hausaland.

Some of the violent Jihadist preachers trickled south into the Oyo country. Everywhere they came, they were causing a lot of commotion by preaching violent and disrespectful sermons against the Oyo kings and chiefs, and against Yoruba culture in general. Yoruba people, with their tradition of religious tolerance, were alarmed; and angry crowds began to attack the preachers. Afonja decided to exploit the situation by issuing a general invitation to the Muslims to flee to him in Ilorin, promising to give them protection there. Thousands of frightened Muslims fled to Ilorin, and Afonja trained many of them for his army. (Afonja himself did not intend to convert to Islam, and he never did).

Fourthly, most rich Oyo families had Hausa, Nupe and Fulani slaves – used mostly in farming, trading, livestock rearing, etc. Most were Muslims.

Afonja decided to exploit this also. He issued a proclamation saying that if any slaves ran away from their owners and came to him in Ilorin, he would give them freedom and protection there. Large numbers of slaves, mostly Hausa, fled to Afonja, and he trained some of them for his army.

Afonja thus had his large town and large army. Most of his army’s commanders and soldiers were Oyo Muslims. A few of the soldiers were Muslim Hausa – all slaves recently set free by Afonja. But many of his Hausa soldiers were unruly. He warned or threatened them repeatedly, but with no result. When he at last decided to discipline them, they mutinied. Afonja was killed in the mutiny – in 1823.

Meanwhile, while Alimi had been making charms for the army, he had become a friend to many of the Oyo commanders who were Muslims, and these hadmade him Imam (Islamic teacher and preacher) for the Muslim community in the army. After Afonja›s death, the same friends gradually made their Imam the ruler of Ilorin. They also created some officers among the Hausa soldiers – for instance, Balogun Gambari. The powerful men doing all these things were Oyo.

That then is how Oyo people made a Fulani man the ruler of Ilorin. When Alimi died, his elder son, Abdulsalam, was elevated to his father’s position by his father›s powerful Oyo Muslim friends. Adulsalam had lived in the Jihad in Hausaland and had only recently come to live with his father in Ilorin. He knew that the Jihad had made the Fulani the rulers of Ilorin – with a Fulani Sultanate based in Sokoto and quasi-independent Fulani Emirs in the separate Hausa kingdoms. So, after he was made ruler of Ilorin, he sent to Hausaland to announce that he had established an Emirate in Ilorin and to ask that his Emirate should be accepted as part of the Fulani Sultanate. In this way, Ilorin became a Fulani Emirate, ruled by a Fulani family.

Ilorin was, in population, still an Oyo town – probably over 95% Oyo in population. And Ilorin was never conquered or even invaded by any Fulani army. Those influential Oyo men who made Alimi and his son the rulers of Ilorin did so out of fervour for their Islamic faith.

When the news of the happenings in Ilorin spread all over the Oyo country, people were shocked to hear that Ilorin people had made the family of an obscure Fulani charm peddler their rulers.

Therefore, people formed armies to go and subdue Ilorin and flush out the Fulani impostors. None of these invasions of Ilorin succeeded. The invading armies were poorly organized, and, moreover, the old Afonja army defending Ilorin was just too powerful. In fact, in the end, the Ilorin people, in order to ensure perfect protection for their fervently Muslim town, decided to go out and conquer most of Yorubaland (all the way to the sea coast), and make all of it a Muslim empire ruled from Ilorin. Their army marched out in about 1838, conquering town after town towards the south, and causing mammoth streams of refugees. Till today, most Yoruba people still call this Ilorin invasion a Fulani invasion of Yorubaland. But it was not a Fulani invasion at all; it was an attempt by the predominantly Yoruba Muslim people of Ilorin to conquer and Islamize the rest of Yorubaland.

The victorious Ilorin march southwards ended suddenly in 1840. The refugees who had gathered in the Egba village of Ibadan had quickly become a large town. Their army marched out and met the Ilorin army in Oshogbo in 1840, and totally destroyed them, capturing many of their commanders. From then on, the power of Ilorin was more or less over, and Ilorin never dared again to face the Ibadan army in battle.

In the following years, Ibadan became the most powerful state in Yorubaland, and established control over the Oshun valley, Ife, Ijesa, Ekiti, Akoko, Igbomina and parts of Iyagba. Ilorin continued to be ambitious to control some territory in its immediate neighbourhood – in nearby Igbomina and Ibolo (especially Offa); but they feared Ibadan. In 1877, the Ekiti, Ijesa, Igbomina and Akoko revolted against Ibadan’s rule, and the Kiriji War started, keeping all these peoples and Ibadan busy until 1893. Ilorin took advantage of this and established some feeble control over parts of Igbomina and Ibolo.

However, at home in Ilorin itself, a proper Emirate could not develop. The powerful Yoruba war chiefs wanted to re-establish the traditional Yoruba political system whereby the chiefs in a kingdom select their king. The Emirs resisted. By 1895, the chiefs were winning the contest grandly – a situation which forced the Emir Momoh to commit suicide after setting his palace on fire. The victorious chiefs then installed Sulaiman as Emir. This was the situation when the forces of the British Royal Niger Company came and conquered Ilorin in 1897.

In the years that followed, it was the British that established Ilorin as a full-fledged emirate, making the Ilorin Emir like the Emirs of Hausaland. The Emir then took advantage of that to establish all sorts of Emirate-type control over Ibolo and northern Igbomina.

In short, Ilorin was never conquered (was never even invaded) by the Fulani. Ilorin is more than 90% Yoruba in population. The Igbomina, Ibolo, and Ekiti of Kwara, because they have hated the imposture of the Ilorin Emirs since the beginning of British rule, tend to be usually cool towards Ilorin. But, now, with the National Conference, all of that will, hopefully, change.

I need to add this note: The question about Ilorin is very likely to become a major bone of contention between the Yoruba and the North at the National Conference. We need to educate our people in preparation for this. I find, therefore, that this article on the subject has to be somewhat longer than the usual 1120 words, and I should be grateful if you would accommodate it together as one continuous piece.

Source Nigerian Tribune, April 6, 2014