Rejoinder to Olagunju’s ‘Ilorin and Dan Fodio’s deadstock’ By L.A. K. JIMOH
I am an ardent reader of *Lasisi Olagunju’s* weekly column in the NIGERIAN TRIBUNE. So, I read the article under reference which was in the Newspaper’s edition of Monday, July 15, 2024. I usually enjoy his characteristic intellectualism.
But this time around I was disappointed because he allowed the “yorubaness” in him to becloud his intellectual objectivity.
But I refrained from sending him a REJOINDER because I am more disappointed by the seeming docility of our intellectuals, elders and historians in Ilorin.
Don’t we have people who can politely reply, on equal intellectual footing, to correct distortions which abound in the write-up, knowing fully that a write-up by erudite LASISI OLAGUNJU would become a venerable reference material in future.
I still do not want to shoulder that responsibility. If those really in the line of fire feel unperturbed, so be it !
However, for the sake of members of this Platform let me make just the following points:
(a) It is not true that His Eminence, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, never specifically “decreed” reference to him by his Yoruba name — *Kolapo.*
I was present in the Emir’s Palace on the day of the incident in 1994 when members of the NUJ in Kwara State paid a courtesy call on the then newly appointed Emir of Ilorin.
While saluting the Emir on the occasion, TUNDE OYEKOLA, the then NIGERIAN TRIBUNE Newspapers Correspondent in Kwara State, addressed the Emir as
” Your Lordship, Justice Ibrahim Kolapo Sulu-Gambari, the Emir of Ilorin.”and the Emir instantly interrupted him saying:
“Please, address me simply as ALHAJI IBRAHIM SULU-GAMBARI, EMIR OF ILORIN. The chapter of my sojourn in the Judiciary is closed.”
Unfortunately and to everybody’s embarrassment, the following day NIGERIAN TRIBUNE came up with a banner headline alleging that the Emir had publicly denounced HIS YORUBA NAME, leaving out the judiciary side of the story.
Worse still, the newspapers, very disappointingly, thereafter went agog with all kinds of vile commentaries and editorial about the matter despite a detailed rejoinder that was sent to it making the foregoing clarification.
(b) Why a respectable columnist like Olagunju should fall prey, so cheaply, to the antic of a Machiavellian politician in Kano baffles me.
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More than many intellectually puerile writers, I expect Olagunju to know that Aminu Bayero’s mother, who was the junior sister of the mother of the incumbent Emir of Ilorin, was a full-blooded, *Fulani woman.*
Her father, Emir Abdulkadir Dan Bawa. was Fulani; her grandfather, Emir Shuaib Bawa, was Fulani; her great grandfather, Emir Zubair, was Fulani and her great, great grandfather, Emir Abddulsam, the very first Emir of Ilorin, was Fulani.
(c) There is nothing strange about the taking-over of Ilorin by the children of Shaikh Alimi, a Fulani cleric.
After all, Obatala from whom Oduduwa usurped Ile Ife was Yoruba, since Yorubas are said to be descendants of Oduduwa; the Ifes and Egbas from whom the Oyos seized Ibadan are not Oyo Yorubas; the Itoko and Ijemo people who owned Abeokuta before the Egbas who were driven away from Ibadan by the Oyos came and ussurp the place were not Egbas and those ruling as Oba of Lagos are Benin people who invaded and militarily usurped the land from Egun people.
(d) Was there anything odd in Emir Sulu Gambari having *Alabi Opo* as his *oriki*?
After all, the ORIKI of his great, great grandfather, Abdulsalam, the first Emir of Ilorin, was *Oba digi Aiye*, of Shitta, the second Emir, was *Orogan lo oye*, of Zubair, the third Emir, was *Aiyelabowo* and of Abdusalam, the second, the fifth Emir, was *Momolosho*.
All of them were full-blooded Fulani, except Emir Momolosho whose mother was from Ipapo, near Iseyin.
(e) Again, what is strange in Emir of Ilorin having a *Yoruba Oriki*?
Are all the Fulani Emirs in Nupeland not having *Nupe Oroki ?*
Are the Obas of Lagos, who are Edo by descent, not having *Yoruba Oriki ?*
Is the following not the oriki of Oba Musenfiku Adeniji Adele, the second, who was Oba of Lagos from 1st October, 1949 to 12th July. 1964 ?
*Omo Ajibike
Omo Erin Jogun Ola
Omo Olode Okuta
Omo a bu oke die sogun
Omo eiye nla foju orun so rere,
Omo o ji loru keriri
Omo o be riri lokunkun
Omo Adele Ajosun ore Egba,
Ajigidi Ogun ……
(f) If, as Olagunju put it,
“Ilorin did not start as a settlement of the Fulani”
did Ile Ife start as a Yoruba settlement, bearing in mind that the *Igbo,* under Obatala were the original settlers and owners of the land? If, as he further said, “the Emirate there ( Ilorin ) is a progeny of conquest” what are the Egba kingdoms in Abeokuta land.
What would you say about the Oduduwa kingdom in Ife (bearing in mind the story of legendary Moremi Ajaso’oro); and
about Oyo rulership in Ibadan (remembering Maye, the Ife ruler of Ibadan who was dislodged by Oyo fugitives, that is, Oluyole and co)?
Should those who live in glass houses throw stones?
