Proposed National Conference: A Case For Kwara State by Oyewale Ogundiran Kwara State (Ilorin and Kabba Province) was created by the military Government of Col Yakubu Gowon in 1967 as WEST CENTRAL state. Kogi was carved out of the state in 1991 thereby reducing its original size. Geographically Kwara State is located in the WESTERN part of Nigeria. Lets assume we want to locate only four grid on the Nigerian map I. e North, West, South, East. Kwara is the WESTERN part of Nigeria, Abuja is right in the miidle, Taraba/ part of Adamawa EAST, Rivers SOUTH and Katsina NORTH. North Central is a multi-ethnic group with 65 percent of the settlers christians. Benue has the highest percentage of christians followed by Plateau then kwara with 44 percent christian population. Ilorin the state capital has more muslim population than christians (55 percent muslims, 41 percent christians and others (4 percent) although ilorin indegienes are majorly muslims (87 percent). The most popular language in kwara is yoruba (even more popular than English as the minority parts (Edu, Lafiagi,Baruteen and Kiamo LG speak scanty yoruba) Kwara is made up of 16 Local Government Areas, the above LGAs are none yorubas (and are the most sparcely populated) while the remaining 12 are yoruba LGAs namely: irepodun (2nd largest LG in Nigeria, ifelodun (largest LG in Nigeria) , Offa, Moro, Oke-Ero, Ekiti, Oyun, ilorin West, ilorin South and Ilorin East local government. Out of this 12 local government only 2 ilorin W and E have traces of other tribes like nupe, fulani and hausa (who all speak yoruba). This fulani minorities all have yoruba names as their middle name e.g ibrahim Kolapo Zulu Gambari (emir of ilorin) Dele Belgore, Babatunde Belgore etc. I once met a girl who is a grand daughter of the Emir of ilorin. After telling me her 1st name (yoruba name of course I thought I was talking to an oyo or osun girl untill I saw her I D card. I Was confused and this was the conversation that followed: Me: Thesame Zulu-Gambari ? girl: YES! She answered. me: so you are a fulani girl? girl: Rara oo (nooo, she said) Me: critically appraise what you mean (I said jokingly but was really intrested in that topic) girl: em em em m well, I am not fulani but ilorin Me: is ilorin a tribe? Girl: technically I am ....(My phone rang and I had to leave her immediately. I havent seen her since then. I have always asked this question; WHY IS KWARA CLASSIFIED as a northern state? Geographical location? (NO) Tribe? (NO) While in school my friends used to make jest of me by calling me aboki It saddens my mind but what I usually do was to joke around it. I got really pissed one day and I called two of them (they are both ondo indegines) Me: we all know the meaning of Oyewale (my name) and Ogundiran (surename) pls tell me the meaning of MIMIKO or AGAGU and I will accept the aboki title (I saw myself as beign more yoruba than them) Friends: jokingly they said go ask them na.. (they didnt know because those names dont sound like yoruba) I have read different stories of how Afonja was killed by Alimi and also read about the mistakes made by the colonial government (Richards Commission). To some extent I can argue that there are more ibos reciding in ilorin than the fulanis but that is a topic for another day. Recently the President set up a committee on the proposed Sovereign National Conference and I think the issue of kwara (ilorin) and yorubas in Kogi should be on the agenda. Why cant we have an Oba (say Afonja or Onilorin) of ilorin? I dont have anything against the Emir because he is a peaceful person and intelligent man too. -the only language he speaks in public is yoruba language, I dont know if he understands hausa/fulani languge but I know most of the fulanis in ilorin dont. Infact you wont know the educated ones among them are fulani untill you are told. About 3 years ago Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger state was invited by Muslim Law students in OAU and he was made to believe that there was an unbrella body for Northern Students in the school. He donated N500000 and promised to give more in future. So we were to form an Association for Northern Students in OAU. The association was formed and almost 70 percent of the members were yorubas majorly from kwara with a significant number from Kogi, We were to elect leaders for the association and while the plans to nominate members of the electoral committee was going on, the core Northern Students made a request that the posts of President, VP and Gen Second should be restricted to them alone (ie NW,NE and the core North). They made that request because they felt the chances of having core Northern students hold key posts in the association was very slim (if charisma and population was considered) and they wiould be relegated in the association that was supposed to promote the intrest of the North. It become very obvious they would not allow a Babatunde Samuel (just an e.g) be the President as the association (-I understand there plight) as his identity doesnt depict North in any way so the association was dossolved and I learnt they formed Arewa Student Association not long ago. ....(KWARA students are OUTCASTs here) Kwara Students have very slim chances of getting scholarships. The state government is definately doing very little in this area (I spent 5 years in Ife and I didnt receive any assistance from the government in form of schorlarship/Bursary. I am not a fan of Saraki/Ahmed so I never expected much/anything from them. -Politically kwara is doomed and only divine intervention can deliver us. I dont belong to any political party but I know for sure that 80 percent PDPs rigging machines are in Kwara (lets not even talk about the Offa LG election). - Jonathan truely won kwara in the last election (They may have rigged for him but kwara people prefered him to Buhari). He (jona) has not impressed me at all as he is misplacing his priorities and very little is beign done to purnish corrupt politicians. I see a confused man at the helms of affairs of the country even though he has good plans and trueely desired a better Nigeria HIS GOVERNMENT TOTALLY RELEGATED THE YORUBAS. Back to the last general election in kwara PDP did RIGGED the election as there was no way they could have won in Kwara South. Saraki also rigged kwara central senatorial seat for himself as he would not have defeated Oniyangi of APC in a free and fair election (not my business though). Governor Ahmed is from my senatorial district. He is 100 percent yoruba andAregbesola is not more yoruba than him He is by far the MOST POWERLESS GOVERNOR IN NIGERIAS HISTORY and He himself will atteast to that. The various scholarships for yoruba students are usually restricted to South Western Students which is very wrong. The Afenifere and other yoruba groups should do something very urgently about this as we(kwara students) are really suffering from this. I dont know what will be the criteria for selecting delegates to the Soverign National Congress but I know traditional leaders and socio-cultural groups will be part of the delegates. I love Nigeria and have never for once thought about disintergration but I can never sacrifice yoruba for Nigeria. NEVER I love YORUBA more than I love NIGERIA and love NIGERIA much more than my state (KWARA) because I have never really benefitted any tangible thing from KWARA. I have the following suggestions which am sure would definately make Nigeria a much better place : 1. Nigeria should scrab either the Senate or House of Reps (we dont need two chambers. There primary assignments are not well done (most of them only wait for alerts from bank after each seating. I can name atleast 40 past and present senators/reps who didnt make up to 10 contributions throughout their 8 years in the senate/HoH. You always see them dozing/sleeping and wakes up when only to say HI and NA even when they dont know what is being discussed. Besides that the cost of maintaining them is too high which is while other sectors like education, aviation, heath, power etc are suffering 2. The present 36 states too needs to go and should be replaced with only 5 regions (North Central should be dissolved)/ this country needs to be regrouped. The grouping should be tribal sensitive as NO PART OF THE MAJOR TRIBES SHOULD BE MINORITIES IN OTHER REGIONS I.e all yorubas should be together including those in kwara and Kogi states. Same thing with other tribes (hausa and fulani should be together as they have very similar culture and tradition and have never really had problems living together) 3. TRUE FEDRALISM. Each of the 5 regions should operate like the 50 states in U.S.A These will make the local governments independent, empowered and more effective/functional.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 06:21:17 +0000
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