Date: 2001-09-04

It is good to be back here as a free Nigerian on a visit, coming here and [hopefi~lly] returning home through the international airport without security harassment or intimidation This is one of the most obvious fruits of the new democratic dispensation that we now enjoy as Nigerians. I hope and pray that it lasts and that other dividends will materialize as we plod on, on the road to true and lasting democracy.

Kwara State is an exciting phenomenon. It is different from what the original designers conceived- in every conceivable way- name, shape and size, expectatio!,s and aspirations. It is in some ways, an epitome of the uncertainties that have characterized the Nigerian polity.

Just over ten years ago, on 26th July 1991, I was asked to speak on the occasion of "KWARA OAY" of The Federation of Kwara Students, University of Ilorin. My topic then was "The Place of Kwara State in The Future Of Nigeria" The choice of that topic was an indication of my worries and concerns at that time, about the future of the state. I decided to start with a political description of Kwara.

"Kwara is a substantial part of what was baptized WEST CENTRAL STATE when the first set of six states were created out of the Northern Region. The North was one of the three regions plus one state [the Mid- West State which was created out of the Western Region] which made up the Federal Republic of Nigeria, inherited by the first military junta in 1996." "The baptismal name, WEST CENTRAL, a frightening though purely geographically descriptive appellation was quickly jettisoned in favour of an "indigenous" one. It was the fusion of the erstwhile Ilorin and Kabba , Provinces of the old Northern Region. These two provinces were arguably, physically the least developed of the Northern Provinces in terms of amenities- being farthest from the power base, more in politico-spiritual sehse than in dimensional terms. They were, however, two of the most advanced in terms of human resource development and progressive tendencies that usually accompany such development. If we got nothing from the north, we got good education."

"Even before a large chunk of the old Kabba province - what used to be called 'Kwara overseas'- happily veered offto join a substantial part of the old Benue Province in what is now known as Benue State, in 1976, Kwara's original name had had to be changed to reflect a more acceptable natural phenomenon - The River Niger- known as "Kwara" to the people around Lokoja. This of course forced the Division of that name to give up Kwara for Kogi. 

"The state's assumption of this new name was, in my opinion, a sign of fear or an admission of insecurity. How can a Northern State be called West Central? Was someone luring us into the West? "But if Kogi State is created today shall we then change the name of our state again- since those~who donated the name Kwara to us may be part of the proposed Kogi State? And so will Kwara change name again, perhaps this time to Edu State, since Kwara and Edu (Nupe) mean the same thing or would OYA State [the word for the same Niger River in Yoruba] find equal acceptance?

"But to seriously pursue that line will be to dwell disproportionately on an area of the subject under discussion that may be of the least interest, for now, to a majority of our audience. Yet this issue dramatizes the peculiarity and dynamism of Kwara as a geo-political entity. We are more Nigerian than any other Nigerian state. Of our 14 Local Governments, one or two could be at home in either Sokoto, Niger, or Plateau States, two or more could easily . be part of Oyo or Ondo States, while at least a part of one local Government could be part of Bendel. We have made substantial contribution to the landmass making up the Federal Capital Territory, while two of our local governments share boundaries with another ECOWAS Country. It is easy then to see that a good Kwaran must be the best Nigerian and a fine African".

"For this reason alone, one can conclude that Kwara has as good a future in a united Nigeria as any state can have, provided of course, that we appreciate the centrality of our position and the consequent sensitivity of our politics. Anyone who has the onerous task of governing Kwara therefore hc a challenge comparable only to governing Nigeria."

That quotation is ten years oId, and ten years is but a wink in the life of a nation, a normal natioin. In Nigeria, it is more than a generation. Even more than a century! Look how prophetic that position has proved to be! Nigerian political map has changed again and again. Inter and intra state boundaries have been altered even more frequently than the musical chair that our federal governmcut leadership had become over those ten years and earlier. As I said elsewhere, the original Kwara has been several times mutilated, our state has been beheaded and de-limbed; what started as the emerger of two northern provinces ends up today as less than one original province since a large chunk of old Borgu Division of Ilorin Province now forms part of Niger State.

The current political reality is that we have a Kwara State, smaller than the Ilorin Province of the old Northern Region, within a geo-political entity called North Central Zone in an informal but defacto [even if not de jure] zonalized Nigeria. I am saying t ~at we in effect are within the context of a six zone set up in Nigeria, in contrast with the three or four regional pre - 1966 set up, part of North Central Zone. Other states in this zone include Niger, Kogi, Benue, Plateau and Nassarawa. Please note that Kaduna State is part of the North Western Zone. The rest of the original North is broken into North East and North West, while the original West is broken into a Western Zone comprising what remained of Western Nigeria after the creation of the original Mid-West which is now grouped with the Minority states of the old Eastern Region and called South South zone, leaving the core Igbo states as the Eastern Zone. It is this zonal structure that is used for purposes of appointments into federal political and governmental offices outside of strict state representation. Ministerial appointments, key party posts and even major administrative postings at the federal level take zonal balance into consideration. In effect, except for mutual convenience between people and states, the old regions are dead. Common services between them have been, as a matter of deliberate state policy, minimized. It is therefore ridiculous today to talk of one North or One West or one East as in pre-civil war Nigeria.

But within the context of these sensitivities, Kwara has her own peculiarity by virtue of our interesting history. It is to do with the pre and post independence agitation for the merger of the Yoruba people of Ilorin and Kabba provinces with the West. This was championed by the Ilorin Talaka Parapo led by the late Alhaji Sule Maito and which controlled the Ilorin NA over a period under the overall leadership of the late J.S Olawoyin. A similar Movement for the aggregation of Northern Minorities into a Middle Belt State was championed by the United Middle Belt Congress [UMBC] led by the late J.S Tarka. Another self-determination group, the Bornu Youth Movement was led by Ibrahim Imam. These demands, including the agitation of the Eastern minorities for a Calabar /Ogoja/ Rivers [COR] State movement was championed by the Action Group with which the nationalist agitators were in alliance. That was the situation until the soldiers struck in 1996. The Mid-West agitation had earlier been solved through a political conspiracy between the NPC and the NCNC federal coalition partners as part of a combined effort to break up the Western Region base of the Action Group.

Today, thcre is a Eght for the soul of Kwala. The battle is raging now w~th intensity only comparable to the Ilorin Talaka Parapo days of pre Independence Ilorin NA. In the face of this comes the current Arewa Consultative Forum's untimely insistence on an indivisible North. As earlier analysis must hopefully have shown, it is ridiculously anachronistic!

My position is very well known on the issue of a (Sovereign) National Conference but I also hope that my preccding analysis has established the necessity for restructuring Nigeria. In any case, I can hardly bctter the arguments in my book on this matter and I wouldn't like to bore you with further lengthy quotations. Fortunately the idea is no more as strange as it sounded when we were marketing it in this part of the wo-ld a couple of years back.

I take the position, based on the scripture, that tribes or nations are a divine creation and whoever seeks to break up or lceep broken u~hat God has made one, or to forcefully couple together except through voluntary union what is divinely separated, will inevitably suffer the falled fate of Babcl. Isn't it ridiculous that at the end of August 2001, people are arguing on whether Kwara is North or West? Of course, none of the above! Both the North and the West are dead. It is as ridiculous to speak of one North as it is to speak of one East or one West. Call an Edo man or a Delta person a Westerner and he will laugh at you, as would the Bayelsa or Akwa Ibom man if you say he is from the East. In like manner the Middle Belter from Kaduna for example, hates to be called a Northerner. These are stark realities.

The issue that arises today is: where does Kwara belong in a restructured Nigeria - for Nigeria will be restructured sooner or later - hopefully at a civilized conference rather than after avoidable conflicts. What is good for the Scots, the Irish and the Welsh, the Macedonians etc, etc, is good for the Yoruba, the Nupe, the Baruba and the others: self -determination and power devolution! Undue politicization of this matter can lead to avoidable disaster.

We have come to the point when Kwara must not continue to tolerate the over- ambitious political horse trader whose nationality changes with the zoning of the Nigerian presidency. How can such a character continue to pretend to be a viable or serious leader of our fragile state? Happily, I can see that the people are beginning to appreciate what some of us have always known. It must now be quite clear why we cmunot collaborate with this impostor. How long will our innocence (to avoid the word ignorance) last!

How much of what he takes from us does he actually give back in his so - called philanthropy, his shameless pauperization of a helpless people?

As we are today in the North Central Zone (or Middle Belt Zone as we prefer to call it), we are not merged with Niger, Kogi or any of the other sister states. If we join the Western Zone tomorrow, we shall not fuse into or be merged with Osun, Oyo, Ekiti or any other Yoruba State. The advantage accruing there-from would be an opportunity to vie for whatever belongs to the Zone in a way we presently can't as in the case of Chief SB Awoniyi's failed bid for PDP chairmanship slot on account of his being of the same ethnic stock with the President, despite his superior credentials. The concern was that enormous power would be concentrated in the hands of two Yoruba people at the same time. The fact that the President and the Party chairmanship candidate are from different zones became immaterial. Their ethnic nationality is the issue. It is thus inconceivable that a majority ethnic national can compete in a predominantly minority zone for any sensitive national office allocated to that zone.

But the people of Ilorin and all of Kwara, especially Yoruba Kwara, will decide w~ ho they are and where they (should) belong. One thing is clear though, it will take a political triple jump to fly Kwara over the Middle Belt or North Central Zone into the North of Saraki's political day - dream as canvassed during his recent tour of the North Western Zone at the head of an ACF delegation.

If Dr Saraki chooses to equate the Yoruba population of Ilorin with the Afonja household just to get his own back on Governor Lawal who he must dominate or humiliate, he is free to politick but let him not toy with the rest of us who have no other state that we can call our own.

We are talking about a chameleonic politician whose father had briefly sojourned in Ilorin for Quranic education but had allegedly died as a prosperous businessman and Oba Yoruba in Abidjan: a man who had retraced his Egba routes with his party's zoning of the presidency to Yoruba land in 1982/83 and had once contested leadership of the Kwara delegation to the Middle Belt with us at the Government House in Jos, during the early parts of the ill-fated Babangida transition: a man who sat with us on the eve of the SDP 1993 Presidential primaries in Jos to interview candidates and decide who we of the Middle Belt Forum were to support, although he was to subsequently and characteristically break faith with the Forum and ultimately the Party. This is the self-declared leader of what he called "The Central Zone" now leading an ACF delegation to the North West and suddenly becoming more AREWA than the Sultan! Some people can take on different guises at different times and different places. Some of us are what God has made us and will remain what we are. I will never deprecate or deny my Northern routes.

Adebayo a Second Republic Governor of Kwara State, delivered this address in North America.