The third biennial national conference of the Centre For Ilorin Studies (CILS) of the University of Ilorin, provided stakeholders an ample opportunity to assess the industrial growth of the Ilorin Emirate.

Ilorin is the capital city of the 49-year-old Kwara State. The theme of the conference was "The Socio-Economic Development of Ilorin Emirate Since The 20th Century."

The stakeholders who met at the auditorium of the university to participate in the debate were unanimous in their verdict that successive administrations in the state had failed to take concrete steps to industrialise Ilorin Emirate which is made up of five local government areas of Asa, Moro,Ilorin West, Ilorin East and Ilorin South.

Alhaji Aminu Adisa Logun,an industrialist and illustrious son of Ilorin threw the first salvo in a key note address when he declared that Ilorin could not boast of one industrial estate. He regretted that areas such as New Yidi Road,Coca cola area and Okolowo axis of Ilorin metropolis that were designated as industrial parks in the past had been turned to residential areas with filling stations in some parts.

"It is a pity that today Ilorin has no single industrial estate despite the fact that industrialisation started in Ilorin as early as 1924 when products from clay were exported to England," he lamented. Decrying the socio-economic status of Ilorin emirate in the 21st century, Logun regretted that "most of the major developments seen in Ilorin today were not facilitated by indigenes of the emirate."

further lamented that local government officials and council chairmen who are expected to manage and harness resources of the local government areas for positive development don't even reside in the local government’s administrative headquarters but are only interested in collecting "revenues from kiosk owners." Appraising the state of urbanisation in Ilorin in the modern time, Logun said, "we are at the lower economic level, heath, wealth, schools are in a mess, nothing is positive for us, we must accept this reality and do something about it."

As a way out of the current situation, the key note speaker said Ilorin must "go back to out post of Asa and Moro and begin to transform the emirate for development." He equally stressed the urgent need for the Emir of Ilorin, Alh. Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari to set up an economic council to be made up of those he described as "silent minority" indigenes of the emirate.

The proposed economic council, he added, "should transmit proposal to local and state governments for implementation. This council must go out and link up with our indigenes in the diaspora, this guys must come home and drive the socio-economic activities of the emirate." He also called on people of the emirate to re-brand the psyche of the young people, advising that the people of the emirate must key into the federal government's agriculture agenda. He added that, "if we don't key into the agriculture agenda as Ilorin people, we are going to lose out.

"Now, if we should attempt to draw a graph for our Ilorin Emirate with a measure of socio-economic development as the y-axis and period as x-axis with 1900 as the origin, we will have a profile thus. A modest but steady rise from 1914 through to about the end of the third quarter of the 20th century, followed by a levelling off or apparent stagnation, at best sinusoidal or even a steady decay/dip,up to the present days.

"The reason for this kind of profile may be obvious to the older ones in this hall; the younger ones are encouraged to go and read and research. Where we are today is left to the imagination of each and everyone of us here. It is not quite the best place to be," Logun concluded.

The chairman of the occasion and former pro-chancellor of the university, Alhaji Saka Saadu, dwelt on the entrepreneurship and industrious nature of Ilorin emirate right from the pre- colonial period. He enumerated popular trades such as weaving (textile), pottery making, embroidery of fabrics, dyeing of clothes, bead making, production of ornaments from metals, trade in cattle and kolanuts among others.

"Ilorin textiles and pottery used to be exported to many town and cities in the south- west, Onitsha, PortHacourt and Kano," Saadu who was a former minister of state for education noted and added that "during the First Republic, we had Matchco producing matches; the sugar and paper mills- all being great employers of labour to be followed by the juice factory run by the keynote speaker, Alh Adisa Logun." He emphasised the need for people of the emirate to embrace entrepreneurship especially at this time when Nigeria was craving for diversification of the economy.

"Government can no longer be sole employers of labour, hence the need for people to be entrepreneurs and employers of labour." Also speaking, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof Abdulganiyu Ambali, described the theme of the conference as historical.

According to him, in the fast-paced world, we need to pause on many occasions to look at where we are coming from so that we can navigate our current challenges through the ideas and insight of our forefathers. "It is an axiomatic fact that he who does not know where he is coming from cannot know where he is going," the VC noted and added that though Ilorin emirate was founded in the 19th century, the 20th century heralded the tremendous development of the emirate in several areas.

The socio- economic development of the emirate during the period, he noted, was massive as the city expanded and prospered such that it became a force to be reckoned with in virtually all spheres of human endeavour. Against the background of the current challenges of dwindling resources facing the nation, Ambali said understanding the factors responsible for our socio- economic development at a point will readily re direct our focus.

"By exploring such areas as industrial development, ICT, urban development, agriculture practice and entrepreneurship, educational and transportation development, traditional and orthodox medicine among other domains that characterised Ilorin civilisation, this conference is poised to widen our knowledge on such essential commodities of development that can be adopted and adapted with Ilorin Emirate as a case study," he added.

The Director of CILS ,Professor Zakariyau Oseni, said "the centre has the mandate to collect, catalogue and preserve digital copies of manuscript on Arabic, religious, historical and cultural heritage of Ilorin Emirate as well as collect and preserve electronic and hard copies of publications relating to Ilorin Emirate by the lecturers of the University of Ilorin in all disciplines among others.

The Emir of Ilorin, who was represented by Magaji Nda, Alh Salihu Woru, said he had taken judicious note of submissions of all the speakers and promised that the emirate would act on them.

He thanked the state government for ensuring peace and harmony in Ilorin, in particular and Kwara, in general. The national President of Ilorin Emirate Descendants Union(IEDPU), Alh AbdulHamid Adi, in a goodwill message, listed the steps the union had taken in ensuring industrialisation of the emirate.