Date: 2014-04-23

MUCH has been written and said about the plight of the Yoruba in Kwara State, a condition which is forcing them to opt to join their kith and kin in the South-West.

But more pitiable is the condition of the Yoruba in the so-called emirate of Kwara State. Ab initio, it is necessary to point out that clearly at least 95 per cent of the inhabitants of the so-called emirate are Yoruba.

Even Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State and the principal town in the Kwara Central part of the state, is predominantly Yoruba. Even in this capital, there are uncountable number of families whose ancestors had their origin in the South Western part of the country.

It is a well known historical fact that Ilorin as a town was founded by a Yoruba man, Afonja, who ruled for several years before Sheu Alimi came from Sokoto. Although well received by Afonja, during the course of history yet, by malicious means, Afonja was unseated and replaced by Sheu Alimi’s son.

He was, in fact, assassinated. Since then, the fate of the Yoruba has been under strange and unfamiliar rulers who imposed the caliphate system into a core Yoruba town, the system which is diametrically alien to the Yoruba culture.

In this system, the descendants of Alfa Alimi had been sent to several parts of the so-called emirate to rule the people. They are called Dawodus meaning the first son of the ruler of the emirate, the Emir.

The Yoruba towns in the emirate including Ilorin itself are made up of teeming millions of Yoruba who are being subjected to the alien rule of the Dawodus.

Shao for instance, one of the major towns in Kwara State, had their origin which predated the founding of Ilorin.

Shao people came from the old Oyo Empire. The head of the town, called Ohoro, is a direct descendant of Alafin of Oyo. The government seeing our plight, graded the stool twice (by military and civilian governors), and the two times, the operator of the emirate system engineered the withdrawal of our staff of authority as Oba of Shao (Ohoro of Shao).

This is particularly pathetic when one realises that earlier, the Ohoro of Shao and Olofa of Offa were graded the same year [1919] by colonial masters of the day. Today, the Olofa of Offa is not only a first class graded chief, but the position has been so for several years now. One can easily see a case of inhumanity against humanity.

In 1997, the High Court of Kwara State passed a judgment that the people of Moro and Asa in the so-called emirate should not be under the Dawodus and that future leaders of the communities in these local government areas should come from the indigenes of the areas and not Alimi descendants, styled Dawodus. Till today, since the court passed the order, the implementation has not been effected by the emirate powers that-be, 17 years after the judgment was passed.

One of our core points is to correct the impression that geographically we belong to the Emirate; we are therefore unequivocally avowing before the entire people of this wide world that politically, we share no interest with the people of the emirate as our political course is to champion and toe the path of our people in the South-West. Geographically, if not by irony of circumstance and wrong/anomalous demography precipitated by the feudal lords in the so-called emirate, we are the Northerners of the South Western part of Nigeria.

Our being so referred to as the people of the emirate gave us nothing so far but political and cultural marginalisation. The result of this is that no matter how much we try, no son or daughter of Moro Local Government Area can ever become a member of the National Assembly by election, let alone being a governor. We have tried times without number without success. So, the area is politically marginalised, ethnically neutralised and economically paralysed.

In Moro and Asa, we have our own traditional rulers but under the Ilorin Emirate, their status, honour and traditional rights have been suppressed just as it was the case with Igbomina/Ekiti and Oyun up to 1968.

It should be made clear here that the people of Moro and Asa were never conquered in any military encounter, hence there is no justification to have relegated our traditional rulers to nothing.

Since we were never a conquered people, therefore, it does not stand to reason that we should continue to be treated as serfs who should be ruled by a district overlord.

Because of the above reasons, the people of Moro and Asa are poor peasants with no government amenity to show for it. For instance, Shao which is one of the largest towns in Moro, and one of the ten most populous towns in Kwara State, has just a tarred road passing through it and that is because it is a Federal road linking Ilorin to Jebba and the North.

In essence, we are agitating to go back to our roots in the South-West. If there is no root, there is no tree. Therefore, if we find our roots, our ‘’tree of development’’ will be constantly watered and nourished.

So, our clamour to go to the West is reasonable and realistic and it is the only way to free ourselves from the shackles of feudalism and strange rule. We want to go back to our roots.

Olarogun, the Chairman Afenifere Renewal Group, Kwara State, sent this article from Ilorin.