0

ILORIN IN THE HISTORY OF

NIGERIA

A COLLECTION OF MY ADDRESSES 1987

2001
 1

CHAPTER ONE

WESTERN EDUCATION IN AN ISLAMIC TOWN, ILORIN, PROSPECTS

AND DEVELOPMENT BEING THE ADDRESS OF M.A. AMBALI ON
MONDAY 2ND MARCH, 1987 ON OCCASION OF 20TH YEAR
ANNIVERSARY OF ILORIN GRAMMAR SCHOOL.

All thanks are due to Allah for sparing our lives to witness
this big occasion in the history of our School, Ilorin Grammar
School. I seize this special opportunity to congratulate late the
Proprietors, Members and Board of Governors, (present and past)
the Principal, Mallam Toyin Akanbi, all his predecessors in office,
the staff, past and present, teaching and non academic, the pupils
old and current, and all who have, in one way or the other, made
positive contributions to make Ilorin Grammar School what it is
today. I appreciate the honour and privilege given me to
participate in the twentieth year anniversary of establishing Ilorin
Grammar School. Thanks. Western Education in an Islamic
Town, Ilorin, prospects and development, is a well thought out
topic for an occasion of this nature. It will obviously make us cast
a glance at the history of Ilorin as a small Yoruba village under the
suzerainty of (old) Oyo empire and make us take another look at
how it grew to become a force of great magnitude that a newly
installed Alafin had to herald his assumption of office by sending
to Ilorin that The new moon has appeared and Ilorin was strong
enough to reply the Alafins arrogant message saying, let that
new moon speedily set.1
 2

The topic will equally make us count the blessings of Ilorin as

a young community that provided home for people who were
subjected to persecutions because of their Islamic faith in
neighbouring Yoruba towns such as Kuwo, Ilobe and Ikoyi. We
shall discuss how such people sought and obtained political
asylum in Ilorin, how they enjoyed the freedom to practise their
religion according to the dictate of their conscience and how the
brotherhood of Islam served as the foundation upon which a
Muslim Society was established, nurtured and grew to a maturity
of an Islamic and powerful Community to win for itself the glory of
being described by Professor T.G.O. Gbadamosi of History
Department of University of Lagos as
Islamic Lighthouse, a Local Mecca to which
the Yoruba Muslim turned for study and
guidance2
Finally, we shall examine what people of Ilorin understand to
mean education and the effect of colonialism on their system of
education. As a typical Muslim community, we shall attempt to
examine the rivalry between Islamic and western education in the
soil of non Arabian and non English but purely Islamic
atmosphere.
The location of Ilorin on the world map is 80 o30 North and
4.35 East. There are three possible explanations for the name of
town but two keenly recommended themselves: Ilorin means a
place where sharpening of iron takes place. Hermon Hodge, one
time Resident of Ilorin Province in the colonial era, reported that
 3

there was a large stone or stones where iron implements were

sharpened. He identified the location as Bandele Compound. The
second derivation is closely related to the emblem of Ilorin
Grammar School. It is said that the town takes its name from
description of the area as Ilu Erin literally translated the town
of elephant, but preferably, abode of elephants because it
actually referred to a place where elephants are found. The
second derivation is strengthened by fact that Ilorin is in
savannah region and elephant being a grass-eating mammal.
The earliest settlers profession was hunting. Till today Oko-Erin
is well known around the site of Queen Elizebeth School, Ilorin and
Ilorin Stadium Complex. Experts in language prefer to accept the
former to the latter in the sense that it is easier to linguistically
trace the source of Ilorin to Ilo-rin than to Ilu-Erin.
I wish to make a clarification that Ilorin as presently known
is in fact a conglomeration of a number of villages each of which
was not only on its own but also was developing on its own before
they all became integrated into an urban city of Ilorin we know
today. Among such villages which have been integrated and
urbanized are Abe Emi, (off Kamalud-deen Street, West Omoda)
Oloje (near Mount Carmels Grammar School) Ogidi, (area of
Ansarul Islam Secondary School, and Federal Government
College), Gbako, (present site of Adewole Estate) Atikeke, (near
present Offa motor park) Fate, (part of the G.R.A on the way to
permanent site of University of Ilorin) Alalubosa (site of
Government Secondary School) and Osere (near the site of Atoto
 4

Press Limited). Ilorin where Ojo Isekuse, Eminla, Laderin and

Afonja operated happened to be one of these villages or
settlements that formed the present city of Ilorin.
The Crisis of Oyo
Oyo empire like any other organization, a nation or
civilization, underwent the usual transformation as theorerised by
Ibn Khaldun, the famous scholar of History. It had its phases of
infancy and growth. It attained its zenith and finally experienced
the inevitable age of decay and decline. Although these are
obvious developmental phases that characterize all human
civilizations, historians do find causes to explain the rise and fall
of an empire. Three major factors of the decline of (old) Oyo
empire are of interest to the spread of lawlessness, injustice and
corruption on the land and on the sea is a signal to the
beginning of the end of any reigning power. (Q 30:41). The
gradually degenerating disregard for the right of the governed
reached its peak after the death of Alafin Abiodun and during the
reign of Alafin Aole. As Samuel Johnson put it,
The cup of iniquity of the nation was full;
cruelty, usurpation and treachery were rife,
especially in the capital; and the provinces
were groaning under the yoke of oppression.
Confiscation and slavery for the slightest
offence became matters of daily occurrence,
and the tyranny, executions and lawlessness
 5

of the princes and the other members of the

royal family were simply in-supportable. 3
The second factor of the fall of Oyo empire which is relevant
to Ilorins emergence as powerful emirate was the poor leadership
that degenerated to constitutional crisis in Oyo during the era of
Aole. To consolidate his position on the throne the Bale of Apomu
was the first victim to be summarily dealt with for personal and
unjustifiable excuse. The latter sacrificed his life to save that of
Apomu Community.
The next victim was Bashorun Asamu whose failure to
recover the copy of Koran of an Hausa man for him despite the
royal order that bit should be recovered from those who robbed
him his belongings, was interpreted as indiscipline and disrespect
the royal directive. It became a reason to incur the curse of Alafin
who invoked the wrath of Sango on the Bashorun. Owota,
another prominent Chief and his own share of the conflicts in the
return of Jankalawa to Oyo and the irresistible pressure on the
Aole that he should deal with him for the offence he had
committed in the past before Aole became Alafin.
The head of the army, Are Onakakanfo, in person of Afonja
was another personality Alafin did not want to see his face. The
grand design to eliminate him was to assign him the military
expedition against Iwere, an impregnable and well fortified place
both by nature and art. The choice before Afonja then was either
to accomplish the impossible task within three months or commit
suicide. Although the mission was not disclosed to him till the
 6

army got to the gate of Iwere. Afonjas intelligence network had

brought the full details of the plot to him at Ilorin This was a
pointer to the degree of the loyalty (low or high) the then Oyo
authority enjoyed.
It showed how tight/loose the security was then in the
capital. The master counter plan was not unfolded till they got to
Iwere and all the plotters were taught the lessons of their lives. It
was there that the Chief Opele of Gbogun acquired his title Ari
Agada pa Aburo Oba. A man who had a blade or sword to stay
the kings brother.4
The army ignored the royal order to call at the headquarters
whether they were victorious or defeated. Instead, his majesty
received a covered calabash demanding that he should commit
suicide. He complied and cursed the nation. As the crisis got to
the peak and things hopelessly fell apart, Afonja, are Onakakanfo,
threw off the hegemony of Oyo and declared independence. He
was not alone in the belief that things have fallen apart,
Several other Yoruba community leaders
such as Adegun of Ikoyi and Opele the ruler
of Gbogun also tried to convert their local
autonomy to outright independence by
carving out separate domains5
The third factor was the movement for Islamic reform. There
existed in Oyo or Yoruba towns, Yoruba and non Yoruba Muslims
such as Hausa and Nupe Muslims. Although they were not socially
or economically-highly placed, the Muslims were vocal to
 7

challenge the excesses of the ruling classes. There was a case

when a son of Alafin died. His Majesty did not believe that the
Oyo nobles who came to sympathize with him were sincere
because the smell at their hands indicated that they had just
eaten when he was fasting because of the bereavement. He
ordered that they all should be killed. A Nupe Muslim Scholar
called Baba Kewu could not stomach the injustice and sent his
son to remonstrate with him for his unjust and cruel acts in
avenging his sons death on innocent people, when his son had
died a natural death. This he said is a sin against God who took
away the life of your son. 6 Muslims became organized and
became distinct group through the way they dress. Parakoyi is a
Muslim titleholder who played significant role in the commercial
life of the town as a toll collector and as a Muslim leader next only
to Imam in Oyo, Ogbomosho and Oshogbo. The stand of Muslim
leaders in Yorubaland notwithstanding whether they are indigenes
or not, on the injustices against the governed is obvious.
Naturally, they would react and they did. Muslim communities
produced leaders who intensified Muslim evangelization and
reformist preaching. One of them was Sheikh Salih who is
popularly known as Alimi. He had travelled extensively in the
area particularly Oyo, Ogbomosho, Iseyin, where he spend one
year, and Kuwo where he spent a period of three years.
He moved and taught within the Muslim Communities and
became very much revered for his piety and learning. For his
 8

religious activities and popularity he was driven out of Oyo by

Alafin. He later settled at Ilorin.
The Establishment of Ilorin Emirate
Another significant group of Ilorin Founding Fathers were the
Muslims who were present in Ilorin before the beginning of 19 th
Century. They included Hausa traders and Fulani pastoralists who
had came to trade but later settled in the area. Amongst such
Muslims were Bako, who later became Sarkin Gambari, Uthman
Olufadi, who was the head of the earliest Fulani pastoralists in
Ilorin. There were also Yoruba Muslims whose ancestorical origin
stemmed from the old Mali. Similarly, Okesuna formed a small
village occupied by a group of Muslims who migrated to Ilorin to
protect their religious freedom. Thats why it was popularly
referred to as Oke-suna. Sheikh Adam Abdullah of Ilorin identified
the spot along the mini-campus of the University of Ilorin on the
left as you enter Ilorin from Ogbomosho and on the right on your
way to Ibadan and Lagos. The group was headed by a
distinguished and pious scholar called Solagberu. Other pious
colleagues included Sheikh Shazili, Sheikh Muhammad, Shiekh
Thanni the grandfather of Basharu Adangba and a host of others.
It was reported that Sheikh Alimi was first hosted in Okesuna
village for about a month before travelling to Iseyin and Ikoyi. His
arrival in 1817 was a significant turning point both in the history
of Islam and Ilorin itself as a Community.
Islam changed from private religion to state religion in the
Society. The magnetic personality of Sheikh Salihu won the
 9

attraction, recognition and respect of all the groups who had

earlier settled there and attracted followers and admirers from
both North and South of what is known from 1914 as Nigeria.
This marked the turning point of transformation of Ilorin from a
village wrapped in obscurity to a town destined to play a
leading role in the history of Nigeria and indeed West Africa.
The recognition of superiority, of Sheikh Salihu by the settled
pious scholars in Okesuna was attested to by their giving him the
title Alimi the learned. It was reported that the earlier settlers
had only the first volume of Tafsirul-Jalalain while the second
volume of it was given to them by him. Hence, they sought and
obtained his permission to copy it, learnt it from him and named
him Alimi the learned. The legitimacy of leadership was seized
as a golden opportunity to establish Ilorin Emirate. He obtained
the co-operation of all the groups ranging from his pupils,
associates to companions some of whom were Fulanis, Hausas,
Nupes, Yorubas and Kanuris. They jointly sought the help of God
to establish the DAOLAH. They were unanimous to seek Gods
favour by one month fasting in which they would take only dates
for the morning and evening breakfasts. It was at the end of the
fasting without taking meat or fish that they laid the foundation of
Ilorin Emirate, which most of us are proud to be its descendants
today. The prominent groups that formed the Founding Fathers of
Ilorin today are the Okesuna group, under the leadership of
Solagberu, the Afonja followers and the Muslim but none Yoruba
settlers. The first and the last groups were loyal to the
 10

leadership of Alfa Alimi. Historians generally refer to the group of

non Yoruba Muslims in Ilorin as Jamaa.
When the successor of Aole, Alafin Maku sent of Afonja that
New moon has appeared
Afonja sought and obtained the support of both Solagberu
and Alimi groups to sustain independence of Ilorin. As the power
of Oyo was on decrease that of Ilorin was on increase to subdue
many powerful Yoruba towns such as Gbohun, Edu and Ikoyi.
Alafin Oluewu was first summoned to Ilorin but when he failed to
honour the second call Oyo paid the price dearly. Oyo then
mobilized his supporters including Barubas. There was a call for
assistance from Sokoto but before it came Ilorin had succeeded to
put the situation under control in a war in which Ikoko as the
leader of Borgawas was known was defeated at Ita Kudima, near
Pakat. According to Johnson Jimba pursued the routed army,
sacked Oyo and carried away various insignia of office including
the egun dress and 100 brass posts from Alafins palace. 7
Earlier Oyo sent military expeditions to exterminate Ilorin. The
first was Mugbamugba war, Kaula war, Ogele war and Nupe
war. Ilorin was successful to defend its territory against all the
attacks. The defeat of Ilorin by Ibadan forces at Osogbo in 1838
or 1940 put an end to the expansionist movement of Ilorin in the
south. It then became clear to Ilorin that its ambition to
physically over run all Yoruba land was not realistic. She then
resorted to diplomacy of alliances among the Yoruba groups to
ensure that the divided Yoruba groups never had opportunity to
 11

unite against her. The manoeuvre yielded the desired goal for
Ilorin till the beginning of the colonial rule.
Colonial Administration
Ilorin army was away in Ekiti land when Royal Niger
Company forces crossed Niger at Jebba. They had to rush home
from Orimupe to defend their town, but with little resistance, Ilorin
joined the list of British colonized empires on Friday 16 th February,
1897.
Association of Ilorin with the North
The cultural association of the majority of the people of Ilorin
with Yoruba is evident in so many ways: the indigenes who are of
Nupe, Hausa, Fulani or Kanuri origin speak Yoruba very fluently
that a man of Yoruba origin cannot claim superiority over them in
matter of expression in the language. They have Oriki and
indigenous Yoruba name. In fact Ilorin Fulanis bear the latter
more than the Yoruba themselves because while Bolakale,
Bolajoko, Oluwatoyin, Omotayo .. As time goes on, their
eloquence or majesty of Yoruba is at the expense of their original
languages. Dr. S.A. Balogun said, in one of his papers on Ilorin
Equally significant is the strong Yoruba
cultural tradition in the area. The Fulani
ruling dynasty has been acculturated. The
present Emir of Ilorin does not understand
Fulfude. His usual language of
communication is Yoruba.
 12

However, a number of practices of these people refused to

die with their language in Ilorin. They remain the distinguishing
characteristics that point to their origin. For instance, you will not
be left in doubt as to the origin of an Ilorin man during his
marriage ceremony when he talks of Sisa, Lali and some
interesting jokes they crack which are dated back to long history
in their associations. In the same manner, Ilorin Yoruba was
largely influenced by their township from the North. Hermon
Hodge observed.
The population, as already stated, is
predominantly Yoruba, though it is now of so
cosmopolitan respecting its origin. Even
Johnson the historian would have some
difficulty in deciding to which of his four great
sections of the Yoruba race these people may
be said belong. Indeed, it is doubtful whether
it ever was capable of such classification.
After from personal individual attachment of a large number
of people of Ilorin to different places in the North, documented
official contacts of Ilorin with Sokoto caliphate dated back to the
reign of Abdul Salami. He wrote the Emir of Gwandu Muhammad
Wanib Abdullai seeking certain legal (Sharia) clarifications. Ilorin
acknowledged the superior authority of the caliphate because it
paid tribute to Gwandu. The latter offered military aid to the
former as occasions demanded. It is on record that Ibrahim Khalil
B. Abdullahi, the third Emir of Gwandu personally led a joint
 13

military expedition of Sokoto and Gwandu forces to assist Ilorin. 8

The tradition of Ilorin looking towards the North, particularly
Sokoto, her religious and political association and fraternization
stemmed out her affinity with the people of the North. The
associations began formally form the inception of the Emirate
through the colonial era up to the present day.
Introduction of Western Education to Ilorin
Ever before the imperialists introduced Western Education,
Ilorin had its system of Islamic and secular education.
The latter predated the former. Before and during Islamic
era Ilorin had engaged in a number of occupation was introduced
to Ilorin, revealed that Ilorin had about 92,000 farmers. A colonial
staff remarked about Ilorin saying:
In spite of the size of the town, the term
Urban can hardly be applied to the
population of Ilorin, so constant is the
movement between town and country.
Most families have both a compound in
the town and a farm in the bush and
migrate from one to the other for two,
three, or four months at a time9
(emphasis mine)
It gave the population of potters as 1,400, merchants 1,422,
blacksmith 548, hunters 180, tailors 1,764, weavers 219 and
traders who were mainly women as 120,734. The traders had
been with the people ever before the Islamization of the people.
 14

Islamic education was only introduced as additional not in place of

the training. Sheikh Adam Abdullah confirmed that the morning
period of the people was devoted to acquiring Islamic Education,
the afternoon was left for industrial activities and the evenings
and nights were for commercial activities when they sell their
products.
This was the situation till the imperialists introduced Western
Education to Ilorin. In September 1914, one Mr. H.H. Annets
assembled fifteen local mallams to form the nucleus of the
teaching staff. In 1915 a school of four classes was opened
headed by one Mallam Musa from Kano. In 1916 boarding system
was introduced. For the first few years western education was
unpopular for several reasons. Naturally, man is hesitant to
embrace too new ideas. More basically the fact that Christianity
and Western Education are twin weapons of imperialism in Nigeria
Western Education was largely influenced by Christianity. The
then Resident of Ilorin complained saying:
More than one attempt was made to burn
down the compound, (school). Needles to
say, education was no more popular with
the pupils absentees were the rule rather
than the exception; boys were continually
running away and no one could attend sick
parade if he could possibly help it. In the
Department Annual Report of 1920 Ilorin is
 15

referred to as the most disheartening centre

of our work.10
In 1920, Elementary School was opened and in 1921 the
founding fathers of Western Education in Ilorin, Mallams
Muhammad Gobir and Usman went to the Training College,
Katsina. In 1928 Mallam (then) Yahaya Popoola (now Madawaki
Ilorin) one of the surviving teachers of the Emir of Ilorin today,
passed out with flying colours from the College. It did not take
long when the resistance ceased. As the products of the newly
introduced system graduated to take up strategic positions in the
society, the traditional and Islamic Education are seriously
challenged. The children of farmers, weavers, merchants and
Mallams abandoned the trades of their fathers in search of
Western Education that qualified them for white collar jobs. At
that time, it was wise and lucrative. Poor Nigerians, little did we
realize that the education planned by the imperialists was to
serve the colonial interest in our land for the age of colonialism
only. In 1960, we obtained empty for hollow political
independence. We did not and have not yet realized that we
need to liberate our mentalities, especially in the field of
education. We continue to ape Britain and America. We adopted
objective examination pattern and course system in our
Universities because that is vogue in United States Educational
Institutions. Little did we realize that West has shifted from using
manual calculations to Computer Science? Even if there was the
temporary oil boom (doom) to purchase the Computers, we failed
 16

to recognize that we need brains to operate and maintain the

computers when they develop problems. In due course, we over
produced white collar job personnel and unemployment problems
failed all our cities and rural areas. The Nigerians have lost the
skills of their fathers and they did not master that their colonial
masters. Western Education makes us poor and hungry in the
midst of plenty. The resources abound everywhere but our
education did not train us on how to tap them. We have caps
but we have no head! Our resources are itching for tapping, but
we have no money to employ expatriates and out universities
produce brigade of unemployables. This situation is not peculiar
to Ilorin as a community whose system of education suffered
seriously as a result of colonialism. India was under direct British
rule for a long period. North Africa came under French rule and
Indonesia under Dutch. Egypt and Iran had their experience of
colonial domination.
The difference in the results of the experience of imperialism
on the Muslim countries depends on:
(a) Whether a particular cultural region retained its
sovereignty vis--vis the European political expansion and
whether it was dominated and governed de jure or de facto
by a European colonial power;
(b) The character of the organization of the religious
leadership, and the character of their relationship with the
governing institutions before the colonial encroachment;
 17

(c) The State of the development of Islamic education and

its accompanying culture immediately before the colonial
encroachment; and
(d) The character of overall colonial policy of the particular
colonizing power-British, French, or Dutch.
To face this challenge Muslim Scholars all over the world are
sharply divided into two groups:
The first group maintains that the acquisition of modern
knowledge should be limited to the practical technological sphere.
They argued that Muslims do not need Western intellectual
products in matter of thoughts because Islam has provided it.
The second view is that Muslims should acquire western
technology and its intellectualism because no type of knowledge
can be harmful. In addition, science and pure thought had been
cultivated by Muslims in the early medieval centuries before they
were taken over by Europeans. Majority of elite Muslims in
Nigeria belongs to the first school. Whatever side we belong
there is need to appreciate the difference between mere
acquisition of science and technology ad cultivation of the spirit of
scientific inquiry as demanded by Qur'an. We stop giving the
false impression that our brain is black because our skin is black.
Technology, western or eastern, is not to be transferred to us on
the platter of gold. They are not fools. We must realize that
transfer of technology from west or east means economic suicide
to them. If they transfer it where are they going to find markets
for their goods?
 18

The problems Western Education ran into in Ilorin like many

other towns in Nigeria today, cannot be blamed on Islam-far from
that. It is the problems western education and operated and
executed, created for itself. It is planned and operated without
taking cognizance of the people for whom it is planned. Professor
Fred W. Riggs of the University of Hawaii remarked on us in the
field of public administration and said:
There is an old conundrum which asks:
what is the difference between a diplomat
and lady? Answer: when a diplomat says yes
he means maybe, when he says maybe he
means no, and if he says no he is not a
diplomat. By contrast, of course, the lady
means maybe when she says no, yes when
she means maybe when she says no, yes
when she says maybe, and is no lady if she
says yes. A derivation puzzle would ask how
you know what someone means who says
maybe? Clearly, the answer is contextual, for
you must know who speaker is to interpret
his or her meaning.
The conundrum is intended as a joke but
it carries an important idea which has been
amply confirmed by semantics and linguistics:
the meaning of a word can rarely be
 19

determined from the word alone but emerges

from the context in which it is used.
What is true of words is equally true of
other actions, for the significance of a
behaviour is rarely intrinsic to the act but can
be learned only when the act is interpreted in
context. The general lesson that may be
drawn from these considerations is that the
relevance of administrative and other
doctrines is contingent on the total setting in
which they are employed: what works well in
some places may lead to disaster in others.
The old proverb one mans meat is anothers
poison expresses the same thought in
different terms. Yet, we often act in our
overseas programs as thought what is food for
one must be food for all.11
Compare parliamentary system in Britain and Nigeria (1959
1966) and Presidential system in America and Nigeria (1979
198). We are all human beings but the environments in which
these systems operated make the world of difference between
their success here and failure there. The case of Western
Education in Nigeria is not different. The Answer to the problem is
to tailor it to suit style.
Thanks God bless.
 20

REFERENCES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

1. The History of the Yorubas by Rev. Samuel Johnson, Page 196
2. The Growth of Islam among the Yoruba, 184-19081, Page 10
3. The History of the Yorubas by Rev. S. Johnson, Page 168
4. Ibid, Page 192
5. Dr. s.A. Balogun Aspects of Ilorins problems in Historical
Respectives (Unpublished)
6. Johnson, page 164
7. Page 68 of Ilorin Gazetteer by Horman Hodge
8. Tarikh Gwandu by Ahmad Sadu Alkalin Gwandu, Nigerian
National Archives, Kaduna, (NAK) SN P 15 Unnumbered series
1778/190 Paragraph 62
9. See Page 278 of Gazetteer of Ilorin Province. This
observation strengthens the case of those of us who insist
that Ilorin, Asa and Moro are one family. Creation of Local
Governments is for administrative convenience.
10. Ilorin Gazetteer, Page 255
11. Pages 72 - 3, Frontiers of Development Administration
 21

CHAPTER TWO

ILORIN DESCENDANTS PROGRESSIVE UNION (I.D.P.U.)

AND THE CHALLENGES OF OUR TIME

BEING THE ADDRESS OF ABDUL MUTTALIB AHMAD HAnBALI ON

THE OCCASION OF THE FORMAL OPENING OF THE UNIONS
TWENTY SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON WEDNESDAY 25TH
DECEMBER, 1991 AL ARBIA, 20TH JUMAD THANNI 1412
A.H.

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

The Chairman, Hon. Justice Saka Yusuf
The Lady Chairperson Arch. Halimat Tayo Alao
The Special Guest of Honour, Navy Captain Mohammed Adebayo
Lawal
The Special Guests; Alhajis Saka Saadu and Ayinla Olomoda
The Chief Launcher, Alhaji Abdulsalami Ayinla
The President, Ilorin Descendants Progressive Union, Alhaji Shehu
Abdul Gaffar
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
I do not find it comfortable to be in a straight jacket of being
so flattered and called Gust Speaker in an organization I am
humbly proud to belong to by virtue of my birth and I always
consider myself a life member whose name cannot be removed
from the register and whose membership cannot be terminated.
This is because, I have no other place a call mine besides Ilorin. It
calls for a lot of caution and you have to watch it when you are
 22

called Guest in your house. This strange or should I say, odd and
tight circumstances in which I find myself makes me appreciate
the situations that lead some people to erroneously or otherwise ,
pray God Almighty to please deliver them from the scheming of
their friends only, because they are capable of taking care of the
machinations of their enemies. I realize then that it is easier to
know how to escape the traps of the enemies than how to beat
the tricks of the friends.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have chosen, Ilorin Descendant
Progressive Union, I.D.P.U. and the challenges of our time as
subject matter of my topic in which I do not only protest but also
refuse to be a Guest Speaker. Rather, I prefer to play the role of a
mirror in the dressing room of Ilorin Descendant Progressive Union
(I.D.P.U.). It is not open to debate because it is not challenged
anytime, anywhere and in any form that I.D.P.U. is the oldest
surviving development organization in our community. The Union
is the catalyst that gives birth to other development organization
in Ilorin Emirate. The development organizations that can claim
to have been in existence before I.D.P.U. in Kwara State (old &
new) can be counted on our finger tips, if any. However, we must
realize that being the first is not as difficult as maintain the first
position. I do not have the first place within the whole of Kwara
State until the target of being one of the best models of the
development organizations in the whole country is attained by the
grace of Almighty God.
 23

The Union has every cause to reflect over its modest

achievements and thank God that it is the consensus that it is
recognized as the advance party of the army of progress and
development in Ilorin. It spearheaded the development projects
such as, the re-construction of the Pakata road.
The pioneering-proprietorship of Balah Secondary School in Asa
goes to its credit and honour. Its modest secretariat houses by
one storey building at the ends of Kamalud-deen and Pakata
roads, has served and continues to serve as the meeting, melting
and processing point of I.D.P.U. and non I.D.P.U ideas out of which
a number of the developments have emerged. Ilorin Foundation
and the ongoing City Hall are classical examples of the product of
Pakata Forum I.D.P.U. is a conspicuous partner in the re-
construction of our Multi-Million Naira Ultra Modern Central
Mosque. It played a leading role, expected of it to prosecute
successfully the Ilorin Chapter of Kwara State Industrial Fund
launching ceremony.
Ilorin Descendants Progressive Union (I.D.P.U.) remains right
from its inception to date, not only a ghost but also a myth that
polices the conscience of all government functionaries from
committing assaults on the rights of Ilorin people. To avoid its
wrath, it has become the tradition of the ruling classes to be
cautious on the interests of the seat of Kwara State Government.
The invitations of the sister development organizations spread all
over the nooks and corners of the state were responded to
positively and favourably by I.D.P.U. on behalf of itself and the
 24

entire Ilorin Community to promote the much desired cordially

and brotherliness between us and our good neighbours in the
State.
The consensus over I.D.P.U. hardly goes beyond this point.
As soon as your survey goes beyond this point, the similitude of
the image of I.D.P.U. becomes that of the elephant in the popular
Indian fable in which a number of blind men were asked to touch
different parts of an elephant on the part of it which his hands
touched. The first blind man whose hands were placed on the
tusk of the elephant said was like a big snake. The second man
who touched the legs described it, rightly of course, as a mortar
and the third man who touched its ears described it as tray. This
represents the perceptions of different individuals and groups of
I.D.P.U. at different times and under different prevailing
circumstances. I am not competent and even it is not relevant to
say anybody is wrong but the genuine patriots in the Union, a
word is enough for the wise. Ironically, the political leadership for
example, in their age of infancy sucked the human milk of the
Union and later, for a brief time had good days of honey moon
with I.D.P.U., but as soon as they secured in-road into the hearts
of the unmindful people, the Union is discard like the drugs whose
dates of potency have expired. The part of the political
leaderships which did not win the heart of the bride does not
regret it today.
The common denominator is that any Ilorin man, conscious
of development cannot afford to be indifferent to I.D.P.U. He
 25

either agrees or disagrees with the Unions styles, definitely, not

its goals and objectives. I chose to regard that disagreement
itself as forward matching and because life itself is not static but
dynamic. As such man and human society should not be static
but dynamic. One obvious characteristic of dynamism is that it
generates friction and in terms of social values that means
difference and very often dispute. Difference or preferably let us
say the right to differ, lies at the root of all issues involving
progress as it does at the root of all matters that involve inquiry,
investigation and research aimed at matching forward of a group
of people constituting a society. We must therefore not only
recognize but we also have to safeguard the right of the
individuals and groups to differ, to question, to dissent town,
Ilorin, to ensure that our differences should act, react and
beneficently. The differences may take the form of politics,
ideology, individual style or approach to any given problems or to
satisfy personal wants and desires or to fulfill the purposes for
which the society is established.
I venture to say that under no circumstances shall we allow
these differences (in the course of approaching our goals) to
divert our attention from what should be our common objectives
and goals. A detached observer who watches us with keen
interest will see the traces of our differences in the organizations
or let me say chain of development organizations we form, such
as the Resources Group, the Solidarity Club, the Ilorin Joint Ward
Development Association, Ilorin City Club, the Ilorin Front, just to
 26

mention a few of our a little to the right and a little to the left
organizations leaving few or nobody in the centre of our
development. Thanks to God, the differences of our perceptions
and approaches to the development in Ilorin had not been
destructive to our common goals. The million dollar question is
why can we not put our heads and hands together to work to
attain the common goals? For instance, our reactions are not only
similar but indeed identical to the transfer of the headquarters of
the Niger River Basin Development Authority from Kwara State
capital to Niger State capital, the sad fate of Ilorin International
Airport, the work on the ten thousand line exchange digital which
has stopped, despite that the building is ready waiting to be
equiped, the long awaited but yet to come Ilorin-Ibadan dual
carriage way, the way and manner the recent States Creation
exercise took place in the country and our fate in the subsequent
creation of the Local Governments; to mention just a few of the
challenging incidents of our time.
It is in view of these and other similarly motivated events
that I.D.P.U. cannot afford to go into the state of coma for a long
period of time before rising to the challenges of our time. As the
Central Vanguard Organization of our development, the seemingly
silence, if not inaction is difficult to understand. The magnitude of
the effects of the events are enough to make a dead person shake
up in the grave if he cannot rise and call for our positive action in
unison. Obviously, this is expected justifiably to be at the
instance and initiative of the I.D.P.U. with a view to designing a
 27

common strategy to rise to the challenges of our time as a people

of common fate. I repeat for the sake of emphasis that the
cumulative effects filled our atmosphere with the clouds of fear,
loss of confidence in self and insecurity that called for the I.D.P.U.
to play the unique role of An-Najm Athaqib i.e. the star of
courage and hope that pierces through the era of fear, confusion
and despair. We all waited in vain. For the I.D.P.U. to maintain and
justify its position of being that precious piece of flesh in the body
of our community development, whose activeness signifies the
activeness of the whole community and whose dormancy spells
the passivity of the whole society, it is sad and lamentable that
despite our unique enviable position in the better life programmes
in the state, what our community benefits from the laudable
programmes does not show that we made the best use of the rare
opportunity that came our way. It seems, we have out of sheer
frustration, put off from our minds other perennial problems of our
society and we have resigned ourselves to the fate waiting for the
heavens to help us when we do not care a hoot to help ourselves.
The dwindling numbers of our sons and daughters both in quality
and quantity in the Federal Civil Service and other Federal
Institutions, the near absence of our boys and girls in the
academic and administrative sectors of the University named
after our community and other institutions based in Ilorin such as
the University Teaching Hospital, have ceased to worry us. We
resort up seeking golden fleece of admissions into the Universities
 28

in Sokoto, Kano, Jos and Maiduguri because we have no place in

the University built on our soil until our guests are satisfied.
If a may ask, can we fairly put all the blames on the others
without making a critical and inward self assessment of our
educational plights right from the primary and secondary school
levels? Which universities have places for the half-baked
Secondary School products? Ask an average person to
recommend the best Secondary Schools for you in town. He
readily mentions St. Anthony or Cherubim and Seraphim
Secondary Schools. They are both established in Sabo-Oke.
The primary schools where the pupils do not run shift are Bishop
Smiths Demonstration School in Offa Road, Wesley and St. James
C.A.C. Primary Schools. They are all established by our Local
Government Education Authority at the low density areas of Ilorin
for our lucky guests. The children of the hosts attend Ansarul
Islam L.G.E.A. Primary School, Okemale and its likes established in
the high density areas where morning and afternoon session
shifts are the answers to their population to sit on the bare and
dusty floors of the terribly dilapidated buildings called schools.
Ladies and gentlemen, whether we look at the magnitude of
our problems vertically or horizontally, they appear to me to be
too much for an individual or group of individuals to assume that
it can play the part of the all wise tortoise in the Yoruba fables. It
will amount to shirking our duties or adopting defeatist approach
to say that things will sort themselves out. If we say the time has
 29

not come for all of us to close ranks, we are only waiting for the
plantain to rot in the name of getting ripe.
Conclusion
A way to conclude this address is to re-assure ourselves that
our problems are half-solved once they are identified and
recognized. Our greatest problem is disunity. It is my considered
opinion that we cannot afford to waste our precious time further
on whether or not there is need for all the development
organizations in our community to come together to face our
common challenges. We cannot afford to embark on another
venture of voyage of exploration of duplicating and dissipating
energy to look for a new forum. Our surest bet is to re-inforce
I.D.P.U. to be able to rise to the challenges of our time. To allow
the charity to start from where it is due, the Union should
recognized and demonstrate that its leadership does not enjoy
the monopoly of wisdom to solve our multifarious problems. The
Union therefore has to stretch its hands of comradeship and co-
operation and fling its doors open and widely to accommodate all
shades of opinions: the rightists, the leftists, the centralists, and
what have you. The Union should take the bull of our problems by
the horns and arrange a meeting of all the key development
organizations with a view to putting our heads and hands
together to work for realizing our common objectives and goals.
The Union should allow the far reaching re-organizations to
enable it reach the grassroots of the society whereby the Central
Development organizations strata will be based on the
 30

traditionally recognized boundaries of our wards. All the

Ministries and offices within the State, the Unions branches all
the country will serve as regular sources of collecting the Unions
dues to ensure regular and reliable income for development
projects. The units based on wards in the town should make good
of the advantages the mosque units to ensure the involvement of
all and sundry in the crusade. Rights to participate in the
elections should be based on the payment of the years dues.
It is a duty imposed by the Constitution on the Unions
Education Committee to arrange public lectures and symposia
for the purposes of increasing the communities awareness of the
importance of education. I venture to say we have to go further
beyond the scope of education because a society does not grow
or live on educational alone. The regular activities of the Union
should not be limited to the annual rituals in December. A way to
tap our highly placed and gifted sons and daughters is to
schedule periodic fora in forms of lectures, seminars and
symposia to generate cross-fertilization of ideas in all spheres of
our life; politics at mature level, the economy of our area, our
history, culture, religion, industry etc. It has to be planned ahead
to cover a period of every two months or no monthly basis from
February to November, each year.
Finally, I sincerely apologize, if in this course of this speech
anybodys ox is gored. It is not intended by my friends who
drafted me to the stage are answerable for all the omissions and
commissions. While they were refusing to grant me permission to
 31

have my way to escape the task of being the Speaker, they

guaranteed me the right to have my say. This is my say in the
manner I know how to say it. May God grant all of us pardon and
bless us all.
Thank you. God bless.

CHAPTER THREE
ARABIC CONTRIBUTION TO CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN
LITERATURE: THE ILORIN LEGACY

BEING THE ADDRESS OF ABDUL MUTTALIB AHMAD HAnBALI ON

THE OCCASION OF HE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF THE
ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIAN AUTHORS (A.N.A.) ON SATURDAY 27TH
NOVEMBER, 1993

I want to thank the organizers of the Convention of the

Association of Nigeria Authors (A.N.A.) for their kind gesture to
 32

invite me to address this august audience. I must confess and

right from the beginning crave for your indulgence, if a fail to
meet your expectation on this topical issue. The more I delve into
the topic the more I realize that it is a deep well, full of water of
knowledge and the more I realize that it is an ocean of research
that the more you swim in it the more you realize that you still
have a long way to go. It is one of the tempting topical issues
that the more you know the less you feel you know about it.
Added to this is the scarcity of time at my disposal to prepare for
the talk. However, I promise you that, by the grace of God, I shall
do my best.
The invitation hinted me that, It is expected that the talk
will focus on the literary output of the three venerable and
influential Ilorin literary gurus who have been identified as (1)
Shaykh Muahammad Kamalud-deen Al-Adabiy (2) Shaykh
Abubakar Ibn Ikokoro and (3) Shaykh Adam Abdullahi Al-Ilory.
The Origin of Arabic
The combination makes the task difficult for me and very
intriguing because it arouses my interest and curiosity. I wish to
take-off from the origin of Arabic and its influence on the Arabs.
The word Arabs in its primitive sense refers to the inhabitants of
Jaziratul Arab i.e. Arabian peninsula which is both
geographically and culturally divisible into the North and South.
Their dialects both in the two geographical zones were originally
called Arabic. In the South there was the dialect of Yaman while
the dialect of Hijaz dominated the North. The Arabs of the North
 33

of the peninsula, unlike their Southern conterpoarts, and little or

no contact with the peoples outside their world. They were
restricted in the North by the Mediterranean Sea, in the East by
Persian Gulf, in the West by Red Sea and Gulf of Adan in the
South.
It was within the North that Islam was born and it was the
Islamic faith that brought the Arabs of the North out of their shell
and gave them the break through to have contact with the
outside world. It was then that the northern dialect of Hijaz
metamorphosed into the Linga Franca of Islam and over night
superseded its Southern Sister dialect of Yaman and became the
Arabic per excellence.
Generally, all over the world, magic carries the connotation
of disapproval but Arabs call their language a legitimate magic,
(Sibr Halal) to express the effects its rhythm, rhyme and music
have on them. Sa Hebrev found the power of expression in
Psalms and Greek are credited for the power of expression statues
and architecture, Arabs found their power of expression in Ode,
they call Qasidah. They believe and say that the beauty of man
lies in the eloquence of his tongue. Wisdom, we are told has
alighted on three things: the brain of the Franks, the hands of the
Chinese and the tongue of the Arabs1
A poet among the Arabs, had his function in the time of war
or peace. He was a moulder of public opinion, oracle, guide,
orator, historian and spokesman of his community and respected
assessor of the rulers of his time. Shaykh Badamasiy Ibn Musa of
 34

Agbaji in Ilorin used his knowledge of Arabic to play this role

against the ruler of his time who attempted to seal the mouths of
the Muslim preachers in Ilorin.

**

1

.. Arabs, 10th Edition, The Macmillan Press Limited, London, Pages 90 - 91

**

**



**

Meaning:
Our silence in this manner
without enlightment is a similitude of
remaining in darkness without lamp.
Our dear ruler, is it proper for us
to abandon the men without
knowledge to go astray? Our God
ordered those of us who called to the
way of God to let there be among
 35

them a group who will be calling to

the way of Allah. It is for ever so in
our scripture. Have a look at your
Qur'an, dear Emir.2
History of Ilorin
The author of the History of the Yorubas, Reverend Samuel
Johnson (Anla Ogun) classified Ilorin as one of the three
peculiar Yoruba towns. Its other peculiar sister towns are Ibadan
and Abeokuta. He lamented the odd situation in Ilorin peculiarity
saying:
2
Adam Abdullahi Lamahal Balawir fi Masharil Ulama, Page 37
How it came about that Ilorin a pure Yoruba
town and one time the third city in the kingdom
fell into the hands of aliens and to this day
allegiance to other than its rightful sovereign
but to this day the principal market and the
chief mosque of the town remain still in front of
the house of the founder and the rightful
owner of Ilorin.3 (Underlining mine)
This opinion remains correct and incontrovertible as long as
we limit our consideration to the dominance of Yoruba as the
language of Ilorin Community. I opine, however, that the
sentiments expressed by the learned author did not take
cognizance of the fact that it is not all the time that the language
spoken in a society serves as bona fide criterion to determine
the socio cultural life of the society. Ilorin is a good example.
 36

The students of Ilorin history are unanimous that it was a

very small village founded towards the tail end of 18 th Century,
say 1780 about thirty years before the coming of Sheikh Salih
Alimi, may Allah be merciful with him. The earliest settler was Ojo
Isekuse, a hunter from Ilota, followed by Eminla, then another
hunter, Dada, who settled at Okelele and later, Afonja, the
Kankanfo, joined them, of great significance to our discussion and
general history of Ilorin was a group of Muslims who settled in
what is today known as Ilorin before the beginning of 19 th Century.
They chose Okesuna as their place of abode. Okesuna was the
place of abode of all those who opted to live individually and as a
group according to the dictates of Islam. Suna is an Islamic term
which means the Muslim way of life. These people did not
constitute part of the people of Ilorin Rev. Johnson had in mind
when he talked of Ilorins peculiar. He said:
There were several towns and villages around
3
The History at noYorubas,
of the very Page
great
94 distance from Ilorin, e.g.
Kanla, Okesuna, Ganmo, Elerinjare, Idofian,
Oke-Oyi 4
Alhaji Adam Abdullah Al-AIlory identified the spot of Okesuna
along the present site of the mini Campus of University of Ilorin.
The head of the Okesuna Muslim Community was a distinguished
and pious scholar Atahiru Solagbery. The arrival Sheikh Salih Alimi
in 1817 was a significant turning point both in the history of Islam
and Ilorin itself. The former changed from private to State
religion. The magnetic personality of Sheikh Salih Alimi won the
 37

attraction, recognition and respect of all the groups who had

earlier settled in and around the place known as Ilorin today. His
personality also attracted followers from both North and South of
what became Nigeria.
This influx marked the turning point of transformation of
Ilorin from a village wrapped in obscurity, to a town destined play
a leading role in the history of Nigeria, especially in the spread of
Islam to where it was not known in Yorubaland and its
consolidation where it has reached.
Sheikh Salih Alimi sought and obtained the co-operation of
all the groups ranging from his pupils, associates to companions,
some of whom were Fulanis, Hausas, Nupes, Yorubas and Kanuris
to establish an Islamic society, named Ilorin Emirate. New Ilorin
was an amalgamation of the Okesuna group, the Fulani group
headed by Olufadi, the Gambari group under the leadership of
Bako and the Yoruba group of Afonja, Ojo and Dada. They were
unanimous to seek Gods favour by observing one month
voluntary special fasting in which they fed only fruits and plants.
With this background, it is difficult to agree with Rev. Johnson that
Ilorin is being ruled by aliens and that its allegiance was
4 th
The Rev. Samuel
misplaced. This Johnson, The History
is because Ilorinof has
the Yorubas, 8 Edition,
undergone Lowe & Brydore
a change from
Printers Limited, Thetford, Norfolk, Page 200
tribal community to a Muslim society. Hogpin observed:
The population, as already stated, is
predominantly Yoruba, though it is now of so
cosmopolitan a character as so defy
classification respecting its origin. Even
 38

Johnson the historian would have some

difficulty in deciding to which of his four great
sections of the Yoruba race these people may
be said to belong. Indeed, it is doubtful
whether it ever was capable of such
classification; it probably grew at an early
date to be a town of refuge to all and sundry
in times of unrest. Ajikobi and Alanamu are
definitely Yoruba wards, as are the Ibagan and
Okaka sub-wards of the Gambari and Fulani
wards respectively. The Emirs ward and two
of the sub-wards of the Fulani Ward possess
Fulani rulers, and three sub-wards of the
Gambari ward a Hausa administration; but in
none save Zongo and Karuma in the Gambari
ward, essentially Hausa quarters, does any
but the Yoruba predominate among the
ordinary population.5
The most conspicuous legacy of the Founding Fathers of
Ilorin was their reflection of the statement credited to the Prophet,
peace be on him, that: Two classes of thirsty people cannot be
satisfied: the seekers of knowledge and the seekers of the
material wealth. As they belonged to the former, they spared no
effort to seek knowledge. A Yoruba student seeking the Islamic
knowledge from a Fulani and Hausa Mallam has to first learn the
mother tongue of his teacher to remove the language barrier
 39

between the pupil and the teacher, though later, the teachers
mastered Yoruba, the domino language of the society. It must be
mentioned that the knowledge was sought for the understanding
of the religion and its practice and not for economic purpose. This
was why it did not stop their economic and commercial activities.
The mornings were devoted to teaching and learning, while the
afternoons were left for weaving, farming, cap making,
5
Ibid, Hogpin, Gazetteer of Ilorin province Page 272
blacksmithing, embroidery and other craft works. The evenings
were left for the commercial activities to sell their products.
Thursdays and Fridays were the weekends and as such the
marriage merriments were fixed traditionally for that period of the
week.
The Muslims take the knowledge of Islam as Amana i.e. a
responsibility which should be discharged by its practice and
dissemination. This made the propagation of Islam through
learning, teaching and preaching another legacy of the founding
fathers of Ilorin. I want to classify their efforts into the home and
the expansionist sectors. Many Scholars established Arabic
Schools in their respective houses to discharge this onerous
responsibility. A school of specialists in Islamic jurisprudence,
Tafsir Quranic exegesis and Hadith was established by
Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Baygore (1913d) Ahmad Ibn Abubakar
was a product of the Al-Baygore School.
Ahmad Ibn Abubakar
In compliance with the traditional modesty of Ilorin, I shall
deal first with the oldest of the three personalities of our focus,
 40

Shaykh Ahmad Ibn Abubakar. His family house is Ile Ikokoro in

Aluko. A reliable source puts his birth at about 1870. He was a
pupil of number of distinguished scholars in Ilorin and finally
Shaykh Muhammad Baygore. He travelled far and wide within
Nigeria and through self efforts, and despite the common and
understandable cold attitude of the people of his age to Western
Education, the sage acquired literacy in English both from Lokoja
and Lagos. The genius never visited any Arab land nor had the
opportunity of formal education in any regular school, yet he
attained enviable mastery of Arabic as reflected by his works:
both prose and poetry. He had his education through the
traditional method and had no contact whatsoever with any Arab.
Like he was a product of knowledge from many scholars he
produced a number of scholars. On the list of such pupils of his
were the great preacher Shaykh Muhammad Bello Ajongolo,
Shaykh Salahud Din from Ikoyi, Shaykh Nalah Olosun, Shaykh
Abdul Salam Fagba who later established at Ijebu Ode, Shaykh
Hanbali, Shaykh Abubakar of Sakama, his scribe and Shyakh
Abdul Hamid, one time Imam Imale, who was second in command
in the hierarchy of Imams in Ilorin. He distinguished himself in
both writing in prose and poetry. Firstly, on the request of Shaykh
Abubakar of Ita Akanni, in Lagos he wrote his book called Iltiqat
Al Mutun in five branches of Arabic. The book dealt with Nahw,
Grammar Sarf, Etomology Maaniy, Semantic Bayan, Eloquence
and Badi, Esthetic.
 41

Secondly, his most popular book is called Talif. Its full and
real name is Akhbarul Qurun min Umara Balad Ilorin,
meaning, The record of the events of the tenures of the rulers of
Ilorin. The ten chapters of the book briefly traced the history of
Ilorin from the inception up to the reign of Amir Sulayman. It was
completed in Rabil Awwal 330 AH/corresponding to 1912 C.E. It
discussed the great events of each of the first six Emirs of Ilorin;
their Imams, Judges and other key officers of the Emirate. The
sage was criticized for writing on the Emirs rather than the
Scholars. It might be true but the Emirs roles dominated the
Society and their chronology provided the convenient order to
follow to determine who was that at each Emirs time. Many
events in those days were dated by time of the rulers. We should
not forget also that the Emirs were themselves scholars.
Thirdly, one of his poems that history retains for us was in
praise of his friend and master Alhaji Muhammad when he was
appointed to Wazir in 1922 in Bida. The forty line poem is
attached as Annex A
Fourthly, we are in the possession of Ratha eulogy he
composed on Imam Harun, a distinguished Scholar from Ibadan
who died in 1935.
Finally, out of what is at our disposal is the Qasidah, Ode, he
composed in 1930 Edul Adha festival when he received a gift of
a gown from the Amir Abdulkadir who ruled Ilorin from 1919 to
1959. The Qasidah was 18 lines composed to express thank and
reciprocate the Emirs gesture. See the annexure.
 42

Shaykh Ahmad Ibn Abubakar left nobody in doubt that he

was a genius of all the times. He produced great scholars and left
indelible marks of piety and Scholarship in the sand of history.
Interestingly all the poetry works compared with the prose in
Talif revealed strangely, greater power of expression in the
former than latter.
It is equally curious to want to know why Talif stopped in
1912 in the reign of the sixth Emir while there is abundant
evidence that the author lived to witness the era of the nineth
Emir.
Alhaji Muhammad Habibullah Kamalud-Deen
Taking the historical incident in which Balogun Biala, one
time Balogun Ajikobi was deported as basis the birth of our
second personality was fixed around 1907. The father of the
figure under focus Mallam Habibullahi of Ara-Agbaji
compound, Ilorin lived on weaving and embroidery and trained his
child in the trade. He sent him to Shaykh Salahudeen Babata,
Ilorin to obtain the rudimentary lessons of Qur'an. Against the
wish of his father, a Muslim Scholar, whose family house is next
but one to Aragbaji compound enticed the child for reasons not
immediately appreciated nor disclosed until much later as
unfolded by the subsequent events. His colleagues in the care of
Shaykh Muhammad Jumua Al-Labib, included Shaykh Imam
Yahaya Adefila who spread the knowledge of Islam in Ibira land.
Shaykh Salih one time Imam Imale of Ilorin and Alfa Salman
Omoda otherwise popularly called Alfa Ake i.e. going by the area
 43

where he established in Abeokuta and Alfa Zakariyyah Omoda

who taught the founder of the militant group who have a special
way of putting on their turban and generally referred to as
Makondoro group.
When Shaykh Adam had cause to record the achievements o
Shaykh Muhammad Kamalud-deen, he described him as
Ujubatuz Zaman i.e. wonder of the time. He reflected on the
incident when his teacher ordered him to take charge his public
air sermon at the tender age of fifteen. He said and I quote:

.
By the virtue of performance, he has become
one of the great signs of God, one of the
wonders of the time and an evidence of the
greatness of his teacher, Tajul Adab. This is
because he is the first to attain the height of
academic excellence at his age throughout
the Yoruba land and indeed the whole West
Africa at that time.6 He used three
distinguished geniuses to illustrate the
greatness of Alhaji Muhammad Kamalud-
 44

deen: Imam Shafiy, Ibn Tiamiyah and As-

Suyyutiy who attained such a height by or
before they were twenty. He argued that
their case are distinguished from that of
Shaykh Kamalud-deen for a number of
reasons. Imam Shafiy lived in Makkah and
learnt from Shaykh in charge of the sacred
Mosque, Kabah, before going to Madina to
learn from Imam Malik. Ibn Tiamiyyah was a
child born unto the family of scholars. For As-
Suyyutiy, he explained that his nickname was
the child of books. His mother was looking
for a book for her husband in his library when
he was delivered right inside the library. The
big contrast in respect our personality is that,
unlike all these giants of Islamic knowledge,
he was typically from a modest origin of
unlettered parents, who learnt from a non
Arab and grew in a non Arab-environment.
Yet he attained that height at that tender
age. He cannot be called but one of the
wonders of our age.
It is setting oneself unaccomplishable task to attempt to list
his pupils because there is no town or village in Yoruba land that
you will not find his direct pupils or those who learnt from his
disciples. It is said that he is of critical mind and meticulous and
 45

applies the principles on himself and his writings to such extent

that most of his works are not within easy reach of the members
of the public. Yet the sharp eagle eye of research of Alhaji Adam
Abdullahi availed us with one of a Shaykh Kamals precious works.
It is the poem he wrote in 1945 to receive the then Emirs of Ilorin
6 and Bauchi, when the latter paid the former a royal visit and the
Adam Abdullahi Lamahal Balawir Fi Masharil Ulama, Page 69
latter made the former pay a visit to Alhaji Kamals school as a
model of excellence. Part of it reads as follows:

**

**

**

**

**

**

Meaning:
The moons of greatness, who are of pure origin
and generous appeared to visit the great
 46

school. They are the ruler of Ilorin and visiting

ruler of Bauchi of great honour. He was
accompanied by Waliy i.e. Attorney, may God
protect him. He was also accompanied by the
upright Chief Judge. So was Imam Mahmud
.. I thank you for your gifts and pray God to
grant you journey mercies.7
To his credit was the revolution in the approach to teaching
and learning Arabic from the traditional method to introduction of
textbooks, classes, examination e.t.c. He introduced the reforms
7
in Ibid,
LagosPage 71
in his school Az-Zumratul Adabiyyah in 1926 and later
established its sister school at Ilorin in 1938.
The appraisal of his contribution is best given in words of
Alhaji Adam Abdullahi who said:

.






 47

Meaning:
Muhammad Kamalud-deen attained the height
of the knowledge of Arabic in such a manner
that he constituted a challenge to all his
contemporaries. He was endowed eloquence
in preaching and delivering lectures that those
who had been in field before him could not
excel him and gave big challenge for those
who came after him. He maintained that
status for of Century. He had no rival
throughout the length and breadth of Yoruba
land. He . for his
contemporaries that there is no one that he
did not influence as there is no one from his
town who did learn something from him.8
Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory
It is enough to say that substantial materials I used to
prepare this paper were collected from the works of the third
personality of our focus, Alhaji Adam Abdullahi Al-Ilory. His full
name is Shaykh Adam Ibn Abdullahi Al-Baqiy Ibn Habibullahi Ibn
Abdullahi. His grandfather, Habibullahi came to Ilorin from Oyo in
the company of Atiba. He finally settled around 1820 at Omoda
to join hand with Olomoda to build Olomoda Mosque. He was its
first Imam. Abdullahi gave our personality his name to seek the
blessings of Shaykh Adam Alanamu who was his maternal
grandfather. His father was itinerant Mallam who travelled as far
 48

as Benin Republic. His wife, the mother of our figure was a

princess in Benin Republic. The sage was brought to Ilorin in
1929. His father took him to big Muslim Scholars in Ilorin, Bida
and Benin Republic to seek Gods blessings for him. His teachers
included Salihu, the son of the teacher of his father, Alhaji Umar
Agbaji who was based in Lagos and Shaykh Adam Namaj. He had
interactions with Arabs who visited Nigeria then. Shaykh Adam
Abdullahi was substantially self-made personality as it reflected in
his written works. He was not only a prolific author of several
books in history, philosophy, mysticism and evangelism but also
an imposing and buoyant personality, strong character with the
gift of eloquence and courage. His father, himself a scholar
spurred him to develop interest in history, the home base Ilorin
challenged him to be bold and frank speaker as the love for
writing can be traced to his most popular teacher Adam Namaj,
that he often quoted. His books mostly in prose numbered over
seventy according to one of his students in whom I have
confidence. This is not in doubt because he personally wrote the
text books on all the fields for the Markaz at Agege which has
turned out hundreds of thousands of distinguished scholars of
Arabic and Islamic Studies, who pass through his hand and
through the hands of his products. The Mother Centre, Markaz
Talim Arabiy and Islamiy, Agege has produced similar centres all
over Yoruba land disseminating Arabic.
8
Ibid, Page 70
A close study of over 70 books of Alhaji Adam Abdullahi will
reveal that his interest was in the following:
 49

(i) Learning and teaching Arabic as depicted by the text books

on learning and teaching, of Arabic which he wrote for
Markaz Agege which was established since 1952 and
continue to produce Arabists till today.
(ii) History is reflected by his book on the distinguished scholars
of Ilorin right from inception. Other books of history included
his book short History of Islam in Nigeria and The History of
Islamic Evangelism.
(iii) Philosophy represented by Athar Falsafah, Tasawy and
Ilm.
(iv) Evangelism party by As-sawma and Fitr and partly politics
(v) Tarikh Dawah illallahi, partly history and partly evangelism
(vi) Politics, Islam Alyaom wa gada fi Nigeria talks mainly of

politics of Northern and Southern Muslims in Nigeria.