By Tunde Olusunle
Whenever I’m privileged to visit
Ilorin the Kwara State capital, I include in my itinerary a visit to the
University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), as is popularly abbreviated. My passion, maybe
obsession with the institution is informed by a number of reasons. Principal
among these is the fact that I had two academic excursions to the revered
school, during which I obtained a bachelors honours and a master’s degree in
English, respectively.
The security situation in Nigeria hadn’t degenerated as much back
then, but I had to give consideration to the long drive from Abuja to Ilorin
before the latter day restoration of flights in and out of Ilorin. But who
dares to shuttle by air between Abuja and Ilorin today with the preposterous
costs of air tickets across the country?
You will equally excuse my attachment to UNILORIN for the cogent
reason that it was on the earth and dust of the primordial “mini-campus” of the
institution that I met my beloved friend and wife, when I was a postgraduate
student 36 years ago! I should equally add that four of my siblings attended
the same institution at various times. Not forgetting the fact that many of my
most enduring friendships and acquaintances were cultivated in UNILORIN.
And so on my visit to Ilorin in August this year, I undertook my
usual tour of the institution. Chauffeured by my good friend, Segun Sobogun, I
observed to the right side of the road as we approached the densely developed
section of the campus, a novel signboard which popped up in my eyes. Inscribed
on the signage was Centre for Ilorin Studies, (CIS). My curiosity was aroused.
Why such an institute in a tertiary institution wholly established and funded
by the Federal Government?
Does UNILORIN intend to create such centres for as many
ethnicities and cultures as are represented in the university community? I
mean, should my kith in the Okun country in Kogi State, one of the principal
catchments of UNILORIN expect such a creation in my alma mater sometime soon?
Impulsively, I turned to Sobogun who is also a “stakeholder” in the
institution.
His wife, Bukola, schooled in the university. Segun himself
received a masters in Business Administration from UNILORIN. Man mi, I asked
him in Yoruba. “What are you guys up to here?” He is from Lagos State but
resident in Ilorin. He was as bemused as I was at that discovery.
Signs of looming attempts at the wholesale appropriation of the
sociopolitical space in the old Kwara State by a specific tendency were already
evident several decades ago. I’ve referenced elsewhere how I was denied a job
as “current affairs officer” at the erstwhile Kwara State Broadcasting
Corporation, aliased as “Radio Kwara” back in 1986, four decades ago. The
chairman of the panel which interviewed me told me for a fact that I led the
pack of post-NYSC applicants on that occasion. The fact of being of the
Christian faith with the biblical name “Emmanuel,” however, was my albatross.
The Okun people who straddle six of the 21 local government areas
in present day Kogi State, were enthusiastic at their excision from the old
Kwara State and incorporation into the new geo-polity. They presumably fled
from the stranglehold of the proverbial “Egypt,” the dominant ethnicity in the
former state, during the August 1991 states creation exercise. That the Okun
people are worse off today, 32 years after exiting Kwara, and wilfully trampled
upon by the Igala and Ebira respectively, is stuff for another expository.
It emerged on “Boxing Day,” December 26, 2023, that an association
which goes by the name “Ilorin Emirates Descendants Progressives Union,”
(IEDPU), has called for the renaming of the University of Ilorin after the
founder of the Alimi Dynasty, Sheikh Alimi ibn Solihu ibn Janta.
President of the IEDPU, Aliyu Otta-Uthman, made the admonition at
the 58th national conference of the union in Ilorin. Otta-Uthman noted that the
request for the rechristening of the university is made as a mark of honour to
Sheikh Alimi, founder of the Alimi dynasty. He alluded to the former University
of Sokoto which is now “Uthman Danfodio University” after the founder of the
Sokoto caliphate, and the Modibbo Adama University, Yola, named after Adama ibn
Ardo Hassana, founder of the Adamawa Emirate.
Otta-Uthman enjoined the Kwara State government to work with its
federal parliamentarians towards the actualization of this desire. Otta-Uthman
equally requested an official directive to all ministries, departments and
agencies, (MDAs) in the “Ilorin Emirate” to display, henceforth, the portrait
of the Emir of Ilorin, Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, alongside those of the president
and governor, in their offices!
Of all the concerns which should engage Nigerians at a time like
this, it is amusing that mundane issues like the change of a brand of 50 years
is what pre-occupies the mind of Otta-Uthman. Spiralling inflationary trends;
pervading economic dysfunctions; real and crippling hunger; festering
insecurity; decrepit infrastructure and mass despondency among others aside,
the leader of the IEDPU is principally concerned about the renaming of
UNILORIN. While Otta-Uthman has alluded to federal universities in Sokoto and
Yola, he is definitely oblivious of the fact that most federal universities
actually still retain the names they had at inception.
Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, the charismatic Yoruba leader was
deservedly honoured with the rechristening of the former University of Ife
after him. This was in acknowledgement of his visionary endeavour in conceptualising
and developing of that iconic institution, which once held the record of
arguably the most beautiful university campus in Africa.
The erstwhile University of Ife, was one of Awolowo’s several
heroics in the consummation of the growth of the old Western region. Students
and stakeholders of the University of Lagos, resisted and rebelled against the
attempt by the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan, to
re-designate the school after Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola in 2012. They
voted loud and clear for the retention of the preexisting name and brand.
What does Otta-Uthman have to say about the University of Ibadan;
University of Nigeria Nsukka, (UNN); University of Benin; University of
Calabar; University of Jos; University of Maiduguri; University of Port
Harcourt, and so on? For his pioneering role in perspectivising African
literature, why has UNN not been renamed Chinua Achebe University? Why hasn’t
the University of Ibadan changed name to Wole Soyinka University, an alumnus of
the citadel for being the very first African recipient of the coveted Nobel
Prize for Literature?
Despite the dominance of the Binis in the ethnocultural life of
Edo State, why hasn’t there been a request for the change of the name of the
University of Benin, to that of the Oba of Benin? Why haven’t the Federal
Government-owned universities in Jos, Abeokuta or Minna been re-labelled after
Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida respectively for their
various roles in national development?
Aren’t there sufficient institutions within the sphere of the
Ilorin Emirate which can be baptised after Sheikh Alimi? There is the Kwara
State University, (KWASU); Kwara State Polytechnic and Kwara State College of
Education, among others. There are conversations around the imminent
establishment of a “Kwara State University of Education” even as Otta-Uthman
also canvasses the establishment of a “Kwara State University of Science and
Technology.”
Left to him all these proposed institutions should be sited within
Ilorin Emirate, without a thought about the continuing marginalisation of other
sections of Kwara State. Indeed, questions are not being asked about the
capacity of the state government to adequately fund these spawning citadels on
a sustainable basis. This is the specie of powdery thinking, exclusivity, greed
and avarice consuming this country.
That the very same Otta-Uthman also advocates the display of the
portrait of the Emir side-by-side with those of the President and the Governor
of Kwara State is another laughable distraction. In what way does the hoisting
or not of the Emir’s portrait, impact the prices of foodstuffs in Ogbondoroko,
Baboko, Eiyenkorin, Ganmo, Opo Malu, Gaa Akanbi, Mararaba and similar outlets
within Ilorin Emirate?
How does it positively affect the socioeconomic development of the
Ilorin Emirate and Kwara State at large? Will it boost the gross domestic
product, (GDP) of the state or improve the per capita income of Kwarans? We
need to get serious in this country away from needless drift into the
outrightly absurd, comical, farcical, even idiotic.
Dreamers
and conjurers of whatever scheme it is to baptise the University of Ilorin, our
own Better By Far citadel, better perish the thought. It won’t happen. The last
time I checked, that institution has produced and blessed the whole wide world
with over 300,000 well trained and properly skilled manpower. “Great
Unilorites” as we hail ourselves will be found excelling across callings and
professions, across all continents of the world.
The denominator we all know is the University of Ilorin. It stays
at that. Ours is a global designer brand which cannot, on the eve of its golden
jubilee in two years’ time, be minimised into a local archetype. If push comes
to shove, Senior Advocates of Nigeria, (SANs) in our ranks and their very
experienced professional colleagues will lead the way to the courtrooms. Sanity
and status quo should be maintained, please.
*Olusunle,
PhD, poet, journalist, scholar and author is a Fellow of the Association of
Nigerian Authors (ANA).
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