By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
Nigeria is living in very
interesting times of power politics. Some pundits are saying that history is
about to repeat itself through the forged political realignments. Some 12 days
after Nigeria’s Independence in October 1960, the then Premier of the Northern
Region and Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, said in The Parrot newspaper:
“The new nation called
Nigeria
should be an estate of our great grandfather Othman Dan Fodio. We must
ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities in the north as
willing tools and the south as a conquered territory and never allow them to
rule over us and never allow them to have control over their future.”
 |
*Buhari in Yorubaland, flanked by
Gov Amosu and Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun |
Some Northern irredentists, notably Prof Ango
Abdullahi and Dr Junaid Muhammed, insist at every interview opportunity that
power must perforce return to the North. They have been countered by the
militant voices out of Niger Delta, notably the very voluble Asari Dokubo. It
is as though Nigeria
is poised on a knife edge. In the alliances being put to play to win political
power, the role of General Afonja in the fall of the old Oyo Empire needs to be
recalled.
According to Wikipedia, “The Ilorin Emirate is a traditional
state based on the city of Ilorin in Kwara State, Nigeria. It is considered to be one
of the Banza Bakwai, or copy-cats of the Hausa Kingdoms. At the start of the
19th century Ilorin
was a border town in the northeast of the Oyo Empire, with a mainly Yoruba
population but with many Hausa-Fulani immigrants or slaves. It was the
headquarters of an Oyo General, Afonja, who rebelled against the empire and
helped bring about its collapse with the assistance of the Fulani. The
rebellion was powered by Hausa, Nupe and Bornu Moslem slaves. Afonja had
been assisted by Salih Janta, also called Shehu Alimi, a leader of the local
Fulani. In 1824 Afonja was assassinated and Alimi's son Abdusalami became Emir.
Ilorin became
an emirate of the Sokoto Caliphate.”
Afonja played a role akin to that of Vidkun Quisling, the Norwegian politician
who undermined the world by aiding Nazi Germany, for which the word “quisling”
entered the dictionary. Some notable Southwest politicians have been drawn into
a recall of the old Afonja debacle and the need to stop the quislings in the
zone in their tracks. At issue is the divide of support between the two
presidential candidates, incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and General Muhammadu Buhari of the opposition
All Progressives Congress (APC).
