When the disagreement reached the climax and the two had to take up arms, Afonja, out of regard for Alimi's spiritual and military prowess, sought his support. Alimi helped in mobilising an army in support of Afonja leading to victory over Alaafin. The defeat led the then Alaafin migrating from old Oyo to the site now called Oyo.
After the war, Alimi became a teacher to Afonja's children as the latter wanted his offsprings to learn the secret of power. When both died, Alimi's son, Abdulsalami, inherited his father's duty of teaching Afonja's children. When the idea of appointing somebody to head the village came, the eldest child of Afonja wanted to have the position but met opposition from Abdulsalami who had military support from his fellow Fulani kinsmen. Abdulsalami ultimately became the ruler of what is now called Ilorin around The issue now is that Afonja's descendants believe that their forefathers were cheated and want a redress.
But the Alimi people are claiming that the Afonja people never ruled Ilorin and, as such, no precedent exists to back their position. Penultimate week's incident was not the first time the Afonja and the Yoruba would attempt to assert their right to Ilorin kingship. Historical sources said in , the Yoruba rose against the then emir, burnt his palace and killed him.
But the revolt did not result in enthronement of a Yoruba king. In , when Lord Lugard administered the northern and southern Nigeria, Yoruba were said to have spearheaded a riot over tax to bring the rulership of the then emir to ridicule. In , the Yoruba, according to sources, also moved to oust Emir Abdulkadir who was banished to Kaduna but got reinstated by the colonial administration. In , the George Innih administration of Kwara State raised a judicial panel of inquiry to look into the Yoruba agitation.
The Yoruba people reportedly made a case for the merging of Kwara State with the Southwest before the commission while also laying claim to the Ilorin throne. It was said they even claimed antecedent to the throne as they allegedly said Yoruba had produced four obas in Ilorin before the advent of the Fulani. But the Alimi people, in a counter position, claimed there was no known Yoruba king in the town before their forefather mounted the throne.
The report of the panel never saw the light of day while there was also no white paper from government.
A twist to the tussle was the recent petition by three of the six Yoruba chiefs mogajis in Ilorin to the State House of Assembly complaining that they had been classified as ungraded by government allegedly at the behest of the emir. Their non-grading, according to the chiefs, suited the emir, so that there would be no rivalry of any sort from the Yoruba to his authority.
Ilorin Descendants Progressive Union IDPU , formed to protect the interest Ilorin indigenes who are of Fulani extraction, once in its opposition to the upgrading of the chiefs, said dong so would bring them at par with Gambari. But the Afonja Descendants Union ADU which came on stream in to advance the cause of the Yoruba in the town and with Kasumu as its leader would hear none of that. The group is allegedly pressuring the legislature to grade the chiefs.
The town was the headquarters of a powerful Oyo General - Afonja, who rebelled against the Alafin of Oyo and helped to bring about the collapse of the Oyo Empire. Under the Emir, Ilorin continued to seek Southward expansion as a de facto part of the Sokoto Caliphate but was halted by the growing power of Ibadan. An article in Vanguard of October 22, and online on www. Afonja was Are Ona Kakanfo generalissimo to the Alafin of Oyo Empire and Ilorin was a military outpost from where the Oyo army carried out expeditions on behalf of Alafin.
It was Oyo indeed perhaps Yoruba tradition to keep its military on the frontiers both to defend the mainland and to prevent a coup against the King. Afonja may have acted differently if he had studied and applied insights from recent history! He might have deduced useful learnings from the destruction of the Hausa kingdoms!!!
If Afonja was familiar with Fulani political and military strategy, perhaps he may not have been doomed to become a victim thereof! By , the Ilorin Yoruba indigenes had had enough - they revolted, rose against the incumbent Emir burnt his palace and killed him.
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