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I was in a junior class in the primary school when the Nigerian Civil War broke out in 1967. I can only remember faintly how our headmaster turned the morning assembly to a war situation room.
Every day, he would take the pains to “brief” us on the war. We always looked forward to the early morning briefing. When affordable, he would read from the famous Daily Times of old. With great delight, he would translate it into Yoruba to sink into our innocent memories.
Our class teacher, Mr. Oyinloye, now late, would even go a step further. He was more exciting. He would meticulously fill in the gaps of the happenings at the warfront.
I still vividly remember the way he dramatised the liberation of Port Harcourt and Calabar by the federal troops. He was always in one of his best moments while churning out these war accounts. You would think he was an eyewitness. He would tell us stories that looked like fairy tales from wonderland.
He would always want to demonstrate famed exploits of the then Col. Benjamin Adekunle, Commander, 3rd Marine Commando. We were always asking for more. It was war propaganda at its best. But we were too young, naïve and gullible to realise that.
I deliberately pick on these war stories because of the mood of the moment, especially in my home state of Kwara. May 27, 1967, was the day General Yakubu Gowon, then Head of State, broke the old four regions into 12 states. It was a watershed.
The 12 states included Lagos, Western, Mid-Western, East Central, South Eastern, Rivers, West Central, North Central, Benue-Plateau, North Western, Kano and North Eastern. They were carved out from the four regions of Western, Mid-Western, Eastern and Northern.
At creation, there was no state called Kwara, but West Central. And this was how it probably happened, though the account could not be verified. It is alleged that the likes of the late Dr. Olusola Saraki, father of Senate President, Bukola Saraki, the then Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Zulu Gambari, father of the present emir, and others protested vehemently against the name. They also had the full backing of core northerners.
Their grouse, to say the least, was parochial. They argued that the new state, West Central, was the amalgamation of Ilorin and Kabba provinces of the old Northern Region. They maintained that the Yoruba who happened to be a minority then should not be made to control the state. The state then included a part of the present Benue State
With the name, West Central, those provinces would be lost to the Yoruba in the West (now South West) forever. They hated to imagine that Ilorin in particular would no longer belong to the North. They could not stand that “embarrassment.”
Unfortunately, the Okun Yoruba of Kabba did align with them. Their son, Chief Sunday Awoniyi, an irredentist and unrepentant supporter of the North, throughout his life, served, worshipped and idolised the North.
To rub salt into their festering injury, a Yoruba of Igbomina extraction, the then Lt. Col. David Bamigboye, of blessed memory, was named as its first governor. It was too much for them to swallow. They craved for the immediate collapse of the whole arrangement.
With annoyance and determination, they carried their narrow-minded case to Gowon. He reportedly told them there was no way he could revoke the appointment of Bamigboye. It was strictly a military posting.
He, however, gave them the opportunity to tinker with the name of the new state. This is perhaps to reflect its so-called northern identity.
So? They went back to the drawing board. They dug deep into the archives. They turned over many files, they brunt midnight candles many times over.
They consulted their library endlessly and all in vain. They were distressed and in great pain. Yet their efforts were yet to yield a satisfactory result. Precious time was not on their side. They were almost giving up when a strange idea struck one of them from nowhere.
Promptly, they agreed on permutation. And it “handsomely” paid off for them. Various views and names were thrown up and brought to the table. They were strenuously examined and analysed.
Suddenly, like a thunderbolt, an eerie thought came over one of them. And they got what they wanted. Kwara is it! Kwara means “Big River” in Nupe language, referring to River Niger. And that forever settled it.
They jumped for unrestricted joy. They clapped, they sang and danced. They had beaten the time lag allowed by the Federal Military Government (FMG). They could not control their emotions.
They made their way straight down to Dodan Barracks, Lagos, the seat of power. They boldly re-presented their case. Gowon accepted it wholeheartedly without asking probing questions. He swallowed it hook, line and sinker. And it has stuck till today. That changed the equation totally.
That magnified our woes. It practically pitted Ilorin against all others in the state. Saraki was the arrowhead and mastermind of that subjugation. It evidently became an open struggle.
Unarguably, Igbomina were the main targets and victims. We were made mere preys in the hands of Saraki. From Olusola, the father, to Bukola, the son; yes, it was that ridiculous.
For 52 years, we struggled with this monster. He checkmated every of our moves to free ourselves, using federal might. It inflicted heavy damage on us. It almost reduced us to apes in an animal farm. All along, the emir was in tandem with Saraki in this project.
They made a mockery of our revered traditional rulers. They scorned and relegated them, depending on their mood. We were cajoled and cowed to dance to their whims and caprices.
We had instances where the emir in the past opposed the installation of certain Yoruba Obas. They did because the royal fathers refused to tie turbans. The patriotic traditional fathers insisted in wearing crowns as Yoruba Obas.
No true Kabiyesi would put on a turban, not even at installation. That is an abomination. For this, they were permanently “rewarded” with no elevation, no promotion. But, together, we endured the tyranny.
We kept on saying Saraki couldn’t have won election in Kwara State without the federal might. Last Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections proved us right.
That put paid to the ruins of the much-taunted Saraki dynasty. It collapsed like a pack of loose cards. And Kwarans have no viable apologies for this.
Let them wear the shoes that that we wore for 52 unbroken years. Let them feel how it feels being on the other side of the divide. It is a great delight to swap positions at this critical period.
Oto gee has transformed into a movement: “Oto geeism.” It is a classical example of how a people should speak with one voice. It is one kind of a big collaboration.
Pray this “Oto geeism” be ignited across the country. That is our own home-grown democracy from Kwara. We are not selfish, we want it to go round.
Meanwhile, Kwarans, enjoy your freedom. Come, sing along with us: Celebrations, jubilations, altogether…
