I must commend and appreciate the founders of the University of Ilorin Centre for Ilorin Studies (CILS) for their foresight in establishing the Centre as an international centre for excellence in learning, research, probity and service to governments, organisations and individuals. This certainly will go a long way in the development of knowledge.
The University of Ilorin remains the most subscribed Tertiary Institution in Nigeria which is a clear indication of the height already attained and maintained by this University. It is a reputable and an outstanding university ranked among the best anywhere in the world and as such, the institution would always do the needful in the areas of research and development.
Nevertheless, in the course of any establishment’s development, it is always wise to constantly reflect on the history of such organisation and then continually build on its growth from an informed position as knowledge is power.
Growth and Development of today are deliverables. Anything and everything that are deliverables are also measurable, while the measurable can be put on a scale of performance to determine whether they are achieving the purpose for which they were created.
However, the pertinent question that has been agitating my mind and which I think we need to ask ourselves are: Is the University of Ilorin Centre for Ilorin Studies on a nostalgic voyage? where we would annually or occasionally regale ourselves with stories of the good old days of our fore bearers or refresh our memories of our youthful days, have good laugh, some regrets and then draw the curtains until the following year when we would meet again and go on the same rendezvous or Is the Centre on a Growth, Development, Peace and Security Cruise?
What value is this Centre adding to the growth and development of Ilorin? What are the indices put in place for the public to assess and evaluate the performance of the Centre?
Can the Centre be used for economic growth?
Can the Centre be used as a veritable platform to make our history become a source of revenue and a means of livelihood?
Without waiting for answers to these questions, I humbly urge the Centre to create avenues for public assessment and evaluation of its performance from time to time. This will surely help in re-strategising and repositioning for optimal performance.
I strongly believe that CILS can play a critical role in adding value to our history. The ways, manners, modes, media, avenues and voices that are deployed and used can determine to a great extent what we are able achieve telling our story.
For instance, The British history is adequately showcased and exhibited in both the British Library and British Museum in London among other cities in the United Kingdom and these places are visited yearly by over six million tourists, thereby generating revenue in millions of pound sterling for the British Government. In 2015, 6,695,213 tourists visited the British museum alone. That is the way the British have chosen to tell their story.
This is one way of deriving and adding value from and to history and the British history is not an exceptional one. Rather, the British have only expanded the horizon of their history beyond a nostalgic venture, far beyond acquisition of knowledge, also far from being avenue for only refreshing and recalling their momentous past, they have made their past a living and economic history from which they have created means of livelihood.
From the benefit of highlight, I am aware that the Emir of Ilorin, His Royal Highness Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari CFR has approved that the proposed National Islamic Arts Museum by the National Commission for Museum and Monuments should be sited in the premises of the old Ilorin Central Mosque at Idi-Ape. His Royal Highness has also endorsed that the old Central Mosque, an historic and architectural edifice should be incorporated as part of the Museum. The beautiful designed has been completed and submitted to the appropriate quarters with the hope that it would be incorporated in the 2017 Budget. Some economic and tourism specialists have even opined that, it should not be a government or public venture, rather, they think the Museum can be privately built and managed or at least, a Public-Private Partnership arrangement can be worked out, because it has a lot of potentials if well harnessed.
I am aware that the National Commission for Museum and Monuments is already talking and working with the Kwara State University, Malete on the actualisation of the dream of the National Islamic Arts Museum in Ilorin. Ilorin was identified and chosen because of its role in the spread of Islam to Western and other Southern parts of Nigeria and into a few neighbouring West Africa countries. But this is a project that can be taken up by many partners, as joint ventures and positive collaboration and cooperation have become the norm in the world and the hallmark of thriving business empires.
Why is it then not possible for the University of Ilorin Centre for Ilorin Studies (CILS) to also partner with National Commission for Museum and Monuments and in collaboration with Kwara State University to bring to bear the strong heritage of Ilorin and to generate economic growth thereby adding value to our history?
There are many untapped historic and unattended sites in Ilorin Emirate that we should begin to pay attention to. I therefore wish to suggest that we should work with National Commission for Museum and Monuments to acquire these sites as similar sites are visited in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, etc by tourists on a daily basis.
It is envisaged that when completed, heads of tertiary institutions in the Emirate would partner with the Management of the National Islamic Arts Museum to make it a must visit during orientation of new students. It is suggested that such students would have the opportunity to visit many historic places, including the Palace of the Emir of Ilorin, just like tourists visit the Buckingham Palace and other historic places in Britain. Following the completion of the Emir of Abu Dhabi Mosque in the United Arab Emirates, the number of tourists visiting the King’s magnificent mosque has cut across religions as the beautiful edifice has been transformed to a tourist site. The same applies to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey and as a tourist I have personally visited the Milan Cathedral, Italy and Our Lady Guadalupe Cathedral in Mexico City, Mexico which attracts not less that 4 million Catholics between December 9 and 12 every year. This is to buttress the fact that tourism has little to do with faith and belief. Rather, it increases one’s knowledge of the world.
The tertiary institutions in Ilorin Emirate admit twenty thousand and twenty-two (20,022) new students annually as follows:
As at December 2016, the tertiary institutions in Ilorin Emirate has the following capacities:
University of Ilorin has 9,624 students;
Kwara State University, Malete 1,518 students;
Al-Hikimah University, Ilorin 1,270 students;
Crown Hill University, Ilorin 500 students and
Kwara State Polytechnic, 1,580 students.
Other institutions include:
Kwara State College of Education 2,410 students;
Nana Aishah College of Education 1,630 students;
Muyiddin College of Education 1,390 students and
College of Arabic and Legal Studies 100 students.
If each new student pays one thousand naira (N1000) for orientation tour, it means a total sum of twenty million and twenty-two thousand naira (N20, 022,000) would be generated by participating partners in the venture. There are two or three major festivals widely and generously celebrated in Ilorin namely, Idel Fitr, Idel Kabir and Moulud Nabbiy. In the late 60s and early 70s, many of us young lads gathered at the Emir’s Palace to rent bicycles and engage in other side attractions. But today, there is nothing of such again, but we can begin to bring these side attractions back in a value added way, through tourism and visits to historic sites. This would be another source of revenue from our history. I can go on and on with the potentials that our history can be used to add value to our lives and our community. Surely, the University of Ilorin Centre for Ilorin Studies would have a major and critical role to play in all these.
If any student by choice has come to Ilorin to study, no matter the course of study and no matter the student’s background, it goes suggest that such a student has willingly agreed to live in Ilorin and with the people of Ilorin for the period of his/her study. It then becomes incumbent on the University authority to make such student know Ilorin and its people no matter how little the knowledge would be. To this end, the management of the university should begin to think of the possibility of incorporating the history of Ilorin and its people in the General Studies for the 100 level students. This will go a long way in appreciating the history of the ancient city of Ilorin.
I have only tried to thinker with our consciousness to the fact that the issue of diversification of the economy can also come from the University of Ilorin Centre for Ilorin Studies. This may be a topic for future discourse.
Let us begin to tell our stort in the way and manner that it should be told by whom it should be told and to whom it should be told.
An excerpt from paper delivered by Yusuf Lawal at the 4th Annual Public Lecture organised by University of Ilorin Centre for Ilorin Studies (CILS)
