ILORIN: THE CENTRALITY OF ISLAM AND SCHOLARSHIP

By Yusuf Mubaraq Authority 

I read with utter dismay, the purported news of an up and coming Osun Festival of sorts event, billed to happen at an upscale area of our cherished city of Ilorin, in the mainstream media earlier yesterday. I trembled, at the sight of such inglorious publication, lurking our city of revered scholars, diligent public servants and inimitable scions of diverse backgrounds in such an embarrassing garb of apparent polytheism and utter disbelief.

 

My disappointment was further exercabated by an obvious fact that betrayed the very essence of the establishing factors that ultimately make up the present day Ilorin; Islam and Scholarship. I was made to understand,  how well situated and grounded the adherent of these strange "belief" are in our town. Using the radio and mainstream media to adequately lure unsuspecting members of the Ilorin public into their inglorious sects. Isn't it confounding?

Nigeria is a multireligious society. With equal breathing space to each and every practicable faiths. That's what the constitution readily recognised. It also amongst other provisions,  respect the mode, conventions, customs and traditions of the people and its peculiarities in each given society. Whatever practices, that ultimately portends danger or an act capable of undermining or disrupting the enjoyable peace and tranquility of the people stands condemned and exempted.

Thus, staging an event or a practice albeit unknown to the people of Ilorin, is an affront on thier heritage and a slap on thier sensibilities. Doing that in the very heart of the city that prided itself in Islamic scholarship is to deliberately seek for a serious trouble by whosoever the host was.

As customary, the Ilorin culture of Islamic scholarship is vast erasing, if care isn't taken, eventual extinction is inevitable and I honestly fear for such reality. Large numbers of our Mallamais are in a bromance of sorts with these very polytheists; taking some cues from their practices and building mutually beneficial relationships with them, in ultra contravention of the basics that Ilorin truly holds. And this set the stages for the bravery exuded by the much famed Yèyè Osun, to have nursed the idea of such Festival within our Islamic city of Ilorin.

The council of Ulamahs truly needs to wake up to its responsibilities of protecting the Islamic sanctity and our most cherished culture in a known ways to our cherished Nigerian constitution.

I'm glad at the drastic steps, taken by the Council to contain this very desecration of our cherished values but much still needed to be done to contain future occurrence. We are fast losing our essence to strange people and it duly calls for deeper concerns. 

The emerging world nonetheless poses it challenges to a unified identity, culturally and religious wise but we owe ourselves, the ultimate sense of duties, to protect what we have always prided and cherished. Freedom, in whatever form and formats shouldn't erased our commonality and the very essence of our unity which is Islam.