Date: 2020-12-25

This year's edition of the annual national conference of the Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU),which holds tomorrow Friday, December 25,2020, at the Forecourt of the palace of His Royal Highness, the Emir of Ilorin beginning at 9:00am, promises to be quite exciting. The event would be its 55th edition and the first to be organised by the Union under the watch of the retired Director of the Department of State Services, Alhaji Aliyu Otta Uthman, fsi, who many of my contemporaries across Ilorin Emirate, particularly within the Union, see as the "man of the moment".

The programme will be somehow unusual this time around. Apart from the usual unveiling of the year 2021 calendar of the Union, the event would also witness the lunch of Two Billion (N2B) Naira for the construction of an ICT/Skills Acquisition Hub, which the Union intends to situate at the Geri Alimi Area of Ilorin.

The Chairman of the Organising Committee of the conference, Barrister AbdulRauf Ajao Amode, and members of his committee, including yours sincerely, have been most unrelenting in the past four months or so. They have expended their energies, intellect and time towards organising a very successful event, which would be the talk of the town for quite sometime. Some members of the Committee have also traversed the length and breadth of the country just to ensure that the efforts yielded desired dividends.

It is a pleasure that the efforts exerted so far have shown indications that the programme would be quite successful. Anyone who cares to listen to radio stations operating across Ilorin and in recent time would marvel at the magnitude and quality of the advertising campaign being aired every now and then to create desired awareness for the programme among the relevant members of the listening public.

The Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji (Dr) Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, CFR, who hosted the National President of the Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union, Alhaji Aliyu Otta Uthman, fsi, at his palace on Thursday, December 24, 2020 assured the IEDPU that he would attend the event in person along with his Chiefs and Imams. The President had earlier told the first class Emir and Chairman of the Kwara State Council of Emirs and Obas, that the Executive Governor of Kwara State, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, promised to be at the ceremony as scheduled. He told the Emir that he and every member of the Union are conscious of the need to be at the event on time in order to prevent a situation where no one would be on ground to receive the Number One citizen of the State as it almost happened last year when the Governor surprised every one by being the first dignitary to arrive at its 54th edition.

The President assured the Emir that the programme would not be organised in a way that would flout the COVID-19 guidelines put together by the constituted authorities. He explained that each of the branches of the Union shall be represented by only two branches at every stage of the conference in order to reduce the number of participants. He also assured that the services of enough number of security personnel have been engaged to maintain law and order among other measures put in place to ensure a hitch-free programme. Information available to the IEDPU NEWS reveal that the anticipated Chairman of the occasion and Za'ana of Ilorin, Engr.Yusuf Olarewaju Sagaya,MFR,OFR,FAEngr, is in town to preside over the ceremony. Engr Sagaya,a member of the first generation of Engineers produced by Ilorin Emirate, is not new to community development. He has been an active participant in the development of Ilorin Emirate before and since his graduation from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria,in 1970.

The almost 75 years old elder statesman,who was born to the Sagaya family of Olosan Compound, Oke-Apomu,Ilorin, is one of the many patriots who believed in the greatness of Ilorin with the location of the headquarters of his 40 years old firm, Yola Consultants Limited in Ilorin. His subsequent multidimensional contributions to the development of Ilorin Emirate informed the conferment of the title, Za'ana, on him by the Emir over one and half decade ago. The Union is optimistic that the frontline Engineer would not be coming to the event alone. He would be accompanied by his relations and friends many of whom he had supported in similar manners in the past and in their respective ancestral communities. In the same vein, the Chairwoman of the occasion,Justice Halima A. Saleeman, has also left no one in doubt of his desire to grace the event. Justice Saleeman,who hails from Alanamu Quarters of Ilorin and married to the Ubandawaki chieftaincy family of Pakata, Ilorin, would also be coming with his retinue of friends, relations and colleagues all of whom regarded his choice as the Chairwoman at an event that would be hosted by the Emir as a great honour and privilege to this University of Jos graduate of Law.

If information at the disposal of yours sincerely is anything to go by the expected Chief Launcher on the occasion, Engr. Mohammed Kamilu Dauda,a distinguished Petroleum Engineer is also in town to grace the ceremony. Engr. Dauda is a prominent patriot just like the Chairman and the Chairwoman. This brilliant son of Okoh family in the Okekere Quarters of Ilorin apart from being an Engineer like the Chairman,is also a product of the famous Government Secondary School, Ilorin,like Engr. Sagaya. However, while Engr. Sagaya left the school in 1966 (two years before Dauda's birth) the Chief Launcher did in 1987. The two gentlemen, who I would call father and son,must make their great Alalubosa proud at the event as they have always done.

Engr Dauda,like the Chairman,has been in the news for quite sometimes and for good reasons. This 1992 graduate of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Ilorin is a man of history like Engr Sagaya as far as Ilorin Emirate is concerned. It was during his time as the National President that the Ilorin Students Union(ISU) transformed itself into the Ilorin Emirate Students Union(IESU). He is also most likely to be accompanied to the event by his friends and colleagues who are also Millionaires like him.

The gathering is also bound to be offered stimulating spiritual diets by one of the most distinguished contemporary Islamic scholars of Ilorin origin, Shaykh Ahmad Olarewaju AbdulRahman, the Chief Imam and National Missioner of the centenarian Ansarudeen Society of Nigeria as the Guest Speaker. He is also an old boy of GSS ,Ilorin,like the Chairman and the Chief Launcher. This University of Maiduguri trained Mass Communicator is a master of the game of public speaking. An orator per excellence and a man who acts what he preaches . He is a brave,courageous and exciting preacher who does not pretend. He had played the same role in the past very well and I know that he would surely not disappoint his listeners again. He would surely remind the community of what we should do and how we should do things as laid down by the Almighty Allah in the Holy Quran. The organisers are conscious of contemporary health challenges rocking humanity since last year. And so,arrangement of seats and every other thing would be done in such a way that the rest of the world would know that the people of Ilorin are organised . Adequate arrangements have been made to respect all the guidelines stipulated to discourage further spread of COVID-19. Every attendant, no matter how highly placed ,would follow the procedures against COVID-19 before accessing the venue .If the Governor and the Emir would do that, who else?

It is my sincere hope that other expected guests would attend the event punctually so that the programme can commence on time for it to be concluded at the right time to enable all of us go for Jumaat Prayers on time.

I know every patriot would join me in praying for a nice outing not only for the Union's hardworking National President, Aliyu Otta Uthman, and members of the Union but also for the people of Ilorin Emirate who see the programme as one of the major annual programmes of the people of the nation's most unique Emirate.

Imam is National Publicity Secretary, Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union