Author: Is’haq Modibbo Kawu

I’M writing these lines on a damp, rainy morning, this Sunday, July 2nd, 2023, in the Gegele Quarters of the city of Ilorin. It’s eleven-thirty in the morning, and we are all gathered for the Fidau prayers in memory of Alhaji Ibrahim Baba Gegele. The world of sports knew him as AMBURE. Certainly, for me, one of the heroes of footballing in the old Kwara State of my childhood. The gathering brought together the entire Ilorin community, especially the old sports stars, members of the traditional institution, and other notables of the city. In his footballing life, AMBURE was an…

I AM spending this weekend in Ilorin. I’ve returned home to attend a wedding ceremony of two scions of prominent families in our community. And naturally, the nomenclatura turned out in large numbers. These wedding events carry very significant symbols of the Ilorin community, in several ways. The turnout in dresses which convey the nuances of our culture, the exchanges of pleasantry, hearty laughters and healthy jokes, the often intangible but meaningful gestures of community togetherness, which have drawn all of us home, and from vast distances. But holding all of those qualities together like a very potent but invisible…

FIRST of all, we must condole the people of the various communities of the Patigi Local Government Area of Kwara State; the Etsu Patigi, and all our compatriots in Kwara State, on the death of 110 individuals, as a result of the tragic accident on the waterways of that part of our state. May the Almighty Allah reward them with Aljanna Fir’daus, while giving the loved ones the fortitude to bear their passing. Amin. As reported by The Punch newspapers and other media outlets, leaders of affected communities stated that their people went to a wedding ceremony in another village…

WITH the election of the presiding officials for the 10th National Assembly, it has become instructive to do an overview of the  politics, and the related issues, on the eve of the elections. The first thing to note, is that the ruling APC eventually got what it wanted: party candidates as Senate President and Deputy; as well as Speaker and Deputy in the House of Representatives. The traumatic experience of 2015 was avoided. A dissident from within the party couldn’t manipulate the process to emerge. And the fears were real enough. In the lead to the elections, there were stories…

WHEN the Nigerian international football player, Taiwo Awoniyi, visited the Emir of Ilorin on Friday this week, I heard the Emir recall how the young man had presented him with his jersey, during a visit to England. It struck me that there’s a consistent pattern to the behaviour of the young man. I have tangentially followed Taiwo Awoniyi’s socially-responsible activities in the Ilorin community in recent times. He was born in Ilorin, and he’s the latest in a long line of sports stars who found their metier within the broad historical sweep of the sporting tradition of the city. For…

AT the end of the process, it actually resembled an anti-climax. I arrived in Ilorin on Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023, for a couple of reasons. The first was the funeral ceremony of a very dear and elderly cousin. The second was to finally conclude the processes that would make me begin to draw my monthly pension. I had been mulling the fact that I had never completed the processes in the past, and consequently, never drew a pension for all the years that I had put into the service of Kwara State, and our country. The main reason was that…

I WOKE up today to discover that YouTube had posted a 1988 concert in Germany, by Harry Belafonte. Of course, the live recording opened with his eternally-beloved song, Day-o! I sang along, and watched as he performed  with the backup singers, and the tight, professional performance of his musicians: drummer, percussionist, the saxophonist, guitarists, bass, rythm and lead. The entire ensemble was as professional as could have been expected. It was reading the comments that alerted me to why the posting was done. Harry Belafonte had died, a few days ago! He passed on Tuesday, 25th April. He was 96.…

THE Nigerian Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Jaji Sambo, was recently reported by the media as calling for the “unbundling of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC)”. Such a step, according to the Minister was “in line with the vision and objectives of government’s current reforms in the transportation sector”. He added that “as it is presently constituted, the NRC cannot operate optimally, thus necessary reforms and unbundling have become imperative”. Unfortunately, the reports in the press did not expatiate on what Minister Sambo meant by  “unbundling of the Nigerian Railway Corporation”, neither did he allow us a peek into his ministerial…

ON Saturday, March 4th, 2023, I set out reasons why I believe that AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq deserves a second term, as Governor of Kwara State. In that piece, titled “AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq: Consolidating Progressive Governance in Kwara State”, I made it clear that the historical conjuncture that brought AbdulRahman to power in 2019, was one that was defined by the total rejection of the absurdities associated with the 16-year State Capture excesses of Bukola Saraki and his minions. The victory was so emphatic that all and sundry knew that we had dealt a fatal blow to impunity and arrogance in a manner,…

WE landed at the Dutse Airport at 1105HRS. For me, this was a moment of poignant remembrance. Between 2013 and 2014, I drove to and from Dutse, dozens of times. I was part of a team of media experts that then governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, had put together to help midwife Jigawa State Television. True to his NEPU/PRP political antecedents, Lamido gave us an omnibus term of reference; we should deliver a very progressively-inclined television service, which would be located within the broad radical, pan-Africanist vision of the NEPU era. We worked our socks off to deliver on…

ON Saturday, the 11th of March, 2023, the people of Kwara State will join our compatriots in the majority of our states to elect a governor.  Let me state from the onset that I strongly support, advocate, work for, and desire that AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the Kwara State Governor, gets a second term when we go to the polls. I was one of the many aspirants for the gubernatorial position in 2018/19. As it turned out, AbdulRahman became the APC candidate, who also became the symbol of the OTOGE movement, which effectively, swept into the dustbin of history, the 40-year Saraki…

I ARRIVED in Ilorin on Monday evening because of a most tragic family death, that’s shocked our entire community. My original plan was to arrive a few days before we go to the polls; but the passing of Her Worship Mariam Kawu-Said hastened my return to Ilorin. This tragedy enveloped us all but the community was also bursting at the seams with the undercurrents of the political situation in the country, with the admixture of the strange economic environment, similarly providing a ghostly backdrop to the last days before Nigeria goes to the polls. If existential issues predominate in talk…

EXACTLY three years ago today, on February 18th, 2020, Lucky Omoluwa tragically died suddenly. It was one of those tragedies that would live forever, for all those who knew, related with, or had an encounter with the man. People would continue to ask themselves, where they were on the morning, that Lucky passed. For me, his death was so intertwined with a very difficult moment in my life, and the dialect was also the obverse, the triumph of defeating adversity, at the same time. Five days before Lucky died, on February 13th, 2020, I was suspended from my position as …