Browsing by Author "Aliyu S. Alabi"

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    The Fizzling Out of a ‘Minority’ Movement\Party: The Ilorin Talaka Parapo, 1954-1965
    (Bahiti & Dalila Publishers, Lagos, 2014) Salihu, Ismail Otukoko; Aliyu S. Alabi
    During the last decade of colonial rule in Nigeria, minorities’ agitations emerged in the country preparatory to her independence. In this period, Ilorin served as a kind of guinea pig in the experiment to democratize local governance in the Northern Region. One of the major outcomes of the experiment was the sudden emergence of a grass root movement, the Ilorin Talaka Parapo (ITP). Its unforeseen political ascendancy culminated in a major threat not only to the established traditional institutions, as a frontier Emirate of the old Sokoto Caliphate but also the continued unity of the Northern Region. The sudden fall from power of the ITP in 1958 and its subsequent fizzling out by early 1960s was unprecedented in the history of minority movement and opposition party in Nigeria. This paper seeks to examine the whys and hows of the fizzling out of a dynamic minority party through the interplay of power and interests of the groups involved. Though its origin was not rooted in Yoruba irredentism, its fall and subsequent disappearance from Ilorin’s political landscape had much to do with the question of the Ilorin-West Merger, one of the hotly contested issues during the era of decolonization and incessant minority agitations in Nigeria. It also partly derived from the issue of power relations between majority and minority groups represented by the common people (the Talakawa) and the traditional ruling elite respectively. In spite of its vibrancy and success in politics and local governance, the ITP fizzled out and Ilorin has not witnessed its resurgence.