Ifo: Why there’s no Sabo here
Members of the Hausa community of Ifo say there is a high level of integration with their Yoruba hosts. Many Hausas are fluent in Yoruba, and many Yoruba can speak Hausa very well. A member of the community says “the Hausas who number over one million have achieved a lot here, and we live peacefully […]
Members of the Hausa community of Ifo say there is a high level of integration with their Yoruba hosts. Many Hausas are fluent in Yoruba, and many Yoruba can speak Hausa very well. A member of the community says “the Hausas who number over one million have achieved a lot here, and we live peacefully with our Yoruba hosts, some of whom are Christians”. He states that there are many Islamic schools in Ifo, some of which are quite large. And there are small ones as well, he adds.
Abdulawal Jibrin is one of many Imams in Ifo. In his school there are 200 pupils, and he says that the number has been increasing over the years. There were 150 pupils at the school three years ago, he notes. The school was opened in 1996. It has six teachers who give lessons on Qur’an, Hadith, Tauhid, Fiqh and Arabic language. He says that his school has produced 25 graduates since its inception. There are quite a number of mosques in Ifo. They include the Railway Line Mosque, Old Market Mosque, the Ajegunle or Yoruba mosque and the Izala Central Mosque. Adamu Sayyedi is the Chief Imam of the Central Mosque. He says there are 1.5 million Hausa Muslims in Ifo, and that there are six imams working under him in the whole of Ifo.
He came to Ifo in 1963 from Kano to join his father who was already well established in the kola nut trade. He also salutes the cordial relationship that allows Hausa and Yoruba to live together happily in Ifo. “We don’t have problems here, and we live peacefully with each other in a multicultural setting,” he says. In Ifo the visitor quickly notices many Hausa youths, and they prove useful when he misses the way to the Sarki’s house. There are clear signs of assimilation among the group. Practically all the youths can speak Yoruba as well as Hausa.
Sarkin Hausawa Alhaji Muhammadu Harijina, the leader of the Hausa community in Ifo, tells Sunday Trust that when the Hausas desired to have their own quarters in Ifo, popularly referred to as Sabo, the Yorubas opposed this. That is why Ifo is a town which, unlike other communities in the South-West, does not have a Sabo. His words: “The Yorubas opposed the idea that we should have a Sabo. They said that such development would go against the idea of us living together, and that group cohesion will vanish.”
Paradoxically, there are different mosques in the town some of which are identified as ‘Yoruba’ or ‘Hausa’ mosques. This may imply a division which may weaken the idea of group cohesion in the town.
But Hausa and Yoruba families joyfully live next to each other. The Hausa chief said that 500 years ago Islam was already well established in Ifo, and that the Hausas met an Islamic community there when they arrived.
Alhaji Zul-kifuli Solademi, the Orori Giwa Adinni of Ifo Muslims, says: “Muslims outnumber Christians here, and the Yoruba Muslims are in the millions in terms of number.” His version on when Islam arrived in the area, though, differed from that of Alhaji Harijina. He says Islam arrived Ifo some 200 years ago; but adds that there are no challenges in the spread of Islam in the area. He notes that there has been a recent increase in Muslim societies in Ifo. These include NASFAT, Nawirudeen and Ibadullahi societies, all of which have their permanent sites under construction in various parts of Ifo. He says Otta is already full with many of such societies as well as Lagos.
On the influence of Islam in the area, he says: “Islam has touched many people here, especially the life of the ladies. Even the men have changed many forms of behaviour that were originally not acceptable such as indiscipline and idleness.”
There are countless Islamic schools in Ifo, he notes before speaking glowingly of the new young imam of Ifo. “Three years ago, we appointed a new Chief Imam who is quite young, and still under 40 years of age. He is the youngest Chief Imam that Ifo has ever had. So people are beginning to like Islam more and more,” he says. According to him, more people are flocking to the faith, and that people who went to other religions are now returning to Islam.
This year both Hausa and Yoruba Muslim societies organised Ramadan lectures during the holy month. He sees this as a major achievement and salutes the 50 plus Muslim societies for this effort. Finally, he tells Sunday Trust that there are more than 500 imams in the whole of Ifo, making it perhaps the only community with the largest number of imams in the South-West.
There are quite a number of mosques with inspiring architecture in the town. One of these is the Hausa Central Mosque. Then there is an impressive Ifo central mosque. Ibogun, the community President Obasanjo hails from, lies within the neighbourhood of Ifo, Sunday Trust is told. There are other important personalities too that are said to have had the early part of their education in the town.
Thus Ifo has produced not only countless imams and Islamic scholars, it has also, in a sense, nurtured a few leaders of the country. Ifo has a cosmopolitan character and mentality, and this has shaped its decision not to have a Sabo, which seems to have set it above many other towns and cities in the country. Ifo has become a powerful metaphor of cohesion and integration among people of diverse backgrounds.