Migration is an important phenomenon in human life. From inception, Man wanders from one place to another to meet his needs, and since the want of Man is insatiable, the movement continues till eternity. Like others, the Nupe were sensitive to any situation that called for migration. The migration of the Nupe people into areas that are known as southwestern Nigeria today started with the establishment of the confederated Nupe States by Tsoede in the fifteenth century. The evolution of Ilorin as a caravan trade centre around the middle of the eighteenth century attracted several merchants, including Nupe war pieces of machinery, scribes, scholars, traditional doctors, fetches sellers, Berbers, brokers, and many other occupational groups. Thus, many Nupe immigrants had already settled down in Ilorin before the establishment of the Emirate. In accordance, the Nupe immigrants who were on the ground on the verge of the establishment of the Emirate government actively seized the opportunity to participate in struggles that led to the establishment of the Emirate Government. From a global perspective, politics cannot be overlooked as an essential factor that incited those Nupe migrants into Ilorin. In the migration history of Nupe into Ilorin, the factors of politics, which are locally, nationally, and internationally recognised as important factors in human migration, have been downplayed. This paper, therefore, aimed to examine the political motivational factors that brought about Nupe migration into Ilorin, and their active participation in the establishment of an Emirate, which eventually qualified them to be recognised as a stakeholder. The paper adopted the historical research method, which involved the use of archival materials, oral interviews, text content analysis, and internet materials to assess the cause, courses, and consequences of the Nupe migration into Ilorin. The work concluded that politics played a significant role in the migration and settlement of the Nupe people in Ilorin, and such politics were also used as a mechanism to sustain the co-existence of the Emirate.
Abdulrahman et al. (Fri,) studied this question.