Socio-Economic Impact of Ileya Festival in Ilorin, 1990-2020

Abstract

Ileya festival is one the Muslim festivals are known as Eid-l-Adha or Eid-l-Kabir which involves the slaughtering of ram(s) by every adult and capable Muslim. Ileya festival was annually celebrated with pomp and pageantry in Ilorin where many sons and daughters of the city usually come home from far and near to take part in the festival celebration. Thus, the city of Ilorin always witnessed a high influx of people from a few days to the day of the Ileya festival and there were several age long interesting socio-economic activities that sprang up in the course of the celebration of the festival. Most of these activities have become part of the cultural practices of the people. This paper examines the socio-economic impacts of Ileya festival in Ilorin. It analyses the social and economic activities of the festival as well as their impacts. The method of research and information gathering used were secondary and primary sources, mostly, oral interviews with old, and young men and women in Ilorin as well as ram sellers, livestock feed sellers, petty traders, market brokers and Local Government revenue officials, amongst others.