Ibadan!

“E n le beun o!” meaning, how are you over there, is a popular way of greeting in Ibadan. It’s a greeting some people consider too ‘conk’ for them to grasp. And anyone who speaks in that tongue is usually laughed at. It’s however amazing that some smart advertisers have leveraged on this to promote their brands. Most billboards, particularly those advertising telecommunications companies, have one form of such greetings or the other.

Ibadan is a city I love for its quietness and slow pace of the lifestyle of its inhabitants, as nobody seems to be in a hurry in this ancient town. Little wonder why the cost of living is still low. It is probably one of the few towns in Nigeria where you can still take a trip in a taxi for N10! Fresh farm produce are sold in the market at cheap prices.

I read in a book some years ago that the name Ibadan was derived from Ìlú Ẹ̀bá-Ọ̀dàn, meaning the town at the junction of the savannah and the forest. At Nigeria’s independence in 1960, Ibadan was the largest and most populous city in Nigeria and the third in Africa after Cairo and Johannesburg. The city was the centre of administration of the old Western Region in the days of the British colonial rule, and parts of the city's ancient protective walls still stand to this day.
History has it that Ibadan came into existence in 1829, when Lagelu, the commander-in-chief of Ife and Yoruba's generalissimo, left Ile Ife with a handful of people from Ife, Oyo and Ijebu to found a new city, Eba Odan, which literally means 'between the forest and plains.'

From history also, we learnt the first city was destroyed due to an incident at a masquerade festival when a masquerade was accidentally disrobed and derisively mocked by women and children in an open marketplace. In Yorubaland, it was an abomination for women to look a masquerade in the eye because they were considered to be spirits of the dead forefathers who returned to the earth each year to bless their progeny. When the news reached Sango, the then Alaafin of Oyo, commanded that Eba Odan be destroyed for committing such an abominable act.

But Lagelu and some of his people survived the attack and fled to a nearby hill for sanctuary. On the hill, they survived by eating fruits and snails. Later, they cultivated the land and made corn and millet into pap meals known as Eko, which they ate with roasted snails. They improvised a bit by using the snail’s shell to drink the liquefied Eko. Lagelu and his people came down from the hill and founded another city called Eba'dan.

The new city instantly grew prosperous and became a commercial nerve centre. Shortly afterwards, Lagelu died, leaving behind a politically savvy people and a very stable community. The newly enthroned Olubadan made a friendly gesture to the Olowu of Owu by allowing Olowu to marry his only daughter, Nkan.

Coming from a war campaign one day, the raging Odo Oba (River Oba) would not allow Olowu and his army to cross until a human sacrifice was performed to appease the angry river. The chosen sacrifice was Nkan. The Olubadan was infuriated at hearing of Nkan's death; he sent an emissary to inform the Alafin of Oyo.

Yoruba kings and rulers such as Alake of Egba, Agura of Gbagura, Ooni of Ife, Awujale of Ijebu, and others formed a formidable coalition with Eba'dan against the powerful Olowu of Owu. After the defeat of Owu, many of the warriors that participated in the coalition refused to go back to their towns and cities, except the Ijebu warriors. They began attacking the neighbouring towns and hamlets, and also marauded across Eba'dan thereby making the indigenes fearful of them. Finally, they took over the political landscape of Eba'dan and changed its name to Ibadan, as we have come to know it today.

Ibadan was historically an Egba town. The Egba occupants were forced to leave the town and moved to present-day Abeokuta under the leadership of Sodeke, when the surge of Oyo refugees flocked into the towns as an aftermath of the fall of Oyo Kingdom.

Ibadan grew into an impressive and sprawling urban centre so much that by the end of 1829, Ibadan dominated the Yorùbá region militarily, politically and economically. The military sanctuary expanded even further when refugees began arriving in large numbers from northern Oyo following raids by Fulani warriors. After losing the northern portion of their region to the marauding Fulanis, many Oyo indigenes retreated deeper into the Ibadan environs.

What is sad today about this once beautiful city is that most of the relics are fast wasting away. Nobody seems to care about their dilapidating state. It’s really sad that these historic monuments are not taken care of.