LAGOS, EKO, LAGOS STATE, NO MAN’S LAND, YORUBA.
Lagos State wasn’t the Capital of Nigeria for 99 years!
Lagos State wasn’t the Capital of Nigeria for 99 years!
Non indigenes are usually unable to know the difference between Eko, Lagos and Lagos State. For comprehension, Eko, the domain in which Oba Rilwan Aremu Akiolu is the traditional head belongs to Aromire. It is the space from Obalende to Idumota (that is Lagos Island).
This is different from Lagos which starts from Victoria Island, Lagos Island (Eko), Lagos Mainland up to Jibowu, Apapa, Surulere up to Akangba. This was the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria created by the colonial masters, before Lagos State was created.
Lagos State on the other hand consists of the entire Lagos and its colonies of Badagry, Epe, Ikeja and Ikorodu which was normally under the old western region.
Lagos State was created on May 27, 1967 by virtue of State (Creation and Transitional Provisions) Decree №14 of 1967
If you calculate 1967 to 1991, that is about 24 years.
Lagos is Different from Lagos State!
Oba of Lagos is also not the Oba of Lagos State!
The Eko narrative in Lagos State only applies to Obalende to Idumota not Lagos State.
Alot of people are mixing the history of Lagos State up because they can’t differentiate between Eko, Lagos and Lagos State.
The Capital within Lagos state was just 27 square miles out of the 1381 square mile landmass of Lagos state today. The rest was completely under the administration of the Western Region. We also have talk about who pushed for the capital to be in Lagos.
Calabar was never the Capital of Nigeria or Lagos Colony/Southern Nigeria” after it was formed!
Lagos colony not “Lagos State” wasn’t part of Southern Nigeria until 28 February 1906, In this new region called Southern Nigeria, the old Lagos Colony became the Western Province with Capital in Lagos and the former Southern Nigerian Protectorate was split into a Central Province with capital at Warri and an Eastern Province with capital at Calabar.
Note: Lagos colony was in control of majority of the Yoruba South western part of the current country “Nigeria”.
After the Amalgamation of Southern and Northern protectorate in 1914, Lord Lugard made Lagos the Capital of Nigeria
Fact 1: Calabar was never the capital of Nigeria
Fact 2: Southern Nigeria had 3 Capitals in 1906
Fact 3: Calabar was never the Capital of “Lagos colony and Southern Nigeria” after it was formed!
PRE- COLONIAL HISTORY OF EKO AND LAGOS
A well known name of the island till date among the indigenous people is: “EkoAromi-rẹ” — also sometimes punned as: “EkoAromi-sa”.
His “Koráme”/“Curamo” messy spelling (of the island’s local name) corresponds to no else than Eko Aromi-rẹ which is the islands local name.
Per Lagos traditions, Aromirẹ is the Awori prince who pioneered its use as oko (farm). This oko (farm) thus became an ereko (a farmstead dependency) of the adjacent Ido island capital.
His “Lago de Koráme” is his Portuguese description of the waterbody surrounding this island.
His “Lago de Koráme” is “Lake of Eko Aromi” which, for short, is “Lake of eko” — his description of the water around the island.
He recorded this in 1472AD, and that is 100 years before the Edos/Binis immigrated to live on the island among the Yoruba autochthones.
This land of the Yoruba autochthones.
This Portuguese description is Lago de Koráme; also spelt Lago de Curamo.
This description first came from Ruy de Sequiera who explored the island area around the year 1472.
This piece of land (eko island) is of course surrounded by water.
He described this waterbody in relation to the island it surrounds.
Of course this island has long had a name prior to his arrival and exploration. The locals till date still call it eko-Aromirẹ, i.e. Aromirẹ’s eko.
In summation; there exists a textual evidence which demonstrates that the island has had its name “eko” centuries before the Edo/Binis first immigrated here.
(b) Lagos traditions has maintained for centuries that this island has had its name eko long before it got transformed..
This centuries-old tradition was captured into writing in the 1920s by A. Burns, a former Acting Governor of Nigeria. He collected & documented this tradition as follows:
“Formerly [prior to its name as “Lagos”] it was known as eko, which name it had received before any…
This in English (partly) translates to “Lake of Koráme”.
Koráme (also spelt: Curamo) thus corresponds to the local name of the island. He didn’t rename the island.
from a mere farmstead dependency of Ìdó into having actual settlements of its own. settlements were made on the island.” ~Alan C. Burns, “History of Nigeria,” (1929), p. 44.
IF YOU INSULT IRAGBIJI, YOU HATE THE YORUBA PEOPLE
How can you call yourself a Yoruba man and be part of those mocking Iragbiji because you hate Tinubu? Is Iragbiji no longer part of Yorubaland?
Many Yorubas because of many years of delineation from their Yoruba consciousness cannot draw the line when making funny and useless remarks. If the Iragbiji people who are fellow Yorubas start turning their backs on Yoruba consciousness this Oloriburuku people will start calling them traitors?
There is a reason why many Owu people have anti-Yoruba agenda and behaviour? Our fathers made derogatory proverbs to abuse Owu for over 200 years, I won’t repeat that toxic proverbs here. The same was done in the 1950’s when some uncouth Yoruba people started downgrading the Bini royal stool calling it a subordinate royalty, meanwhile this royalty was an emperor for close to 800 years, uninterrupted. Yet, we had many uncouth and undisciplined fellows who rubbished this ancient Oba-ship stool till the Binis were forced to rewrite history and become enemy number one against Yoruba people.
That is why I am not going to be part of those who will argue and insult Binis on social media because they are making anti Yoruba rhetorics on social media. It wasn’t like that for over 1,000 years until the Akotiletas and the unruly generation majorly of the 1950’s who were westernized started insulting and ridiculing the Yoruba heritage of the Bini Royalty because of their toxic supremacist agenda and lack of emotional intelligence. For example, it was on record that many Yoruba parliamentarian mocked the Binis and other minorities for not understanding the standard “Oyo” Yoruba during plenary sessions. It’s better we let the sleeping dog lie.
My question is, If Ijaws, Igbos etc are mocking Iragbiji because of Tinubu, why should any right thinking mentally stable Yoruba citizen join in that mental dumbing behavior?
Let’s even talk about the crux of the issue which is, Is Tinubu from Lagos or Iragbiji???
Firstly, El Rufai, the current governor of Kaduna State is originally from Katsina state not Kaduna but no single Hausa/Fulani will insult him for coming from Katsina because they believe a Fulani man from Katsina or Kebbi has the same right in any Hausa speaking state in the core northern state. They understood that state creation in Nigeria was done to destroy ethnic solidarity and unity. The Igbos are the only major ethnic group that do not have this solidarity. They identify along state structures of the Nigerian state and therefore they believe the Yorubas or Fulaniis or Hausas should also subscribe to this self destructive and self immolating ideology because of one Nigeria.
Secondly, let’s talk about the spread of the Yoruba tribes indigenous to Lagos. The Ijebus are indigenous to Epe, Ikorodu, Ajegunle, Ikorodu, Lekki etc area of Lagos and they are not inferior to the other Ijebus in Ogun state. The Aworis are also indigenous to Sango otta in Ogun state and also to 70 per cent of the area called Lagos state today yet the Awori of Ogun state is not inferior to the Aworis of Lagos state just because of the useless state creation by the northern dominated military juntas of Nigeria.
Furthermore, the Egbas, Oyos, Ijeshas etc. in Ikeja, Abule Egba, Ifako Ijaiye, parts of Badagry are indigenous to the area called Lagos state and are not different from the Yoruba Egbas in Ogun state, or Yoruba Ijaiyes of Oyo state and Ogun state respectively or the Ijeshas of Osun state ancestrally, culturally and historically.
What irks many of us especially historically sound Yoruba Nationalists is when non Yorubas start telling Egba Yorubas or Ijebu Yorubas that they are from Ogun state therefore they have the same rights as them in the area called Lagos because of state creation by an illegal military junta of an illegal country called Nigeria. It’s not different from an Igbo man or Hausa man telling the Yorubas of Benin republic and Togo that they have no relationship and same land rights with the Yorùbás of Nigeria because of the 1884 Berlin West African Conference. It is irritating, condescending and insulting. There are some Yoruba Obas whose suzerainty and Kingdom is across Yorubaland of Benin Republic and Nigeria.
These cowards will ignore the fact that Abacha is half Kanuri claiming Kano and El Rufai is claiming Kaduna all because of their Fulani heritage these bullies will open their rotten teeth… to bastardize Yoruba reality and worldview and start insulting Iragbiji because of a useless…Nigerian politics.
The likes of Bode George (a Saro descendant himself, that is a story for another day) or some of the Afenifere (undercover Nigerian politicians) masquerading as Yoruba Nationalists rubbishing a powerful Yoruba city state called Iragbiji because of Tinubu hatred is the definition of insanity and shows the rot in the calibre of elders speaking for the Yoruba people. No wonder many of our youths have become Sorosoke weyrey generation. They lack respect, discipline, native intelligence and mental fortitude to preserve their Yoruba consciousness from people masquerading as fellow countrymen looking for ways and loopholes to de-yorubanize and de-ethnicize the Yoruba people.
I am a Yoruba nationalist but I am not mentally blind to see the damage fellow Yorubas are perpetrating on Yoruba consciousness because of lack of native intelligence. If you insult Iragbiji because of your hatred for Tinubu, you are destroying the entire Yoruba nation, lineage, history and identity.
SOURCE: Aare kurunmi kakanfo
Comment: DO NOT USE TINUBU HATE AS COVER UP FOR HATRED TOWARDS YORUBA PEOPLE.
-DO NOT USE NIGERIA POLITICS AS COVER UP.
THE I’M YORUBA BUT ….. ARE SUFFERING FROM SELF HATRED AND LOW SELF ESTEEM.
LAGOS STATE AND THE INDIGENOUS YORUBA SUB-GROUPS BY LOCATION
Lagos state is not just Eko, there is Epe(the Ijebus), The Aworis, the Ilaje, Ijesha(onirus, Olumegbon, Asogbon)
1. The creeks of Apapa, Ajegunle, Makoko, Iwaya, Bariga, Oko Baba, Oto, Ebute-Metta, Oyingbo, Ijora, Igbo Elejo, Ojo, Aloro Island (off the coast of Kirikiri) Ajah, Badore, Iton Agan, Oworonsoki, Agboyi, Bayeku have their ancestry with the Ilajes.
2. It is simply a poor attempt at history, not to understand the events leading to the alien borders created by the colonialists in Yoruba land.
The ilajes cuts across all water line areas of the Yoruba land into Ondo and in fact some parts of South South.
3. The Ijebus who have been isolated to Ogun state actually have their ancestry also in Epe, Ikorodu, Majidun, Ijede, Owode, Ajegunle and Agbowa.
The Agege Odo now Akoka and some parts of Yaba have ancestry of both Ilaje and the Aworis. Same with Ebute Metta and Apapa.
4. ‘Professor Babs Fafunwa in his book ‘History of Education in Nigeria’ page 74 wrote that traditional trading activities in aso oke cloths existed between the Ilaje and other hinterland Yorubas particularly the Ijesha and Akure, the latter which till today has strong population
5. the Ilaje relied absolutely on Ikale Ijebu and to some extent on the Apoi for the supply of farm produces particularly garrri and pupuru.
6. In paragraph 3 of the Ilaje Intelligence Report 1936, British author, RJM Curwen wrote that the Ilaje ‘occupied themselves in making salt from the sea and a savoury form of potash from the small white mangrove trees which grow near the coast.
7. With the proceeds of these two crafts, an extensive slave trade was carried on with the Yoruba people inland.
These intelligence reports were authenticated by the Supreme Court of Nigeria’s approval, ( Oju v Adejobi (1978) 11 N.S.C.C. 147 at 160
8. the British in Dec 1884, led by WAG Young, Gov of the Gold Coast Colony arrived the coast of Erunna in Her Majesty Ship Alecto and signed a Treaty with the Ilaje Ugbo kingdom. This treaty, is perhaps next in date in Nigeria, only to that signed by King Dosumu of Eko in 1861.
9. On the 24th October 1885 at the Mahin town, a Treaty was signed between CW Griffiths as envoy of Queen Victoria of England and the Amapetu of Mahin Oba OGUNSEMOYIN. One of the highlights of this Treaty was the abolition of slave trade all the way to present Ondo State.
10. By the Act of the Legislative Council of the 12th November 1895, signed by George C Denton, Acting Governor and pursuant to Ordinance №5 of 1890, Ilaje territory earlier described up to the estuary of the Benin River in the east effectively became part of the Lagos Colony
11. Ilaje was only excised from Lagos and joined with the others to create the Ondo Province in 1915 (after the amalgamation of Nigeria, 1914),forming the present Ondo and Ekiti states.
It is disingenuous to describe only indigenes of the island of eko as the only aboriginals.
12. Yorubas have their ancestry represented in Lagos.
The creation of the state for administrative convenience on April 11 1968 does not change the claim of its people as aboriginal Yorubas of South West, Nigeria.
13. The original settlers of Badagry were not the Ogu people.
Àgbádárìgì is a Yoruba name from where the name Badagry was coined by slave traders that plied the route.
Events in the history of the town was the acquisition of land by a European trader who was locally known as Yovo Huntokonu. Many sources identify him to be a Dutch trader called Hendrik Hertogh. He came from the west, fleeing the wrath of an African chief.
He reached the settlement called Apa under the Obaship of Alapa and he was given farmland to use for trading. The name Agbadarigi was a word used to describe the means of subsistence in the area which was farming, fishing and salt production.
Badagry was one of the routes that benefited from the slave trade conflict between Portnovo and Dahomey at the end of the eighteenth century.
History between 1736 and 1840
Huntokonu set up a trading post on the gifted land in 1736, and it was after Huntokonu’s settlement that Badagry emerged as a slave port, serving principally as an outlet for Oyo and displacing Apa politically and commercially.
During this period, political refugees fled from King Agaja Trudo to Badagry.
Agaja who was seeking access to the sea, warred across the coast and the war caused an influx of people living along the coast of Weme, Quidah, Allatha, Jaki, and Popos (the Ogu people)
It is instructive to note that no major text indicates a presence of the Ogu people prior the 18th century.
The rise of Badagry on the coast led to hostilities with Ouidah, which combined with Oyo and Eko to sack the town in 1784.
After the destruction, Jiwa a political refugee from Porto-Novo took over the reins of most of the political structures between 1784 and 1788.
In 1821, Oba Adele was exiled to Badagry and made Badagry a politically independent state.
The founding of Abeokuta also proved beneficial to Badagry as the former made use of Badagry as an outlet for trading.
Adele was involved with the famous trader, Madam Tinubu and sided with Egba’s in their conflict with Ota and Ijebu Among Adele’s followers from Lagos were Muslims, mostly servants from the Northern region, these group introduced Islam to the Ogu people in the city-state.
In the years between the founding of the colony of Lagos and colony of Nigeria, Badagry lost influence to Lagos.
In 1863, wary of French influence in Porto-Novo, colonial Lagos signed a treaty of cession with Badagry chiefs.
The Congress of Berlin in 1884–1885, led to the displacement of the Gbe ethnolinguistic groups in the area.
with especially the Badagry-Ogu ethnic group falling under the British rule, and marginalized through being removed from the rest of the ethno-linguistic group.
A NO MAN’S LAND TAG/RHETORIC
Perhaps, When Christopher Columbus “Discovered America”, He must have been like “Hey, this is no man’s land”, nobody owes here despite seeing native Americans, the tag or rhetoric must have justified European occupation, genocide and take over of indigenous peoples and lands.
Same as The Spaniard conquistadors who had its conquest on Aztecs,( the indigenous people), the Spaniard conquistadors must have first tagged the land “ A NO-MAN’S-LAND” as legitimate reason for such and the indigenous peoples as “NO MAN”.
The Tag of “No man’s land” is genocidal And crime against aboriginal peoples, no where in the world should be regarded to as No man’s land, Only Conquistadors say such.. You sound like them when you call anywhere, “A NO MAN’S LAND”..
Do you know that The word “Eko” isn’t limited to a part of SW NIGERIA Lagos state today?
Another place is called EKO EFUN ( SETTLEMENT/PLACE OF CHALK)!
the people inhabit the rich agricultural belt of Ugbodu, Ukwu-Nzu (originally called “Eko-Efun” because of huge deposit of chalk),
This is A Yoruba community in the heart of Igbo speaking Delta, the Olukumi people..
So tell me if Eko is actually Edo word?
Eko is shortened version of “EREKO”
References;
Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021–08–01
Sorensen-Gilmour, Caroline (1995). Badagry 1784–1863. The Political and Commercial History of a Pre-Colonial Lagoonside Community in South West Nigeria (PhD). University of Stirling.
Law, Robin (1978). “THE CAREER OF ADELE AT LAGOS AND BADAGRY, c. 1807 — c. 1837”. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria. 9 (2): 35–59
Aladeojebi, Gbade. (2016). History Of Yoruba Land. Partridge Publishing
Excerpts; vanguard and lagos state website
