Contributions of Yoruba People in the Economic & Political Developments of Nigeria

By Jacob Oluwatayo Adeuyan

Jacob Oluwatayo Adeuyan is a Geologist by profession and received his education at Kiev University -Ukrane, graduated with Bachelor of Science Exploration Geology in 1971.
Worked with the Federal Government of Nigeria from 1971 - 1978 and retired to form his own Engineering Firm - Geotek (Nig) Engineering Company from 1978 - 1983 as the Managing Director. Between 1983 - 1991, he entered politics and in 1991, he was forced to move out of his country for fear of persecution by the military junta ruling Nigeria then. He moved to London. In London, he entered Wolverhampton university for his Law degree and finished with LLB (Hons) in 1995. He moved out of London to US. In US, he was admitted to Morgan State University, Baltimore for his MBA degree. He finished in 1957. He worked in the US as Soil Consultant with Engineering Company in Maryland and GeoSciences Engineering Company as Company Director.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781467024808

Jacob Oluwatayo Adeuyan

Olu. Adeuyan is blessed with passion for knowledge search from the key geographical locations of the world. He received his B.Sc (Hons) Applied Geology from Kiev Geological College Ukraine in the Old USSR in 1971; LLB (Hons) JD Law Degree from the University of Wolverhampton - UK in 1995 and Master of Business Administration (MBA) Information Technology in the class of year 2000 from Morgan State University, Baltimore Maryland - USA. He worked in various places at nearly all the continents of the world with world class Engineering Firms, private organizations and governments. He was one of the first indigenous geo-scientists that was deployed from the Geological Survey of Nigeria in 1971 to work with the Russian geo-scientists on mineral deposit investigations for the needed geological materials for the establishment of Nigerian Steel Complex at Ajaokuta - Nigeria. In 1976, he decided to opt out from the Federal government employment to establish his own private Engineering Consulting Firm - Goetek (Nig) Services a company consulting on soil engineering to Civil Engineering Firms in the country, investigation of underground water table and drilling of Boreholes for government agencies, public schools and investigation of mineral deposits for private companies. In 1991, he moved to the United Kingdom. While In London where he now sojourned, he worked for some Civil Engineering Companies on road and building work contracts as soil engineer and during this period in 1992, he registered at the university of East London to read Law. He later transferred to University of Wolverhampton where he completed his Law degree in 1995. After graduation, he travelled to the U.S. to join his children who were already living in America. On getting to America he sought employment with a reputable engineering company in Maryland (Engineering Consulting Services Ltd where he worked for a lenghty period of time before joining GeoSciences Engineering Consultants Ltd. His passion for knowledge search prompted him to enrole at Morgan State University in the MBA program of School of Graduate studies and at a record time he finished at the class of 2000 and went back to his employment before he finally stopped working in 2002 because of an acute heart ailment. He has been productively managing his time to write books and consult on business and some engineering projects. He has successfully writen six books on various topics on human development. He is blessed with children and grand children, some resident in the U.S and some in Nigeria, his country of origin. He has travelled to so many places of the world where he enjoyed friendship with responsible and articulate persons of diverse professional and cultural background. He is as well a renowned politician in his home base - Nigeria, Europe and America, also an elder in his church - Vine Yard of Comfort (CAC Worldwide). His hobbies are gardening, research and travelling.

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© 2011 Jacob Oluwatayo Adeuyan. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 9/21/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4670-2483-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-2481-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-2480-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011916047

Printed in the United States of America

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Some Nigerian Leaders of the Past and Present

Who are the Yoruba People?

Chapter –1–

Yoruba Nation of the Dark Ages

Chapter –2–

The Past Kingdoms and Empires of Yoruba Nation.

Chapter –3–

The collapse of the First Yoruba Nation.

Chapter –4–

The Return of Yoruba Natives from Captivity.

–Chapter 5–

The Introduction and Side effect of Modern Economic and Industrial activities in Nigeria via Yorubaland and its people.

Chapter –6–

Introduction of Western Education and European culture into the Territory of West African Coast.

Chapter –7–

The defeat of the old African Culture through Slavery, Trade and Social Reforms:

Chapter –8–

The Role Played by Bishop Ajayi Crowther and other Early Nationalists of Yoruba Extraction in the Political and Economic Development of Nigeria.

Chapter –9–

The Sum Total Period of

Imperial Government in Nigeria

Chapter –10–

Activities of Foreign Merchants in Yorubaland and the Niger Basin.

Chapter –11–

The Colonial Economic Development in Nigeria:

Chapter –12–

The Young Shall Grow: The Birth of Political Organizations by the African Nationalists:

Chapter –13–

The Struggle for and Attainment of Nigeria Independence in 1960:

Chapter –14–

An Overview of the Achievements of the Great Western Region

Chapter –15–

Nigerian’s Years of Captivity in the Military Confinement – 1966 – 1999

Chapter –16–

Yoruba People and their Welfare.

Chapter –17–

Where Do We Go From Here?

Dedication

This Book is dedicated to all the Sons and Daughters of Oduduwa worldwide - the Progenitor of Yorubaland.

Acknowledgments

This book would not have been able to see the light of the day if not for the support and painstaking contributions of the following people that surrounded me from the research table from all over the world to computer interpretations of some valuable data used in some of the contents of the book. The insights and attention of many talented and Godly collaborators made the writing of this book an experience of its message.

First are the inestimable contributions of my grand-children who immensely contributed their tender-age experience in computer manipulations of their generation and support to my ambition of getting this work across to my people: Ms. Oluwadamilola, Olayimika Oluwaseyi, Olamidipupo Jr. Olabode Jr. Omogbolahan, Olakitan, Oluwatayo Jr. Olatubosun Omolodun, Tayo Jr., Ishmail, Oluwaseun, Kemisola, David Oladeinde all of Adeuyan dynasty.

This book is a political and reference book to this generation and the Yoruba generations yet unborn in our corporate Nigeria and one of the series in the historical books already written by Nigeria writers for the maintenance of the status quo of our nation. My thanks, too, go to my beloved pastors and friends in my church – the Vine – Yard of Comfort, Lanham Maryland: Reverend David Olusegun Adenodi – the Senior Pastor of the American Parish, Pastor Dr Alex Oni, Pastor Dr Jide Aniyikaiye, Mr & Mrs Dotun Falade, Mr.& Prof. Apanishile, Mr & Mrs Muyiwa Oshinkomiya, Mrs Olu. Ajayi of Morgan State University and especially my son in the Lord Pastor & Deaconess Philip Ekoma who chaired the review & typesetting board of the book – your unwavering enthusiasm, your countless astute suggestions, your cheerful willingness to lend creativity and technical savvy – whatever it took – at any moment.

To my beloved children and their families for their love & financial support to me during my research trips to Africa, England and other nations of the world – I love you all. Same goes to my beloved friend Ms. Susan Aina Adefarakan who is always there for me in terms of free lodging and maintenance in England anytime I visit London for valuable information on this work – I thank you for your love and affection. My political brothers, friends & associates: Pa Reuben Fashoranti – Leader of Afenifere, Chief Olu. Falae – Former Secretary to the Federal Government of Nigeria & Presidential Candidate and also my childhood friend, Chief Bisi Akande, National Chairman of Action Congress of Nigeria & a loveable friend, Chief Henry Oladele Ajomale - Chairman Lagos State Action Congress of Nigeria – Old time associate & friend, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State, Barister Dele Alade, Architect Oloye Awojodu, Mr. Kayode Ikuforiji, Olasende Akerele, Professor & Mrs Tenabe, Ike Isama Chairman Action Congress of Nigeria - USA, Mr & Mrs Jackson Falade, Colonel Olakunle Falayi, Dr. Wunmi Akintide, Samuel Owolanke Ogundare and very many others that space can not allow me to mention. This is not an intentional oversight as all of you make this journey a splendid fun. I thank you all.

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Some Nigerian Leaders of the Past and Present

(1) Herbert Macaulay – Father of Nigeria Politics.

(2) Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe – Ist Governor General of Nigeria and Ist President of Nigeria.

(3) Chief Obafemi Awolowo – Ist Premier of Western Region of Nigeria and Leader of Opposition at the Federal House of Representatives Lagos.

(4) Sir. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa – Ist Prime Minister of Nigeria.

(5) Mallam Aminu Kano – Leader of NEPU

(6) J. S. Tarka - Leader of UMBC

(7) Sir. Ahmadu Bello – The Sadauna of Sokoto and Leader of NPC

(8) Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola – 2nd Premier of Western Region

(9) Oba Adesoji Aderemi – Ooni of Ife and 1st indigenous Governor of Western Region.

(10) General Yakubu Gowon – Nigeria Military Head of State

(11) Col. Adekunle Fajuyi – Ist military governor of the former Western Region.

(12) General Olusegun Obasanjo – Military Head of State and a Civilian President of Nigeria.

(13) Chief Fani-Kayode (Popularly known as Fani-Power) Deputy Premier of Western Region.

(14) Chief Michael Okpara – 2nd Premier of Eastern Nigeria

Who are the Yoruba People?

Yoruba people have been the dominant group that resides for centuries on the west bank of River Niger, of mixed origin and the product of the assimilation of periodic movements of migrants who evolved a common language and culture to administer and control their day-to-day life style. Much had been written about their source of origin by the great historians of our time but as at yet we are made to be living in a confused state of many theories regarding this topic. The one to hold on to among these theories is the fact that the Yoruba people are the siblings of the great Oduduwa who was their primogenitor. Every other facts and theories that had been postulated regarding the origin of Yoruba people are welcomed for the moment and as well preserved for future scientific and technological development, which may par-adventure, shed more lights on the true position of the topic.

Like all other communities of the world that were in existence during the dark ages before the art of writing and development of knowledge were being brought to them by those already having them, Yoruba community cannot be exempted from having its own portion of this natural blackout. It will therefore be a nice suggestion that all we can do for now is to continue embracing all the previous scripts of our great historians on this topic and whenever there will be need to refer to or write about this topic, we can pick the one that is more comfortable to us and that will be more acceptable to our readers and make sense to the future generations of this great people.

Our undisputable home base of Ile-Ife, the cradle of Yoruba people was said to have been in existence for many centuries back before the Portuguese trading adventurers came to Africa in the fifteenth century on a trade mission to the city of Ile - Ife and Benin City. Some research papers revealed to us that by 900 AD, the Yoruba city-state of Ile-Ife had established itself as the dominating power in the land of the Yoruba, which had complex states throughout the region that included the central and southwest of the present Nigeria, Benin and Togo Republics. The City-state of Ile-Ife, which according to the historians inhabited by Yoruba in the 4th century BCE, became the cultural center of the people and was acknowledged by all other Yoruba city-states as the primary source city of their existence.

The Benin Empire that was situated at the southeastern part of the home base of Ile-Ife, ruled by a dynasty that also traced its ancestry to this great city and its founder, the great Oduduwa. Apart from the fact that Benin City was largely populated by the Edo clan and other surrounding ethnicities, yet it held considerable sway in the election of its nobles and Kings similar to the practice in Yoruba land. Ile-Ife during the initial development of modern trade in Africa and unlike Benin and Oyo, it never developed onto a true kingdom but remained and maintained a city-state status that was paramount and important to the people of Yoruba land as their original sacred city and the dispenser of their basic religious thoughts. Other cities of Yoruba people established either by intent or by accident copied from the prototype structure of Ile-Ife to build their new locations in both spiritual and physical. We can confirm this through the control of the monarchs (Oba) and the councils made up of nobles, guild leaders and war lords that were in place throughout the land before the white-man arrived with their new form of government structures and system. Although some of the powers allocated to the monarchs of those days have now been severed and given to the people under democratic process and dispensation, but yet the traditional rights and powers associated with them still resides with the monarchs and their palace noble men till today.

Yoruba people of the past and present were organized in partrilineal descent groups that occupied various village and city communities. In the past, they lived mainly in the village communities and subsisted mainly on agriculture, but history told us that as from the eleventh century A.D., the adjacent village compounds with their detached or semi-detached houses began to coalesce into a number of territorial city-states in which loyalties to the clan chief-head became paramount and gradually transformed itself into dynastic chieftain level. Subsequently this system produced an urbanized political and social environment that was accompanied by a high level of intellectual ability to produce artistic achievements particularly in terracotta and ivory sculpture. The sophisticated metal casting produced by the early Yoruba craftsmen at Ile-Ife became the business source for international trade between the Yoruba people and their neighbors to the north and some far-away regions of Africa. The brass and bronze produced by the artisans at Ile-Ife from copper, tin and zinc became a significant item of trade to further develop their environment and its inhabitants. The raw materials of copper, tin, and zinc used to produce these ornaments were either brought into Yoruba country from the north of Africa through the trading caravan routes of this time or from the mines in the Sahara and northern Nigeria.

Formal traditions of the historical process by which Ile-Ife’s ruling dynasty extended its authority over Yoruba land were significant and interesting. History affirmed that oduduwa had only a male child named Okanbi and that it was this male child that bore seven sons that later established independent city-states and dynasties throughout the Yoruba land where they reigned as priest-kings and presided over the cult rituals. Ile-Ife, being the center of as many as over 400 religious cults supported all the newly established cities that the young Oduduwa grand children came to established both with spiritual powers and structural assistance. They were as well protected as a parent would always protect its children. On their way out of Ile-Ife these princes took with them the most liked and most important ones among the numerous deities being worshiped at their city of origin to their new locations to establish their presence with them. This is why up till today in Yoruba land and elsewhere in the universe where Yoruba people may have migrated to there is always uniformity in their culture and the mode of their traditional religion.

The rise of Oyo Empire did not come as a surprise but as a result of its geographical location and its proximity to the people across the borders of Yoruba land especially those to the north of the territory. The slave trade business prop-up the importance of Oyo city-state at the end of the 15th century with the aid of the Portuguese guns behind it as its security pillars. In addition the expansion of the Empire at this time was equally associated with the acquisition of horses from across the Niger. This prestigious commodity actually enhanced and promoted their trade and also served as a source of mobility to them to travel faster and more comfortable than the traditional trekking on foot. This advantage, which other locations in the region had no access to, has increased the wealth and popularity of the monarch, nobles, merchants and the people of Oyo of this time.

Another spectacular point to note is the wellbeing and survival of those animals. Oyo city-state being a city located in the Savanna area of Yoruba land gives such opportunity to raise horses better than in the forest areas because of the deadly health effect on them through the bite of tsetse fly that is abundant in the forest areas. Unfortunately when the war broke out at Oyo at the end of the 18th century, the northern business friends and partners (the Fulanis), which Oyo people rested upon for help and assistance broke their backs completely as they ended up conquering all of old Oyo territory by 1830s. The Fulani invasion of the old Oyo territory pushed many Yoruba to the south where the towns of Ibadan and Abeokuta were founded. The city of Ilorin, which was one of the principal towns of the old Oyo Empire and some others within the territory remained Fulani dominated and ruled territory till today. The Afonja dynasty at Ilorin was completely replaced with an Emir – a Sokoto carlifate title.

The major trade of the old Yoruba people was agriculture because of the rich land advantage endowed them by their Olodumare. This trade enabled them to feed their families well and also exposed them to trading partnerships among themselves even before the arrival of the Whiteman’s business opportunities and techniques. When they came and introduced new products from other areas of the world to them such as cotton and cocoa, it was easier for them to pick on the technology of growing these products fastly. The end result was that its agricultural input to the world economy when the British people were with us and after they had left was enormous. So also our cocoa beans, palm kernel produce, cotton, peanuts and beans undoubtedly contributed greatly to the economy of the colonial power that annexed us forcefully for sixty years. It may not be far from the truth that at a point in time in the life-circle of Yoruba people, over 70% of them were serious farmers while the remainder resided back in the cities to work as crafts people and traders. But as time went by, the centralization of wealth within the cities allowed for the development of a complex market economy, which encouraged extensive patronage of the arts.

It is no gain saying that the culture of Yoruba people spread across the Atlantic to the Americas and have some soft spots within the continent of mother Africa. During the slave trade era, many of Yoruba people were violently captured by Europeans and marched in millions to their plantations located in the Americas. During their hazardous journey on the sea and on the ocean, they were crowded together without any respect for human lives because of their interest in only numbers for profit gains. Many of them died on the voyage because of the condition of how they were stacked like bags of produce. Those that were fortunate to make it to the designated locations found themselves in various British, French, Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the New World. Interestingly in a number of the places where they were distributed to, the people made sure that their traditions and culture were maintained and preserved for their unborn generations. This impressive notion or ideology survived the slavery era and continued into the civilized era we see today.

In Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, and Trinidad, Yoruba religious rites, beliefs, music and myths are as new as they were in the slavery days when our people were in chains working in the plantations without any hope of freedom in sight for them. In Haiti for example, the Yoruba people are called Anagos and their religious activities concede to Yoruba religious rites and beliefs a honored place with the recognition of the numerous deities of Yoruba origin that their forefathers brought with them into the New World. In Brazil, Yoruba religious activities are called Anago or Shango, and in Cuba they are designated Lucumi meaning Olukumi in Yoruba expression and my friend in English language.

Practically before the advent of Christianity and Islam, Yoruba people believed in their own deities and the Supreme Being called Olorun or Olodumare. These deities which changed with each geographical locations in the land are considered lesser gods who are capable of presenting the people’s cases and problems judiciously in the courts of the Supreme Being in heaving and who will surely bring back to them undiluted answers clean and clear from Olodumare – the Almighty God. Some of these deities are Sango (god of thunder), Ogun (god of iron), soponna (god of smallpox), Aja (the spirit of whirlwind), Osun (goddess of fertility), Olokun (goddess of the sea) and other gods. They are all considered to be intermediaries between man and God – Olodumare. Yoruba proverbs and adages that came from rich philosophical background form an important part of their everyday language, and are extensively used in all forms of communication. The talking drum, which is the pride of the Yoruba folklore, still stands as a mystery to musical performers all over the world. The way its rhythm and sound is manipulated, controlled, and changed direction at will by the person drumming it could not be copied because of the dialectical messages of different versions its tone sends to the listeners through the beating.

The pre-colonial government administration of Yoruba people especially in the cities are something of interest to note. In the cities where monarchs had been established, the overall powers were vested in the courts of such monarch. He can absolutely use all the powers by himself or sometime he can seek for the advice of his noblemen called the chiefs or the palace officials if he wished to. But as time progressed especially when new cities such as Ibadan and Abeokuta were found after the defeat of Usman Dan Fodio, the militant Muslim leader who threatened to annex the whole of Yoruba land up to the sea shore at Lagos by the Ibadan military command at Oshogbo war front, new approach to government and social development were beginning to unfold itself.

The numerous Egba communities that later came together to form one political entity were notable example to site. In their system, the independent polities often elect an Oba while the real political, legislative, and judicial powers resided with the Ogbonis, a council of notable elders in the community. When Commander Fredrick Forbes, a representative of the British Crown in Nigeria visited Abeokuta in somewhere around 1853, he wrote in an edition of the Church Military Intelligencer of that year, describing Abeokuta as a city having four presidents, and the system of government as having 840 principal rulers or House of Lords, 2800 secondary chiefs or House of Commons, 140 principal military ones and 280 secondary ones. He described Abeokuta and its system of government as the most extra-ordinary republic in the world. This was the remark and observation of a strange person who only came but met the institution already in place at Abeokuta in 1853. The observation made about the high level of government and the rate of development by the Portuguese explorers in the 15th century when they first got to Benin City is similar to the one now made by Commander Forbes in the 19th century about Abeokuta’s system of government and people.

The people saw the inherent danger lying behind the monopoly of power by the monarchs and this was why they put together such council members that comprised of notable men and women within the community and that were of the same influential status with the monarch to check on his abuses of the powers given to him by the people’s collective constitution. This system about how to run the people’s government as well developed among the other communities that fell under the Yoruba ethnic umbrella. In Oyo, which was then the most centralized of the pre-colonial Empires, the Alafin usually consult on all political decisions with his Prime Minister – the Bashorun and the council of leading nobles called the Oyo Mesi.

In the case of Ibadan a city founded in the 19th century by a polyglot group of refugees, soldiers and itinerant traders from Oyo and other Yoruba sub-groups, the people initially dispensed with the concept of monarchism but later embraced it in the 20th century. Before they finally embraced this system, the people preferred to elect their leader called Baale from the ranks of military and civil councils from the pool of their eminent citizens. By gradual development of such system, the city was growing in size and in democratic principle of governance. In not too long a time, Ibadan was astronomically swelling beyond everybody’s expectation until it surpassed all other cities in Yoruba land both in population and size. Initially the city was regarded as Yoruba military republic and with the superior military experience and influence at its disposal, other people from other neighboring state-cities now preferred to move to Ibadan for the protection of themselves and their properties. This was the time that the inter-tribal wars among the Yoruba people were going on at different fronts; wiping out some communities completely in some instances and leaving some in serious devastation.

Arguably the white man did not bring anything new to the governing area of the people apart from their own commercial and business techniques that were established to serve their own purpose. Before they came with their brand of administrative system, we already had in place functional social organizations and by the time they came, they only took time to study the functionality of those organizations with the assistance of our people and then started to document them and where necessary expand or reconstitute some to fall in line with their own prototype. For example, occupational guilds, social clubs, secret societies, league of traders, religious units, and other progressive city organizations were on the ground functioning and moving the society forward before the white man’s arrival. Unfortunately when they came to introduce their system to us, our people of the time thought that it was good and for that reason, they abandoned our established system to start learning the new system. We all can imagine the difficulty it will involve to learn a new system from its foundation. This diversionary method derailed our course, ran us into pitfall and completely changed our mindset to such an extent that we had to look forward unto England for every need we desired including the changing of our shoes and dresses when they are warn out.

Credit must be given to our past leaders, the nationalists and those of them that suffered in silence during the period of incarceration and degradation of our people in the hands of colonial lords. We must equally doff our caps for them for the wisdom, intelligence, patience, spirit of understanding, perseverance and all other qualities and virtues that they applied in dealing with the low ebb situation of the time. At last we gained independence through the hard works of these past leaders. Their names shall forever be remembered from generation to generation and also be written with golden ink on the plates of our walls, even at the gates of our cities and in the minds of our children. To them I say Bravo.

PART 1

Yoruba Nation

Chapter –1–

Yoruba Nation of the Dark Ages

Yoruba Nation of the dark ages may not necessarily refer to a very long or distant era of the past but which could have its beginning from somewhere around 800 AD, from whence the historians speculated as the birth century of Ile-Ife the home-city of Yoruba people. Though oral history through mythical belief predated the birth of this city to the time when God – Oldumare created the whole universe and made the city the center or core-city of the universe. Those who belonged to the school of thought that the father of Yoruba people – Oduduwa was sent down by Olodumare God the creator, to fashion the first human beings out of Ile-Ife clay soil and ruled over them could not be totally condemned for their belief. Those who hold-on to the other versions of the myth which posited that Oduduwa came from the Middle - East, somewhere around the city of Mecca as a mysterious sorjourner to rescue the people of Ile-Ife from the incessant raid of the rafian people with his magical powers too have their own reasons to believe this version.

The bottom line is that the early anthropologists confirmed that the city of Ile-Ife had been in existence before 900AD. By this time, according to their findings they remarked that the Yoruba city-state of Ile-Ife had established itself as the dominating power in Yoruba land which included all of the central and southwest of the present Nigeria and as far as to the territory of Togo. The mere fact that there was no way to properly record events of this time does not negate the oral history that was passed from one generation to the other until it came to our age when the history can now be documented and scanned. I am equally sure that future archeological discoveries would unravel more facts as to the true origin of our people.

In the dark ages and like in all other places of the world, people lived either in caves or on the land in small groups and fend for themselves by whatever means and ways available to them. Yoruba people too are no exception in this regard. History told us that in the forestlands of Western Africa south of the Sahelian states (the Sahel is the area immediately south of the Sahara), Africans lived in small villages that were tribal and ruled by chiefs. And sometime between 1000 and 1500 AD, many of these villages began to consolidate into larger units thereby transforming into powerful and centralized states; Benin City was recognized as the largest and longest lasting of these centralized states followed by Oyo.

Because of lack of adequate documentation, the city-states and kingdoms development around this time lost their histories in the jungle forests of the time. People of the time quickly migrated from one place to another for many reasons. One of such was the influx of grassland-dwelling people from the Sudan that were been driven south by the increasingly harsh climatic conditions in the desert areas. People from African desert region were known to be mainly cattle rearers in the past and because of their trade, they would need grazing land to keep their cattle and other domestic animals when the climate is too hot. This reason may have been their principal motive of drifting south in search of Amazon ground that would accommodate them and their flock of animals.

On their way to their new permanent places, they brought with them to establish their culture and the form of government that was being practiced at their original places including their hereditary monarchy which helped them to fuse together the villages in a particular district that later became state-cities. In this developmental lineage, Yoruba people were the first to expand the power of city-states over other territories. Ife people began a series of military incursions into parts of the Niger area in an attempt to set up monarchies for the people and to extend the powers of Ife dynasty to those places. Through this system, they were able to discover such place like Benin and established the city of Oyo both that later became powerful economic Empires of Yoruba territory.

Benin, which is located at the east of Ile-Ife was said to become a dependency of Ife at the beginning of the 14th century and by the 15th century, it took an independent course probably because of the visit of the Portuguese merchants to Benin city at the tail end of the 15th century that transformed them to become a major trading power in their own rites, blocking Ife’s access to the coastal parts of the territory. Benin was an area being occupied by speaking Edo people and according to them they claimed that the Edos have occupied this area for several thousands of years. Historically, record revealed that the Edo society is found on the village grouping like all other places in the region and was kinship organized whose authority is based on groups of males according to their age. With the abundancy of power and authority in the hands of Ile-Ife as at this time, it sent one of the members of its dynasty around 1300 AD to rule the Benin territory but fine enough the basic social and political structures that were being practiced in Benin before this time did not change profoundly. Because of this, the ruling period of the Oba sent to Benin was so short and strictly controlled by the Edo chiefs, called the Uzama.

Like all other Obas of Yoruba land of the time, political power and religious authority in Benin were vested in the Oba (king) who according to tradition descended from Ife dynasty. The Oba had as his advisers, six hereditary chiefs whom he consulted with from time to time on matters affecting his Empire and people. The perimeter size of Benin City around this time was estimated to cover around 25 kilometers with approximately a little over 100,000 houses at its height and with beautifully paved roads connecting each other. The city of Benin was then enclosed with three concentric rings of beautiful earthworks. The administration of the urban complex lay with sixty trade guilds, each with its own quarters, whose membership cut across clan affiliations. All of them owe their loyalty directly to the Oba.

At the Oba’s court, the Oba presided over a large council in a courtroom richly adorned with brass, bronze and Ivory objects, which were the replica of the traditions of all Obas in Yorubaland. Benin too like Ife and other Yoruba states is famous for its sculpture and ornament producing techniques. From what has been said, Yoruba and Benin were closely interconnected from the beginning of existence. Benin Empire was recorded as one of the most powerful and extensive among the kingdoms of its time. It was one of the longest and lasting civilizations in West Africa and was still a powerful and imposing Empire when the Europeans came with their colonization program in the 19th century. It took the British a great deal of time and diplomacy to subdue the Empire in 1897 when the territory was invaded and the Empire finally dismantled.

In the case of Oyo Empire, which was extended to the present Ilorin and Yagba territories in the Savanna region between the forest and the Niger River with its capital city of Oyo-Ile was conquered by the Fulani Jihad conflict led by one of its militant Muslim leader and a Quranic scholar Uthman dan Fodio. The conflict drafted many Yoruba people from their original city base of Oyo-Ile further down south. Because the city was completely destroyed by the Sokoto Caliphate who in the course of the conflict also seized and occupied the city of