Ibadan
—  City  —
Nickname(s): Ile Oluyole
Ibadan Location in Nigeria
Coordinates: 7°23′47″N 3°55′0″E / 7.39639°N 3.916667°E / 7.39639; 3.916667Coordinates: 7°23′47″N 3°55′0″E / 7.39639°N 3.916667°E / 7.39639; 3.916667
Country	Nigeria
State	Oyo State
War camp	1829
Ibadan District Council	1961
Ibadan Municipal Government	1989
Government
• Governor	Senator Abiola Ajimobi
• Olubadan	Samuel Odulana Odugade I
Area
• Total	1,190 sq mi (3,080 km2)
Population (2006 census)[1]
• Total	1,338,659
• Density	2,140/sq mi (828/km2)
• Metro density	600/sq mi (250/km2)
• Religions	Christianity, Islam, Yoruba traditional religion
Time zone	WAT (UTC+1)
Website	http://www.oyostate.gov.ng/

Ibadan (Yoruba: Ìbàdàn or fully Ìlú Ẹ̀bá-Ọ̀dàn, the city at the junction of the savannah and the forest) is the capital city of Oyo State and the third largest metropolitan area in Nigeria, after Lagos and Kano, with a population of 1,338,659 according to the 2006 census. Ibadan is also the largest metropolitan geographical area. At Nigerian independence, Ibadan was the largest and most populous city in the country and the third in Africa after Cairo and Johannesburg.

Ibadan is located in south-western Nigeria, 128 km inland northeast of Lagos and 530 km southwest of Abuja, the federal capital, and is a prominent transit point between the coastal region and the areas to the north. Ibadan had been the centre of administration of the old Western Region since the days of the British colonial rule, and parts of the city's ancient protective walls still stand to this day. The principal inhabitants of the city are the Yoruba people.

History[link]

Ibadan came into existence in 1829.^[2] According to local historians, Lagelu, the Jagun (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.' According to HRH Sir Isaac Babalola Akinyele, the late Olubadan (king) of Ibadan (Olu Ibadan means Lord of Ibadan), in his authoritative book on the history of Ibadan, Iwe Itan Ibadan, printed in 1911, the first city was destroyed due to an incident at an Egungun (masquerade) festival when an Egungun was accidentally disrobed and derisively mocked by women and children in an open marketplace full of people. In Yorubaland, it was an abomination for women to look an Egungun in the eye because the Egunguns were considered to be the dead forefathers who returned to the earth each year to bless their progeny. When the news reached Sango, the then Alaafin of Oyo, he commanded that Eba Odan be destroyed for committing such abominable act.

Lagelu was by now an old, frail man; he could not stop the destruction of his city, but he and some of his people survived the attack and fled to a nearby hill for sanctuary. On the hill they survived by eating oro fruit and snails; later, they cultivated the land and made corn and millets into pap meals known as oori or eko, which they ate with roasted snails. They improvised a bit by using the snail shells to drink the liquefied eko. Ultimately, 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. Then the Olubadan sent his army to attack the powerful Olowu of Owu and defeated him. The Olowu committed suicide to escape being captured by the Ibadan army. The battle shattered the great Owu kingdom into pieces till today. Some of it remains in the mother town which is the present Orile-Owu in Osun State, while others are in Ogun State, known as Owu Abeokuta and etc.

A part of 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 as result of oppression. Ibadan grew into an impressive and sprawling urban center 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.

The Fulani Caliphate attempted to expand further into the southern region of modern-day Nigeria, but was decisively defeated by the armies of Ibadan in 1840.

Colonial Ibadan[link]

In 1893 Ibadan area became a British Protectorate after a treaty signed by Fijabi, the Baale of Ibadan with the British acting Governor of Lagos, George C. Denton on 15 August.^[3] By then the population had swelled to 120,000. The British developed the new colony to facilitate their commercial activities in the area, and Ibadan shortly grew into the major trading center that it is today.

Education[link]

The first university to be set up in Nigeria was the University of Ibadan. Established as a college of the University of London in 1948, and later converted into an autonomous university in 1962. It has the distinction of being one of the premier educational institutions in Africa. The Polytechnic Ibadan is also located in the city. As at October, 2006, the university has a population of 13,823 undergraduate and 3,480 postgraduate students.
There are also numerous public and private primary and secondary schools located in the city. Other noteworthy institutions in the city include the University of Ibadan Teaching Hospital also known as University College Hospital (UCH) which is the first teaching hospital in Nigeria; the internationally acclaimed International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA); Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER). Also Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, the National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), and the Institute for Agricultural Research & Training (IAR&T), all under the auspices of Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria;^[4] the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria.

Ibadan and its environs before the dissolution of the Western Region, Nigeria was the home of the most sophisticated and liberal scientific and cultural community on the continent of Africa; as personified by the immortalized Ibadan School.

In 1853, the first Europeans to settle in Ibadan, Reverend Hinderer and his wife, started Ibadan's first Western schools. They built churches and schools and the first two-storey building in Ibadan, which can still be found today at Kudeti. The first pupils to attend an elementary school in Ibadan were Yejide (female) and Akinyele (male) – the two children of an Ibadan high chief.

Transport[link]

Ibadan has an airport, Ibadan Airport, and was served by the Ibadan railway station on the main railway line from Lagos to Kano. (No longer operating). Poorly-maintained roads are particularly problematic in the rainy season. What are called interstate highways in the United States are called carriageways in Nigeria. There are not many miles of dual carriageways in Ibadan. The primary routes go from Ibadan to Lagos and to Benin City. Adding to the weather and terrain, roads typically have few or no speed limit signs or warning signs to alert the motorist of curves, hills, intersections or problems with the road itself such as large potholes or eroded road beds.^{[citation needed]}

In-town transport comes in a variety of forms. Modes of transport include, taxis, taxi-vans commonly called danfos, private cars that are hired out by the day with a driver, personal family cars, scooters, and walking. All fares are negotiable depending upon the number in the party and the distance to be travelled.^{[citation needed]} The average taxi is a small car, which seats four people and the driver. A danfo is a van, meanwhile, which seats seven people and the driver. This does not mean that more people will not be accommodated; often both taxis and danfos carry as many passengers as can squeeze into the vehicle. Danfos have an additional staff member. He is the "conductor," who arranges fare agreements and keeps track of delivery points. He is often to be seen holding onto the frame of the van while hanging out the door in order to locate potential fares.^{[citation needed]} In December 2008 Governor Alao Akala Commissioned 55 brand new buses for interstate transport service which is to be used by Trans City Transport Company (TCTC) Eleyele, Ibadan with a promise to commence intracity transport service very early next year.

Geography[link]

Ibadan is located in southwestern Nigeria in the southeastern part of Oyo State about 120 km east of the border with the Republic of Benin in the forest zone close to the boundary between the forest and the savanna. The city ranges in elevation from 150 m in the valley area, to 275 m above sea level on the major north-south ridge which crosses the central part of the city. The city's total area is 1,190 sq mi (3,080 km²).

The city is naturally drained by four rivers with many tributaries: Ona River in the North and West; Ogbere River towards the East; Ogunpa River flowing through the city and Kudeti River in the Central part of the metropolis. Ogunpa River, a third-order stream with a channel length of 12.76 km and a catchment area of 54.92 km².

Climate[link]

Ibadan has a tropical wet and dry climate (Köppen climate classification Aw), with a lengthy wet season and relatively constant temperatures throughout the course of the year. Ibadan’s wet season runs from March through October, though August sees somewhat of a lull in precipitation. This lull nearly divides the wet season into two different wet seasons. November to February forms the city’s dry season, during which Ibadan experiences the typical West African harmattan. The mean total rainfall for Ibadan is 1420.06 mm, falling in approximately 109 days. There are two peaks for rainfall, June and September. The mean maximum temperature is 26.46 C, minimum 21.42 C and the relative humidity is 74.55%.

Administration[link]

There are eleven (11) Local Governments in Ibadan Metropolitan area consisting of five urban local governments in the city and six semi-urban local governments in the less city. Local governments at present are institutions created by the military governments but recognised by the 1999 constitution and they are the third tiers of government in Nigeria. Local governments Councils consist of the Executive Arm made up of the Executive Chairman, the vice chairman, the secretary and the supervisory councilors.^[6]

Local government areas[link]

Demography[link]

Population[link]

Until 1970, Ibadan was the largest city in sub-Saharan Africa.^[2] In 1952, it was estimated that the total area of the city was approximately 103.8 km^2[7] However, only 36.2 km² was built up. This meant that the remaining 67 km² were devoted to non-urban uses, such as farmlands, river floodplains, forest reserves and water bodies. These “non-urban land uses” disappeared in the 1960s: an aerial photograph in 1973 revealed that the urban land-scape had completely spread over about 100 km². The land area increased from 136 km² in 1981 to 210–240 km² in 1988-89 (Areola, 1994: 101). By the year 2000, it is estimated that Ibadan covered 400 km².^[8] The growth of the built-up area during the second half of the 20th century (from 40 km² in the 1950s to 250 km² in the 1990s) shows clearly that there has been an underestimation of the total growth of the city. In the 1980s, the Ibadan-Lagos expressway generated the greatest urban sprawl (east and north of the city), followed by the Eleiyele expressway (west of the city). Since then, Ibadan city has spread further into the neighbouring local government areas of Akinyele and Egbeda in particular.

Cityscape[link]

A panorama of the city taken from Mapo Hill.

Monuments, landmarks and other locations[link]

There is a museum in the building of the Institute of African Studies, which exhibits several remarkable pre-historic bronze carvings and statues. The city has several well stocked libraries, and is home to the first television station in Africa. Dugbe Market is the nerve centre of Ibadan's transport and trading network. The best method to move about the city is to use reference points and notable landmarks. The city also has a zoo located inside the University of Ibadan, and a botanical garden located at Agodi.

The Bower Memorial Tower^[9] to the east on Oke Aàre (Aare's Hill) ("Aare" in Yoruba means commander-in-chief or generalissimo), which can be seen from practically any point in the city; it also provides an excellent view of the whole city from the top. Another prominent landmark, Cocoa House,^[10] was the first skyscraper in Africa. It is one of the few skyscrapers in the city and is at the hub of Ibadan's commercial centre. Other attractions include Mapo Hall^[11] – the colonial style city hall – perched on top of a hill, "Oke Mapo," Mapo Hill ("oke" is hill in Yoruba), the Trans-Wonderland amusement park, the cultural centre Mokola and Liberty Stadium, the first stadium in Africa. The first citadel of higher learning, University of Ibadan (formerly the University College of Ibadan), and the first teaching hospital in Nigeria, University College Hospital, UCH, were both built in this ancient but, highly important city. Ibadan is also home to the legendary Shooting Stars FC – a professional Football Club. There are some good golf courses: the Ibadan Golf Club is a large 18-hole challenge and the Barracks course has just been extended to 18 holes. The most challenging and exclusive is the IITA Golf Club based on the 1,000 hectare premises of IITA.

Economy[link]

With its strategic location on the non-operational railway line connecting Lagos to Kano, the city is a major center for trade in cassava, cocoa, cotton, timber, rubber, and palm oil. The main industries in the area include the processing of agricultural products; Tobacco processing and Cigarette (Manufacture); flour-milling, leather-working and furniture-making. There is abundance of clay, kaolin and aquamarine in its environs, and there are several cattle ranches, a dairy farm as well as a commercial abattoir in Ibadan.

List of people from Ibadan[link]

This article's list of residents may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability or notability policies. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources cited within this article showing they are notable and residents or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations. (December 2010)

• Daniel Ajayi-Adeniran^[12]
• Isaac Babalola Akinyele, the late Olubadan
• Kase Lukman Lawal,^{[citation needed]} a U.S.-based chemical engineer and oil tycoon
• Raji Rasaki,^{[citation needed]} a retired army general and former military governor of Lagos State
• Richard Akinjide,^{[citation needed]} a legal luminary and former attorney general & minister of justice
• Isaiah Olayinka Adio,^{[citation needed]} a Computer Scientist and Pastor & Misionary. Based in Pennsylvania, United States.

• Tunde Nighting ale, a pioneering juju and highlife musician
• Alhaji Dauda Epo-Akara, leader of a popular were music group
• Abass Akande Obesere, a popular Fuji music maestro
• Alamu Atatalo, a popular sekere music pioneer
• Twin-X Nigerian pop duo made up of identical twin brothers born Taiwo and Kehinde Akintoye^[13]
• Adegoke Adelabu, a fearless nationalist and pioneering politician
• Bobby Ologun, a K-1 fighter who is very popular in Japan
• Oluyole, an ancient military commander
• Papalolo, comedian, member of Awada Group
• Sade Adu, frontwoman and lead vocalist of the English group Sade
• Toyin Falola,^{[citation needed]} a pre-eminent scholar on Africa and the Frances Higginbothom Nallen Centennial Professor in History at the University of Texas at Austin
• Saffron,^{[citation needed]} lead singer of Republica, born Samatha Sprackling in Ibadan
• Ken Saro-Wiwa^{[citation needed]} (1941–1995), Nigerian author, television producer, environmental activist, studied at the University of Ibadan
• John Salako, former English professional footballer
• Hugo Weaving, an actor probably best known for his role as Agent Smith in The Matrix Trilogy and Elrond in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
• Guru Maharaj Ji, spiritual leader

Sister cities[link]

• Cleveland, USA^[14]

References[link]