Nathaniel Taiwo Olusoga was the first Ijebu medical doctor, son of Daniel Adenuga Olusoga and member of the Odubela family of Ijebu which also produced Joseph Odumosu who was the first Yoruba to reduce indigenous therapeutics into writing. Nathaniel was the only child of his mother and he grew up living with a philanthropist, J.H.…
Ijebu Ode Grammar School was established in 1913 by Rev. Gansallo under the Anglican Church of Nigeria, then known as C.M.S., the school had started in a private building donated by a clergy, J.B Sadare. The Silver jubilee of the school was marked by the movement to its present site at Abeokuta Road. Then, the…
Obateru Akinruntan is the CEO of Obat Oil, and flamboyant monarch of Ugbo area of Ondo State. Obateru was born into a local royal family of Ilaje in Jirinwo, a town close to the Nigerian Atlantic coastline. Through the influence of his mother, Obateru had developed interest in the oil business, hawking gallons of petrol in…
Michael Adenuga is the Oil magnate owner of Nigeria’s second largest telecommunication company, Globacom. Adenuga was born 1953 in Ibadan to schoolteacher father from Ijebu Igbo, after whom he was named, and businesswoman mother who gave him the seed capital for his venture which made him at the age of 26, a millionaire. He was…
Adenuga Folagbade was born in 1892 and became Awujale of Ijebu when on Ademolu’s death in 1925, the Tunwase family which he belonged reluctantly produced him, after their preferred candidate, who was Adenuga’s elder brother, was ruled illegible due to technical reasons of not being an abidagba (born during parent’s reign), his mother being a…
Israel Ransome Kuti was a pioneer educationist and union activist, born 30 April 1891 in Abeokuta. Israel was like his father before him, an Anglican priest. When he left the Lagos Grammar School, he became the first pupil to be enrolled at Abeokuta Grammar School in 1908. His education continued at Fourah Bay College from…
Odarawu was the successor to Ajagbo, who was the longest reigning Alafin. His own reign, unlike Ajagbo’s, was very brief. Odarawu was as a ruler, despotic and bad tempered that his short reign was afterward used across the empire as a moral lesson to individuals and a warning to succeeding kings on the need to…
Ofinran was the Alaafin of Oyo whose reign was entirely in a strange land. His father, Onigobi, son of Oluaso, having carelessly lost the capital city of the Yoruba nation to Nupe raiders, had died in a refuge camp close to the Bariba country. These normadic people, being unconventional in their daily living, utilized this…
Ogbubona was the Balogun of Ikija and contender in 1854 to the Alake title, which is the premier Egba royal title. In reference to his imitation of the manners of Anglican missionaries who followed Townsend to Abeokuta in 1843, he was called “Agboket’oyinbo,” meaning “A man of elegant manners like the Europeans”. He was presented…
Losii Osokale was the Egba chief from Ake, commissioned by Maye, the head of the Oyo-Ijebu-Ife coalition that subdued the Egba people prior to their migration to Abeokuta, to determine the dexterity of Egba’s intention to find a new settlement after the alienation of their villages. Losii was to do this by splitting and casting the…