In a respectful reply, the Balogun of Eko, Abisoye Oshodi, has disagreed with the Oba of Benin, Omo N’ Oba N’ Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo Ewuare II, over the founding of Lagos city-state.
The Oba of Benin raised the controversial and touchy issue during his courtesy visit to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos over the weekend insisting it was time to recognize that Benin people were the first settlers in the area now known as Lagos.
The Benin’s insist on the basis of historical facts that they founded Lagos, particularly pointing to Prince Ado, the son of the first Oba of Benin, as instrumental in its establishment.
But the Balogun of Eko, Oshodi, offered a different perspective in a video he shared online. Oshodi said Lagos was not founded by the Bini’s in its entirety, but acknowledged that certain parts of Lagos, perhaps the nucleus, were settled by Bini ancestors on an island known as Eko before the city’s formal creation by the British colonialists.
“Point of correction Sir”, he chided the revered Oba of Benin, “Lagos was never founded by the Binis. I am glad that you said some parts of Lagos, not the entire Lagos. You are right, your ancestors settled on a small Island that was called Eko then, before the creation of Lagos. On this very Island, they never created it. The Island had been there before the arrival of your ancestors. Your ancestors only came and forcefully imposed a taxation system on transit with the traders on the land called Idu Ighoran but there have been other tribes on the Island before the creation of Lagos. Even before the creation of Eko”.
He claimed there were other Yoruba subgroups such as the Awori’s and Nupe’s who formed other adjoining communities to Eko and which make up the present day Lagos.
Yoruba elements are very protective of Lagos – Nigeria’s commercial nerve center and national capital for 77 years before it was moved to Abuja in 1991. They are often quick to rebuff any narratives involving other tribes in the founding or historical development of this important city-state.
This rebuttal from the Balogun is not likely to put this contentious issue to rest.
Even the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu himself has often stirred the hornet’s nest by towing the line of the Ewuare II. Although he is the traditional head of Lagos, Akiolu insists his ancestry is from the old Benin Empire, which at its heights stretched from current Edo State in Nigeria to as far as the Republic in Benin.
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