Ijebu and their six tubers of ignore, of Lasisi Olagunju

(Monday Lines 2, published in the Nigerian Tribune Monday 9 June 2025).

One of the first bars I chose when I moved to Ibadan 30 years ago is that the failure of the patronage is the only reason why a drummer would go to Oke Ado. Ibadan hypothesized that the ijebu who lived almost exclusively in Oke ado part of Ibadan has never moved to spend a penny in Bards.

Those who coined that joke should return from the dead and see what we see now with the ijebu. When the day breaks tomorrow, I will go to Oja’ba in Ibadan and ask the people there because their ancestors with the taste said that the ijebu did not appreciate good music and would not have put their money. The ijebu I see today does what Ibadan said they wouldn’t do. In a magnificent way, they put themselves in their capital every year and stage a spectacular festival of culture and splendor. They call him Ojude Oba (the Recourt of the King). It is an annual festival of sumptuous songs and dance, a parade of success and cultural opulence. They held another edition yesterday and is already contagious. Other cities of Yoruba seem to be bitten by the Ijebu bug. Let’s look while evolving.

Ijebu are a very scrupulous people. It is in their oríkì that their fathers had six Yam tubers: they ate two, they sell two and offered two to their gods. You can meditate again: with six moderate survival items, they have made justice to their gift; justice to their future through trade and investments; Justice to the divine that held the rope of life. Anyone who approaches life methodically similar to this is not likely that it will fail in any business. In shaded ways, the oríkì suggests that those who managed the six tubers did not eat with ten fingers. Their descendants do not do it yet today: they are celebrating hard but work hard and commercially intelligently; They love God with the utmost devotion.

I saw a short video clip of the Ojude Oba event at 8 on Sunday (yesterday). Smornai seeing everywhere in a lush, meticulous green. The sponsors of the event, Mike Adenuga’s Globacom, did so for a twenty year old record. And both the company and the owner say they will not stop doing it forever. Patriotism is love for the country. So what is love for the home? “In Love of Home,” says Charles Dickens, “love for the country has its rise”. This is what Adenuga and his Globacom are committed to Ojude Oba until eternity. With the heavy lifting of Globacom, Ojude Oba has become the largest cultural festival in Nigeria today. They say they are bringing him even further where he is. Something there to copy from every great and rich man and woman of other cities. Those who feel too big to raise their farm to shine will probably live “homeless”. We should all know, as William J. Bennett did, that “the house is a refuge with storms – all sorts of storms”.

I have not read the story, but I am a lover of history and a believer in what he teaches. I continue to see in the past the road that has led to today and a possible path to the future. In Ogunkoya, author of “The Early History of Ijebu” published in December 1956 offers some views in the elements that make up the ijebu gene:
“Nobody knows the date of the first migration to Ijebu or the path he followed. The tradition says that he was led by a man named Olu-Iwa accompanied by two warriors, Ajebu and Olode. Olu-Iwa settled at Westward, for Lake Westward, for Lagoon. Also marked the borders to the north, south and east.

The writer of that story said: “There were extensive tests in favor of this tradition. He wrote that” in ijebu-Ode today there is in a prominent place in Olode Street a tomb dedicated to him and bringing the registration “Olode’s rest place”. In Imepe Street you can see a tomb dedicated to the memory of Ajebu. It can be taken for granted that these two men are historical characters whose names have been perpetuated in the name of the city.

Ogunkoya wrote that there is another theory of the origin of the name. He said “Portuguese maps of the 16th and seventeenth century showed Cuidade de Jabu or” The city of Ijebu “. Now it has been argued that the ijebu, in common with similar people, used the word ode as a generic name for a city. It should be noted that until recently the whole village of the province referred to the city simply as Ode.

Note the meticulous mapping of the border and the planning of the city. Note that according to reports, the exercise required whole three years! Note the common appreciation of the pioneers who have done the work. Put all those side by side what the other chapters of their history say of their survival as a people. Pay attention to details. They are enhanced as masters of money. They say they had spent Scellini before the arrival of the white man (homo a n’áwó silè k’óyìnbó tó dé/ òyìnbó dé tán obó òún little yes). I intend to ask my friends ijebu what it means. I will tell you whatever they tell me.

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