THISDAYonline

What is known as Abeokuta, the present capital of Ogun State, South-west Nigeria, did not come into existence the way other major towns did. And perhaps, that is why in every Egba man and woman, as Abeokuta indigenes are called, there is this feeling of being culturally and socially superior to his or her other Yoruba kinsmen. Many will readily agree that an Egbaman has every reason to be filled with pride concerning his socio-cultural pedigree. And the reasons are many.

In the whole of the geographical space occupied by the Yoruba in the present day Nigeria, it is the Egbas that first got exposed to Western education and well as the Christian religion. Of course, with the Christian religion came education in the mid nineteen century. In fact, Reverend Henry Townsend, after leaving Badagry, went to Abeokuta and there he set up what has come to be known as the first newspaper in the country today, Iwe Iroyin Yoruba. This was in 1860.

For the Egbas, getting a child educated is like investing in a money-spinning venture. They see this as the best way to empower it to be able to stand on its own when the time comes in the future. That is why, when going for professional courses was not seen as being needed in enhancing employment opportunities, the Egbas had realized this. That was why in the forties up to the fifties, the Egbas were sending their children to the United Kingdom to go and pursue professional courses like Medicine, Engineering, Accountancy and other courses like that. And the Egbas have some firsts to show for this:

The first accountant in the country came from the town as well as the first Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, in the person of Chief Rotimi Williams. The first indigenous Chief Justice of the Federation also came from Egba.

Politically, the Egbas have also been dominating in theSouth-west. Though in the First Republic, it was the Ijebu axis of the present day Ogun State that was dominating the political terrain, the paradigm shifted in the seventies. And of the two Yoruba that have had the opportunity of presiding over the affairs of the Federal Republic, the two have been Egbas. In February 1976, the then General Olusegun Obasanjo became the head of state and commander-in-chief after the death of the late Murtala Mohammed. He became the first democratically elected President of the country to come from the southern part of the country is from the same Egba, specifically from Owu. He is the same Olusegun Obasanjo who was a military head of state between 1976 and 1979.

In the realm of religious affairs, the Egbas have had their own. The North, especially the Sokoto axis is seen as the bastion of the Islamic religion in the country. The head of Muslim faithfuls in the country is the Sultan of Sokoto, but the highest decision-making body for Islam is the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and it has an Egba man as its Secretary-General, Dr. Lateef Adegbite, a doctoral degree holder in Law and former university teacher.

The question has been asked if the way the Egbas came to where they are today has anything to do with the way the larger Abeokuta came into existence. As with many towns and cities in Yorubaland, Abeokuta came into being after fighting wars which made them to be moving from one location to the other until they came to where they are today. Abeokuta literally means "under the rock."

Coming from Ile-Ife, the Egbas decided to establish where they are today. As it was during that period, there were fatricidal wars. The wars were coming from different directions and the most potent of all oppositions were the Ibadans. Though they had their own fighters, they were no match for the Ibadans. There was a rock, a big one for that matter and it was under this rock they were keeping their families when the wars were raging.

After the war, the Egbas decided not to leave that rock again. And because the rock was able to serve as a shield when they were fighting, the decided to give it a name. The name was Oluwa fo ogun yi mo. Literally, this means where the Lord has decided to put and end to the war. The name was later shortened to Olumo which is the name the rock bears up till the present time.

Among those communities that came to settle down there were the Ake, Owu, Ibara, Oke-Ona. The only group that was distinct then was the Ijaye. They came separately on their own and settled down. They too were driven by war from Oyo to come and settle down. They called the place Ogun Ajaye which means "A war that was won." It was this that was shortened to Ijaye.

As for the Ishagas, they too came from Oyo, they settled at a place called Ibara-Orile. When Oga, as the progeny of the Ishagas was known as, he came with his younger brother called Ilewo. He it was that settled down at a place called Oke-Ilewo in the present day Abeokuta.

The name Ishaga was not the name of the man that established the place. They (his younger ones) used to call him Oga which means brother. He used to have a earthen pot where water was usually kept. This pot in Yoruba language means IsaŒ. Therefore, whenever they went to get water from the pot, they used to say they got water from Oga's Isa. It was this that was conjoined to be called Ishaga.

One issue that has always been recurrent in contemporary Egba history is the rivalry between the Alake, the paramount ruler of Abeokuta and other monarchs within the city like Osile of Oke-Ona, Olowu of Owu, Onibara of Ibara among others. The other monarchs have always claimed that they all came to the present location called Abeokuta while they were running away from the Ibadans during the wars that ravaged the whole of Yorubaland three to four centuries ago. Therefore, they maintain that Alake is the leader of Ake which, as the claim, is not in any way superior to Owu, Ibara or Oke-Ona.

Mrs Oluremilekun Olasehinde, an Egba indigene said this is so. She is an Owu woman and she said that there was a place where the Owus came from. This place, according to her, is called Orile-Owu. This is in the present day Oyo State. She said there is Orile-Owu and there is Owu-Ijebu. She said that was why when Owu Day last month which attracted creme-de-la-creme of the Nigerian society, all Owus from Orile-Owu in Oyo State, Owu-Ijebu and Owu-Mushin all came together to celebrate the Day.

Speaking further, she said Owu settled down just like Ibara, Oke-Ona and Ilewo all came from Oyo. Commenting on a song usually sung by the Egbas that A mo 'ra wa. Egba a po a mo 'ra wa, she said the song was a commentary on the fact that though Egbas are many but they know themselves. The song literally means though we Egbas are many but we know ourselves.

This subtle acrimony notwithstanding, Egba has produced institutional names that have come to be respected all over the country. The Ransome-Kuti family of Abeokuta is a name that is bent to outlive the present torchbearers of that family.

The same thing the Abiola family and now the Obasanjo family. Above all, the Egbas maintain a prime position in the political as well as socio-cultural equilibrum of the Yoruba. That is why anywhere an Egba man goes, he carries with him a sense of pride.

That pride was earned over the centuries.