De HONOURABLES stages a comeback in a big way with “My REGRETS” Comedy Skit. You cannot afford to miss it https://youtube.com/@dehonourables?si=ZJwWbyQJAybS5htG
READ ALSO: MEMORY LANE: THE Curse ZIK Issued Against OKADIGBO That Brought Him Down From Grace To Grass
Chief Niyi Aborisade, an Ibadan UK-trained lawyer and human rights advocate, recently presented a book titled, “Balogun Oderinlo.”
The classic book espoused Balogun Oderinlo’s massive contributions in the defence of Yorubaland especially in the Osogbo Battle of 1840, which put paid to the imperialistic ambition of the Fulanis.
Chief Aborisade, a descendant of the warlord, however emphasized Ibadan alone saved Yorubaland by solely prosecuting the Osogbo War of 1840. He insisted as it has always been claimed that “Ibadan is the saviour of Yorubaland.”
He re-hammered this line of thought while featuring in an interview programme (which is trending) anchored by Edmund Obilo, a popular OAP, to review the book.
True, Ibadan played its part, a pivotal role, but before Ibadan’s intervention Ogbomoso took up the enormous mantle of protecting Yorubaland. Ogbomoso solely stood for the defence of the Yoruba country for 23 years (1817 – 1840), the template which Ibadan followed through in 1840 to dump off the Fulani invaders, the prickly thorn in the flesh of the region.
Aborisade therefore missed a vital part of the story. The history as he narrated it, is not all encompassing as regards the whole events that transpired particularly before the Ibadan’s intervention.
Perhaps it is not out of slight or mischief. It is obvious that is as far as he knew.
That therefore is the impetus for this piece – to stress that Ogbomoso’s contributions in protecting Yorubaland during that dark period in our history is not less, it’s even greater.
Ibadan fought gallantly but only finished off what Ogbomoso began.
According to Iwe Itan Ogbomoso by N.D. Oyerinde, after the fall of Ilorin under Kakanfo Afonja, Ogbomoso being the next important town and a direct route to the heart of the Yoruba country, inescapably became the new viable target. Thus, the Fulani launched incessant attacks to subdue it.
Ilorin fell to them in 1817, after they defeated and brutally killed Afonja, and so, from 1817, the invaders, whose new war aim was to overrun the whole of Yorubaland, subjugate its people and massacre their kings and replace them with Fulani Emirs like they did in most of what became today’s northern part of Nigeria, furiously menaced Ogbomoso.
They swept across, propelled by the objective of stepping over Ogbomoso, and continue their march and conquests towards the sea.
Between 1817 and 1840, several onslaughts were launched, Ogbomoso was imperiled but it stood and was unconquerable. Its army was brave, resilient and tactically superior.
READ ALSO: MEMORY LANE: THE Story Of 1,000 Buses Handed Over To Lagos State Government In 1975
Ilorin was taken in 1817, now, did the new Fulani-led Ilorin army become idle, contented with the “little” war gain in those intervening years (1817 to 1840)?
No! They constantly waged war against Ogbomoso which stands at the new gateway. But the town was impenetrable, it transformed into an unbreachable fortress.
Toyeje, the traditional head of the town, previously the Otun (Deputy Commander) to Aare Ona Kakanfo Afonja and who succeeded to the generalissimo position, was resolute. He abhorred the thought of his kingdom being taken by the Fulani.
He, his generals and others fortified the town supernaturally and militarily; he was indeed said to have offered two of his children as part of a sacrifice to make the town impregnable resulting in the building of the Oja’gbo Defence Grove (Ogun-ko-Jalu).
READ ALSO: INSIDE LIFE: MAN Bursts In Tears Watching His Lexus SUV Car Burnt To Aches (WATCH VIDEO)
This was confirmed in an interview late Prince B.A.O. Okanlawon, a great grandson of Aare Toyeje, granted this stable (for The Insight newspaper). Toyeje employed military strength and diplomacy to hold off the imperialists. His successors did not do less, unwavering in fending off the threat.
It is thus when Ogbomoso could not be taken that the Fulani returned to the drawing board and changed their strategy.
Frustratingly, they resolved to take the Osogbo route which is like a detour. It is incontrovertible that if Ogbomoso had fallen, the road to the interior of Yorubaland would have been open and the country would have become vulnerable, facing existential danger.
Be reminded that by that time, Oyo-Ile and Ilorin had already come under the Fulani. Oyo-Ile was destroyed around 1835 with the capital utterly abandoned till today. But Ogbomoso rose in defence of the country between 1817 and 1840 and even beyond.
In 1840, the usurpers attacked Osogbo with a powerful army seeking a new pathway to achieve their overall war aim of subjugating Yorubaland.
But the invasion of Osogbo was beyond that, it was a stratagem to take Ogbomoso. Osogbo was under Ogbomoso at the time and so had the onerous task of protecting the town if besieged.
Moreover, the new military arrangement after Oyo was laid desolate was for Ibadan and Ogbomoso to protect the northern border of the country while Ijaye under Kurunmi was to safeguard the western flank against the Dahomeans particularly.
Osogbo thus precipitately sent to Ogbomoso to relieve it. But Ogbomoso was not unawares of the ploy of the jihadists – lure the town’s army to Osogbo and then strike a defenceless or a weakly defended town (Ogbomoso).
READ ALSO: PDP Scouts For Candidate Who Will Subdue Tinubu In 2027 (DETAILS)
Ogbomoso’s military leaders not being novice in war enterprise caught on and so did not fall for the trick, they retained their most powerful soldiers at home. So, the reinforcements to Osogbo could not repel the enemy, though they did enough with the Osogbo army to stave them off.
If Ogbomoso had deployed all its army the enemy could have been defeated but the leaders were wary of sending all the troops lest the town be surprised with an attack at home and be taken.
That was why Ibadan was drawn into the battle, whose first contingent also could not drive back the Ilorin mighty host. A stronger batallion was deployed yet again the enemy could not be suppressed, hence, the strongest and most powerful of the Ibadan army under the command of the veteran redoubtable warlord, its military commander, Balogun Oderinlo, was dispatched by Iba Oluyole, the supreme leader of Ibadan.
General Oderinlo was not an impetuous warrior, he earned his reputation by his metaphysical medicine collections and understanding of intelligence gathering and tactical manoeuvering.
On arriving Osogbo, he didn’t rush into battle rather he studied the pattern of the enemy’s movement and formations, and when a battle plan was decided upon, weeks after, they fiercely fell upon the Ilorins in a night raid.
The enemy was overwhelmed and routed, totally crushed, in spirit, soul and body. It was a great victory and the battle got recorded in history as one in which the hope of the Fulani (to become the master of the Yoruba) was finally dashed and crippled. And Ibadan was hailed as “The saviour of the Yoruba.”
That is the position taken by Chief Aborisade also, thus demanding proper recognition for his great great grandfather Oderinlo.
Statue of Balogun Oderinlo in Ibadan adorned in his war gears including his mystical war staff and pigeon he deployed for intelligence gathering and other military assignments.
However, before Ibadan came into the picture there was Ogbomoso which stood stoutly and thwarted not once, not twice but scores of times the attempted incursion of the expansionists into the country.
In fact, it is recorded in Iwe Itan Ogbomoso that no attack by the Fulani army ever stepped into what became Ogbomoso land today. The blitz at different times was valiantly resisted and warded off.
That was when Yorubaland was actually saved, Ibadan only came to finish off the job in one fell swoop in 1840. A laudable feat but it must be underlined that for 23 years Ogbomoso alone withstood and held the imperialists at bay, which laid the groundwork for the eternal preservation of territorial integrity of Yorubaland.
CALL 08023851511 to kick-start business relationship with us for your Documentary, Advert, PR, Publicity, Awareness, Interviews, Feature Stories, Press Release/Statement, Documentary and so on.
Leave a Reply