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Ijebu-Jesa

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Ijebu-Jesa
Ìjẹ̀bú-Jẹ̀ṣà
Ijebu-Ere
Town
Ijebu-Jesa is located in Nigeria
Ijebu-Jesa
Ijebu-Jesa
Location in Nigeria
Coordinates: 7°40′58″N 4°48′52″E / 7.6828°N 4.8144°E / 7.6828; 4.8144
CountryNigeria
StateOsun State
LGAOriade
Government
 • ElegboroMoses Oluwafemi Agunsoye
Time zoneUTC+1 (WAT)

Ijebu-Jesa (listenⓘ), also spelled Ijebu-Ijesa and historically known as Ijebu-Ere, is a town in Osun State, Nigeria. It is the headquarters of Oriade Local Government Area, which recorded a population of 148,379 at the 2006 census.[1] The town lies in Ijesaland, in the rainforest belt of eastern Osun State, about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) north of Ilesa and 128 kilometres (80 mi) east of Ibadan.[2] Its traditional ruler holds the title of Elegboro.[3]

Ijebu-Jesa traces its founding to Agigiri, held in local tradition to be the senior brother of the Owa Obokun of Ilesa. Ibadan sacked the town in the mid-19th century during its wars in Ijesaland. The Elegboro stool was filled in 2017 after a disputed succession. The town has a grammar school founded in 1955 and a private polytechnic.

History

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Ijebu-Jesa's traditions stress its relative independence from neighbouring Ilesa.[4] The town's founder is named Agigiri, and its origin story holds that he was the senior brother of the Owa Obokun, the ruler of Ilesa.[4] In the town's own account, two brothers fetched sea water that cured their father's blindness and then left Ile-Ife to establish their own settlements; Agigiri settled beneath a large shade tree, naming the place Egboro, which later became Ijebu and, as it lay within Ijesaland, Ijebu-Jesa.[2]

In the mid-19th century, during Ibadan's expansion into Ijesaland, Ibadan conquered and sacked the Ijesa town of Ijebu-Ere,[5] identified with present-day Ijebu-Jesa.[6] Ilesa submitted to Ibadan but repeatedly defied its authority in the decades that followed.[7]

Geography and climate

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Ijebu-Jesa lies between latitudes 7°40′ and 7°43′ north and longitudes 4°48′ and 4°50′ east, on gently undulating terrain underlain by rocks of the Precambrian basement complex.[8] The vegetation is tropical rainforest. The town has wet and dry seasons, with annual rainfall of 150–200 centimetres (59–79 in), relative humidity above 80%, and temperatures of 24–27 °C (75–81 °F).[8]

Traditional rulership

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The traditional ruler of Ijebu-Jesa is titled the Elegboro. The stool fell vacant in March 2017 on the death of Oba Taiwo Aribisala (Ajigiteri II), the town's 23rd Oba.[9] Oba Moses Oluwafemi Agunsoye was crowned Elegboro on 7 November 2017 and received the state government's staff of office.[9][3] His emergence followed a dispute over the selection process: the Oriade Local Government secretary said the town had no registered chieftaincy declaration on the state gazette, which left the kingmakers without statutory recognition.[10] The Punch reports that the throne rotates among six ruling houses,[3] while the town's own history names five.[2] Agunsoye reigns as Agunsoye II,[11] and was still the Elegboro in early 2026.[12]

The town maintains a king list of its past Obas, beginning with Agigiri:[11]

  1. Agigiri
  2. Ida-Ekun
  3. Edun-Ide
  4. Ajigiteri
  5. Ayapaki-Efon
  6. Oriasinwi
  7. Ajifolokun
  8. Ogbaruku
  9. Ariyanloye
  10. Agunsoye
  11. Ariabon
  12. Atobatele
  13. Erinfolajura
  14. Arojojoye I
  15. Abon
  16. Amolese
  17. Laguna
  18. Arojojoye II
  19. Ajifolokun (Palmer), 1974–1996
  20. Taiwo Aribisala (Ajigiteri II), 1996–2017
  21. Moses Oluwafemi Agunsoye (Agunsoye II), since 2017

Government

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Ijebu-Jesa is the administrative headquarters of Oriade Local Government Area.[13] The area falls within the Obokun/Oriade federal constituency, represented in the House of Representatives by Oluwole Oke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),[14] and within the Osun East senatorial district, represented by Francis Fadahunsi (PDP).[15] At the 2023 election to the Osun State House of Assembly, the Oriade state constituency was won by Olakanmi Ajibola (PDP).[16]

Education and healthcare

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Ijebu-Jesa Grammar School, a secondary school, was founded in January 1955.[17] Interlink Polytechnic, a private institution in the town, offers National Diploma and Higher National Diploma programmes accredited by the National Board for Technical Education.[18]

The town's General Hospital, on Ere Road, is run by the Osun State government.[19] The 60-bed hospital was built in the early 1980s and handed over to the state on its commissioning in 1988; in 2025 the state proposed upgrading it to a Federal Medical Centre as an annex of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex.[20]

Culture

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The town's main festival is a new-yam celebration, which the Elegboro names Odun Agaja or Abolegun and describes as a rite of prayer before new yam reaches the market.[3] Unlike most Yoruba towns nearby, Ijebu-Jesa keeps no masquerade (Egungun) tradition.[3] An iroko tree at the town centre served as Ijebu-Jesa's landmark before the main road was built and was long used to direct travellers to the town.[3]

By the town's own account, most residents are Christian, with Muslim and traditional-religion minorities; St Matthew's Cathedral is the seat of the Anglican Diocese of Ijesha North.[21]

Notable people

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  • Orlando Julius (1943–2022), afrobeat and highlife musician, whose family roots are in Ijebu-Jesa and who settled there late in life[22]
  • Bandele Aiku (1936–2017), Senior Advocate of Nigeria and former attorney-general of the old Oyo State, born in Ijebu-Jesa[23]
  • Gabriel Onibonoje (born 1930), educational publisher and founder of Onibonoje Press[24]

References

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  1. ↑ "Oriade Local Government Area". City Population. Archived from the original on 18 February 2026. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 "Origin & History". Ijebu-Jesa. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bamigbola, Bola (11 August 2023). "No one can become traditional ruler nowadays without being wealthy – Elegboro of Ijebu-Jesa". The Punch. Archived from the original on 27 June 2026. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  4. 1 2 Trager, Lillian (2001). Yoruba Hometowns: Community, Identity, and Development in Nigeria. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers. pp. 23, 48. ISBN 978-1-55587-981-5.
  5. ↑ Akintoye, S. A. (1971). Revolution and Power Politics in Yorubaland, 1840–1893: Ibadan Expansion and the Rise of Ekitiparapo. Ibadan History Series. London: Longman. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-582-64533-2.
  6. ↑ Akinjogbin, I. A. (2002). Milestones and Concepts in Yoruba History and Culture. Ibadan: Olu-Akin Publishers. p. 54.
  7. ↑ Usman, Aribidesi; Falola, Toyin (2019). The Yoruba from Prehistory to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 179–181. ISBN 978-1-107-06460-7.
  8. 1 2 Adiat, K. A. N.; Ajayi, O. F.; Akinlalu, A. A.; Tijani, I. B. (2020). "Prediction of groundwater level in basement complex terrain using artificial neural network: a case of Ijebu-Jesa, southwestern Nigeria". Applied Water Science. 10 (1): 8. doi:10.1007/s13201-019-1094-6.
  9. 1 2 "All hands must be on deck to develop Ijebu-Jesa". The Guardian. Lagos. 26 November 2017. Archived from the original on 23 January 2025. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  10. ↑ "Uneasy calm in Osun over Ijebu-Jesa chieftaincy title". The Sun. Lagos. 9 November 2017. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  11. 1 2 "The Obas". Ijebu-Jesa. Archived from the original on 27 June 2026. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  12. ↑ Ukochukwu, Seth (20 February 2026). "Owa Obokun coronation suit: Haastrup pleads for more time to file preliminary objection". Vanguard. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  13. ↑ Independent National Electoral Commission. "Osun State: Local Government Areas and headquarters" (PDF). Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  14. ↑ "Your appointment a reflection of trust, confidence – Osun rep lauded on new appointment". Daily Trust. 2023. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  15. ↑ National Assembly of Nigeria. "Sen. Francis Fadahunsi – Profile". Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  16. ↑ "Assembly election 2023: Osun speaker, others lose as PDP wins 25 seats". The Punch. 19 March 2023. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  17. ↑ Komolafe, Abiodun (2025). "Ijebu-Jesa Grammar School at 70! (1)". The Nation. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  18. ↑ National Board for Technical Education (2025). "Directory of Accredited Programmes" (PDF) (25th ed.). Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  19. ↑ Osun State Government. "Directory: Hospitals". Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  20. ↑ "Osun monarch rallies support for govt's initiative to upgrade community hospital to FMC". Independent. Lagos. 23 March 2025. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  21. ↑ "Christianity". Ijebu-Jesa. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  22. ↑ "Orlando Julius' death, a great loss – Osun monarch". The Punch. 15 April 2022. Archived from the original on 14 May 2025. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  23. ↑ "Aiku, the legal icon, waxes stronger at 80". Daily Trust. 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  24. ↑ "Onibonoje, Gabriel Omotayo". Biographical Legacy and Research Foundation. Retrieved 27 June 2026.

Further reading

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  • Peel, J. D. Y. (1983). Ijeshas and Nigerians: The Incorporation of a Yoruba Kingdom, 1890s–1970s. African Studies Series. Vol. 39. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-22545-0.
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