Ibadan Was Not Coined From Eba-Odan, But ‘Iba’ ‘Odan’ – Dr. Fayemi Fakayode
•By KAZEEM OYENIYI
IBADAN – THE Mogaji Onibudo of Ibadan who is also the President, International Council for Ifa Religion, Dr. Fayemi Fatunde Fakayode has corrected a long-time misconception that the name of the ancient Yoruba city was not coined from the two words: ‘Eba’ ‘Odan,’ but ‘Iba’ ‘Odan.’
Fakayode stated this during the presentation of a paper titled “A Sociocultural Relevance of Osemeji Festival in The Modern Time” at the 2025 Osemeji Obamoro Conference.
The event, which held at the House of Chiefs, Oyo State Secretariat, was witnessed by representatives of the State government, religious leaders among others.
He maintained that the linguistic transformation of the two words would have been ‘Ebadan’ after passing through morphological change if the two words were to be ‘Eba’ ‘Odan,’ while ‘Iba’ ‘Odan’ only could transform to ‘Ibadan.’
“The point is that Ibadan was coined from Iba+Odan and not from Eba+Odan. Lagelu was the Jagun of Ile-Ife who left Ile-Ife because of the feud with the then Ooni of Ife. He and his followers settled in the meadow between grassland and Egba forest and as hunters, they lived on hunting; they had a pantry for the games and many hunters patronized the pantry.
“In Yoruba language, Pantry is called ‘Ileba’ or ‘Iba’ while meadow is ‘Odan,’ so Ilébà/Ibà Òdàn can be translated as ‘Pantry in the Meadow.’
“Also, the claim that whitemen mispronounced Ebadan as Ibadan is far from the truth because there is ‘Ę’ in English Language, like ‘Elephant’ and ‘Egg’. The whitemen could have pronounced ‘Ebadan’ properly if it were to be so. They would have also turned ‘Ede’ town in Osun to ‘Ide’ and ‘Egba’ land in Ogun State to ‘Igba,’ if they could not pronounce ‘Ẹ’. You can see the logic. We need to correct this henceforth so that our children and grandchildren can be educated early,” Mogaji asserted.
Another presentation at the event, with the title “The Roles of Isese Practitioners in Economic Development” was done by the former Secretary of Oyo State Branch of Nigeria Institution of Surveyors (N.I.S), Surveyor Dasola Fadiran.
He highlighted the impacts of art works, herbal remedies and products and traditional festivals on tourism as contributions of Ìsèse to the economic development of Oyo State, among others in Nigeria.