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Ilesa State was founded c.1500.

Ilesha (Ilesa) is the largest town and the capital of Ijesha (Ijesa) kingdom in Osun State, Nigeria. Latitude 8.92°N Longitude 3.42°E. it lies in the Yoruba Hills and at the intersection of roads from Ile-Ife, Oshogbo, and Akure.

There are many other towns and villages in Ijeshaland, in fact not less than 200 towns and villages.

Ipetu-Ijesa, Esa-Oke, Ijebu-Jesa, Ibokun are towns that have between 100,000 and 120,000 inhabitants. There are other towns like Imesi-Ile, Ikeji-IIe, Ifewara, Erin-Ijesha, Esa-Odo, Kajola, Otan-Ile, Owena-Ijesha etc.

MAP OF IJESHALAND

MAP OF IJESHALAND (www.ogedengbe.com)Most of these towns have basic social amenities, local industries, banks and higher institutions. Ijeshaland is in the Yoruba-speaking country of south-western Nigeria, around the upper reaches of the Oshun, Shasha, and Oni rivers which flow south and south-west to the Lagos Lagoon, some hundred miles away. Ijeshaland covers six local governments. Two of the local governments have their headquarter secretariat within Ilesha metropolis while the other four are at Ibokun, Ijebu-Jesa, Osu and Iperindo. Ijesha deserves more than six local governments. SHE SHOULD AS A MATTER OF FACT BE A STATE IN HER OWN RIGHT. This is because Ijeshaland is more developed, her people more sophisticated, educated and can be more economically viable than some states we already have in Nigeria. For example Esa-Oke has one of the highest concentration of students/youths in Nigeria with the presence of the highest rated polytechnics in Nigeria today.

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ENGINEER RAUF AREGBESOLA - THE NEW EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF OSUN STATE

Engineer Rauf Aregbesola, The Executive Governor of Osun State (www.ogedengbe.com)Alhaji (Engr.) Rauf Aregbesola (ACN), a native of Ijesaland, and 2-Term Commissioner for Works, Lagos State, has been duly declared the Executive Governor of Osun State on Friday, 26th November 2010. He will be sworn in on Saturday, 27th November 2010 as Osun State Governor.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan declared Engr. Rauf Aregbesola as the winner of the 2007 election after over three years of legal battle. Engineer Rauf Aregbesola, who contested on the platform of the Action Congress, AC has been declared winner of the April 14, 2007 governorship election. 

PROFILE: Engr. Rauf Aregbesola was born on the 25th May, 1957. He graduated from The Polytechnic Ibadan where he studied Mechanical Engineering. He is a Fellow of the following professional bodies:
Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM),
Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE),
Nigerian Association of Technological Engineers (NATE) and
Certified Marketing Communications Institute of Nigeria (CMCIN)

Alhaji (Engr.) Rauf Aregbesola, Osun State Governor (www.ogedengbe.com)Some of his awards include:
Chairman, Aurora Nigeria Limited (1986)
Ambassador of Goodwill for the State of Tennessee, USA
Nigerian Society of Engineers Merit Award (Contribution to Engineering Discipline)
The Best Commissioner in Lagos State Award
He was the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Lagos State, Nigeria 1999-2007.

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REQUEST FOR THE CREATION OF IJESA STATE

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://www.ijesastatemovt.8k.com

There is currently an application that had been submitted to the NATIONAL ASSEMBLY (Federal Republic of Nigeria) dated FEBRUARY 2009 to request for the creation of "IJESA STATE" . This is still ongoing under the Central Working Committee headed by Imam Ikotun Bisiriyu Adeola (Chairman).

The Front page of the Request for the Creation of IJESA STATE (www.ogedengbe.com)The creation of  the proposed IJESA STATE (The Land of Gold) is a MUST because IJESA is the FIRST LOCAL COUNCIL in Nigeria (21st June 1900); IJESA is the RICHEST AREA IN GOLD in Nigeria; and IJESA is the HOME OF GREAT NIGERIANS (Past & Present). Also, IJESA is the only one left of the 6 Pre-colonial Yoruba Kingdoms and the last of the Colonial  25 District Councils/Emirates of February 1906 yet to become a STATE.

The Map of the Proposed IJESA STATE (www.ogedengbe.com)The following extract was taken from The Nation news report dated Monday, June 22, 2009. "Oba Aromolaran explained that several towns and villages in Ijesaland had over the years been depleted to mere residential communities of children and old people with significant reduction in population. "The 1963 Census," he said "put the population of Ijeshaland at 481,843 people while 1991 Census (28 years later) put Ijeshaland at 410,720 (71,123 people or a 17.5% reduction) though there was no war, plague or famine in the area during the period under review, while the overall population of the country during the same period increased by 51%. It is however expected that the proposed IJESA STATE when created would serve as impetus to its tens of thousands of able bodied sons and daughters who are graduates, professionals, industrialists and investors scattered all around the world, to return home with their wealth of knowledge, experience, expertise and resources to build their homeland.

Map of Ilesa, The proposed capital of IJESA STATE (www.ogedengbe.com) HRM Oba Aromolaran added that with its array of well-heeled sons and daughters, it would not be surprising to see the emergence of a dynamic and virile state springing up within a short period of time. He pleaded with the National Assembly to correct what he termed 94-years-old injustice, a reference to the fact that Ijesa Kingdom of the other Kingdoms in Yorubaland at that time, is the only one that is yet to become a state."

Solid Minerals in the Proposed IJESA STATE (www.ogedengbe.com)The creation of the proposed IJESA STATE is now long overdue, in order to correct this injustice and deprivation of our political status, kindly lend your support to this very important and worthy movement by visiting the movement official website for complete information: http://ijesastatemovt.8k.com

Ogedengbe.com support the Creation of IJESA STATE (www.ogedengbe.com) Please support the creation of IJESA STATE by visiting the movement official website for complete information: http://ijesastatemovt.8k.com

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HISTORY OF IJESALAND

The history of the Ijesa people with their capital at Ilesa reflects, like the history of Ijebu and Oyo, the advent of a founding hero with Ifè affiliation. The foundation traditions of the Ijesha, as of the other major kingdoms of the region, take the form of a dynastic migration from lIe Ife, the sacred centre of Yoruba mythology.

Statute of Owa Ajibogun (www.ogedengbe.com)This historic town is one of the oldest settlements in Yorubaland. According to tradition, it was founded by Owa Ajibogun or Owa (“King”) who was one of the 16 sons of the deity Oduduwa.  The standard version of tradition among the Ijesa themselves traces the origin of the Ijesas state to a younger son of Oduduwa called Obokun (Owa's ancestor), in commemoration of an occasion on which he fetched sea water to cure his father's blindness. Obokun then settled in what was to become Ijesaland. He found, like other founding heroes, pre-existing political structures including a confederacy of five towns in the Obokun area. Obokun himself is so central to the Ijesas that they call themselves Omo Obokun (Children of Obokun). The Head of the Sovereign Family is also known as Owa-Obokun of Ijeshaland.

Ilesha traditions hold that the site of Ilesha was already occupied by scattered settlements of an aboriginal population, the most important being identified with today's Okesa, the long street running west-east along Ilesha's spine, whose leader is regarded as the ancestor of Ogedengbe, The Obanla of Ijeshaland.

General Ogedengbe Agbogungboro, The Commander-in-Chief of the Ekiti-parapo Army - The Yorubaland Kiriji War of 1877-1892 (www.ogedengbe.com) An old Yoruba community, Ilesha was an important and major military centre in the campaigns against Ibadan, 60 miles (97 km) west-Southwest in the 19th-century Yoruba civil wars. A leading member of a confederacy known as the Ekitiparapo meaning 'Ekiti together'. This combined forces of the Ijesa and Ekiti was formed to fight for the independence of their people.                                                                  The The town has a memorial to Ogedengbe, an Ileshan warrior-leader, The Generallissimo of the Ekiti-Parapo Army (The Yorubaland Kiriji War of 1877-1892), who died in 1910. This is because he played a vital role during the kiriji war of the 19th century, which prevented Ilesa and other towns from being conquered and dominated by Ibadan and other powerful regions.

www.ogedengbe.comIlesha was the capital of the Yoruba Ilesha kingdom of the Oyo Empire  towns in Osun State. In 1817 a long series of civil wars began in the Oyo Empire in which hundreds of people died; they lasted until 1893 (when Britain intervened), by which time the empire had disintegrated completely.

Ilesha, formerly a caravan trade centre and the home of "OSOMALO" (Osómáalò - a term used to describe Ijesa traders in colonial Nigeria) is today an agricultural, commercial and processing city situated in a region in which cacao, kola nuts, palm products, and yams are produced. There is a sawmill, and alluvial gold is found and mined.

Modern Ilesha is a major collecting point for the export of cocoa and a traditional cultural centre for the Ilesha (Ijesha) branch of the Yoruba people. Palm oil and kernels, yams, cassava, corn (maize), pumpkins, cotton, and kola nuts are collected for the local market. Local industries manufacture nails and carpets, and the town has a brewery; there are also a recording company and a publishing firm, and the Supreme Oil industry at Ilesha. Several prominent quartzite ridges lie east of Ilesha, and gold mining is an important activity in the area, i.e The Iperindo Gold field.

Ilesha is a classic - though hardly a typical - example of that ethnographic celebrity, the Yoruba town: a large, nucleated settlement that is the centre of a kingdom and itself the primary residence of an overwhelmingly agricultural population. Even when it was largely derelict owing to war, in 1886, Ilesha's population was estimated to be between 20,000 and 25,000 and a figure of up to 40,000 may be appropriate for the height of its growth before the sack in 1870. Though this is not as large as the largest Oyo-Yoruba towns of the nineteenth century, its considerable size was not due,as theirs was, to very heavy recent immigration under the impact of the wars.

The following was an observation and description made of the eastern Yoruba country by Rev. J.B Wood, who travelled through it in the 1880:

"It is hardly possible to think of the sufferings which have been endured by the Ondos without a feeling of deepest pity and sympathy. The sufferings of the Ijeshas have been greater than those of the Ondos, and still they continue. Town after town in the Ijesha country is passed which has but the merest handful of a population, as compared with what it was formerly."

Ilesha is today one of the main cities in Nigeria and the site of several teacher-training colleges. Near the Market Square (Ereja Square) are places of interest such as the traditional king's palace (Afin Adimula), the Oba-Ala palace, Ogedengbe cenotaph, the central mosque, and the principal park.  Population (2004 estimate) 593,900.

Ijeshaland is rich in GOLD (Largest deposit in Nigeria) - Igun, Itagunmodi etc; FELDSPAR - Erin Ijesa, Igangan; MARBLE - Esa Oke, Ijeda, Iloko; TIN ORE - Imesi Ile; KAOLIN - Iperindo; TALC - Ilesa, Iperindo; and MICA - Ilesa, Iperindo.

Erin-Ijesha (Olumirin) Waterfalls (www.ogedengbe.com)Ijesaland is also the home of the famous and beautiful ERIN IJESHA (OLUMIRIN) WATERFALLS, a lavish acrobatic display of nature and a proud Tourist Attraction Centre. The Waterfalls has Seven Levels and the seventh level is the peak of the falls, it hosts a settlement where many of its inhabitants have lived for years such as the Fresh Water Prawns. Only few visitors can climb beyond the second level. The breeze at the falls is cool and refreshing, the water flows among the rocks and splashes down with great force to the evergreen vegetation that surrounds it. This amazing waterfalls is definitely one of the many wonders of the world. 

In Ijesaland, there are also archeological tourist attraction venues such as KIRIJI WAR MUSEUM - Imesi-Ile; AGIRIGIRI SHRINE - Ijebu-jesa; OGUN SHRINE - Ipole; OSUN SHRINE - Iponda; OWA-OBOKUN MILLENNIA PALACE - Ilesa; OBANLA PALACE - Ilesa.

Ijeshas prided themselves enormously on their national dish, pounded yam (iyan), and their vehicle registration plate is LES  for Ilesha, Osun (Ilesha)

Annual rainfall is heavy, of the order of fifty to sixty inches, occurring mostly from late March to early November, with peaks in June and September.

MAP OF ILESHA (ILESA)

Map of Ilesha (www.ogedengbe.com)Ilesha (m) surrounded by neighbouring towns and cities within 25km radius.

RELATED WEBSITE: http://www.britannica.com and various other sources.

RELATED WEBSITE: http://www.multimap.com

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