Juli Jejelo Morakinyo -On Air Personnel at AJR Radio Station

20/11/2021

HOW LORD LUGARD’S GIRLFRIEND GAVE NIGERIA HER NAME

Not many people know that the name, NIGERIA, came from the girl friend of our colonial Master, Governor-General, Lord Legend in those good old days before we got independence. It was Flora Shaw who gave Nigeria its name. She suggested it to the man who later became her husband and he accepted it. How did the name come to be?

The name Nigeria, was minted in the 19th century, in the year 1897. It happened during the colonial era when most African countries had not been in existence. As of then, Nigeria was referred to as merely geographical and not a country.

“The word Nigeria is a mere distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live within the boundaries of Nigeria and those who do not” Obafemi Awolowo.

The origin of the name “Nigeria” lies within the river Niger. Niger is the British way of referring to Blacks. Before the naming of Nigeria, it used to be called The Royal Niger Company Territories. The naming of my former country was done by a woman who isn’t a Nigeria, not even an African. Her name was Flora Shaw.

Lady Shaw was a British journalist and activist; fighting against Slavery. She worked as an editor of The Times.

In an essay that first appeared in The Times on 8 January, 1897, by “Miss Shaw”, she suggested the name “Nigeria” for the British Protectorate on the Niger River. In her essay, Shaw made the case for a shorter term that would be used for the “agglomeration of pagan and Mahomedan States” to replace the official title, “Royal Niger Company Territories”. She thought that the term “Royal Niger Company Territories” was too long to be used as a name of a Real Estate Property, under the Trading Company in that part of Africa. She was in search of a new name, and she coined “Nigeria”, in preference to terms, such as “Central Sudan”, which were associated with the area by some geographers and travellers.

She thought that the term “Sudan” was associated with a territory in the Nile basin, the current Sudan. In The Times of 8 January, 1897, she wrote: “The name Nigeria applying to no other part of Africa may without offence to any neighbours should be accepted as co-extensive with the territories over which the Royal Niger Company has extended British influence, and may serve to differentiate them equally from the colonies of Lagos and the Niger Protectorate on the coast and from the French territories of the Upper Niger.”

She died of pneumonia on 25 January 1929, aged 76, in Surrey.

05/11/2021

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT EBUTE-METTA

As someone who grew-up in Ebute-Metta and studied the History of the areas, these are my explanations;

1) Ebute-Metta was part of the *Awori Kingdom of Otto* with the Capital at Otto just before Iddo on the way to Lagos Island.

Ebute-Metta is a Yoruba meaning 'The three Harbours' i.e Iddo, Otto and Oyingbo.*

In the olden days, the king, Oba Oloto of Otto controlled these harbour and had his agents collecting taxes from ships bringing goods to Lagos using those harbours.

2) Around 1850s, there was a great tension between the Christian community and adherents of Traditional Religion in Abeokuta which was on the verge of sn*******ng into a sectranian crisis.

On the eve of departure of some European Missionaries from Abeokuta, the native christian converts fearing that the dominant Traditionalists will descend on them in the absence of their European proctectors begged the Europeans to take them along to Lagos.

3) On getting to Lagos, the European Missionaries went to the King of Lagos to allocate land for the Egba Christians from Abeokuta but the king said Lagos was already being filled up and he couldn't afford to give the little available land to the Egba people. Instead he suggested that the Colonial Governor, John Glover contact his brother Oba (The Oloto) on the other side of Lagos, just across the Lagoon.

4) Gov Glover approached the Oloto, who agreed to give the Egbas a large tract of land from Oyingbo (Coates Street) to Somewhere just before the lands of Yaba begins (Glover Street where LSDPC Estate was later built about 130years later).

4) These Egba Christians (some of whom were returnees from the infamous Trans-Atlantic slavery) formed a community which they called 'Ago Egba',Ebute-Metta.

They built their Church, St Jude's Church with schools to educate their children and they divided the land into streets which were originally named after their European Missionaries & Colonial officers and some of the Egba chiefs like Daddy Osholake.

Thus we had
Denton Street (renamed Murtala Muhammad Way),
Griffith Street (renamed Borno way),
Freeman Street
King George V street (Renamed Herbert Macaulay street)
Cemetary Street
Bola Street
Osholake Street
Tapa Street
Okobaba Street

5) These Ebute-Metta people formed the first set of civil servants in Nigeria.

6) After the Amalgamation of 1914 and the construction of Railways, Ebute-Metta became a great destination for many people coming from the hinterland to Lagos, many of whom couldn't get accommodation on the Island (reserved for only the Europeans and Upper class Nigerians).

7) The Ago-Egba peoples in Ebute constructed the Lisabi Hall which was commissioned in 1938, by which time their 3rd generation descendants have become the Engineers, Technicians and Civil Servants of the Nigerian Railways with Stations and offices near them.

cool By this time, Trains coming from the North bringing Cotton, Groundnuts, Beans, Hides &Skin, Local rice and of course people where very common in Ebute-Metta.
Interaction between the people of Ebute-Metta and these 'Railway peoples' became more cordial and intensed.

8) Some of the Streets were named after certain towns where the Trains stop for rest/evacuations of cargoes (Railway Stations) ,thus we have Kano, Jebba and Borno way.

Ondo, Ibadan, Abeokuta and Lagos Streets were named after the towns where some of the early residents originated form.

Willoughby, Glover and McCullumn streets were named after Colonial & Missionary masters which have not been changed.

The naming and/re-naming of these streets were influenced by the Ago-Egba History, the roles of the colonial masters, the early Christian Missionaries and their interractions with the 'Railway peoples' and Railway Stations they passed through on their ways from the North to Lagos.

The Eastern Railways from Igboland terminated in Port-Harcourt where the British Colonial Masters were evacuating Nigerian resources (especially Coal) to Britain.

Perhaps if the Eastern Railways had passed through Ebute-Metta, they might had known about Aba, Enugu or Mbaise early enough and name some of their streets after these cities.

Blessed day

04/11/2021

IBA OLUYOLE: THE LEGEND OF IBADAN

He came from a lineage of warriors and royalty, his father, Olukuoye Ajala was the son of Yamba Bi Ekun, a Bashorun in the Oyo empire during the reign of Alaafin Ojigi. His mother, Agbonrin was the daughter of Alaafin Abiodun I. Oluyole was a farmer, a blacksmith and later, an armorer. In those days, glory and fame were earned at the battlefield, being the grandson of a warrior, Oluyole set out to become a warrior too, he relocated to Ibadan and within a short period he became the Aareago under Oluyedun (son of Afonja) who was the Baálé of Ibadan after Máyẹ̀ Okunade.

In 1835, Shortly after the death of Lakanle, Oluyole became the Baálé of Ibadan, his new position was challenged when the Fulanis raised one of the largest invasion forces in their history and attacked in a war known as the Eleduwe war. It took a large combined Yoruba army made up of leaders like Kurunmi of Ijaye, Oluyole, and Timi Bamgbaiye of Ede to stop them. Although, the Fulanis were successfully repelled, it was at a great cost to the Òyó empire.

Oyo-Ile, the once mighty seat of one of the largest empires in Africa was destroyed and Alaafin Oluewu, his crown Prince, Adeyanju and his great ally, Eleduwe, the king of the Ibaribas, all perished in the war. Oluyole himself and Prince Atiba nearly lost their lives in the battle.

The survivors moved further south, to Ago d'Oyo or Àgọ Ọja and Atiba was installed as the Alaafin, upon his enthronement, he made Kunrunmi the Aare Ọ̀nà Kakanfo and Oluyole the Bashorun, thereby becoming the first Bashorun of Ibadan. Oluyole took on the challenge of defending the ravaging Ibadan, his reign was bloody, he crushed rebellions both within and outside, his battalion acquired many land that is now part of Ibadan.

He established Ibadan as the military powerhouse on which later leaders build upon. His army emerged victorious in the following wars: Ogun Iberekodo, Ogun Oniyefun, Ogun Oke Bode, Ogun Ẹgbẹ.

Oluyole died in 1850 and Ibadan remains a powerful Yoruba town ever since. His statue stands at Béèrè in Ibadan.

03/11/2021

WỌ́N TI GBÉ KÍDÌNRÍN ẸLẸ́DẸ̀ SÍ TỌMỌNÌYÀN, Ó SÌ ṢIṢẸ́

Fún Ìgbà àkọ́kọ́, wọ́n ti gbé kíndìnrín Ẹlẹ́dẹ̀ sínú ọmọnìyàn láì sí ìsọṣẹ́sílẹ̀ tàbí ẹ̀kọ̀ lára èèyàn tí wọ́n gbé e sí. Èyí jẹ́ àṣeyọrí kan gbòógì lẹ́ka wíwá ọ̀nà àbáyọ sí akùdé àì sí ìpàrọ̀ fún ẹ̀yà ara tó bá kọ iṣẹ́

Sources: Reuters
Nigerian Tribune

27/10/2021

MAGGI: A SILENT KILLER!
The famous poison that silently makes Africans widows or widowers is the Maggi cube.

It was created in *1886* by a Swiss named *Julius Maggi* for low income workers and the poor, who could not afford to balance their diet with meat and fish because they were very expensive to them.

In order to provide a taste of meat and fish to the poor, Julius Maggi introduced the *Maggi cube* with its famous red and yellow label on the packaging.

In 1886, after the *Berlin conference, colonial masters* were free to export whatever they produced to their colonies mostly in Africa.This was how *Julius Maggi* thought that there would be lucrative market in Africa for his product. So he exported and ingeniously launched his advertising there. It began to gain recognition and patronage in 1910.

Prior to the introduction of Maggi to Nigerians, the local locust bean called iru in Yoruba, daddawa in Hausa and ogiri okpe in igbo mixed with cray fish or dried fish was the traditional means of adding flavour and delicacy to the soup. All these mixtures have much *medicinal benefits* and may have contributed to the long life span and physical fitness enjoyed by our forefathers.

Maggi was not popular in Nigeria until in the early 1970s when it started spreading very fast in the market as neighbours and communities introduced it to one another.The product succeeded because maggi cube could be kept longer at higher temperatures and with the possibility of giving a better taste to the cooking whenever used.
The *Knorr*, *Royco* *Dangote cubes*...etc are different brands competing with Maggi even though people generally regard all of them as Maggi.

Africans began and continue to put it in every dish despite the danger inherent in it I.e monosodium glutamate, extremely high level of lead nearly seven times above human body needs, transfats LDL, sodium...etc.

Nigeria has continued to witness several brands of the product including the white *Ajinomoto* in the 1980s to 90s which medical experts condemned as capable of affecting the human liver.

Millions of Maggi cubes are sold and consumed every day in Africa so the company had to expand by creating eleven factories in the region despite warnings of public health risk associated with the products.

Women, mostly ladies add as many cubes to their cookings to the extent of the level of sweetness they want the soup to produce. In many homes, the preparing of "moi moi" (steamed bean paste) akara (fried bean paste), beans, boiling fish etc cannot go without Maggi nowadays. African foods has the highest test in the world.

However, lots of people based on medical advice have wisely abandoned Maggi and have been using the traditional "iru" or crayfish as alternatives.

Consuming the Maggi cube in every cooking is akin to increasing *cardiovascular* risks including *hypertension* , *diabetes* and *stroke* (cerebrovascular). The risk is higher particularly when one advances in age as it weakens the heart functions.

with high rate of Maggi consumption could develop erectile disfunction, persistent waist pain and rheumatism.(i.e. Dissolve six cubes in a 750ml of water, give he goat to drink and it can't mate for at least six months.)

Maggi has been identified as having greater negative consequences on human health than sugar. Unknown to many the product is primarily the contributing factor in many cases of strokes in Africa because of its continuous mass consumption during the active ages.

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12/01/2021

Ozil on the GOAT debate:

"Messi has proven himself to be one of the best ever in Spain, but Ronaldo was always the best in every country he’s played in!" 🐐

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