How Ago-Oja became Agod’Oyo and then Oyo: A story of love, betrayal and re-invention

Image caption: Coronation of first King of Ago+Oja Oba Ganiyu Busari, on Friday, February 13, 2026, at Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo, by the Oyo state governor Engr Seyi Makinde (represented by his deputy Barrister Bayo Lawal). It is dawn of a new history.

How Ago-Oja became Agod’Oyo and then Oyo: A story of love, betrayal and re-invention

King of Ago-Oja

Femi OGUNLANA

The re-establishment of the chieftaincy title of Alago-Oja of Ago-Oja in Oyo town, and crowning of Oba Ganiyu Busari as first King of the community, brings to focus, the story of the town and its chieftaincy’s vicissitudes over the years.

The fall of the mighty Oyo Empire became inevitable due to successive kings’ and chiefs’ increasing incompetence, highhandedness, corruption and tyranny at the capital, Katunga, refractory attitude of the powerful chiefs within and without the capital and so on. Thus, when the capital was besieged by the imperialistic Fulani forces from Ilorin, it was easily walked over, subdued, plundered and laid desolate. The royal house ruptured and scattered, the royals and people all fled in different directions, to different towns like Igboho, Saki, Kisi and even Ilorin, to find refuge.

Prince Atiba, son of Alaafin Abiodun, the last great Alaafin at Katunga (who reigned in the third quarter of the 18^th century) was a child when his father reigned in glory. Alaafin Abiodun was the king who vanquished the cruel Basorun Gaa through the help of Aare Ona Kakanfo Oyaibi of Ajase now in Ogbomoso. Basorun Gaa had killed five previous Alaafins before Abiodun hatched a scheme, that saw him inviting the Kakanfo to strike Gaa, the Oyo’s Prime Minister. By the time Atiba came of age Oyo was already in ruins. Prince Atiba was commonly referred to as Prince Atiba of Ago-Oja because he lived in Ago Oja in his childhood, and he permanently made it home – it was his own place of refuge! His mother hailed from Akeitan under Ago Oja. Ago-Oja was a settlement founded by a hunter and warrior named Oja, which was prima facie in the present location of Oyo. The Ojas have a family compound in Ogbomoso at Ogede area of Okelerin till today.

Chief Oja flourished and his settlement became known as Ago Oja (Camp of Oja); he was the Baale and became an acquittance of Prince Atiba. They were close but there was the Oja’s younger brother, Chief Elebu, also a warrior, and others like their priest who were uncomfortable with the friendship, fearing Atiba being of royal blood would commandeer their rights over Ago Oja’s lands and usurp authority, and so constantly, Elebu urged his brother to be wary. But Chief Oja turned a deaf ear, he considered Atiba as his overlord, who must be accommodated and treated with respect and dignity.

Meanwhile, the Yorubas still were fired by the ambition to reclaim Ilorin, a Yoruba town, seized after the Fulani rose against their former master, Afonja, the chief of Ilorin and Aare Ona Kakanfo. Ilorin passed to the Fulani, now ruled by an Emir, whose allegiance is to the Sultan of Sokoto. One of the wars waged to accomplish this goal of reclaiming Ilorin was the Kanla campaign. The Kanla expedition broke out after the Oyo King at the time, Alaafin Oluewu, invited the Baribas to assist him in fighting the Fulanis. The fortune of war fluctuated, Atiba and Oja fought on the side of the Ilorin and when the tide turned at some point, and the Bariba pursued hotly driving the battalion led by Atiba and Oja into the water-swollen Ogun River, the war having being waged in about June. Chief Oja perished in this war, drowning in the Ogun River; but his friend, Prince Atiba escaped death by the whiskers. Chief Elebu succeeded his brother, Oja. A frosty relationship marked the association of the new Baale of Oja, Chief Elebu, and Prince Atiba, but they scrapped on belligerently. But not long, another war instigated the death of Elebu, also drowning in Ogun River while bolting away from battle, he could have been saved but an aide of Atiba snapped a tree branch he was holding on to, to swim to safety.

Atiba became dominant in Ago-Oja as predicted and both Oja and Elebu’s sons were passed over in the succession bid to the stool of Baale of Ago-Oja or Alago of Ago-Oja. Rather, Atiba installed another brother of Oja, Aikumo, who was grossly weak and incompetent. Thus, Atiba took control of Ago Oja settlement, first changing the title to Mogaji and later Ashipa of Oyo, making it a chief under him. He began to consolidate his position and power. After some years of interregnum, Atiba was eventually supported to rise to the throne as the new Alaafin. He was expected to move and re-establish the old capital at Katunga but he refrained, instead staying put at the Camp of Oja. He subsequently issued an order to former court officials, eunuchs, Oloris and members of the royal families to come and take up residence at the Oja’s settlement. Perhaps, he considered the old capital in the plain region further northwest to be too dangerous. Ago-Oja on the other hand is sandwiched among three new powers – Ogbomoso (which offers solid protection in its north against the rampaging Fulani jihadists that had destroyed it earlier), Ijaye (in its south west) and Ibadan (south). Overtime, the name Ago-Oja gave way to Oyo; first as Ago-Oja, then to Agod’Oyo and now Oyo. That was how Ago Oja became Ago-di-Oyo and ultimately Oyo.

The descendants of Oja thus lost their heritage. They have fought to reclaim their entitlements ever since, at lest to get installed and recognized as the traditional ruler of Oja but they were persistently denied, reduced to a sectional chief, holding forte at an area that became Isale-Oyo today. In 1992, there was a descendant of Oja, Chief Amuda Olorunkosebi, who was Ashipa of Oyo. He was murdered in cold blood during a fierce struggle to revive the Oloja chieftaincy. He was cruelly assassinated as his neck was twisted and acid forced down his throat at his farm at Ijawaya near Oyo. Many pointed accusing fingers at the immediate past Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, who had several running battles with the late Ashipa. But the murder case remained unresolved.

Now, with the re-establishment of the chieftaincy stool of Alago-Oja of Ago-Oloja, from part III (Minor Chief) to a crown-wearing Oba (Part II Recognized) and crowning of Oba Ganiyu Busari (a descendant of Oja), by Governor Seyi Makinde last Friday (February 13), along with thirteen others, the Oja people have finally realized part of their objective, a redress of the rapacity of the 19^th century that deprived them of their heritage.