Ibadan

Overview

Ibadan is the capital city of Oyo State, Nigeria and the largest city in black Africa. In spite of its size, its population of about 2.5 million is small when compared to Lagos, even though this is enough to populate some countries in the world.

The city is centrally located in the south-west part of the country on a rippling plain with ridges of about eight rocky hills. The average elevation of these hills is about 700 ft. To fully appreciate how uneven the city is, a visit to the Premier Hotel, which is situated on top of a hill is a must.

For the visitor who wants to see how traditional Africans live, but at the same time be near civilisation, then Ibadan is the place to be. The town is roughly divided into what could be called ancient and modern Ibadan. The former seems to be totally cut off from the latter even though they practically exist side by side in some cases. One side of the road can be home to all the comforts of modern living while the other would be a dense area of cluttered mud houses that's inaccessible to all forms of modern transportation. What you have instead are foot-paths.

The modern part of the city is in stark contrast to this. Here you have modern roads, the sad state in which some of them are in notwithstanding. The buildings, both public and private, are mainly erected with concrete blocks with an architectural style that is difficult...more

History