Iga Idunganran, Lagos
Iga Idunganran, which is now a popular tourist sight used to be much more. In fact, it was originally built in 1630 and served as the official palace of the Oba, or the king. Inside the palace, there are various rooms with many pictures of previous Obas donning the Oba’s crown, a symbol of authority. The furniture and decor inside the palace gives some insight onto how the palace has been modernized and shows how the current Oba, Rilwan Akiolu, lives. Rilwan Akiolu, who was coronated in 2003 attended Ansar- Ud- Deen college to get a bachelor’s degree in law.
Now in Lagos, the form of government practiced is democracy, unlike olden times when Lagos had a form of Monarchy, yet the city still remembers their history by having a monarch who does not really have power but is more a symbol, much like Great Britain who still has the Queen as a symbol of power instead of a form of government. Nigeria’s current president ,who runs the democracy is named Muhammadu Buhari. Muhammadu Buhari is a retired army general and was given the title of president by the previous president Goodluck Jonathan this year in 2015. Before this, Buhari was the head of state for barely two years from December 1983 to August 1985, and has tried to be president before but did not succeed.
In olden times, there were no government. Instead, Nigeria was just an area that consisted of hundreds and hundreds of different ethnic groups and tribes run by chiefs. During colonialism random lines were put around these ethnic groups dividing allies and merging enemies. In fact the name Nigeria is not even Nigerian! It was a name coined by Flora Shaw in the late 19th century after the country's most defining physical feature which is the Niger river, which was also named by Europeans. Although there were a countless amounts of tribes, the five major were the Hausa, Fulani, Berom, Yoruba and Igbo. The Hausa and Fulani people which are in the northern part of Nigeria above the Niger river, mostly practiced the religion Islam. The Berom people dominate central Nigeria where Abuja the current capital of Nigeria is located. In the southwestern portion of Nigeria where Ida Idunganran is located was where the Yoruba tribe lived, which is why the chief is called Oba or Yoruban word for king or chief.