Prof Banji Akintoye, a highly-regarded Professor of History, has described as a fallacy the claims in some quarters that the Bini people were the original founders of Lagos.
Akintoye explained that the Awori subgroup of Yoruba people are the founders of Lagos, adding that the Bini people from present Edo state merely joined the Aworis later.
In an interview with The Punch, he said, “When people say ownership , I find that difficult to understand because ownership belongs to the people who first settled in it . And the people who first settled in Lagos — I don’ t think anybody is disputing that they are the Awori subgroup of the Yoruba nation . The Awori are a subgroup of the Yoruba , just as the Ijebu, Ikale , and Ekiti are subgroups . Those are the people who first settled in Lagos with the Ijebu close to them towards the North and East and the Egbado close to them towards the North and West . So , I don’ t think there is anybody disputing that. In fairness to the Oba of Lagos , I don’ t think he ’ s saying any other group but the Awori are the owners of Lagos because there is no basis for saying that. What he has been saying is that at some point in the history of Lagos — not when Lagos was founded as a human settlement, but many centuries later after Lagos had become a kingdom — people who first settled in these places were not kingdoms ; we know that from Yoruba history. We know it from the Edo history too . The first Edo people who settled east of Yorubaland were not a kingdom; they were just a scattered people in the forest . The Yoruba were scattered people in the forest too . It was not until more than 3 , 000 years that kingdoms began to emerge in these forests among the Yoruba first , then among the Edo , and so on. And it wasn’ t until the kingdoms had existed for hundreds of years that the Edo had contact with the kingdom of Lagos and became involved in the royal family of Lagos .
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