Today the Ekiti, a major dialectal segment of the Yoruba-speaking group, inhabit the Ekiti State and the Oke-Ero and Ekiti Local Government Areas of Kwara State in Nigeria. Otun Ekiti, or simply “Otun,” one of the Ekiti towns (spelt “Awtun” in many colonial records), is presently the headquarters of the Moba Local Government Area of Ekiti State. During British colonial rule in Nigeria, the people of Otun had cause to narrate to the authorities their oral traditions and history. In that process they claimed, like most Yoruba-speaking groups, that they and their oba originated from Ile-Ife, the traditional core of Yoruba dispersal. They also claimed that their oba, the Oore (also sometimes spelt “Ore” or “Owore”) was, and had always been, the preeminent oba among the Ekiti oba.Based largely on those claims, the people of Otun undertook some major actions, especially their separatist activities in Ilorin Division from about 1900 to 1936. Similarly, due largely to those claims and the resultant reactions from the people, the colonial government took some major decisions and actions. The most important of such actions was the administrative excision of Otun District from Ilorin Division of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria and its merger with the Ekiti Division of the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria in 1935/36.There appeared, however, in 1947, a publication titled Itan Oore, Otun ati Moba, written by David Atolagbe, and a second edition came out in 1981. Of relevance to the thrust of this paper are the claims made by the author to the effect that the Oore and people of Otun originated, not from Ile-Ife as had earlier been claimed by some sources, but independently from the Creator of the universe, even though he still maintained the paramountcy of the Oore among the Ekiti oba.
ORAL POLIO VACCINE REFUSAL PATTERN IN KUMBOTSO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, KANO STATE, NORTHERN NIGERIA
