A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF IFE-MODAKEKE CRISIS AND THE IMPLICATION OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper identifies the gap in the historical narratives gathered from the members of the belligerent communities and the sparsity of related literatures as a factor contributing to the resurgence of the Ife-Modakeke conflict. Thus, this paper attempts a chronological reconstruction of the Ife-Modakeke conflict by filling the gaps in oral data through the fusion of a plethora of literatures. The paper advocates the need to sustain an accurate history of the Ife-Modakeke relations to engender sustainable peace and the total prevention of the conflict from reoccurring.

Introduction The  Yoruba  people  are  predominantly  spread  across  West  Africa,  specifically  Nigeria, Republic of Benin and Togo. They constitute the largest second ethnic group in Nigeria with a language and culture found in West Africa and Latin America. Prior to the 19th century, the Yoruba people were not known to have referred to themselves as Yoruba. However, they have had a similar language of various dialects, culture and administrative systems which scholars refer to as the ebi system.1  The primeval history of the Yoruba people is mostly lost in antiquity but the political history of the Yoruba early states have been mostly reconstructed such that it is known that the early Yoruba  states  carried  on  diplomatic  and  war  relations  with  one  another.2  The  Yoruba diplomatic and war relations was probably more evident during the Ekitiparapo war of 1877-1886.3 The war marked the apogee of the age-long internecine rivalries among the Yoruba states. And while the treaty which culminated from this war brought a lasting resolution to several of these rivalries, there remains however, vestiges of these age long problems that are yet to be totally resolved. The Ife-Modakeke conflict which is the central theme of this paper serves as a notable example of an age-long intra-ethnic Yoruba problem which the phenomenal treaty from the Ekitiparapo war failed to resolve.  The Ife-Modakeke conflict, having re-occurred over and again across three centuries of 19th, 20th and 21st, is the oldest intra-ethnic conflict in Nigeria. The people of Ife and Modakeke belong to the same ethnic nationality.4 Several reasons for the conflict have been purported but an observable fact, however, is that not much attention has been given to the existence of the distortion and mutilation of the history of the conflict and the contributory role it plays in the recurrence of the conflict. The unavailability of a recorded history of the Ife-Modakeke conflict structured along the chronology of events from the beginning of the Ife-Modakeke relations has  continued  to  sustain  nationalistic  feelings  within  the  ranks  of  the  members  of  both communities and driving them into armed and structural violence with each other.  This paper finds its basis in the need to provide a chronologically structured historical narrative of the pre-war relations between both  groups, the causes of the war, the peace agreements between  the  belligerent  parties  and  the  roles  played  by  both  groups  in  sustaining  these agreement. This study shall  conducted by  using secondary  data from a plethora of  related literatures, newspapers, magazines to mention a few.

Ife-Modakeke Relations pre-1835 Historically, Ile-Ife is widely acclaimed to be the cradle of the Yoruba group. Owing to its central role in the socio-cultural and socio-political world of the Yoruba, Ile-Ife has earned a number of epithets such as ‘ibi ojumo ti’n mo wa’, (the place from where it dawns), ‘olori aye gbogbo’ (the head of the world), ‘Oodaye’, (where creation of the world took place), ‘ilu alade’ (the city of crown) and finally, ‘Ilu Orun’ (the city of heaven). This status of primacy which Ile-Ife enjoyed appears to have been universally accepted across Yorubaland and a number of statements attesting to this fact were recorded when the British attempted to wade into the Yoruba internecine wars of 16 years, otherwise regarded as the Ekitiparapo wars which saw Ibadan engaging in wars in almost all cardinal points of Yorubaland6. Higgins a Commissioner sent by the Lagos government to mediate among the belligerent Yoruba groups recorded that the Alaafin of Oyo at that time did not want Ile-Ife left deserted and wanted the people of Ife to return to their homes because they were the father of all and all people came from Ife. Ogunsigun, the Balogun of Ijebu army, noted in April 1886 that the Ijebu king felt it was his duty to re-instate the people of Ile-Ife back in their town because Ile-Ife is regarded by all Yoruba  towns  as the  sacred  spot  from  where  they  originated.8  Also,  during the  Yoruba internecine wars of the 19th century still, the renowned Basorun Ogunmola of Ibadan, also known  as  the  ‘kiriniun  onibudo’  (lion  of  the  camp  master)  was  recorded  to  have  sent messengers to negotiate  terms of peace in order that  the cradle of the race may not be in perpetual desolation and for the ancestral gods to be worshipped. The early history of Ile-Ife enjoyed a great deal of attention from researchers since the last century, yet the seeming mystery of the origins of the town is still very open to continuous research to this day. From extant literature on the early history of Ile-Ife prior to the Oduduwa era, it is believed that Ile-Ife was originally not a unified town under a single monarch. Rather, the town was composed of several independent communities with localized political systems. These pre-Ife communities have been identified to be 13 in total number and they include Iddo, headed by Ompetu; Iloromu, headed by Obaluru; Ideta, headed by Obalesun or Obalade; Odin, headed by Lokore; lloran, headed by Obaloran; Oke Qja, headed by Obajio; lmojubi, headed by Apata; lraaye, headed by Obalaaye; ljugbe, headed by Obalejugbe; Oke Awo, headed by Fegun; lwinrin, headed by Obawinrin; Parakin, headed by Obalufe, Omologun, by Obadio.10 The emergence of Oduduwa on the political stage of Ile-Ife effected several changes in the socio-political  and  socio-cultural  systems.  The  13  communities  were  collapsed into  one, forming what is now known as Ile-Ife and was further divided into 6 quarters of Ilare, Ilode,

Moore, Iremo, Okerewe11 and Iraye12 These communities which are still in existent and the quarters under which they fall are regarded as places from where founders of a number of Yoruba towns emigrated such as Orimolusi of Ijebu Igbo and Adimula of Ifewara of Okerewe Quarters13; Igbajo and Omupo towns founders were both from Ilare Qaurters14; Oke-Igbo and Ido Ajinare founders were both from Moore Quarters15 to mention but a few. However, these quarters are known to be occupied by migrants from different parts of Yorubaland and Nigeria such  as  the  Hausa  settlement  at  Sabo  in  Ilare  quarters  and  Oyo  emigrant  settlement  in Modakeke within Iraye Quarters. Ile-Ife for several centuries enjoyed the position of the capital city of the Yoruba16 until the emergence of Oyo. Oyo-Ile was a town generally agreed to have been founded by the legendary Ife  prince  known  as  Oranmiyan  which  grew  to  become  an  empire  as  a  result  of  its institutionalised military structure and  state  sanctioned periodic  campaigns.17 The military campaigns and activities of Oyo army helped it to expand so much that it covered a very large part of  the present day Yorubaland,  Borgu, Nupe, parts of  Republic of Benin and Togo. During its apogee, Oyo Empire co-existed with the less militarily powerful kingdoms of Ife, Ilesa, Ijebu, Egba, Ekiti and this politico-military relation among these Yoruba states saw Oyo providing military stability across Yoruba land being the most powerful state.  By the 18th century, Oyo was marred by internal problems that affected the military strength and activities it was known for. This was such that it became helpless in the face of the raids and eventual dispersal it was subjected to by the Ilorin army comprising of Yoruba, Fulani and Hausa soldiers whose military expeditions evolved from creating a state independent of Oyo, into a jihad styled conquest seeking to expand its sphere of political and religious influence. Although a narrative about the migration of Oyo people to Ile-Ife stating that the Alaafin sent brave warriors from all over Oyo Empire to go back to defend Ile-Ife, the ancestral home of the Yoruba people, has recently emerged.20 However, it is generally agreed that refugees from the Ilorin problem at  the time began  to migrate  South with  Ife receiving trickles of these migrants at first and with the worsening of the situation in the Oyo areas, they thronged to Ifeland in floods.  The first set of refugees were said to have migrated to and settled in Ile-Ife from 1770 and they were said to have been from different towns which were within the greater Oyo and they include Ejigbo, Offa, Ede, Ikoyi, Ogbaagba, Oje, Ola, Oko, Irawo origins. These refugees settled at Ife towns of Moro, Ipetumodu, Eduabon, Yakoyo, Ifalende, Waro, Oogi, Sepe, Ikire and Apomu. The threat of Ilorin army coming to ravage the above mentioned towns of their refuge as a result of the invitation extended to them by a Muslim man in the