Ajowa Descendants Union

Our History

THE AJOWA AMALGAM

 by

HRM KAYODE OLUSA, JP. The Oludotun of Iludotun-Ajowa. (2007)

The Ajowa conglomerate is a peculiar community of eight towns in the Akoko North West Local Government Area of Ondo State of Nigeria . It came about after a series of long protracted negotiations and decisions among many villages in the old colonial set up which included part of the Ikaram Group and the Omuo Group, which were both part of Akoko at that time. Only eight of the initial sixteen towns that showed any measure of interest in an amalgamation ultimately ended up in it. These are Daja, Efifa, Esuku, Iludotun (formerly Akunnu), Ojo, Oso, Ora, (all of the old Ikaram Group) and Uro, which was part of the Omuo Group, according to administrative groupings by the British in the early colonial days. The others that opted out somewhere along the line included Gedegede, Ibaram, Igasi, Eriti, Ase, Ikakumo, Ikaram and Auga some of which are now part of the Millennium Village Project today. The strongest pull factor at that time was a very vibrant desire for ease of access by government in its efforts to reach the nooks and corners of the land with their developmental programs, because it was easier and cheaper for government to reach one large site than eight scattered ones. Thus Ajowa, (which translates to "We come together" i.e. A=We...jo=together...wa=come) was born, and the first sod was turned on the 10th of December 1955.

All the eight towns moved to site at the same time, settling at the nearest point of entry. It was unanimously agreed that each town would not be subsumed or swallowed by the whole or any part thereof. This was why each came as an entity, remaining so till today such that each monarch retained his rule over his own group, and each town retained its cultures and ways without any attempt at/or risk of corruption by the other. There is absolute mutual respect for the ways of each entity by the others.

The Ajowa Supreme Council of Obas (ASCO) made up of all the eight monarchs who rotate the chairmanship on an annual basis administers the conglomerate, and this has been the practice since inception. The ASCO is assisted in its management functions by a number of committees whose membership runs across the various quarters of the community. These include The Ajowa Council of Obas and Chiefs (ACOC), headed by the Current Chairman of the ASCO, the Community Development Committee (which is in charge of fund raising, investment, and endowments), the Town-Planning Committee (which administers allocation of plots according to laid down procedures), the Finance and General Purpose Committee (which superintends its finances under the direct control of the ASCO through the ACOC), Works and Projects Committee (which takes charge of all community projects), and the Health and Environmental Sanitation Committee. The last three committees are a recent addition of the current year 2007..

The cooperation, the camaraderie and the gusto with which the Ajowa project took off remain the hallmark of its strength and survival till today. All works and projects have been joint projects of cooperation and togetherness. These include the old town hall, the maternity center, the health center, the central market and the various community schools.

Roads and farm ways were also community projects. There was very strong and encouraging governmental input at the inception, but this has waned with time, until recent times that brought in enough interest and recognition culminating in the inclusion of the Ajowa amalgam in the Millennium Village Project. There is no doubt as evidenced by current developments that the amalgam stands to gain a lot of the tremendous grounds lost through subsequent neglect by successive governments. The influence of the MVP and its effects are bound to show in a very short time judging by the attitude and seriousness of purpose by both community and projects personnel.

The people take education very seriously, and this is why we have a number of private primary and secondary schools in town. As a purely arable agrarian community, people are relatively poor generally, and this is a very inhibiting factor to the rate of response and the impact of the financial input which people are bound to make into their various projects. There is therefore a very pressing need for veering into large-scale commercial farming. As much as farmers are prepared and experienced enough to go into large scale farming, the inhibiting factors are headed by a large incapacity to get the financial layout to take off. The land is available, the expertise is there, and the desire is very strong. But where does one get the fund for the clearing and stumping machines to pave way for the farming proper? There is ample room for expansion of the farmed areas, and crops like cassava, maize, coconuts, palm nuts, cocoa, plantains and bananas all thrive very well, and other agricultural practices like fish farming, poultry, and animal farming do well in our environment. Other economic activities in Ajowa include farm produce processing, petty trading, welding, carpentry, and modest construction works.. Of course there are professional barbers, hairdressers/weavers. There are bukaterias (local cafeterias) for selling prepared meals to those who must eat out.

The major religions are Christianity and Islam, although there are smattering vestiges of old traditional religious practices in some of the towns of Ajowa. But it can be safely mentioned that with education and civilization, these are gradually receding into the arena of cultural survival.

                Located in the Northern corner of Southwestern Nigeria , it occupies a very hilly part, where there are some outcrops of granite rocks, which are being blasted in some parts for construction purposes. The areas occupied by the people are therefore found in the lower levels of the landscape. Its luck lies in the fact that it has large areas of lowlands in the valleys, which have reached an early stage of its old age, where they practice their farming. Most of the land is covered by virgin or secondary forest; hence there is some measure of lumbering in the forested parts.

CONSTITUENT PARTS

Of the eight towns making up present day Ajowa, all were placed with the Ikaram Group, except for Uro that was placed with the Omuo Group, according to the Administrative setup of the colonial days .

This is an update on the records on ground, the current situation as have been found by the writer, through direct interaction with the royal fathers of the day, and some of their chiefs, and with every dependence on government documents like Official Gazettes and others emanating from government review commissions or sourced from different papers published by the government and research documents.