Johnson Okùnadé

The Ogbomoso Progressive Union (OPU) came into existence in 1912, led by Prof. N.D. Oyerinde, the first Nigerian professor. It was quickly embraced by Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́ sons and daughters everywhere. By 1950, when it metamorphosed into Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́ Parapọ̀ (Ogbomoso Federal Council or Union), it already had branches stretching into Ghana and across several Northern Nigerian cities, … Read more

Beyond Late Pa Moses Akande Onigbinde and Late Oba Jimoh Oladunni Oyewumi Ajagungbade III, there’s a third name that belongs in this same conversation about Ogbomoso’s business titans in Jos, and his rise came earlier than both of theirs. Chief David Oyediran Olagbemiro didn’t just trade in Jos. For a stretch of decades, he practically … Read more

Pa Moses Akande Onigbinde, the patriarch of the Onigbinde family in Jos and Bukuru, was born in Ogbomoso in 1903. He was from Ile Baale Ikoso at Oke A’aje, the eldest of the six children of the late Pa Oyerinde and the late Mrs. Oyenike Suboola Adika. At the age of twenty, he had to … Read more

Long after he became Ṣọ̀úń of Ògbómòṣóland, Ọba Jimoh Ọládùnní Oyèwùmí carried one more title that quietly tied his story to Jos until the very end: pioneer and substantive Chancellor of Plateau State University, Bokkos, a position he held until his death in December 2021. When Ọba Oyèwùmí moved out of Ilé Ọdẹ́fárá in Jos … Read more

On the 7th of July, 1958, in Room 236 of a hotel in Paris, Prince Jimoh Oládùńní Oyèwùmí made a decision that would rename a piece of Jos forever. By then, he had grown to become one of the biggest Nigerian distributors for CFAO, a French trading house that had been moving goods across West … Read more

Prince Jimoh Oládùńní Oyèwùmí arrived in Jos on the 17th of May, 1944. In Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́, being a prince was never treated as a license to be idle. He had to earn his place like everyone else. Getting to Jos was not simple. He travelled first to Òṣogbo, the nearest railway station, and paid seventeen shillings … Read more

If there’s one thing that defined the Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́ man, it was his refusal to sit still where money moved. North, South, East, West, home or abroad, wherever trade called, he answered. So when word reached Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́ about the opportunities up North, the earliest settlers who made their way to Jos weren’t just looking for a … Read more

The lure of commerce is great for Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́ people. Anywhere trade flourished is where you’d find them. It didn’t matter how far, remote, or dangerous. In going about his trade in the early 20th century, the itinerant Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́ man first left his family behind and spent about nine months in Jos fully engaged in his … Read more

In the book, Ìwé Ìtàn Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́, the author established that Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́ grew rapidly while the wars were still going on. When peace returned, some of the towns and villages went back to where they came from, but aside from those who returned, many people from Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́ set out for far distances in search of trade … Read more