Imesi-ile

Imesi-ile is in Osun State. Imesi-ile is an ancient town in the northeastern part of the Obokun Local Government in Osun State, Southwest Nigeria.

Understand

In the 19th century, this town was the epicenter of the Jalumi and the Kiriji wars among the Yoruba nations, and the foundation of peace among all warring Yoruba kingdoms, in Nigeria. The town is about one-hour drive from Ilesa; and less than an-hour drive from Osogbo, Osun state capital. It is located on an extremely high hill and almost entirely surrounded by mountains. Because of its unique location and its natural hills and caves within the mountains covering several miles; it was an easy choice for protections during wars in those days.

History

The first inhabitants in today’s Imesi-ile were Nupe emigrants. They had with them bronze implements, wooden bows and arrows which could not cope with the giant trees, dense forest, and wild animals of those days. They faced uncertainties and near extinction and had to relocate up northern part of the country. Several hundred years later, the Oloja, from Ondo, migrated to the present Imesi-ile. Within weeks, his half-brother, Odunmorun, also relocated from Ondo to join him and was settled in the present Odunmorun family compound. As Oloja, expanded and moved up north, he discovered a hut owned and occupied by, Eye. Imesi-ile received her formal original name, Oke-mesin, between the 10th and 11th century AD, when Owa Ooye Saga, a prince of the Olofin of Ile-ife migrated and joined the other families. He arrived with the crown gift from his father and thus, was the first Owa Ooye of Imesi-ile. Since her founding, many of her citizens had drifted away and founded new settlements named Imasai in Ogun state; Imesi-lasigidi and Okemesi (formerly called Imesi-igbodo or Imesi-odo) both in Ekiti state. Also, many settlers relocated to Imesi-ile from different Yoruba towns and Nupe kingdoms.

Get in

By bus

Several bus terminals are scattered around the area. Two major ones are Ojota and Oshodi, which is often called Motor Park. The fare from Lagos is about ₦3,000 and the journey lasts 4 hours.

By car

This option helps in management of time if you are able to bear the traffic on the expressway and the constant delays. The journey saves you a good hour as against the bus ride. Estimated journey is around 3 hours.

By plane

The possibility of going by air is not limited to one location. The options of Lagos via Ibadan Airport to Imesi-ile, Lagos via Ilorin Airport to Imesi-ile and Lagos via Akure to Ilesa to Imesi- ile are all available.

By train

Ilesa by train from the terminus at Iddo through Ibadan happens twice a week and the option via Osogbo, once a week. The fare depends on the class, with third to first ranging from ₦2,500-6,000

Get around

7°50′12″N 4°50′11″E

Map of Imesi-ile

By taxi

Taxis are safe and the drivers are courteous. Prices vary from ₦70-100

See

Do

Buy

7.8485944.8446971 Market, Imesi Ile. (updated Jan 2022)

Eat

Drink

Sleep

7.83374.83681 Kommand Royal Hotel, Ado-Ilawe Road. Single ₦3000, double ₦4000, suite ₦5000. (updated Jan 2022)

Connect

For most locations in Imesi-ile, you would most likely find coverage of the 2G/3G/4G mobile networks. Signal strength might diminish further away from the town center, and you might occasionally experience network outage for all or some of the mobile phone service providers in the remote areas of the town. Different networks tend to be more stable and reliable in different locations of the town at different times.

MTN, 9Mobile, Airtel (Zain) and GLO are all available service providers. So if you are planning a visit to Imesi-ile, like you would do for many other places in Nigeria, you should probably consider having multiple SIM cards, preferably for all the mobile service providers, since you can't tell which will be more stable and reliable at a time in your location during your visit. And if you will risk not having any of them, you might be better off not risking the MTN network, because, from indications, it seem to perform well than the others, though its rates may be high and its offers and services might be stringent, but you are less likely to be concerned of erratic voice and data connection compared to others.

Airtel is another service provider which is fairly satisfactory for all you might need to connect to the world, including rates and network reliability. Of course, Glo (or Globacom) boasts of fast network speed for internet browsing activities, only that you might not be able to enjoy the privilege in some locations. And 9Mobile (formerly Etisalat) usually also performs well in internet browsing speed too but with locational limitations as well, plus data rate is fairly higher.

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