MEANING OF THE 36 STATE CAPITALS IN NIGERIA
ABAKALIKI, Ebonyi
Known for its fine rice and irresistible yams,
Abakaliki is the capital of Ebonyi State in
southeastern Nigeria. The name of the city was
derived from Aba Nkaleke which is the name of a
community among the Izzi people, one of the
predominant ethnic groups in Ebonyi. Izziland is
also referred to as Nkaleke. Aba Nkaleke is also
translated to mean Main Abakaliki.
ABEOKUTA, Ogun
The name was derived from two Yoruba words ‘abe’
and ‘okuta’, which mean ‘under’ and ‘rock’ i.e under
the rock. The rock being referred to here is the
historic Olumo Rock which served as a place of
refuge and reconnaissance for the Egba people
during various wars.
ADO EKITI
‘Ekiti’ is a term that is said to denote a settlement
of many hills. Hills are common geographical
features in Ekitiland and are responsible for the
division of Ekitiland into smaller kingdoms and
subunits. Ado has been defined as a name for a
political society. History has it that when Ewi (King)
Awamaro conquered Ulesun community, he deposed
the ruling monarch Elesun and thereafter
established a new town that he named Ado,
meaning ‘here we encamp’.
AKURE, Ondo
The story behind the naming of Akure is an
interesting one indeed. According to oral folklore,
Akure was established by Prince Omoremi, the son
of Ekun and the grandson of Oduduwa Omoluabi,
believed to be the progenitor of the Yoruba race. At
a time, he left the royal city of Ile Ife in Osun State
looking for a place to settle after Oduduwa had
made him pass through a rigourous test in which he
was kept in solitary confinement for nine days (this
is still commemorated in Akure till date). When
Prince Omoremi entered the city that is now Akure,
the heavy royal beads on his neck were said to
have snapped or cut and the people exclaimed
‘Àkún rę’ meaning ‘the beads have snapped’. Over
time, the usage became constricted to become
Akure.
ASABA, Delta
Also referred to as Ani Mmili, the correct Igbo
pronunciation for Delta State’s capital city is Àhàbà.
Ahaba is derived from ‘ ahabagom ’, in the words of
Nnebisi, the founding father of Asaba. It means ‘I
have chosen well. ’ Former Nigerian First Lady,
Maryam Babangida was born in Asaba.
AWKA, Anambra
An exciting city, Awka is also spelt as Ọka. It is
believed that the first people to settle in Awka were
the Ifiteana people and their deity was Okanube (or
Okiki-na-ube). Thus, they were referred to as Umu-
Okanube meaning ‘worshippers of Okanube ’. Later,
this was shortened to Umu-Oka, and then its
present anglicized version, Oka, or Awka.
BAUCHI, Bauchi
Nicknamed the Pearl of Tourism. ‘Bauchi’ is Hausa
word meaning the southern flanks of Hausaland.
Tribes living in the southern parts of the Hausaland
were referred to as kasashen bauchi and the area
they lived in later came to be known simply as
Bauchi. Then, kasashen bauchi included the areas
that we now call Bauchi itself, Plateau State,
Northern Niger, Southern Sokoto (that includes Yauri
and Zuru) and Southern Kaduna (hello to my
Barnawa friends). It was a major center for the
slave raiders of the day. In another rendition, the
state was named for Baushe, a famous hunter who
settled there before the 19th century while another
states that ‘ bauchi’ is Hausa word for slavery since
it was a center for slave raiders. You decide.
BENIN CITY, Edo
It is reported that Benin as an empire-state was
administered by the Ogisos (Kings of the Sky). Upon
the demise of the last Ogiso, a fight broke out as to
who would assume the throne. A message was then
sent from Benin to Ife addressed to the Ooni of Ife,
Oba Oduduwa. It was said that the contents of the
letter was an appeal to the Ooni to send them a
king. The Ooni responded by sending his grandson,
Prince Oranmiyan who upon getting to Benin, had a
hard time adapting to the new environment. He was
then said to have changed the name of the city to
Ile Ibinu (meaning the Land of Anger) in Yoruba
language before storming out of the city.
BIRNIN KEBBI, Kebbi
Of all the 36, I find Kebbi particularly interesting
and controversial at the same time. According to
the Kebbi Chronicles, the state was founded as a
kingdom in 600 BCE by refugees escaping from the
Assyrian Empire after its conquest by forces from
Babylon and Medes. But that is not all o, in the
Chronicles, Mesopotamian kings were listed out as
the earliest ancestral kings of Kebbi. It was also
deduced that Kebbi (Kabawa) was derived from the
Holy Ka’aba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. You really need
to read up the scholarly and extremely detailed work
of Dierk Lange to get the full gist (see reference on
website). That said, Birnin is a Hausa word for
‘city’.
CALABAR, Cross River
Nigeria’s Paradise City is also called the Canaan
City. The seat of the Eastern Naval Command of the
Nigerian Navy, the meaning of Calabar is not
certain but Rosalind Hackett in her scholarly work,
Religion in Calabar: The Religious Life and History
of a Nigerian Town stated that Calabar might have
been derived from the Portuguese word calabarra or
calabaro which means ‘the bar is silent’, in a
reference to the calm waters of the estuary.
Considering the fact that the Portuguese were some
of the first Europeans to land in Nigeria, this may
not be an entirely implausible idea. However,
another suggestion is that Dutch explorers who also
frequented the area in the earlier times referred to
the place as Olde Carlburg which is German. Also,
when the British came, they pronounced Kalabari
(for the Kalabari people whose ancestor was Perebo
Kalabari) as Calabar, which later became the name
for Old Calabar, an Efik town. Whew!
DAMATURU, Yobe
Historically a base for pastoral Fulanis, Damaturu is
the capital of Yobe State. Turu is a kind of Fulani
drum (Turu can also mean the name of a Fulani
subethnic group) while Dama is the name of
another ethnic group.
DUTSE, Jigawa
This is quite straightforward. Dutse means ‘stone’ in
Hausa. It also means rocks and the name was
derived from the hilly rocks that encircled the town
of Garu, the headquarters of the Dutse Emirate.
ENUGU, Enugu
Also known as Nigeria’s coal city, Enugu derived its
name from two local words enu ugwu which means
‘top of the hill’. Amazingly, that itself is a derivative
of the village of Enugu Ngwo, which is located just
to the west of the city. Enugu City itself is not on
the hill, it is actually at the base of a plateau but
the village is situated right on top of the hill.
GOMBE, Gombe
Established as emirate during Jihad by Modibbo
Buba Yero, a Fulani warrior and student of Uthman
Dan Fodio in 1800, the modern-day Gombe State
was carved out of Bauchi State. Gombe was known
in the 1930s for its groundnuts and for cotton in the
1950s. Today nko? Gombe is mainly populated by
Fulanis and the state has been named ‘Gombe’
which is the dialect of Fulani language
(Fulfulde)spoken in the area.
GUSAU, Zamfara
The word was derived from the Hausa word ‘gusa’
which means ‘move’.
IBADAN, Oyo
Ibadan is a name derived from Yoruba words Ẹ̀bá-
Ọ̀dàn, which means ‘Edge of the Savannah.’
IKEJA, Lagos
Now, this is an interesting one. IKEJA is an
abbreviation that stands for Ikorodu and Epe Joint
Administration, a term that was used by the British
colonial masters to assist in the administration of
the Lagos colony.
ILORIN, Kwara
Ojo Isekuse is one of the legendary founders of
Ilorin. While he was alive, he worked with iron tools
and he had a special stone called Okuta Ilo Irin
(which means stone for sharpening metals, okuta
means stone, irin means metal or iro while lo is to
grind in Yoruba). The Ilorin is a contraction of the
Ilo Irin. The stone is located at the Asaju’s
Compound at Idi-Ape Quarters and can still be seen
till date. At a point, the stone was worshipped and
used as a site of ritual sacrifice.
JALINGO, Taraba
According to the book, The Emirates of Northern
Nigeria: A Preliminary Survey of their Historical
Traditions, Jalingo was derived from the Fulani
word which means ‘to conquer’.
JOS, Plateau
The original name for the city of Jos was Gwosh
which was actually the name of an old village that
was located at the site of the present-day Jos.
Another explanation has it that Jos is a shortened
form of ‘Jasad’ which meant ‘body’ in order to
distinguish it from the surrounding hill tops. It was
referred to as ‘Jas’ but when the British colonists
mispronounced it as ‘Jos’.
KADUNA, Kaduna
In Hausa language, kaduna means crocodiles, in
apparent reference to the ones living in the Kaduna
River. Simple. Kada is singular for crocodile.
KANO, Kano
The legendary Kano Emirate was said to have been
established around the AD 999 and it was named
after Kano, a blacksmith of the Gaya tribe who
settled in the area while sourcing for ironstone
(from which iron can be smelted) around the Dalla
Hill. Kano itself was initially called Dalla and would
eventually be captured by the rampaging British in
1903.
KATSINA, Katsina
Founded in cc. 1100, Katsina was named for
Katsina, the wife of Janzama, the local ruler at that
time. She was also a princess of Daura.
LAFIA, Nasarawa
Lafia means ‘peace’.
LOKOJA, Kogi
There are various explanations for the meaning of
Lokoja. A 1986 publication of the Journal of the
Historical Society of Nigeria states that according
to tradition, the origin of Lokoja can be traced to
one of the kings of the Patti, a hill-top settlement.
This king was named Oki and he called his town
Olo Koja (which means the Strong). In the local
Oworo languages, there is another version where
Lokoja is said to mean ‘ a fine place that has men
attracted to it ’. There is another Nupe explanation
that renders it as Patti Lakonji meaning ‘Hill of the
Dove’. But that is not all, Baikie speakers say
Lokoja means ‘ the tree with the red bark. ’ The
Yoruba version states that it is derived from Ilu Oke
Oja meaning ‘country of the scattered villages’.
Now, pick yours! Lol!
MAIDUGURI, Borno
Duguri is a Kanuri word which means ‘ bottom’ or
‘low ’. Borno is one of the two Kanuri-majority states
in Nigeria. The other is Yobe. Mai means king. You
MAKURDI, Benue
Established in the early 1920s, Makurdi is renowned
as one of the food baskets of Nigeria. Makurdi is a
river port and is older than the state itself which
was created in 1976. The first settlers in the area
were Hausas and the name of the city was derived
from the Hausa word ‘kurdi ’ which means a flow of
water from a central point to create a lagoon, in
reference to the swift flow of water from the Benue
River. Kurdi itself was coined from kurdawa.
However, an alternate explanation states that it
means Mai Kudi, meaning ‘a person who has
money’, also of Hausa origin.
MINNA, Niger
Minna is the corrupted form of myina, a Gwari word
meaning ‘ to spread fire ’. The word itself can be
traced back to the ancient annual ritual bonfire and
festival celebrated in front of the Gwari chief’s
residence on top of the Paida Hill. Some of the
most prominent Gwari indigenes from the state
including former heads of state and army generals
Abubakar Abdulsalami and Ibrahim Babangida.
OSHOGBO (OSOGBO), Osun
Osogbo is said to be translated to mean
‘misfortune’ or in another variant, Oso Igbo , the
goddess of the Osun River, after which the state
itself was named.
OWERRI, Imo
The proper name of the capital of Imo State is
Owere but it has been anglicized to Owerri. History
has it that the city was founded in the 14 TH century
by Ekwem Oha. Ekwem had fled from Umuori Village
in Uratta when an argument broke out with his
younger brother, Ndum, over the funeral cow of their
late dad. Over fears that Ndum wanted to
assassinate him over disagreement on how to share
the cow, Ekwem, who was the first son, fled to
Egbu, a neighbouring town where he settled.
However, his sister was not too comfortable at
Egbu thinking that Ndum could still kill him there
and told him to move further. Thus, one night,
assisted by an owa (native torch) he left Egbu with
some assistants and headed to an unknown
destination where they eventually settled
permanently far from the sight of the devious
Ndum. This new place was on a hill and was called
Ugwu Ekema. Tired after the long journey, upon
reaching the hill top they cried out in excitement:
‘Owere la ihe maraya aka’
Meaning: He has taken what is his right, or what
rightly belonged to him.
Thereafter, he beat the drums as his sister had
advised so that they could know his new location.
Thereafter, she went to his new location and they
celebrated.
PORT HARCOURT, Rivers
Port Harcourt was named after Lewis Vernon
Harcourt, 1ST Viscount Harcourt who was then the
Colonial Secretary (Secretary of State of the
Colonies since 1910 to 1915) in charge of the area.
Upon the establishment of the port in 1912, there
was a furore as to what name to give it. In August
1913, Sir Frederick Lugard, the Governor-General
wrote to Harcourt: “…in the absence of any
convenient local name, I would respectfully ask your
permission to call this Port Harcourt.” To which he
replied: “It gives me pleasure to accede to your
suggestion that my name should be associated with
the new Port.
SOKOTO, Sokoto
Named after the defunct Sokoto Caliphate, an
empire that stretched from Burkina Faso to
Cameroon. The Caliphate itself once consisted of
more than 30 different emirates. Sokoto (or
Sakwatto) is the anglicized version of the Arabic
word ‘suk’ which means ‘market’ or ‘place of
commerce’. Sakwatto Birnin Shehu da Bello means
Sokoto, the Capital of Shehu and Bello, in reference
to Shehu Usman Dan Fodio, the founder of the
Caliphate and first Sultan of Sokoto. Mohammed
Bello was his son and second Sultan. Upon his
death, his brother, Abu Bakr Atiku took over.
UMUAHIA, Abia
The name ‘Umuahia’ started off as a Central Market
Post referred to as Ama Ahia which means
market place. With time, the name was transformed
to become what it is called today: Umuahia.
UYO, Akwa Ibom
Uyo is named for the wild apple fruit called uyo in
the area. Uyo people from Edik were said to have
settled in the area in search of the uyo which was
commonly found in the area as an indigenous. The
uyo fruit is edible, has medicinal properties and in
fact, it is used in making a popular dish and it is
called ‘Efere Mbukpap Uyo’.
YENAGOA, Bayelsa
Yenagoa was named after Yenagoa, one of the
most popular traditional market centers. Others
include Lobia, Patani, Tereke, Iwoama and
Igwueama.
YOLA, Adamawa
Yola is derived from the Fulfulde (the language of
the Fulanis is called Fulfulde) word yolde meaning
‘an extensive rising ground’, or an elevated point.
FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY
Nigeria’s capital city took its name
from the ancient Hausa emirate of Abuja which
itself was in turn named after a fortified settlement
near Zuba by Abu(bakar) Ja in 1828 (meaning Abu
the Red (or Fair-Skinned like some Fulanis), ja is the
word for red or fair-complexioned in Hausa). In
1976, a panel headed by Justice Akinola Aguda
selected Abuja as the new capital as Lagos was
then suffering from overcongestion. Abuja was
originally established by the ruling Hausa dynasty
of Zaria in the 1600s. And did I tell you? ABJ is
Nigeria’s first planned city.
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