Orompoto was, according to oral traditions, the first and only female Alaafin of Oyo. She was the sister of her predecessor, Eguguojo. She assumed the throne in 1554 because there was no male successor from her elder brother at the time.
Legend has it that she cut off her breasts (mastectomy) and put on men's clothing to look like a man and for the Oyo Mesi to accept her as Alaafin.
In 1557, Alaafin Orompoto strengthened Oyo's military might. She imported horses from as far as Timbuktu in Mali and had over...
...1000 horsemen. She did tie leaves on the horses' tails so that when they went a fighting, the leaves swept the ground after them to cover trails of the horses' prints.
Orompoto was a skillful commander and a tactical leader. She was brave and won many battles against the Nupe and the Borgu. During her reign, Oyo regained its military prestige and was feared across the south of Niger. She died in the battle of Ilayi around 1580. #HistoryVille
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
When General Yakubu Gowon was preparing for the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Summit in Kampala, Uganda, in July 1975, his Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Dikko Yusuf passed a strong intelligence message to him that a coup...
...against him was not just in the offing but in an advanced stage that could happen as soon as possible.
M.D Yusuf did not stop there. He further told Gowon that Colonel Joseph Nanven Garba, his right-hand man and Commander of the Brigade of Guards, was a chief plotter.
Gowon could not believe what he heard and argued that his own people would not betray him. The Brigade of Guards was composed entirely of Middle-Belt soldiers mainly from Gowon's Ngas ethnic stock in present-day Plateau State.
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY: TAKE THE BIG GAMBLE, BE RESILIENT
During the GSM licence bid round in 2001, there was an attempt to muscle out Chief Mike Adenuga. However, the then NCC Vice Chairman, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe was very fair and transparent in the manner he handled the exercise.
But powerful forces within the Olusegun Obasanjo-led administration were bent on frustrating Adenuga from securing a telecoms licence. Additionally, President Obasanjo, allegedly, had personal issues with Adenuga.
Nevertheless, Adenuga refused to give up and eventually secured the license in August 2003. He then changed the game with Glo's per-second billing, which the more established companies, like MTN and Econet (now Airtel), had said was impossible but were then forced to adopt.
In April 1963, Emir Muhammadu Sanusi of Kano flouted the First Law of Power and was deposed by the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello.
The Emir had outshined the Master.
In 1961, when Sir Gawain Westray Bell, the Governor of the Northern Region, proceeded on leave, Emir Sanusi of Kano acted as Governor in his stead. However, as the Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello believed that his position was that of a grand Emir and was...
...superior to all other traditional rulers in the North, including the Sultan of Sokoto.
Emir Sanusi who once served as the Acting Governor of Northern Nigeria at the time when Sir Gawain Bell went on leave, thought it fit that he should be the substantive Governor of the...
On March 21, 2007, 30-year-old Christianah Oluwatoyin Oluwasesin was stabbed to death and burnt in her car by Muslim students for allegedly desecrating the Qur'an at a secondary school in Gandu, Gombe State, North-East Nigeria.
A mother of two, Oluwasesin was assigned to supervise an Islamic Religious Knowledge exam when one of the students wanted to enter the exam hall with books. Oluwasesin collected them and threw them outside.
The students, who claimed that one of the books was a copy of the Qur'an, started to chant "Allahu Akbar" (Allah is Great) and chased her to the school principal's office.
#OnThisDay, June 5, 1967, Israel launches surprise strikes against Egyptian airfields in response to the mobilisation of Egyptian forces on the Israeli border sparking the Six-Day War.
The Six-Day War was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighbouring states of Egypt (known at the time as the United Arab Republic), Jordan and Syria.
In the period leading up to June 1967, tensions became dangerously heightened.
Israel reiterated its post-1956 position that the closure of the straits of Tiran to its shipping would be a casus belli.
In May, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced that the straits would be closed to Israeli vessels and then mobilised his Egyptian forces along...
Kudirat Abiola, the wife of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential elections, Moshood Abiola, was assassinated by unknown gunmen in Lagos, #OnThisDay June 4, 1996.
Born in 1951 in Zaria, present-day Kaduna State, Kudirat Abiola attended Muslim Girls High School, Ijebu Ode, and married Moshood Abiola at the age of 18. She was the second of his four wives.
Although Kudirat never attended university, she used her bride price to help to pay for the education of her two sisters.
Her journey into politics began when her husband declared his intentions to contest as the president of Nigeria. She supported him via advocacy and activism.