HISTORY OF IBADAN LO MO, O O MO LAYIPO

The tower is located on the summit of Oke- Are, Ibadan North Local Government, and it earns Ibadan the nickname of the ‘City of Lay­ipo.’

When it was erected in 1936, any tourist that stood on the tower would enjoy commanding view of every part of Ibadan. But gone were those days. The city has expanded and one can only view a circular section of Ibadan on the tower these days.

Anybody that manages to climb to the top of the tower will conveniently catch glimpses of Premier Hotel, University College Hospital (UCH), Mapo Hall, Cocoa House, Beere, Mo­kola, Lekan Salami Sports Complex, Cultural Centre, Dugbe, Oje, Yemetu and so on.

But places like Ojoo, Moniya, Akobo, Iwo Road, Odo Ona, Apata, Challenge, Apete, Olomi Academy, Olorunda, Oluyole and many other places cannot be seen on the tower.

Many visitors to Ibadan might have heard the saying: ‘Ibadan lo mo, o o mo Layipo.’(You only know Ibadan, but you don’t know Layipo). Originally, the saying means you have only been to Ibadan, but you have not been to Bow­er’s Tower to see the spiral staircase (Layipo). But in today’s world  the saying has come to be understood as Ibadan people are very deceptive.

Names of two communities in Ibadan – Mo­natan and Oje, are also being used to give fur­ther interpretations to the concept of Layipo. Monatan means an average Ibadan man would not divulge all the contents of his minds to any­body. Oje means if a person knows the original thing, there are still some unknown cunning op­tions, which would still give the same result.

Layipo means if a person knows the right or­der of doing things, there are still other ways that are shrouded in mystery, which the person may not understand. If the person is not a genuine Ibadan man, he may not un­derstand, irrespective of whether the person is from Ibadan or not. But if the person does not belong to the right caucus, he may still be in the cloud.