Political Administration of Oyo Empire. With Yahuza Rabiu Garba

Political Administration of Oyo Empire.
With Yahuza Rabiu Garba

A political analyst and Historian.

Introduction
It's important to note that the Yoruba historical Oyo Empire lasted for long period of time with sound socioeconomic status before the arrival of dominations and prior to it, the transatlantic slavery that forced many to hide in mountains and place that may not be easier to penetrate by the external enemies that sell people into slavery.
Oyo society was an acutely hierarchical one.  the capital of a city-state that later grew into empire in the 11th Century, almost all the functionaries of the state lived in the camp was vested in widespread dynastic, with succession rotating in a more or less manner between their branches.  Yoruba practised a centralised form of with the Alaafin as the King.

The Oyomesi
• The members of this council also served as the kingmakers.
• The Council was very powerful because they shouldered much of administration of the City and the State.
• Collectively, they were more powerful than the Alaafin not because directly controlled the majority of the population in the city also because their offices were hereditary and they occupied offices for life.
• The Oyomesi counselled the Alaafin on State matters.
• Each member was expected to visit the palace everyday, and was compulsory at the weekly meeting of the Council  the King.
• All meetings with the King were held in the Palace.
• Each Oyomesi also had state-level responsibilities in addition tol corporate ward. Their duties demonstrate that there were  within the council itself.

The Eso
The Political correctness and the pure check and balance possesses by the Oyo Alafinate is sound enough to be destroyed by external guests that kept the entire country area into turmoil of cultural duplicate.
• The Eso (the captains of the military guards). The Eso constituted the  nobility and in a way contrasted the Oyomesi as the civil lords.
• Numbering Seventy in all, they were divided into ten in each group o, and each group was under the supervision of each of the seven, a political arrangement based on the principle that military must be under the civil authorities.
• All the Eso had to live in the city. However, the head of the Eso, the Are, directly reported to the Alaafin, and he was not allowed to  in the city. Rather, he lived in a different town where he was also the ruler, although with the sanction of the Alaafin.
• The Are Onakankanfo was supposed to be a powerful personality, as the of the Army. However, he could only go to war with  approval of the Alaafin and his Council, and he had to either win the or commit suicide. He must also win a war or have to choice between commuting suicide in public or run into exile.
• The titles of the Eso and the Are were not hereditary but were accorded the basis of personal achievement in military matters.

Conclusion.
This great empire possesses a well sound Political know-how and also played important economic and social policies that were destroyed by the white men finally.. it's important to note that the institution of Obaship and Are-Ona-Kakanfo existed for many centuries which can be predicted better than the European political institutions same time...

Yahuza Rabiu Garba
A political Analyst and Historian, Damaturu.
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