Ekiti State

Ekiti State (Yoruba: Ìpínlẹ̀ Èkìtì) is a state in southwestern Nigeria, bordered to the north by Kwara State, to the northeast by Kogi State, to the south and southeast by Ondo State, and to the west by Osun State. Named for the Ekiti people—the Yoruba subgroup that make up the majority of the state's population—Ekiti State was formed from a part of Ondo State in 1996 and has its capital as the city of Ado-Ekiti. One of the smallest states of Nigeria, Ekiti is the 31st largest in area and 30th most populous with an estimated population of nearly 3.3 million as of 2016. Geographically, the state is divided between the Nigerian lowland forests in most of the state and the drier Guinean forest–savanna mosaic in the north. Among the state's nature are false acraeas, mona monkey, forest buffalo, and grey parrot populations along with one of the last remaining Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee populations with a troop of about 20 chimpanzees in the heavily threatened Ise Forest Reserve. In March 2022, Ekiti State became the first state in Nigeria to adopt a state tree as one of its official symbols. On World Forest Day 2022, Governor Kayode Fayemi announced that Obeche (Triplochiton scleroxylon) had been chosen as State Tree owing to its local prominence and environmental, economic and cultural significance. Modern-day Ekiti State has been primarily inhabited for centuries by the Ekiti people, a Yoruba subgroup, with minorities of the Akoko Yoruba subgroup. Religiously, the majority of the state's population (~85%) are Christian with smaller Muslim and traditionalist minorities at about 10% and 5%, respectively. In the pre-colonial period, the area that is now Ekiti State was at various points ruled by the Oyo Empire, Benin Empire, and finally, the Ekiti states which formed the Ekiti Confederacy in the later half of the 1800s. From 1877 to 1893, the Confederacy fought the Kiriji War led by Fabunmi Okemesi alongside other Eastern Yoruba groups against the Ibadan Kingdom and other Western Yoruba groups; the war ended in a British-brokered stalemate before the area was colonized and incorporated into the British Southern Nigeria Protectorate which later merged into British Nigeria in 1914. After independence in 1960, the area of now-Ekiti was a part of the post-independence Western Region until 1967 when the region was split and the area became part of the Western State. In 1976, the Western State was split and the state's east became Ondo State. Twenty years later, Ondo State's northwest (then termed the Ekiti Zone) was broken off to form Ekiti State. Economically, Ekiti State is partially based around agriculture, mainly of yams, rice, cocoa, and cassava crops. Key minor industries are logging and tourism. Ekiti has the joint-thirteenth highest Human Development Index in the country and is considered the heart of the homeland of the Ekiti people.