Olukoya Ogen, a history professor and fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, has given Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba sociocultural movement, advice on how to start the process of establishing a Yoruba Historical Research Foundation.

According to him, Yoruba history scholarships, grants, and prizes will be funded by this kind of foundation.

At Osun State University’s 21st inaugural lecture on Thursday in Osogbo, the state capital, he delivered the charge.

The well-known historian and cultural aficionado commended Afenifere for giving Yorubaland’s socioeconomic and political development top priority.

The don asserted that the moment had come to expand Afenifere’s duties to include the encouragement of historical study and cultural revitalisation.

Reconstructing a Silenced Past: Echoes of Revisionism and Counter Hegemonic History was the title of a lecture that promoted the creation of an alternative, non-statist counter-hegemonic history that can reclaim historically marginalised and suppressed voices.

Distinguished academics, a group of current and former vice chancellors and provosts, a group of eggheads from the country’s ivory towers, a number of notable royal fathers, the leadership of Afenifere, high-ranking government officials, business executives, journalists, and the inaugural lecturer’s friends and family were all present at the lecture.

Ogen also discussed the debates pertaining to the historical dynamics of intergroup connections between the Ife, Benin, and Ugbo people.

His conclusions were supported by a thorough comparison and collection of cultural artefacts from Ife, Benin, and the Ugbo people; a thorough ethnographic survey of the study areas; dialectological and anthropological evidence; a thorough examination of pertinent ancient and contemporary literature; 15th-century navigational maps of coastal Yorubaland; and travelogues from the Portuguese and Dutch from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

In an interview with the Assistant District Officer at the time, John Wyndham, the 46th Ooni of Ife, Oba Adelekan, Olubuse I, who ruled from 1894 to 1910, he confirmed that the Ugbo, led by the Olugbo of Ugbo, were the original inhabitants of pre-Oduduwa Ife. This information was subsequently published in London in 1921.

The renowned professor also refuted Benin’s long-standing assertion that its Yoruba cultural influences originate from its cultural ties with the Ugbo and that the Benin dynasty owed no cultural allegiance to Ife.

According to Ogen, “The assertion that culture had a significant impact on the Benin monarchy is entirely true, and the traditional elite of Benin cannot continue to deny that Ugbo culture had a pervasive influence on Benin royalty.” In light of the overwhelming evidence that the Ugbo left Ife. Thus, still life is the source of Yoruba cultural impact on the Benin dynasty.

The talk, which was given in person at Osun State University’s main campus, was also streamed live to the academic community at ICT University in Yaounde, where Ogen also works as an Endow Professor of Education.