Ilara-Ogudo is a Nigerian town in the west of Ogun State, Nigeria. It is about 91 kilometers northwest of Abeokuta, and lies on the border between Nigeria and Benin Republic. Ilara-Ogudo is about 50 kilometers by road from Ketu, a major trading town in Benin.

Understand

History

Ilara-Ogudo is an offshoot community of Ketu, a town situated in the present-day Benin Republic. History has it that Ketu people migrated from Ile-Ife under the leadership of Sopasan (Alaketu), son of Oduduwa, to found the Ketu Kingdom. Ilara had maintained the affinity with Ketu until Ketu lost Ilara to the British protectorate in boundary demarcation.

The town was reported to have come into existence due to the expedition of a set of people who left Ketu to hunt wildlife in the forest. On getting to the forest, they were fortunate to kill an elephant, which upon opening its stomach, they found in it “Ose Sango and Edun Aara”. They were amazed and afraid of the turn of events and as a result consulted the Ifá oracle, who told them not to eat the elephant but instead bury it and settle in that location. The elephant was buried in the forest and they named the place "Ogudo". The forest itself was called Igbo-Ogudo (Ibiti Ogun ni ki ndo abi Tedo), meaning: "the place where Ogun (god of iron) said I should settle".

Do

The town is home to several festivals among which are

• The Egungun (Masquerade) Festival. Usually kicks off on a Friday night, with the following day witnessing the Egungun parade round the major street in a long single queue. 
• Oro Festival. Forbids women from staying outdoor throughout the festivities. Usually holds three Saturdays in a Year 
• Iwe Cultural Dance. Usually organized by men and women of the same age group to entertain the community on a chosen day of the year 

Eat

Ilara people love food and are particularly fond of "Amala," a form of thick paste traditionally made from yam chips flour, and common among the Yoruba ethnic group.

Other local cuisines include:

• Tuwo locally called Lagba, made from maize flour.
• Opoporu Soup commonly called Obe Oodun, meaning "festive soup," a special kind of food commonly prepared on special occasions.
• Agumata, prepared with slices of raw tomatoes, onions, peppers, and mixed with locust beans, smoked fish or meat.

Connect

You would probably found available in most places in Nigeria, all the major mobile phone service networks but with varying degree of reliability and usability. Often times, it is customary to experience network outage for all or some of the mobile phone service providers. Such situation is particularly common in small cities/towns or in some remote areas of a city. And do not be surprised too that in some cities or towns, different networks tends to be more stable and reliable in different locations of the city at varying times.

In all, if you are planning a visit to this town, be sure to plan on having multiple SIMS, preferably for all the mobile service providers as you can't tell which will be more stable and reliable at a time in your location. And if you will risk not having one, you might be better off not dropping the MTN network, because,from record, they seem to perform well than the others, though their rates may be high and their offers and services might be stringent, but you might be more assured of seamless voice and data connection. The various broadband cellular network available include 2G, 3G, and 4G networks, but the coverage of the 4G network is not widespread

Glo (Globacom) boast of fast network speed for internet browsing activities, but that might only be enjoyable in limited locations. Airtel is fairly satisfactory for all you might need, including rates and network stability. As for 9mobile, they also perform well in internet browsing speed but not without locational limitations.