HAVE YOU BEEN TO BOWER’S TOWER?
HERE IS A BRIEF HISTORY OF THIS ICONIC LANDMARK
Ibadan Lo Mo, O Mo Layipo” Rephrased To Simply Mean “You Know Ibadan, You Don’t Know Layipo.”
BOWER’S TOWER was built in 1936, located on Oke-Aree hill and is one of the oldest areas in Ibadan, Oyo State. The tower which is one of the oldest tourist attractions in the largest city in West Africa has an excellent view that could allow one see the splattered brown roofs like broken China J.P Clark had beautifully described in his poem, ‘Ibadan’.
The tower, which gives a panoramic glance of the four corners of Ibadan, was named after Captain Lister Bower, the first British resident and Travelling Commissioner for the Yoruba land in Ibadan during the time. Bower tower is about 60 feet tall and one can view, from Oke Are hill – where the tower stands upon, the surrounding landmarks, including the popular Cocoa House, Mokola Hill, Adamasingba stadium, the Polytechnic, Ibadan, the University College Hospital and the rusty brown roofs around the town. The tower was erected by the engineer who designed the popular Mapo Hall in 1836.
It was an architectural design that allowed you to go through both sides of the tower in one journey, when you are climbing up; you get to see those climbing down and vice versa. You can see those coming out from the other side of the stairways through the tiny holes on each of the step. The spiral movement birth the popular proverbial saying “Ibadan lo mo, o mo layipo” rephrased to simply mean “you know Ibadan, you don’t know layipo.”
When the step was commissioned in 1936, our forefathers then who could not speak in English described the spiral staircases by saying “se la n yipo,la n yipo titi ta fi de oke “ which means “ we are just going around the stairs, going around the stairs and we haven’t reached the top.
“a se oke lo yii Ibadan ka” (so Ibadan is surrounded by hills) and hence conclude by saying, “Ibadan lo mo,o o mo layipo” (you know Ibadan but you do not know Layipo). This was said to emphasise that even if a person knew the city well and has not been to the Bower Tower where one would ‘yipo’ (go around the tower), such a person has not known the city.
