History of Nigeria city-states. A state council (the "Oyo Mesi") named the "Alaafin" (king) and acted as a check on his authority. Their capital city was situated about 100 km north of present-day Oyo. Unlike the forest-bound Yoruba kingdoms, Oyo was in the savanna and drew its military strength from its cavalry forces, which established hegemony over the adjacent Nupe and the Borgu kingdoms and thereby developed trade routes farther to the north. The Benin Empire (1440–1897; called "Bini" by locals) was a pre-colonial African state in what is now modern Nigeria. It should not be confused with the modern-day country called Benin,
Abiodun (Oyo ruler) Adeyemi. A prominent contemporary descendant was Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh. Abiodun (Oyo ruler) Abiodun (reigned 1770–1789) was an 18th-century "alaafin," or ruler, of the Oyo people in what is now Nigeria. Coming to the throne shortly after the Oyo subjugation of neighboring Dahomey, Abiodun soon found himself embroiled in a civil war over the goals of the newly wealthy state. Bashorun Gaha, the empire's prime minister and lord marshal, had used his power to pervert the constitutional terms of abdication in a bid to limit the powers of the "Alaafin" and gain more political power for himself. During Gaha's power play,