BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Historical Development: Kogi State, which was created out of the former Kwara and Benue states on August 27, 1991,

Kogi Circle, Lokoja

covers the area of the former Kabba Province. The Province was split into two in 1976, with one part in Kwara State and the other in Benue State.

The people, who were thus put in separate states, had lived together under the same administrative structure for more than seventyfive years before their separation. The reunification of these two separate parts of the former Kabba Province, now renamed Kogi State, was therefore a restoration of old and cherished ties in the local administration of the area.

It has its boundary with Niger and Plateau States and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja to the north, Benue and Enugu States to the east, while Edo, Ondo and Kwara States are on the western side (Kogi State, 1992).

Administrative Areas: The state is made up of Igala (Ankpa, Dekina, Bassa and Idah), Ebira (Okene, Adavi and Okehi), Kabba (Oyi) and Kwara (Kogi) divisions of the former Kabba Province, and these together constitute the present twentyone local government areas (LGAs) of the state (thirteen local government areas from the former Kwara and eight from Benue States) (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1991)

The present twentyone LGAs and their former states and LGAs are shown in Table 22.1. Six LGAs were districts in the former four LGAs in Kwara State. Five of the eight LGAs which originated from Benue State were separate LGAs, in that Olamaboro was a district in Ankpa LGA. This lack of continuity in administrative units has serious implications on data collection and analysis over a long period.

The headquarters of the local government areas served as important traditional, cultural and market centres in their localities for varying lengths of time, since the nineteenth century, and others earlier. Lokoja, which serves as the headquarters of Lokoja Local Government is also the capital of Kogi State. It was listed a second class township by the 1917 Township Ordinance of the colonial administration (Niven, 1955).