Ekiti State

Ekiti () (Yoruba: Ìpínlẹ̀ Èkìtì) is a state in southwestern Nigeria, bordered to the North by Kwara State for 61 km, to the Northeast by Kogi State for 92 km, to the South and Southeast by Ondo State, and to the West by Osun State for 84 km. Named for the Ekiti people—the Yoruba subgroup that makes up the majority of the state's population—Ekiti State was carved out from a part of Ondo State in 1996 and has its capital as the city of Ado-Ekiti. One of the smallest and most educated states with the highest number of professors in Nigeria, Ekiti is the 31st largest in the area and 30th most populous with an estimated population of nearly 3.5 million as of 2022. Geographically, the state is divided between the Nigerian lowland forests in most of the state and the drier Guinean forest–savanna mosaic in the north. Among the state's nature are false acraeas, mona monkey, forest buffalo, and grey parrot populations along with one of the last remaining Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee populations with a troop of about 20 chimpanzees in the heavily threatened Ise Forest Reserve. In March 2022, Ekiti State became the first state in Nigeria to adopt a state tree as one of its official symbols. On World Forest Day 2022, Governor Kayode Fayemi announced that Obeche (Triplochiton scleroxylon) had been chosen as State Tree owing to its local prominence and environmental, economic and cultural significance. Modern day Ekiti State has been primarily inhabited for centuries by the Ekiti people, a Yoruba subgroup, with minorities of the Akoko Yoruba subgroup,and Yagba–Ekiti Yoruba subgroup. Religiously, the majority of the state's population (~90%) are Christian with smaller Muslim and traditionalist minorities at about 5% and 5%, respectively. In the pre-colonial period, the area that is now Ekiti State was...