Ibandan was founded by the Yoruba in 1750. It became a Yoruba military headquarters in 1929 and came under British rule in 1893 as part of the Niger River Delta Protectorate.
It is host to Nigeria's first university, the University of Ibadan which was founded in 1948 as part of the University of London. Nearby there is the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture.
Ibadan has an airport and is on the railway linking Lagos with Kano.