Bida

Bida lies in the Nupe country north of the Niger, a land of cultivated plains where the old Nupe kingdom took shape between the Niger and the Kaduna in the middle of the fifteenth century. Tradition makes Tsoede the first Etsu Nupe, the king who united the Nupe. Before Bida became a royal capital, the place was home to the Beni, a Nupe community whose traditions formed part of the older kingdom.

The kingdom reached the height of its power under Etsu Ma'azu, who died in 1818 as the Fulani were gaining strength across the north. His death set off wars of succession between rival rulers, and the Fulani leader Mallam Dendo, who had settled in Nupe country, gained influence among them. The Nupe kingdom then came under the control of the Fulani emirate of Gwandu.