I’m sure many of us did not know
some of these incredible facts about Nigeria.
Time to learn!
1. The River Niger Bridge at Onitsha
was constructed between 1964 and 1965 by Dumez- a French construction company
and cost £5 million.
2. Patience Jonathan is one of
Nigeria’s most-educated First Ladies, with an NCE, a B.Ed, and a PhD from
University of Port-Harcourt.
3. The highest peak in Nigeria is
located in Taraba and is called Chappal Waddi which means “The Mountain of
Death”.
4. There are 196 countries in the
world and at least one Igbo person from Nigeria lives in every one of them.
5. The Pidgin word ‘Sabi’ came from
‘Saber’, Portuguese and Spanish for ‘to know’. Both country’s ships traded
slaves from the Bight of Benin.
6. Katsina College (now Barewa
College in Zaria) has produced 5 Nigerian Presidents/Heads of State since it
was founded in 1921 in Katsina.
7. Ojukwu taught Murtala Mohammed
and Ben Adekunle at Regular Officers Special Training School, Ghana. Both
‘fought’ their teacher during the civil war.
8. At Nigeria’s independence in
1960, there were 41 Secondary Schools in the North and 842 Secondary Schools in
the South.
9. In 1983, Senator Arthur Nzeribe
spent $16.5 million to win a Senatorial seat in Orlu (in Imo State).
10. In 1973, the Federal Government
of Nigeria considered officially changing the name of “Lagos” to “Eko”.
Regarding “Lagos” as a colonial name.
11. The geographical area now
referred to as Nigeria was once referred to as ‘Soudan’ and ‘Nigiritia’.
12. Offences punishable by death
sentence after the 1966 coup included embezzlement, rape and homosexuality.
13. MKO Abiola was named Kashimawo
(Let us wait and see) by his parents. He was his father’s twenty-third child,
but the first to survive infancy.
14. Jaja Wachucku was the first
person to refer to Lagos as a “no-man’s land” in 1947, provoking a national
controversy.
15. Jollof rice, chicken Bosom ,
serve of ice cream, tea, coffee or Bournvita, with full cream milk and sugar:
Meal Cost = 50Kobo- Unilag in the late 1970s
16. At the point death in 1989, Sam
Okwaraji was a PhD candidate and qualified lawyer with an LL.M in International
Law (University of Rome)
17. When British Bank of West Africa
(now First Bank) opened a branch in Kano in 1929, Alhassan Dantata (Dangote’s
Grandfather) opened an account depositing 20 camel-loads of silver coins.
18. Jaja Wachuku is reputed to have
owned the biggest one-man library in West Africa. Balewa sometimes referred to
him as “Most Bookish Minister
19. The colonization of Nigeria took
more than 40 years to achieve and the territories were integrated by the use of
force.
20. Yoruba is spoken as a ritual language the Santeria cult in Carribean and South-Central America.
20. Yoruba is spoken as a ritual language the Santeria cult in Carribean and South-Central America.
21. Slavery existed in the Nigerian
territory before the 15th century and was abolished in the 19th century- 1807
by the British.
22. At least 55 women were killed in
South-East Nigeria, in 1929 when the women forced the Umuahia warrant chiefs to
submit to their rule.
23. The coinage ‘Supreme Court’ was
first used in 1863 by the colonial administration through the enactment of the
Supreme Court Ordinance No. II.
24. MKO Abiola died suddenly on July
7, 1998, exactly one month after General Sani Abacha died mysteriously on June
8, 1998.
25. Agbani Darego was the only one
to wear a maillot as opposed to a bikini during the Miss Universe contest in
2001.
26. The ‘Ankara’ material is not
indigenous to Nigeria. Our indigenous textiles include the Akwete, Ukara,
Aso-Oke and Adire.
27. Aloma Mukhtar is the first
female lawyer from the North and went on to become the first female Chief
Justice of Nigeria.
28. The area known as Makoro town in
Lagos was first a swamp, later sand-filled by the colonial government and
served as the first bridge to the Island.
29. Esie Museum is Nigeria’s first
museum, established in 1945. Once reputed to have the largest collection of
soapstone images in the world.
30. Aminu Kano formed the Northern
Teachers’ Association (NTA) in 1948, the first successful regional organization
in the history of the North.
31. George Goldie, who played a
major role in founding Nigeria, placed a curse on anyone who attempts to write
his biography.
32. In 1996, John Ogbu, a Nigerian
Anthropologist firmly advocated for the use of African-American Vernacular to
teach in the U.S
33. Hause Language indigenous to
Northern Nigeria is spoken in 11 African States. Germany, French, U.S., and
British International radio stations broadcast in Hausa.
34. The surgeon who ‘killed’ Stella
Obasanjo was sentenced to 1 year in prison, disqualified for 3 years and fined
€120,000.
35. The word ‘asiri’ means ‘secret’ in Hausa, Yoruba, Nupe and Igarra. It also means ‘gossip’ in Igbo.
35. The word ‘asiri’ means ‘secret’ in Hausa, Yoruba, Nupe and Igarra. It also means ‘gossip’ in Igbo.
36. Igbo-Ora in Oyo State, Kodinji
in India and Candido Godoi in Brazil are the towns that produce the highest
number of twin births in the world.
37. Bishop Ajayi Crowther, a Yoruba,
in 1857 produced a reading book for the Igbo Language and a full grammar and
vocabulary of NUPE in 1864.
38. The first TV broadcast in
Nigeria and Tropical Africa was on October 31, 1959.
39. In 1978, a 50Kobo increase (from
#1.50 to #2) in the cost of University Students’ meal per day caused the ‘Ali
Must Go’ protests.
40. Albert E. Kitson discovered coal
in Enugu in 1909. This discovery led to the building of Port-Harcourt town in
1912.
41. Today, only Nigeria has a larger
black population than Brazil. More than 3.5 million Africans were captured,
enslaved and transported to Brazil.
42. Groundnut pyramids were the
invention of Alhaji Alhassan Dantata to stack bags before export.
43. In 1967, old traditional ruler,
Oba Akran and A. Ademiluyi were jailed for 14 years (7 each) for stealing
£504,750 (#2.5b).
44. Since 1960, Nigeria has been
either ruled by an ex-lecturer/ex-teacher or military man. The only exceptions
are Azikiwe and Shonekan.
45. If you visited Lagos in 1975,
you could spend a day at the Presidential Suite of Federal Palace Hotel for
#100, single room for #19.
46. The first aircraft to land in
Nigeria landed in Kano in July 1925. A British fighter jet flew from Khartoum
(present day Sudan).
47. In 1895, Koko of Nembe (now in
Bayelsa) took 60 white men hostage. When the British refused his demands, more
than 40 of those men were eaten.
48. The ‘Naira’ was coined by Chief
Obafemi Awolowo when he was serving as the Federal Commissioner of Finance.
49. Koma Hill (settlement in Adamawa
where people lived and practised the killing of twins) was discovered in 1986
by a NYSC corps member.
50. The pilot (Francis Osakwe) that
flew Ojukwu away from Biafra (1970) was the same pilot that flew Gowon to
Uganda (last flight as Head of State).
51. In 1986, Shehu Shagari was banned
from participation in politics for life. The ban has still not been lifted.
52. As the wife of the deputy Head
of State (Vice President of Nigeria) in 1984, Biodun Idiagbon personally ran a
small ice cream shop in Ilorin..
53. Koma Hills (Adamawa State)
inhabitants when discovered were observed to engage in the practise of
borrowing wives among themselves.
54. Juju, Dashiki, Yam and Okra are
words in the English dictionary that originated from ethnic groups located .
