55 THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT THE GREAT COUNTRY CALLED NIGERIA

Do you know that?

1. The River Niger Bridge at Onitsha was constructed

between 1964 and 1965 by Dumez- a French

construction company and cost £5 million.

1. 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.

1. The highest peak in Nigeria is located in Taraba and

is called Chappal Waddi which means “The Mountain

of Death”.

1. There are 196 countries in the world and at least one

Igbo person from Nigeria lives in every one of them.

1. The Pidgin word ‘Sabi’ came from ‘Saber’,

Portuguese and Spanish for ‘to know’. Both country’s

ships traded slaves from the Bight of Benin.

1. Katsina College (now Barewa College in Zaria) has

produced 5 Nigerian Presidents/Heads of State since it

was founded in 1921 in Katsina.

1. Ojukwu taught Murtala Mohammed and Ben

Adekunle at Regular Officers Special Training School,

Ghana. Both ‘fought’ their teacher during the civil war

1. At Nigeria’s independence in 1960, there were 41

Secondary Schools in the North and 842 Secondary

Schools in the South.

1. In 1983, Senator Arthur Nzeribe spent $16.5 million

to win a Senatorial seat in Orlu (in Imo State).

1. In 1973, the Federal Government of Nigeria

considered officially changing the name of “Lagos” to

“Eko”. Regarding “Lagos” as a colonial name.

1. The geographical area now referred to as Nigeria

was once referred to as ‘Soudan’ and ‘Nigiritia’.

1. Offences punishable by death sentence after the

1966 coup included embezzlement, rape and

homosexuality.

1. 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.

1. Jaja Wachucku was the first person to refer to Lagos

as a “no-man’s land” in 1947, provoking a national

controversy.

1. Jollof rice, chicken breast, serve of ice cream, tea,

coffee or Bournvita, with full cream milk and sugar:

Meal Cost = 50Kobo- Unilag in the late 1970s

1. 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)

1. 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.

1. Jaja Wachuku is reputed to have owned the biggest

one-man library in West Africa. Balewa sometimes

referred to him as “Most Bookish Minister

1. The colonization of Nigeria took more than 40

years to achieve and the territories were integrated by

the use of force.

1. Yoruba is spoken as a ritual language the Santeria

cult in Carribean and South-Central America.

1. Slavery existed in the Nigerian territory before the

15th century and was abolished in the 19th century-

1807 by the British.

1. 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.

1. The coinage ‘Supreme Court’ was first used in 1863

by the colonial administration through the enactment

of the Supreme Court Ordinance No. II.

1. MKO Abiola died suddenly on July 7, 1998,

exactly one month after General Sani Abacha died

mysteriously on June 8, 1998.

1. Agbani Darego was the only one to wear a maillot

as opposed to a bikini during the Miss Universe contest

in 2001.

1. The ‘Ankara’ material is not indigenous to Nigeria.

Our indigenous textiles include the Akwete, Ukara,

Aso-Oke and Adire.

1. Aloma Mukhtar is the first female lawyer from the

North and went on to become the first female Chief

Justice of Nigeria.

1. 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.

1. Esie Museum is Nigeria’s first museum, established

in 1945. Once reputed to have the largest collection of

soapstone images in the world.

1. Aminu Kano formed the Northern Teachers’

Association (NTA) in 1948, the first successful regional

organization in the history of the North.

1. George Goldie, who played a major role in

founding Nigeria, placed a curse on anyone who

attempts to write his biography.

1. In 1996, John Ogbu, a Nigerian Anthropologist

firmly advocated for the use of African-American

Vernacular to teach in the U.S

1. Hause Language indigenous to Northern Nigeria is

spoken in 11 African States. Germany, French, U.S., and

British International radio stations broadcast in Hausa.

1. The surgeon who ‘killed’ Stella Obasanjo was

sentenced to 1 year in prison, disqualified for 3 years

and fined €120,000.

1. The word ‘asiri’ means ‘secret’ in Hausa, Yoruba,

Nupe and Igarra. It also means ‘gossip’ in Igbo.

1. 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.

1. 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.

1. The first TV broadcast in Nigeria and Tropical

Africa was on October 31, 1959.

1. 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.

1. Albert E. Kitson discovered coal in Enugu in 1909.

This discovery led to the building of Port-Harcourt

town in 1912.

1. Today, only Nigeria has a larger black population

than Brazil. More than 3.5 million Africans were

captured, enslaved and transported to Brazil.

1. Groundnut pyramids were the invention of Alhaji

Alhassan Dantata to stack bags before export.

1. In 1967, old traditional ruler, Oba Akran and A.

Ademiluyi were jailed for 14 years (7 each) for stealing

£504,750 (#2.5b).

1. Since 1960, Nigeria has been either ruled by an ex-

lecturer/ex-teacher or military man. The only

exceptions are Azikiwe and Shonekan.

1. 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.

1. The first aircraft to land in Nigeria landed in Kano

in July 1925. A British fighter jet flew from Khartoum

(present day Sudan).

1. 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.

1. The ‘Naira’ was coined by Chief Obafemi Awolowo

when he was serving as the Federal Commissioner of

Finance.

1. Koma Hill (settlement in Adamawa where people

lived and practised the killing of twins) was discovered

in 1986 by a NYSC corps member.

1. 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).

1. In 1986, Shehu Shagari was banned from

participation in politics for life. The ban has still not

been lifted.

1. 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..

1. Koma Hills (Adamawa State) inhabitants when

discovered were observed to engage in the practise of

borrowing wives among themselves.

1. Juju, Dashiki, Yam and Okra are words in the

English dictionary that originated from ethnic groups

located in present day Nigeria.

1. Nigeria has more English speakers than England,

and more Muslims than Saudi Arabia, Syria and

Afghanistan combined.