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 Msc 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 breast, served with 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.
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 Maroko 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, festablished 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. Hausa 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.
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 (N2.5b).
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 N100, single room for N19.
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 in present day Nigeria.
55. Nigeria has more English speakers than England.
Can someone explain why Nigerian history is not taught as a
compulsory subject from primary to tertiary education level. Perhaps our
thinking will change
Compiled by Silas Adewunmi
