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.
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 breast, 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.
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.
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 in present day Nigeria.
55. Nigeria has more English speakers than
England, and more Muslims than Saudi Arabia
and Syria.
