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Nigeria in retrospect

25 Facts You Need To Know About Nigeria
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1. There are 196 countries in the world and Igbo people from Nigeria can be found in every one of them.

2. The Pidgin word ‘Sabi’ came from ‘Saber’, Portuguese and Spanish for ‘to know’. Both country’s ships traded slaves from the Bight of Benin.

2. Katsina College (now Barewa College in Zaria) has produced 5 Nigerian Presidents/Heads of State since it was founded in 1921 in Katsina.

3. Ojukwu taught Murtala Mohammed and Ben Adekunle at Regular Officers Special Training School, Ghana. Both ‘fought’ their teacher during the civil war.

4. At Nigeria’s independence in 1960, there were 41 Secondary Schools in the North and 842 Secondary Schools in the South.

5. In 1973, the Federal Government of Nigeria considered officially changing the name of “Lagos” to “Eko”. Regarding “Lagos” as a colonial name but the bill failed.

6. The geographical area now referred to as Nigeria was once referred to as ‘Soudan’ and later ‘Nigiritia’.

7. Offences punishable by death sentence after the 1966 coup included embezzlement, rape and homosexuality.

8. 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 infant hood.

9. At the point of death in 1989, green eagles player who slumped and died during a match, Sam Okwaraji was a PhD candidate and qualified lawyer with an LL.M in International Law (University of Rome).

10. 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. He was the first person to deposit money into a Bank in Nigeria and the richest man in Nigeria at the time.

11. At least 55 women were killed in South-East Nigeria, in 1929 when the women tried to force the Umuahia warrant chiefs to submit to their rule. Which is known today as the Aba women's riot.

12. Agbani Darego was the only one to wear a maillot as opposed to a bikini during the Miss Universe contest in 2001 which she won.

13. Justice Aloma Mukhtar is the first female lawyer from the North and went on to become the first female Chief Justice of Nigeria.

14. George Goldie, who played a major role in founding Nigeria, placed a curse on anyone who attempts to write his biography.

15. Hausa Language indigenous to Northern Nigeria is spoken in 11 African countries. Germany, French, U.S., and British International radio stations broadcast in Hausa.

16. The surgeon who accidentally ‘killed’ Stella Obasanjo was sentenced to 1 year in prison, disqualified for 3 years and fined €120,000.

17. The word ‘asiri’ means ‘secret’ in Hausa, Yoruba, Nupe and Igarra. It also means ‘gossip’ in Igbo.

18. Igbo-Ora in Oyo State is the town that produce the highest number of twin births in the world.

19. Today, only Nigeria has a larger black population than Brazil in the world which is because More than 3.5 million Africans were captured, enslaved and transported to Brazil.

19. The first aircraft to land in Nigeria landed in Kano in July 1925. It was a British fighter jet which flew from Khartoum (present day Sudan).

20. 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 killed eaten by him and his men.

21. The pilot (Francis Osakwe) that flew Ojukwu away from Biafra (1970) was the same pilot that flew Gowon to Uganda in his last flight as Head of State.

22. In 1986, former President Shehu Shagari was banned from participation in politics for life by Buhari after the coup that removed him. The ban has still not been lifted.

23. 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 where she stayed and served customers by herself.

24. Koma Hills (Adamawa State) when the inhabitants were discovered by a NYSC member in 1986, they were observed to engage in the practise of borrowing wives among themselves. They also engaged in the killing of twins.

25. Nigeria has more English speakers than England, and more Muslims than Saudi Arabia and Syria.

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