CELEBRATING NIGERIA @ 56

As Nigeria today celebrating 56 years independence anniversary today, we hereby decided to bring us down the memory lane and enumerate some unique facts that we need to know about the country Nigeria.

**The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined on 8 January 1897 by British journalist Flora Shaw, who later married Baron Frederick Lugard, a British colonial administrator.

**The British formally merge the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914.

**Nigeria became a formally independent federation in 1960 and a Federal Republic in 1963.

** The Nok civilization of Northern Nigeria flourished between 500 BC and AD 200, producing life-sized terracotta figures which are some of the earliest known sculptures in Sub-Saharan Africa

** Nigeria border Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean.

**Islam is practiced by 48.8% of the population, while Christians constitute 50.8%. The majority of Muslims are in the north and east, and Christians tend to be in the south and west. Among Christians, 24.8% are Catholic, 74.1% are Protestant, and 0.9% belongs to other denominations.

**Nigeria comprises 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, where the capital, Abuja is located.

**Population according to 2015 Estimate is 182,202,000 but 2006 Census stood at 140,431,790.** National assembly Upper house has 109 Senators and Lower house has 360 House of Representative members.

**Of the estimated one billion people that live in sub-Saharan Africa, 168 million of them are in Nigeria. And it’s rapidly growing. By the year 2050, researchers estimate that the population will reach a whopping 440 million. 50% of Nigerians live in cities, most notably greater Lagos, which has between 17 and 20 million residents.

** According to the World Resources Institute, Nigeria is home to 4,715 different types of plant species, and over 550 species of breeding birds and mammals, making it one of the most ecologically vibrant places of the planet.

**The Walls of Benin (800-1400AD), in present day Edo State, was considered the largest man-made structure lengthwise and was hailed as the largest earthwork in the world. They enclose 6500 square kilometres of community lands that connected about 500 communities. At over 16,000km long, it was thought to be twice the length of the Great Wall of China, until it was announced in 2012 (after five years of meticulous measurement by Chinese surveyors) that the Great Wall is about 21,000km long

** ** With over 500 languages, Nigeria is home to seven percent (7%) of the total languages spoken on earth. Taraba state alone has more languages than 30 African countries. The importance of this fact is appreciated when one understands that language is the “soul of culture” (as Ngugi wa Thiongo famously said). It is language that births the proverbs, riddles, stories and other aspects of culture that give us identity. UNESCO puts forward that the world’s languages represents an extraordinary wealth of creativity. Linguistic diversity correlates with cultural diversity. This means Nigeria can look inwards and drive itself to become the greatest hub for cultural tourism on earth, and consequently empower its citizens tremendously in the process.

**Sarki Muhammad Kanta The Great of Kebbi, was the only ruler who resisted control by Songhai, West Africa’s greatest empire at that time. He founded and ruled the Hausa city-state of Kebbi around 1600 A.D and built Surame its capital, a planned city which was almost impossible to penetrate during war. In fact UNESCO describes Surame as “one of the wonders of human history, creativity and ingenuity”, and probably the most massive stone-walled constructions in West Africa. He is listed in Robin Walker’s 50 Greatest Africans.

**The Yoruba tribe has the highest rate of twin births in the world. Igbo-Ora, a little town in Oyo state, has been nicknamed Twin capital of the World because of its unusually high rate of twins that is put as high as 158 twins per 1000 births. In a video on YouTube presented by Titi (a white lady who speaks Yoruba), and which was centred on twin births in Igbo-Ora, one of the locals boasted that every family in the town has at least one twin!

**Nigeria’s film industry is the second-largest in the world. Only India’s film industry (known as “Bollywood”) is larger. Nollywood is even larger in output than Hollywood, with over 100 releases every year.

**According to the World Resources Institute, Nigeria is home to 4,715 different types of plant species, and over 550 species of breeding birds and mammals, making it one of the most ecologically vibrant places of the planet.

**The area around Calabar, one of Nigeria’s regional hubs, contains the world’s largest diversity of butterflies. A good way to see them is to tour Cross River National Park, where over 300 species live, including the gorgeous Papilio monachus, the unusual blue Iolaus iasis, and the newly-discovered Tetrahanis okwangwo.

** Africa’s oldest known boat is The Dufuna canoe which was discovered in Dufuna village, Yobe state, by a Fulani Herdsman in May 1987, while he dug a well. Various radio-carbon tests conducted in laboratories of reputable universities in Europe and America indicate that the canoe is over 8,000 years old, thus making it the oldest in Africa and 3rd oldest in the world. The discovery of the canoe has completely changed accepted theories of the history and sophistication of marine technology in Africa.

** Ile-Ife, in present day Osun State, was paved as early as 1000AD, with decorations that originated from Ancient America suggesting there might have been contact between the Yorubas and the Ancient Americans half a millenium before Columbus ‘discovered’ America.

**The Jos Plateau Indigobird, a small reddish-brown bird, is found nowhere else on the planet but Plateau state, Nigeria.

** Sungbo’s Eredo, a 160 km rampart equipped with guard houses and moats, is reputed to be the largest single pre-colonial monument (or ancient fortification if you like) in Africa. It is located in present-day Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State and when it was built a millennium ago, it required more earth to be moved during construction than that used for building the Great Pyramid of Giza (one of the Seven Wonders of The Ancient World). The most astonishing thing is that Sungbo’s Eredo was the biggest city in the world (bigger than Rome and Cairo) during the Middle Ages when it was built!

**The Niger Delta (which is the second largest delta on the planet), has the highest concentration of monotypic fish families in the world, and is also home to sixty percent of Nigeria’s mangrove forests. You should know too that Nigeria’s mangrove forests are the largest in Africa and third largest on earth.

** The Anambra waxbill, a small bird of many beautiful colors, is found only in Southern Nigeria and nowhere else on earth. 

**Sarki Abdullah Burja of Kano (ruled 1438-1452 AD), the 18th ruler of Ancient Kano, created the first Golden Age in Northern Nigeria and ushered in a period of great prosperity. During his reign, Hausa became the biggest indigenous language spoken in Africa after Swahili. He is on the list of 50 Greatest Africans.

**Sungbo’s Eredo, a 160 km rampart equipped with guard houses and moats, is reputed to be the largest single pre-colonial monument in Africa. It is located in present-day Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State and when it was built a millennium ago.

**Third mainland bridge was the longest bridge in Africa until 1996 when the 6th October Bridge located in Cairo was completed. The 11.8km (5-mile) long Third Mainland Bridge connects Lagos Island to the mainland. It starts at Oworonshoki on the Lagos mainland, and ends at Adeniji-Adele interchange on Lagos Island.

**According to research done every year, Nigerians consistently rank high as some of the worlds happiest, most optimistic and hopeful people! The country is certainly no Disneyland, however, after seeing and living through some of life’s worst…hope is what keeps them moving forward. Not sure what Forbes was thinking….but good thing they aren’t considered people experts…stick to numbers!

**Nigeria is the most popular black nation on Earth. It was ranked "the third fastest-growing economy in the world after China and India" by the (IMF) in 2009.

**Nigeria is a country in West Africa, Officially called the Federal Republic of Nigeria, with thirty-six states and the federal capital territory, Abuja. Nigeria got her independence on October lst, 1960, and is made up of over 450 ethnic groups with Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba being the major tribes.

Nigeria is still struggling with economic and industrial development, and the majority of the people believe that the country can only be fixed if the government is run by a dedicated and focused democrat.

 **Of the 9 black billionaires in the 2014 Forbes list, 4 are Nigerian.

 HAPPY INDEPENDENCE NIGERIA!