1. Nigeria, with a 2013 estimated population of 174,507,539 is the most
populous Black nation and the 7th most populated nation in the entire
world, trailing after—from least to most—Pakistan, Brazil, Indonesia,
USA, India and China (1.3bn).
2. Nigerians are 1/5th the total population of Black Africa.
3.
Nigeria, with 521 languages has the fourth most in the world. This
includes 510 living languages, two second languages without native
speakers and 9 extinct languages.
4. The Portuguese reached
Nigeria in 1472. In 1880 the British began conquering Nigeria’s south.
The north was conquered by 1903.
5. Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian Nobel laureate. He wrote 'Telephone Conversation!'
6. With a net worth of $16.1bn, Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote is the richest Black person in the world.
7. Yoruba and their bloodlines worldwide have the highest rate of twinning (having twins) in the world.
8. The 2006 Census found Nigerians to be the highest educated ethnic or racial group in America.
9.
The Northern knot, Arewa insignia has Christian origins, investigation
by Ibraheem A. Waziri revealed. It is adapted from the Church Celtic
knot.
10. Pre-tribalism: Malam Umaru Altine, a northern Fulani
man was the first elected Mayor of Enugu, in the east, and was even
re-elected for a second term.
11. Pre-tribalism: John Umoru, from
Etsako in today’s Edo State (Western region) was elected for the House
of Assembly to represent Port Harcourt in the Eastern Nigerian House of
Assembly.
12. The Colonial Cantonments Proclamation of 1914
established ‘foreign quarters,’ ‘Sabon Gari,’ institutionalizing the
Sabon Garuruwa system of ‘foreigner’ residential segregation in Nigeria.
13.
Crispin Curtis Adeniyi-Jones (1876-1957) who the street in Ikeja,
‘Adeniyi-Jones’ was named after, was a medical director from Sierra
Leone (a Saro). As a co-founder of NNDP, he won one of the Lagos 3
legislative council seats in 1923 and represented Nigerians for 15 yrs.
14. Saros was the name given to 19th and 20th century ‘Creole’ African literati migrants from Sierra Leone.
15.
Amaros was the name for repatriated Brazilian and Cuban slaves; the
‘Aguda’ people of Lagos today. This Brazilian community includes
deportees of the brave “Malê Revolt” in Portugal.
16. British
colonization was not all voluntary ‘happy slave trade,’ but involved
brutal terror against non-cooperation and stiff opposition. Captain Lord
Esme Gordon Lenox, 'With The West African Frontier Force,' describes:
“…we stormed down to Amassana, which was a town supposed to be friendly
and fined them 25 goats and 20 chickens for non-assistance, then
returned to Agbeni and burned half...October 1st was spent in
continuance of yesterdays incendiraism by burning every town or farm we
could see. I shudder to think of how many houses we have destroyed in
these two days. On our way back to Egbbeddi in the afternoon we passed
by Sabagreia and told our old friend Chief Ijor that most likely we
should burn down Sabagreia the next day…”
17. Nigeria’s
population was just 16 million in 1911. It is projected to hit 444
million by 2050, surpassing the US and becoming the 4th largest in the
world.
18. The population of Lagos today is about more than the total population of all Eastern states combined.
19. Lagos’ population in 1872 was 60,000. By 2015 it will be the third largest city in the entire world.
20. Nigeria’s north (719,000 sq. km), occupies 80% of Nigeria’s land mass. In size it is four times the South.
21.
1st republic Aviation Minister, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi hid former
South African President, Nelson Mandela, for six months in Nigeria to
evade his arrest by the apartheid regime.
22. Gangsta: In 1984
under the disciplinary Buhari/Idiagbon government, there was a
sophisticated attempt to kidnap and