100 Interesting Facts About Nigeria (Part 2)

This article is divided into 4 parts, 25 facts for each part. The remainder of the parts would be published the following day so watch out!!

Howng yesterday brought you the first part 1-25, this part contains 26-50 amazing facts about Nigeria.. Enjoy..

Read part 1 HERE

26. Mrs. Fumilayo Ransome-Kuti, legendary Fela’s mother, was one of the delegates that negotiated Nigeria’s independence in Britain.

Nollywood’s Who Is Who (Copyright: Nollywood Networks www.nollywoodnetworks.org)

27. Once upon a time, the north was the more literate part of Nigeria. According to Lord Luggard, there were 25,000 Qur’anic Arabic schools with about 250,000 pupils in the north.

28. Sardauna of Sokoto said he preferred foreign workers to Igbo’s because he felt Igbo’s are domineering. This was while Nigeria existed as regions with regional administrations.

29. Kaduna Nzeogwu killed Sardauna in Nigeria’s first military coup.

30. In 1966, a mischievous Igbo owned bakery allegedly made a loaf of bread with a label that depicted Nzeogwu as the Saint in the ‘Saint George and the Dragon’ medieval tale, killing Sardauna, the ‘dragon,’ this labeled bread provoked deadly anti-Igbo riots.

31. Idrîs Aloma (1571-1603) King of Kanem-Bornu went on pilgrimage and came across firearms. He brought some guns back, along with Turks to train his army on how to use them.

Efik Women at the Calabar Festival, 2013

32. Travel Visa was not required to travel to the United Kingdom till 1984.

33. A brand new car sold for N2000 in 1975. A ticket to London was less than N100 in 1975.

34. In 1976, 75 kobo exchanged for one British Pound and 60 kobo for one US dollar.

35. A dollar was 90 kobo at the beginning of Babangida’s term in 1985.

36. Nigeria took its first loan from the World Bank in 1977.

37. Obasanjo’s first term and Babangida’s regime oversaw the weakening of the naira.

38. General Buhari and Idiagbon rejected IMF demands that Nigeria devalue its currency.

39. Babangida’s coup in 1985 was invaluable to the colonialists suspected to have been in support as it led to Nigeria accepting SAP restrictions, loans and crippling foreign monetary conditions.

40. Nigeria has 5 of the 10 richest pastors in the entire world, with net worth’s according to Forbes, from $10-150 million. They are Pastors, David Oyedepo, E. A. Adeboye, Chris Oyakhilome, Mathew Ashimolowo and Temitope Joshua.

Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State

41. Nigeria has the 4th highest number of poor, living under a dollar a day in the entire world. 100 million are ‘destitute’ according to figures from the NBS (National Bureau of Statistics).

42. Nigeria, the biggest economy in Africa is 160th out of 177 countries in HDI (Human Development Index).

43. Nigeria has the highest paid legislators in the entire world.

44. Based on amount squandered, of an income of $81 billion per year, Nigeria is the most corrupt nation in the world.

45. The nation with the most defrauded people, aka ‘mugus,’ in history, is Nigeria. Successive administrations continue to loot a greater percentage of the nation’s wealth, running in hundreds of billions of dollars.

Nigeria | Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea

46. Nigeria in 2013 was rated the worst country to be born based on welfare and prosperity projection.

47. Aliko Dangote funded Presidents Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan’s 4th republic campaigns. Buhari rejected funding from Dangote.

48. Usman dan Fodio (1754–1817) was trained in classical Islamic science, philosophy and theology and wrote over 100 books on society, culture, religion, governance and politics. He could only declare Jihad when he was made leader in Gudu {In Islam you can only declare Jihad if you are an official Muslim leader}.

49. The Borno Empire rejected Dan Fodio’s colonization jihad. Al-Hajj Muhammad al-Amîn ibn Muhammad al-Kânemî not only militarily defended his Empire, but also did so by religious, theological, legal and political debates, challenging why a Muslim Empire should colonize another.