Did You Know
Did You Know
Explore Hidden Facts About Nigeria
49
Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Kaduna State is the second largest university in Africa.
50
At Wole Soyinka’s first appearance as a singer, he was accompanied by poet and soldier Christopher Okigbo on the piano.
51
The largest library in West Africa is the Nnamdi Azikiwe Library at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in Enugu State.
52
Nigeria currently has the most internet users in Africa.
53
Football was first played in Nigeria in1902 at the Hope Wadell Training Institute in Calabar, Cross River State.
54
Aliko Dangote is the great-grandson of Alhassan Dantata.
55
The Jos Plateau Indigobird is found nowhere else on the planet but Plateau State, Nigeria.
56
Dame Shirley Bassey, the famous British singer known for her James Bond theme song “Diamonds Are Forever,” is half Nigerian.
57
There is a crater on Mars named after the Chafe LGA in Zamfara State.
58
The River Niger is called orimili/orimiri (meaning "great water") in Igbo and Oya in Yoruba.
59
Amos Tutuola's The Palm-Wine Drinkard and His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads’ Town (1952) was the first novel by a Nigerian to achieve international acclaim.
60
Mungo Park, who is believed to be the first Westerner to have explored the central region of the River Niger, is buried in Jebba, Kwara State.
61
The Chevy Volt was designed by Nigerian engineer Jelani Aliyu (originally from Sokoto State).
62
The first prison in Nigeria was established in 1872 and was located on Broad Street in Lagos.
63
Nigeria's first political party, the Nigerian National Democratic Party, was founded by Herbert Macaulay on June 24, 1923.
64
The colonisation of Nigeria took over forty years for Britain to complete.
65
The British Government gave the Royal Niger Company (later the United Africa Company, and now part of Unilever) £895,000 in exchange for revoking the trade charter it held from 1886 to 1900, essentially giving the British control of Nigeria.
66
Zungeru in Niger State was the site at which the Northern and Southern Protectorates were amalgamated to form present-day Nigeria in 1914.
67
The oldest fossil remains found in Nigeria (believed to date to 9000BCE) were excavated near Akure, the capital of Ondo State.
68
The humanitarian-aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières was established by French doctors who had volunteered their services during the Nigerian Civil War.
69
Zamfara State is the only state in Nigeria without a university. The state is home to two polytechnics and a college of education.
70
Bonny Camp in Lagos was named to commemorate the fall of Bonny, Rivers State in July 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War.
71
Belief in the ‘mami wata’ spirit is held in countries such as Cuba (where it is called Yemanga) and Grenada (where it is called Mamadjo).
72
James Nwoye Adichie (Chimamanda Adichie's father) was the first Nigerian professor of statistics.
