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
‘happy 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 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 repatriate ex-civilian
regime minister of transport,
Umaru Dikko from the UK,
anesthetized in a freight crate,
for the embezzlement of $1bn
under the Shagari regime.

23. Valor: Part of the ‘Forgotten
Army,’ Nigerians volunteered
to fight with the allied forces
among the 81st and 82nd West
African Divisions, in the
Second World War.

24. The Adubi war in 1918 was a
major uprising by 30,000
Abeokuta Ebga warriors
against the colonial
government for colonization,
taxation and slave labor. One
British was killed and rail and
telegraph lines destroyed. The
British rewarded their soldiers
with medals for quelling the
uprising. Awape Adediran a
Molashin/ Kingmaker was
imprisoned for his active
involvement.

25. Activist Mrs. Fumilayo
Ransome-Kuti travelled widely,
including to the Eastern bloc
(Hungary, USSR and China
where she met Mao Zedong).
These interactions angered
Nigeria, Britain and America.
America called her a
communist and refused her a
U.S. Visa.

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

27. According to Lord Luggard,
there were 25,000 Qur’anic
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.

32. Travel Visa was not required to
travel to the United Kingdom
in 1975.

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. During the Shagari
administration in 1985, N7 was
exchanging for one dollar.

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.

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 3rd 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.

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.

50. Kano history has it that a great warrior princess Magajiya Maimuna led her cavalry from Zaria to conquer Kumbwada.

51. Kumbwada in Kano today is ruled by Queen Hajiya Haidzatu Ahmed, who presides over up to half a million subjects. A throne curse which makes men sick and die, keeps males off the throne. {Sadly, the woman ruled Kumbwada is the least funded chiefdom in Nigeria}.

52. Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire) is Nigeria’s leading trade partner in Africa.

53. There are several Nigerian officials in the government of English speaking The Gambia.

54. There is a Nigerian origin, Yoruba chief in Accra. Chief Brimah is the only foreign
Chief with a seat in the
Ghanaian traditional council.

55. Cross River State: The Ejagham (Ekoi) people in the Southeast are believed to have
originated the Nsibidi (Nsibiri) writing system which later spread to the Efik, Igbo, Ibibio, Efut, Banyang and Annag peoples.

56. Discovered in 1928, Nigeria’s western region hosts West Africa’s oldest civilization; the Nok civilization which
flourished between 1000 BC and 300 BC. {Nok sculptures recently went on display
disappointingly in Germany (not Africa).}

57. Finished in 1460 the Benin Iya or moat is a historic world defense wonder. Spanning 1,200 kilometers with walls as
high as 18 metres, it is the world’s largest archeological structure.

58. Sungbo’s Eredo in Ogun state (6°49′N, 3°56′E) is a 100 mile system of up to 70 ft trenches and walls around Ijebu-Ode. It’s Queen, Bilkisu Sungbo has been attributed to the Biblical Queen Sheeba (Queen Bilkis inQuran).

59. Lord Lugard estimated in 1904
that there were 170 walled towns still in existence in the whole of just the Kano
province of northern Nigeria. He described Kano: ‘Commercial emporium of the
western Sudan.’ Of its wall, he said, ‘I have never seen, nor even imagined, anything like it in Africa.’

60. Osun: Queen Luwo, the twenty-first Ooni (ruler) of Ile-Ife paved the streets with
quartz pebbles—and broken pottery, in 1000AD. The architecture had decorations
that originated from Ancient America.

61. Borno: The capital city of Kanem-Borno, Ngazargamu, was one of the largest cities in 1658 AD; the metropolis housed “about quarter of a million people” and had 660 well planned, wide and unbending streets.

62. In 1246 AD the Kanemi of Borno created a sensation in Tunisia when he sent a gift of a giraffe to Al-Mustapha, king of
Tunis.

63. Sokoto: Two-story buildings with constructions glazed with tsoluwa, (laterite gravel), 10 mile circumference city walls, some as high as 20 feet, is how 16th century Surame, a Sokoto metropolis created by empire ruler, Muhammadu Kanta Sarkin Kebbi, was. UNESCO describes Surame as “one of the wonders of human history, creativity and ingenuity.”

64. Kano: In 1851, this city, one of the largest in Africa, made 10 million sandal pairs and 5 million hides for export.

65. Kebbi: Nigeria’s Sorko Sea lords of Kebbi state, made ships (Kanta) which were used for far away expeditions, including the 1311 AD, 2000 ship, famous voyage of Songhai Empire’s Mansa Abubakari II to the America’s, decades before Columbus.

66. Yobe: The oldest discovered boat in Africa, and 3rd oldest on the world, the 8500 yr old Dufuna canoe was discovered
by a Fulani herdsman in 1987 in Dufuna village, Fune LGA.

67. Ondo: Confusing evolution scientists, the 13,000 yr old Iwo-Eleru cave skull, the oldest human fossil remains found in
West Africa, has ‘ancient’ (140,000 yr old
Laetoli) features, yet lived in more modern times.

68. Benin Kingdom: The high quality and highly sophisticated bronze work of the Benin Kingdom dating as far back as the 13th century is a world wonder. Great works in iron, wood, ivory, and terra cotta products also highlight the empire’s history.

69. Benin Kingdom: Lourenco Pinto, captain of a ship that carried missionaries to Warri in 1619, described Benin kingdom, ‘Great Benin where the king resides is larger than Lisbon, all the streets run straight and as far as the eyes can see….’

70. Akwa Ibom: King Jaja of Opobo (1821–1891) founded Opobo city-state in 1867 and
shipped palm oil to Britain independently of British middle men.

71. Ancient Greeks appear to have Nigerian roots as supported by the Benin Haplogroup or Haplogroup 19. According to
Jide Uwechia, ‘The Benin Haplotype (which originates from Nigeria, West Africa accounts for HbS associated chromosomes in Sicily Northern Greece.’

72. Ilorin’s Oba Afonja utilized Fulani warriors to help rebel against the Oyo Empire. The warriors after defeating Oyo
took over Ilorin and Sheikh Alimi, their leader became the first Emir.

73. Much of north Nigeria was part of the Songhai Empire. Muhammad Kanta annexed Kebbi and other states between
1512 and 1517.

74. The Obasanjo military regime converted Nigeria from a Parliamentary system to a
Presidential system of government.

75. Much of traditional pre-colonial Nigeria operated a parliamentary form of government. The council of elders could make or impeach the King.

76. General Johnson Thomas Umurakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi on 24 May 1966, with Decree No. 34, dissolved Nigeria’s regions, creating provinces. He unified Regional Public Services under a single Commission. Riots
were provoked in Kano and mutiny in Abeokuta; eventually there was a coup.

77. In 1967 Gowon split the four regions into 12 states.

78. Gowon’s Decree No. 8 of 1967 after the Aburi conference restored Nigeria as a
confederacy.

79. Late President Murtala Muhammed’s dad, Pam Azatus Iyok was from Dogon-Gaba, near Vom in Plateau state, Nigeria’s Middle Belt. Pam became a Muslim and married Ramat from Kano. Murtala Muhammed’s wife, Hafsat Ajoke was a Yoruba lady.

80. Ex- President Yakubu Gowon from Jos state (Middle Belt) is a Christian. General Obasanjo was his Army chief who helped
him defeat the Biafra attempted secession from 1967-1970.

81. Nigeria has been ruled for 30 years by Christians (25 years if Azikiwe is excluded).

82. Mujahid Asari Dokubo, the leader of the southern Movement for Emancipation of
the Niger Delta (MEND) and the most vocal enemy of the north, is a Muslim.

83. Nigeria is not roughly divided between a Muslim north and a Christian South. The far north, east and far south do have concentrations, but the rest of the nation defies such demarcations.

84. In the Southwest, Osun, Lagos, Ondo and Oyo have a higher population of Muslims than Christians according to counts. Benue, Nasarawa and Plateau
in the north have Christian majorities.

85. According to the Senate joint committee, Nigeria’s chief terrorist leader, Abubakar Shekau is not a Nigerian; he hails from Niger republic. {Shekau is believed by security services to be deceased.}

86. According to current demographics, after Hausa - Fulani (29%), Yoruba (21%), Igbo (18%) and Ijaw (10%) comes Kanuri (4%) and then Ibibio (3.5%) and Tiv (2.5%).

87. Not really a northern caucus, but it was late M. K. O. Abiola that orchestrated and
sponsored the Buhari / Idiagbon coup and then again the Babangida coup overthrow
of Buhari. –Shagari memoir, “Beckoned to Serve;” Babangida, “Karl Maier – Midnight in Nigeria.” (Max Siollun)

88. The leading caucus is basically a childhood friendship: President Obasanjo was childhood friends with President Babangida, President Abacha and Commander Danjuma.

89. President Babangida was childhood friends with President Abdulsalam.

90. President Obasanjo graduated
Abdulsalam who later became
President and went on to hand
over power to democratically
arranged President Obasanjo.

91. Under the Presidential system,
Nigerians have had 7 years total
Northern rule and 11+ years
Southern rule.

92. Total civilian rule,
Parliamentary and
Presidential, Nigeria has had 12
years Northern and 11+ years
Southern rule.

93. 6 coups is the highest number
of any nation in Africa. Nigeria
along with Sierra Leone,
Ethiopia, Uganda and
Mauritania are the nations with
6 coups.

94. The Biafra war included a ‘Mid
West invasion.’ The Midwest
was either a battle field or in
Biafra’s sights—Dr.
Nowamagbe A. Omoigui relays.

95. The Biafra 12th battalion
headed by Lt Col Victor
Adebukunola Banjo captured
Benin and set out to capture
Ibadan and Lagos.

96. The Biafra 13th battalion, led
by Ivenso entered Kwara, now
Kogi and captured Okene,
Atanai and Iloshi.

97. Cameroon was an
administrative part of Nigeria
in 1945, hence the NCNC party
(National Council of Nigeria
and the Cameroons). Towards
independence the UN
mandated British held former
German territory, south
Cameroon opted to join French
Cameroon and not Nigeria.

98. J.C. Vaughn, Ernest Ikoli, H.O.
Davies, Obafemi Awolowo and
Samuel Akinsanya founded the
Nigerian Youth Movement
(NYM) in 1934 to promote
national unity particularly
between Yoruba and Igbo.

99. Azikiwe left Nigerian Youth
Movement (NYM) because he
claimed the organization had
been seized by Yoruba’s and it
discriminated against Igbo’s
including himself.

100. Oyo defeats Ashanti: In 1764
the Ashanti army marched on
Dahomey, Togo. At Atakpamé,
the Ashanti army was
ambushed and sacked by
Dahomean infantry and female
elite soldiers allied with forces
from the Oyo Empire. Ashanti
King Kusi Obodum was
destooled after the defeat.



Nigeria’s century compilation was
created as a historical snapshot of
peculiar events, for our benefit and
that of Nigeria’s younger generations.
It was compiled to the best of our
ability and influenced by our learning,
recollection and prejudices. We invite
Nigerians to collect and share with us
more important and unique events
that define 100 years of Nigeria.
Resources utilized here can be found
on ENDS.ng.