Here are some facts from our
common heritage that should
make you proud to be called a
Nigerian:
1. 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.
2. The Walls of Benin
(800-1400AD), in present day
Edo State, are the longest ancient
earthworks in the world, and
probably the largest man-made
structure on earth. They enclose
6500 square kilometers of
community lands that connected
about 500 communities. At over
16000km 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.
3. 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 I watched last year 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!
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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!

7. 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 in Robin
Walker’s wonderful book, “When
We Ruled”.
8. The Jos Plateau Indigobird, a
small reddish-brown bird, is
found nowhere else on the
planet but Plateau state, Nigeria.
9. The Anambra waxbill, a small
bird of many beautiful colours, is
found only in Southern Nigeria
and nowhere else on earth.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.

Why then are they not showcasing any of these birds on Natgeowild?