To deal with the Biafrans they changed the Pounds to Naira. It was this ungrateful snitch Awolowo who Gen. Ojukwu broke out of prison that made it come to light. Guess what he was promised wasn't gonna be so he committed suicide.

wallex1983:
I wish we were still using Nigerian Pounds or Nigerian Dollar

And you think it's the name of our currency that matters?

Gafar14:
Very educating write up. meanwhile, I am still wondering what qualifies General Muritala portrait to appear in Nigeria currency. Herbat Merculy, Awolowo, Azikiwe, and others whose portrait appear on different Nigerian currency are known as founding fathers of Nigeria.

He was head of state and died tragically in a coup. Ironically death makes a hero.

For me the only redeeming feature of MRM was that he planned to hand over to civilians in 1979, which OBJ kept.

To see the importance of that, Buhari as military head of state had no plans to hand over to civilians & IBB after 8 years of promises failed to handover to an elected president. Abacha was set to succeed himself. It took death of MKO & both local & international pressure under which Abubakar succeed Abacha to bring democracy.

Otherwise Murtala ruined our civil service/institutions. Under guise of fighting corruption he sacked our civil servants employed & trained by colonial civil service. Senior staff were Oxbridge & other reputable universities' graduates. Our civil service never recovered from it till now. Our institutions remain very weak.

Interesting

Durchmann:


Source: https://www.financialwatchngr.com/2018/08/28/how-the-term-naira-became-nigerias-official-currency/

Damn right! Obafemi Awolowo, GCFR, the iconic nationalist!