12 shocking facts about Nigeria

Some years ago, a brilliant lecturer of mine
(now late) said something about Nigeria that I
waved aside as an exaggerated expression of
patriotism. He told my class then that he had
travelled to many places in the world and had
finally come to the conclusion that Nigeria is the most blessed nation on the planet. I knew
Nigeria was blessed but I couldn’t understand
how he could boldly claim that top position for
Nigeria: yes we have oil, gas, landmass–in fact,
abundant natural and human resources, but
was that enough? Fast-forward to September, 2011. By this time,
my doubt had given rise to a burning desire to
know the specific things that make us great as
a nation–that make us the most blessed people
on earth. I felt if I did find these specific facts,
they would need to be shared with Nigerians and the world in spectacular ways. To achieve
this aim, I discussed the idea with my friend,
George Okewih, and our subsequent
brainstorming led to the birth of The Green
Heritage page on Facebook to promote our
cultural and natural heritage to Nigerians and the world. It’s been eighteen months of
rigorous research since, and now I am
convinced that my late lecturer was right. 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. Now, what if we tell you seventy-five other
amazing facts about Nigeria that The Green
Heritage has discovered over the past eighteen
months? Would you not be thrilled to watch a
movie that resurrects and projects, in stunning
visuals, the historical, cultural and natural heritage of Nigeria? This is the idea behind the
movie project titled, “The Green Heritage 3D:
87 Marvels From Nigeria”. And the ball has
begun rolling. A teaser that demonstrates
some of the advanced 3D modelling and
animation that would be partly employed to recreate parts of our heritage and project it to
the world, has been uploaded on our YouTube
channel. With a talented team of young
Nigerian writers, programmers, artists,
architects and producers, all given visual life to
a massive amount of research about and for Nigeria, you can rest assured that this might
just be the most important movie of our
generation, from Nigeria.