1966 coup speech made by Lt. Colonel Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu

IN the name of the Supreme Council of the Revolution of the Nigerian Armed  Forces, I declare martial law over the Northern Provinces of Nigeria. The Constitution is suspended and the regional government and elected assemblies are hereby dissolved. All political, cultural, tribal and trade union activities, together with all demonstrations and unauthorized gatherings,...

Read More

Major General Mamman Jiya Vatsa OFR (3 December 1940 – 5 March 1986)

Major General Mamman Jiya Vatsa OFR (3 December 1940 – 5 March 1986) was a senior Nigerian Army officer and writer who was executed by the government of Major General Ibrahim Babangida on 5 March 1986 following a military tribunal conviction for treason associated with an abortive coup. He served as Minister of the Federal Capital Abuja, and was a member of the Supreme...

Read More

Gov. Ambode Last and farewell speech as Lagos Governor

My fellow Lagosians. With a heart full of gratitude, I address you today for the last time as your governor. It has been an honour and a privilege of a lifetime to serve you for the last four years. It has been a remarkable journey which has had a lasting impact on my life and I want to thank all Lagosians for the experience of these last four years. As in...

Read More

The Aba women riot of 1929 - A turning point for women relevance in the colonial era

The Women's War, or Aba Women's Riots, was a period of unrest in British Nigeria over November 1929. It was the first major anti-colonial revolt by women in West African. The Aba Women's War was sparked by a dispute between a woman named Nwanyeruwa and a man, Mark Emereuwa, who was helping to make a census of the people living in the town controlled by the Warrant,...

Read More

The Aba women riot of 1929

The Women's War, or Aba Women's Riots, was a period of unrest in British Nigeria over November 1929. It was the first major anti-colonial revolt by women in West African. The Aba Women's War was sparked by a dispute between a woman named Nwanyeruwa and a man, Mark Emereuwa, who was helping to make a census of the people living in the town controlled by the Warrant,...

Read More

The Nigerian Western region Wild Wild West known as Operation Wet ti e - How it all started

In fact because of Operation Weti e, some people began to label the people of the Western Region as being violent; they said that we in the West started the culture of violence. And my answer was that the violence did not just arise, it arose after the democratic system had failed. So our people were pushed to the wall. And how did the democratic option fail? The beginning...

Read More

Oba Ovonramwen of Benin Kingdom and the British encounter

In 1896–1897 the forces of the Niger Coast Protectorate fought with the remnants of the Edo Empire. Following the defeat of an unsuccessful foray by Consul General James R. Phillips, a larger retaliatory force captured Benin City and drove Ovonramwen, the Oba of Benin, into exile. Overami or Ovonramwen was the last Oba or King of the African Kingdom of Benin, also sometimes...

Read More

Igboland resistance to British rule

The British had difficulty conquering Igboland, which lacked central political organisation. In the name of liberating the Igbos from the Aro Confederacy, the British launched the Anglo-Aro War of 1901–1902. Despite conquering villages by burning houses and crops, continual political control over the Igbo remained elusive.The British forces began annual pacification missions...

Read More

Nigeria a history of Corruption from pre-independence

According to a Colonial Government Report (CGR) of 1947, “The African’s background and outlook on public morality is very different from that of the present day Briton. The African in the public service seeks to further his own financial interest.” (Okonkwo, 2007). Before independence, there have been cases of official misuse of resources for personal enrichment (Storey,...

Read More

Lagos in the slave trade era

According to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Voyage Database, 308,800 people were sold across the Atlantic from Lagos in 1776–1850. Lagos became a major slave port in the late 1700s and into the 1850s. Much of the human trafficking which occurred there was nominally illegal, and records from this time and place are not comprehensive.  British and French traders did a...

Read More

Relationship between Edo kingdom and Yoruba kingdom

During the 15th century Benin was the first to receive foreign traders.The last Ogiso son who was to succeed his Father was banished from Edo and arrived in the Yoruba kingdom, crowned as their King, and titled the throne as Ilefe Izoduwa in Edo Language which was corrupted to Ile-ife Oduduwa in Yoruba. The Powerful Kingdom in Nigeria and first Empire recognized by foreign...

Read More

Jaja of Opobo (Rivers state)

Jaja of Opobo King Jaja of Opobo (full name: Jubo Jubogha; 1821–1891) was a merchant prince and the founder of Opobo city-state in an area that is now the Rivers state of Nigeria. Born in Umuduruoha, Amaigbo, in Igboland, he was taken at about the age of twelve as a slave in Bonny. Jumo Jumofe later took the name "Jaja" for his dealings with the British. King...

Read More

Efunsetan Aniwura - The most powerful and wealthiest Yoruba woman that ever lived

Efunsetan Aniwura was killed in her sleep by two of her slaves in 1874, betrayed by her adopted son, Kumuyilo .She was deposed as Iyalode by Aare Latoosa on May 1, 1874 for politically motivated allegations, despite paying all the fines levied against her. Born in Abeokuta in the 1790s or 1820s, Aniwura was a migrant from Egbaland in present day Ogun State. Her father, Chief...

Read More

Events in the north before the 1966 civil war

About 30,000 Igbo were killed in September 1966, while more conservative estimates put the casualties at between ten and thirty thousand for that month. This spree of killings carried on into early October and was carried out by civilians sometimes aided by army troops and swept the entire north. It has been described as the most painful and provocative incident leading to...

Read More

1967 ASABA incident -Over 1000 civilian were lost in the event

“I looked around and I saw machine guns all around us. Some of them were also carrying automatic rifles. One of them shouted an order, and they started shooting.” With these chilling words, Ify Uraih describes how the massacre of hundreds of innocent civilians began in Asaba more than 40 years ago. Asaba massacre The Asaba Massacre occurred in early October...

Read More

Palmwine Guitar and Highlife was the earliest music style in Nigera and west Africa

The palmwine Guiter is the most popular music style in Nigeria and west Africa in the 1920s In Nigeria, two exceptional guitarists emerged in the late 1940s and early 1950s, playing a pure form of classic Palmwine Guitar. Ambrose Adekoya Campbell and Julius Araba gained superstar status - at least in the old Colony of Lagos. Campbell was a member of the legendary Lagos...

Read More