10 Amazing facts you probably don’t know about Nigeria

By Akinwale Akinyoade

Nigeria – Africa’s largest economy turns 58.

 Nigeria is great nation with great people from diverse cultures. As we celebrate the country’s 58th Independence day, let us take a look at some amazing facts about the country you probably didn’t know about until now.

  -1. Nigeria is home to 7 percent of the total languages spoken on earth. Taraba State – Nigeria’s 3rd largest state by land mass – has more languages than 30 African countries.

  -2. The Walls of Benin (800-1400 A.D) in present day Edo State, are the longest ancient earthworks in the world, and probably the largest man-made structure on earth. They enclose 6,500 square kilometers (2,500 square miles) of community lands that connected about 500 communities. At over 16,000 kilometers (9,900 miles) long, it was thought to be twice the length of the Great Wall of China, until it was announced in 2012 – after 5 years of meticulous measurement by surveyors – that the Great Wall of China is about 21,000 kilometers (13,000 miles) long.

  -3. The Yoruba ethnic group 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 – as high as 158 twins per 1000 births.

  -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. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated Surame as “one of the wonders of human history, creativity and ingenuity”, and probably the most massive stone-walled constructions in West Africa.

  -5. The Jos Plateau Indigo bird, a small reddish-brown bird, can only be found in Plateau state – central Nigeria.

  -6. The Niger Delta – which is the second largest delta in the world – has the highest concentration of monotypic fish families in the world, and is also home to 60 percent of Nigeria’s mangrove forests. Nigeria’s mangrove forests are the largest in Africa and 3rd largest on earth.

  -7. 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.

  -8. Ile-Ife, in present day Osun State, was paved as early as 1000 A.D, with decorations that originated from ancient America – suggesting there might have been contact between the Yoruba people and the ancient Americans – half a millennium before Columbus “discovered” the Americas.

  -9. Sungbo’s Eredo, a 160 kilometer (100 mile) rampart equipped with guard houses and moats, is reputed to be the largest single pre-colonial monument – or ancient fortification – 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 (1 of the 7 Wonders of The Ancient World). Sungbo’s Eredo was the largest city in the world – larger than Rome and Cairo – during the Middle Ages when it was built.

  -10. The Anambra waxbill, a small bird of many beautiful colours, can only be found in Southern Nigeria and nowhere else on earth.