Giant stride

In 2013, a Nigerian politician, Jimoh Olawole of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), rejected his own victory in the August 31 council election in Offa, Kwara State, after he had been declared the winner. He said it was rigged in his favour. 

Nigeria has the largest Christian population of any country in Africa, with more than 80 million persons in the country belonging to (the church with) various denominations

1966: HOW BRIGADIER MAIMALARI WAS MURDERED BY HIS CHIEF-OF-STAFF "Yakubu! Yakubu! Who are those shooting in your house?" Brigadier Zakariya Mai-Malari, Commande r of the 2nd Brigade, Lagos, screamed into the phone. His phone had been ringing and he had just woken up to pick it at his 11, Thompson Avenue, Ikoyi, home in Lagos around 2am, where a cocktail party had just ended few hours earlier. It was Lieutenant-Colonel James Yakubu Pam, the Adjutant-General of the Nigerian Army, who was calling to report some shootings in his compound and that some soldiers had gained forceful entry into his bedroom to arrest him. Mai-Malari had hardly spoken to Pam when he himself heard gunshots at his own gate. Mai-Malari's guard commander who had adamantly denied the mutineers entrance to the residence had been killed. Immediately Mai-Malari heard the gunshots, he dropped the phone, ran upstairs to pick up his teenage wife and kept her at the servants’ quarters. He scaled the ta

"I ask for soldiers, I'm being given politicians dressed in uniform." — Major-General Johnson Thomas Umunakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi (1924-1966). Aguiyi-Ironsi was the first Nigerian soldier to be a Major-General from the rank of private. He joined the Army at the age of 18 in 1942 against his sister's wishes. As Head of State, he banned the Hausa language as the lingua franca of the Nigerian military (and civil service examinations in the North) and enforced the English language (man y Hausa infantry soldiers could not speak English). In his 194 days as Head of State (the shortest military rule in Nigerian history), he made sure fundamental human rights and freedom of expression were not abused. He promulgated Decree No.2 which removed the restrictions on press freedom the Sir Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa-led civilian administration had put in place and Decree No 44 which made it an "offense to display or pass on pictorial representation, sing songs, or play instrume