2nd September, 2023
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria and immediate past Chairman of the Nigerian Body of Benchers, Chief Wole Olanipekun, has called for the renaming of Nigeria. the national identity it has borne since 1897.
He said the present national identity is not only demeaning, but it is also confused with the name of Niger, another country, north of Nigeria’s border.
Olanipekun made the call at a colloquium in Abuja to mark the 25th anniversary of Joe-Kyari Gadzama as a SAN.
“My position is that we should stop mocking ourselves by the retention of the name Nigeria, a hypocritical and demeaning appellation given to us by Lugard’s mistress.
“It is intriguing that, to date, we have not mustered sufficient courage to drop this denigrating appellation.
“Come to think of this, the French named their French colony Niger, while the British gave us the ridiculous appellation Nigeria.
“What is the difference between Niger as pronounced in French and Nigeria as pronounced in English? A citizen of Niger is called a Nigerien, while a citizen of Nigeria is called a Nigerian”.
History of Nigeria’s name:
Nigeria was coined on 8 January 1897, by the British journalist Flora Shaw, then a mistress to British colonial administrator, Lord Lugard. Lugard and later married Flora in 1902.
According to historical accounts, Flora suggested the names in a London Times article published on same day.
Before then, the territory now known as Nigeria was known officially as Royal Niger Company Territories.
She thought the official name was too long to be used as a name of a real estate property, under the trading company in that part of Africa.
She coined “Nigeria”, in preference to terms such as “Central Sudan”, which were associated with the area by some geographers and travellers.
As she wrote then: “The name Nigeria applying to no other part of Africa may without offence to any neighbours be accepted as co-extensive with the territories over which the Royal Niger Company has extended British influence, and may serve to differentiate them equally from the colonies of Lagos and the Niger Protectorate on the coast and from the French territories of the Upper Niger”.
Her suggestion was bought by the colonial masters then, for three years later, on 1 January 1900, the British colonialists divided the territory into Southern Nigeria Protectorate and the Northern Nigeria Protectorate.
In 1914, both protectorates were merged as the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, with Lugard becoming its first Governor-general.
Nigeria became independent in 1960 and did not consider a name change like the people of Zimbabwe in 1980, who jettisoned the colonial name of Rhodesia.
Olanipekun also urged President Bola Tinubu to probe past leaders to unravel how the country got to its current state.
According to him, past leaders have questions to answer as regards the infrastructural deficits, grounded economy and insecurity ravaging many parts of the country, among others.
He said the huge funds allocated to the various sectors of the economy must be accounted for.
“Let us remind ourselves that we cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs. The President has to ask questions, and sordid questions indeed, about how we have come to this sorry past.
“Why we are in a big mess; why the economy is grounded; what has happened to the previous budgets and the trillions of naira allocated to road rehabilitation, healthcare delivery, security, infrastructural rehabilitation, institutional restoration, among others.
“Lest I forget, the government must also interrogate a very profound question as to why the national currency, the naira, has fallen so abysmally, almost from grace to grass, and virtually becoming valueless with N900 exchanging for just one United States Dollar.
“The present administration must examine and audit all books and records as well as past expenditures, whether real or otherwise.”