On This Day

January 7, 1973

Ashrut Rode

16 Sep 2025 — 1 min read

Post-civil war Nigeria re-entered the world stage on this Sunday as the Second All-Africa Games kicked off in the new National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos. The successful outing of the Games was a tribute to the resilience of post-colonial Africa in more than one respect. It was originally scheduled for Bamako, Mali in 1969 but a coup d’etat disrupted the plans. It was re-scheduled for 1971 in Nigeria but the organizers had to grant an extension because of the civil war. This gave the Gowon administration sufficient time to complete the $20m Sports Stadium which served as its venue. The local organizing team went to great pains to use the Games to showcase Nigeria as united, safe and secure despite its recent history and the shadow of the massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. World renown African and Africa descent sports icons, Muhammed Ali, Abebe Bikila and Jesse Owens, were invited to the opening ceremony of the Games.

Teju urged us to "speak in the ideological name of Africa"

Interview Tejumola Olaniyan passed away on November 30, 2019, at the age of 60. His writing on drama, literature, popular music, and political cartooning redefined the contours of African literary and cultural studies. Indeed, his work has done no less than reconstitute the study of culture in Africa—what it

February 17, 1958

The first shipment of crude oil left Port Harcourt for Britain. The tanker load was sent to scientists at Shell and British Petroleum companies for analysis of its quality and blending properties. That was the last step in the two companies’ 21-year long search for oil in Nigeria which was

88th

The Nigerian passport is currently ranked 88th on the Henley Passport Index which compares visa requirement for 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations. The Index provides global citizens and sovereign states a standard reference tool for assessing how a passport ranks on international mobility spectrum. A passport scores

$20.93b

Diaspora Nigerians remitted $20.93b to the home country in 2024, which is, approximately one-third of all diaspora remittances to sub-Sahara Africa in the same period. Remittances also increased by nine percent compared to the previous year but even as it beats World Bank’s projection of two point three

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Teju urged us to "speak in the ideological name of Africa"

February 17, 1958

88th

$20.93b