53RD INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY FACTS – THE GREAT NATION NIGERIA Monday January 1 1900 Location- Lokoja On this day in history - General Frederick Lugard read the Queen’s Proclamation to assembled units of the Royal Niger Constabulary and the West African Frontier Force….and then the Union Jack was raised signallin British authority…guns fired and anthem played… ….thus the protectorate of Northern Nigeria, a territory stretching 256,400 square miles with an estimated population of 9, 269,000 was born Few of the 3000 African soldiers present at the ceremony understood English…..the Proclamation was translated and read to them in Hausa and Nupe…but no attempt was made to inform the general civilian population living in this vast land…whose destinies had just be altered… the Hausa translation was sent to prominent rulers in all the provinces of the new Protectorate….the most prominent of them, Sultan Abdu of the Sokoto caliphate refused to even acknowledge the message
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 10:12:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015