Femi Fani-Kayode “ I f you thought oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1959, you could pass your high school economics with that information. It was, however, actually discovered 50 years earlier. Did you know that oil from the territory was sold for almost 50 years before the approach of Independence in 1960 forced the disclosure of Oloibiri by Britain? Even at that, the quantities were concealed from the newly Independent Nigerian governments, until the counter coup of July 1966, when the North packed their baggage to head back North in the famous ARABA putsch. The then British High Commissioner to Nigeria, of course on the promptings and direction of his home government, zoomed in upon Gowon halfway and prevailed on him to reverse the decision of moving the North out of Nigeria, at a time Gowon already hoisted the Arewa flag in a temporary capital city, Ilorin . In the hurry to announce this reversal, the Gowon’s speech that was originally designed to take out the North, was...
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