[Judge J]

Saturday 10 May 12.30pm-5.15pm

Film: Naij, A History of Nigeria

plus Q & A with Jide Olanrewaju

Saturday 10 May 12.30pm-5.15pm

Museum in Docklands,

West India Quay (Docklands Light Railway)

Free entry: first come,first served

Museum in Docklands - Home


Corruption, Mismanagement, Fraud,War are the stereotypical views of Nigeria and indeed Africa as a whole.This block-busting film explodes the mis-education and stereotypes and puts the country we now call Nigeria into context. This is the best film

on African history and politics you will see this year. If you've ever asked yourself "why is Africa the way it is?" the answers are here. Trailer at

YouTube - Trailer for Naij - A Documentary

Topics covered...

How the British fixed the elections
"Nigeria" does not exist
How Europeans encouraged civil war
The Role and Rise of the Army
The City of London = Corruption Head Office
Creating poverty as a means of control

[nsogbu1562]

Thanks for highlighting this....it looks very interesting. I will definitely put this in my diary.

[Judge J]

I am definatley going to try to attend this one as well.

There was a really good presenatation a while ago on the history of the Igbo people at enterprise a while back, and stupidly I missed it because I thought the event was on another day.

[astmartins]

Would definitely attend This is great saw the trailer a while back and couldn't believe how posh the Prime Minister sounded now we know and can see how the British created that elite class of Africans that suppresed their peoples in favour of massa

[Judge J]

Did anyone attend this event in the end.

I did, and I enjoyed apart from 2 things


1. The projector cut out a few times

2. The price of food in the Dockland Museum is criminal. I am lucky I brought my packet of crisps, sandwichm, and bottle of water from home.

[astmartins]

I got the days mixed up and missed it completely truly gutted...

[nsogbu1562]

I attended yesterday and found it very interesting.

I really commend the guy for his efforts considering he made the film whilst holding down a stressful full time job and financed it himself. He certainly demonstrated real dedication.

I found it useful for several reasons:

1) The documentary (although he didn't call it that) filled a void for me in terms of providing some sort of narrative about (modern) Nigerian history. I've tried to read various archives myself but it can be quite difficult to make sense of lots of dry facts and see how they all fit together in the grand scheme of things.

2) It's helped to clarify in my mind the role the British played in the genesis of Nigeria and I can now have a picture of who the key players were and the legacy of exploitation and corruption they left behind.

3) It was interesting to see how Nigeria seems to have been under the rule of a handful of people since 'independence' who are still key players. For instance, I did not know that president Yar'adua had been around both as military personnel in previous governments and now as a civilian leader. I already knew that he was the first university-educated president Nigeria had but the significance of this was not apparent to me until the film-maker in the post-viewing Q&A session said something about the folly of a minister (in previous governments) with a basic military education trying to broker oil deals with someone with a PhD in oil ecomonics!

So overall it was interesting and useful however I'm still not clear about what it means to be Nigerian because despite all the positive economic changes that have been occurring recently the bottom-line is that Nigeria was and still is some white man's creation and I don't think that we have yet really re-defined what it means to be Nigerian on our own African terms.

[astmartins]

For instance, I did not know that president Yar'adua had been around both as military personnel in previous governments and now as a civilian leader

The current President is the junior brother of the Yaradua(late) that was a military personnel and key part of the Military Regime that handed over power to the civilians

[nsogbu1562]

Thanks for the correction regarding Yar'adua, however by association he still does kind of belong to that handful of people who have been in charge of Nigeria since Independence.

[Judge J]

I enjoyed it too. You may have seen me, I was wearing the Nigerian football top.

It made a few things clearer to me as well, espacially the key players.

I think the documentry is a good starting place for one who wants to do wider research in that area.


I was kinda already aware of the fact that Nigeria was created as a business entity for the british, as I had read about it in a few books.

New African Magazine also did a feature last year on the state of Nigeria during independance whihc was quite helpful.


My parents have spoken to me about Nigerian history, but sometimes it helps to see it visually.

Plus my parents did not go into detail about the variuous key players.

[nsogbu1562]

[quote=Judge J;1472519]I enjoyed it too. You may have seen me, I was wearing the Nigerian football top.

I saw 2 guys wearing football jerseys one of whom was wearing a yellow (?brazil) jersey.

It made a few things clearer to me as well, espacially the key players.

I think the documentry is a good starting place for one who wants to do wider research in that area.


I was kinda already aware of the fact that Nigeria was created as a business entity for the british, as I had read about it in a few books.


I was also aware that Nigeria was fabricated as part of a business venture however now I can put some names and faces to the authors of this.

[Judge J]

It was interesting and yet annoying how the Nigerian people never seemed to learn from past mistakes.

Each time going back to military rule again and again, knowing full well how military rule had crippled in the country in the past.

I actually remember my mum and my parents celebrating like crazy when they received a telephone call that Abacha died.

Whenever I hear thta mans name the first thing thta comes to mind is the amount of money he stole out of Nigeria.

Apparently many of of these leaders had secret accounts in England, Switzerland, Germany and the USA.

Abacha stole $9 Billion from Nigeria and hid it in a secret account in this country.

[astmartins]

Hi..heres a little filler for you all...very interesting more on the Power Players under a thousand controlling 120 million plus people and most of the key players are Northerners (Hausas) and some fragments of Westerners and Southerners

The Nigerian Village Square - Babangida – The Life and Times of the "Evil Genius" (Part 2 - "Coup Baiting")