Happy Independence Day from Kizaro’s Blog!
In the build up to our 54th
anniversary of nationhood, this writer tuned all the bad news out and with a
little time on my hands accepted a short job to document certain key historical
sites and imagery in a number of places in Nigeria. The Site List had Kizaro’s
Blog hurtling through an average of three states a day across towns like Jebba,
Lokoja, Zaria, Abuja, Jos, Minna, Zungeru and a couple more and saw firsthand,
places I had heard about in history classes and books as a young boy.
Nigeria’s amalgamation in 1914
was the culmination of centuries of voyages, journeys and the likes by European
journeymen led by the British whose footprints across Nigeria are still part of
our landscape.The Park-Lander Obelisk in Jebba,
Niger State was erected by the British Government in 1929 upon strong request
by the ubiquitous Sir George Taubman Goldie and Lord Scarborough, Chairman of
the Royal Niger Company, though completed by Sir Hugh Clifford years later. It
was in honour of the voyages of Mungo Park and Richard Lander though the voyages of both men were separated
by more than three decades, together they traced the course of the River Niger from its source
to the sea in the name of the King of England.
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| The Park-Lander Obelisk |
