What is so special about the question 'who named Nigeria as a country'? It`s all related to the colonization era of the whole continent. Nigeria got its name during the period of colonization. Majority of the African countries had not existed at that time. Nigeria was one of these examples. It was named, at first, as a geographical location and not as a country. It consisted of many tribes that were very different when it came to culture, language and tradition. The colonization era made a lot of changes to the face of Africa. One of these significant changes was the centralization policy of colonial powers.
This policy largely affected Nigeria, which was divided into 370 tribes. Still, it`s now a major problem for Nigeria. Some of our politicians have said that Nigeria or Nigerian is not a nationality, but a definition of a citizen who lives in this certain territory. Today, Nigeria has over 500 spoken languages, but English serves as lingua franca for all of them. There are three major tribes in Nigeria: Hausa Yoruba and Ibo. They have a distinctive culture, language, and tradition. Most of the conflicts in the country are as a result of the competition between these three tribes. Flora Shaw was the woman who gave Nigeria its name. In 1886, she was a British journalist who covered the Anti-Slavery Conference in Brussels. Also, she was the only woman representative at that conference. In addition, she worked as an editor of The Times. In 1897, she created the name Nigeria for this particular British Colony.
Who named country Nigeria? And do you know the previous name of Nigeria? What was its name before Nigeria? The former name for Nigeria was the Royal Niger Company Territories. It does not sound like a country name at all!. The name Nigeria was replaced and preserved up until today. Still, it was not a name for a nation, but merely a name of the territory. At the same time, the name was not entirely made up by Flora Shaw. She suggested that this name was largely based on the Niger River.
Lady Shaw was very close to Nigeria history! She even married the colonial administrator of Nigeria after which she changed her name to Flora Lugard. She accompanied her husband when he was the Governor of Hong-Kong and after that the Governor-General of Nigeria. Lady Shaw was a fantastic woman who helped to found universities, hospitals and schools in a lot of places around the world. It`s truly interesting that the person who named Nigeria was not Nigerian or even African. This name was artificially created! Nigeria was named by who? Conclusion!. The history of Nigeria remembers a lot of notable persons. Nevertheless, all Nigerians must know the person who named their country. It was Flora Shaw/Lugard! She was a fantastic woman who was opportune to pick the name for this huge country!