October 1 – Independence Day in Nigeria

By Michael Knox

October 1, 2020

Posted October 1, 2020

An address from the president.

A military parade.

A parade of students and unions, set to Nigerian
folk music.

Concerts.

All of these feature in Nigeria’s celebration of its October 1, 1960, declaration of independence from Britain. (I’m not sure if the parades and concerts will occur this year – because of the pandemic.)

Another thing that might be cancelled:

New York
City usually hosts parades and other celebrations of Nigeria’s independence – the largest such celebrations in the world outside of Nigeria. On normal years, around 75 THOUSAND people show up! – so that’s very likely to be cancelled this year!

Did you know…?

The third largest movie-making capital in the world – after Hollywood (U.S.) and Bollywood (India) – is Nollywood!

Apparently, Nollywood is big business and contributes about 5% of the nation’s GDP. That’s definitely a bigger slice of the national pie than Hollywood, which is only one part of the “arts and culture” 4% slice of the U.S. GDP pie!

Even though, according to a Nigerian who wrote about their film industry, Nollywood films are famous for their crummy production values and “shouty, eye-bulging overacting.”

It seems that folks all over Africa love to watch Nollywood films. And there are a lot of them!

One good reason that there are a lot of them: most Nollywood films are created in 7 to 10 days, and cost between 8 and 14 thousand U.S. dollars. In contrast, Hollywood averages a year per movie and 70 MILLION U.S. dollars!

I read that traffic jams – which are called “go slows” – are a pretty good time to get shopping done. That’s because street vendors sell everything from fruit and veggies to chocolates, from belts to socks, from electrical appliances to oil paintings to the jammed-up car drivers and riders.