Adebayo Adenrele
A legal luminary and senior advocate of Nigeria, (SAN), Chief Wole Olanipekun has charged the leadership of this country to consider changing the name of the country from the current colonial legacy, ‘Nigeria’ to something indigenous that will reflect the realities of the nation.
Chief Olanipekun stated this while delivering his speech at a colloquium held in Abuja to mark the 25th anniversary of Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama as a SAN.
Olanipekun noted that it’s disheartening that no one has mustered courage to kick against the name, adding that the British gave the ridiculous appellation because the French named their colony as ‘Niger.’
He said: “My position is that we should stop mocking ourselves by the retention of the name Nigeria, a hypocritical and demeaning appellation given to us by Lugard’s mistress.
“It is intriguing that, to date, we have not mustered sufficient courage to drop this denigrating appellation. Come to think of this, the French named their French colony Niger, which the British gave the ridiculous appellation Nigeria.”
