BRIEF HISTORY

ENUGU STATE, South-East of Nigeria, is one of the thirty-six States constituting the Nigerian Federation. It came into being on August 27, 1991 when the administration of President Ibrahim Babangida finally acquiesced to the long agitations of Waawa people for a State they could truly call their own.

Enugu State derives its name from the capital city, ENUGU (top of the hill) which is regarded as the oldest urban area in the Igbo speaking area of Southeast Nigeria. The city owes its geopolitical significance to the discovery of coal in 1909 by a team of British geologists. The discovery of the solid mineral in the area brought about the emergence of a permanent cosmopolitan settlement which influenced the construction of a railway line to link the Enugu coal fields with the sea port in Port Harcourt for the export of the mineral.

In fact, by 1917 Enugu had acquired township status and assumed strategic importance to British interests. Foreign businesses began to move into Enugu, the most notable of which were John Holt, Kingsway Store, United Bank of West Africa and United Africa Company. By 1929, Enugu had become the capital of the former Eastern Region, and has since then retained its old status as the regional industrial and business hub as well as the political capital and rallying point of the Igbo people.