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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Nigeria

The list of Nigeria bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2008, comes from the Q++ Worldwide Public Holidays Database, the professional source of international public holidays long trusted by the world's foremost diary publishers. The information on this page is provided for private, non-professional, use. Qualified professionals can license data for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

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03 Dec 2008 (Vanguard-Lagos) A statement from Nigeria's Minister of Interior, Major General Godwin Abbe (rtd), declared that Monday and Tuesday, December 8 and 9, 2008, would be public holidays on the occasion of the 2008 Eid el-Kabir muslim festival. • 25 Sep 2008 (The Nigerian Tribune-Abuja) The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved President Yar’Adua's request to move the second day of the upcoming End of Ramadan public holiday from October 1st to Monday, September 29, 2008, as October 1st is already a public holiday for the National Day. • 25 Aug 2008 (Triumph-Dutse) Nigeria's Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, has announced that, starting in 2008, August 27th would become an annual public holiday in Jigawa State. • 22 Aug 2008 (The Nigerian Tribune) Chief Ifalere Adedosu, of the Adimula Improvement Movement, has added his voice to those asking the federal government of Nigeria to declare at least one public holiday for traditional African religions. • 07 Jul 2008 (This Day Onlline-Damaturu) In accordance with article 2b) of the Public Holidays Act of 1979, chapter 378, Yobe State Governor, Senator Mamman Ali, has declared today a work-free public holiday for the people of the state to address the numerous socio-economic challenges facing the state. • 11 Jun 2008 (The Leadership-Abuja) Lagos State Legislative Assembly Speaker, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, has announced that August 20th of every year was recommended to be declared a new public holiday to celebrate Isese Day, since Muslims and Christians enjoy public holidays, it stands to reason that traditional worshippers also deserve public holidays. • 11 Jun 2008 (GistMeister) Tommorow, Thursday, June 12, 2008, has been declared a public holiday, as usual since 1999, by Mr.Babatunde Raji Fashola, the Governor of Lagos State, in remembrance of the general elections of June 12 1993, which result were annulled on June 23 1993, and in honour of late Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola. • 14 Sep 2007 (The Guardian) This year's early start of Ramadan in Nigeria makes it likely that Nigeria will declare the Eid al Fitr public holiday on October 12, rather then October 13 or 14 as will be the case for most other Muslim countries. • 26 May 2007 (Panapress) The federal government of Nigeria declared an additional, one-off, public holiday, for Monday, May 28, 2007, on the occasion of the inauguration of the President-elect, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua. • 19 May 2007 (Business Day-Nigeria) The 2 main Nigerian trade unions have called for a two-day strike on Monday and Tuesday, May 28-29, 2007, that strike will coincide with the May 29 "Democracy Day" public holiday. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Nigeria public holidays news and updates page, or worldwide public holidays news and updates page, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

Governing Law: The Public Holidays Act of 1979, chapter 378, replaced all previous state laws by one federal law regulating all the official public holidays in Nigeria and was later amended by the HB. 72 A Bill for an Act to Provide for the Amendment of the Public Holidays Act Cap. 378 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 by adding a new item to the Schedule which added a public holiday on July 6, but was later replaced by Public Holidays Act, Cap.P40, Vol.14 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 which technically, however, is inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution which states, under Item 51, that only the National Assembly has the exclusive powers to declare public holidays in the Federation. This concerns specifically the May 29 public holiday, the only new holiday added since 1999. • Regional Public Holidays: article 2b of the above-mentioned Public Holidays Act specifies that state governors have the right to declare additional, state-level, public holidays. This allowance has been used in the Muslim north since 2003 by the Kano state governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, where the Islamic New Year is a full-fledged public holiday. • Weekend Public Holidays: articles 5a to 5d of the above-mentioned Public Holidays Act go to great lengths to specify that no day in lieu will be given to compensate any public holiday that falls on a Saturday or Sunday. • Last-Minute Public Holidays: The Government often declares public holidays spontaneously, often just a few days before the holiday. This includes, in contradiction with what is stated in the Public Holidays Act, compensation days when Islamic public holidays fall on a weekend, as well as additional Easter-related public holidays, and general elections (see next point). • Democracy Day was declared a public holiday by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, following the May 29, 1999, transition from military to civilian government. • Elections' Public Holidays: Most elections, lead to some kind of last minute public holiday announcement, either only for civil servants, or for the entire country. Updated dates of upcoming Nigeria elections can be found on the IFES web site and last-minute changes to world holidays are posted on our blog . • Muslim Holidays: Over the last few years, Nigeria and Libya, have often declared the beginning of Hijra months earlier than all other Muslim countries. This is particularly true of the start of the month of Ramadan and of the Eid al Fitr public holiday, in some cases (eg. Eid al Fitr 2008) even declaring the month to begin before the New Moon had occurred. • Eid al Adha is also called Babbar Sallah in the Nigerian-related languages. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Central Bank of Nigeria (Nigeria central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (maps, demographic and economic statistics), Copp Clark (financial markets' trading hours, settlement holidays and currency non-clearing days), and the IFES Election Guide (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and past voter participation).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in Nigeria, the holiday may be regional or non-official or limited to certain religious and/or linguistic groups, or begin at a time other than midnight. Note that religious holidays are included only if they are national public holidays, or if the national labour code has specific holiday allowances for employees of specific religions. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world.

Religious Holidays : Public holidays in Nigeria that are based on certain religious calendars may be subject to local variations due to differing interpretations between different religious authorities, or to seemingly arbitrary changes in the date a holiday is celebrated because it conflicts with another holiday that is based on another calendar, or because the day of the holiday is deemed inauspicious (bad luck). To find out more about these uncertainties, see the footnote below, if any, for each specific religion.

Muslim Holidays : Muslim bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays, for Nigeria, were calculated using the Libyan Center for Remote Sensing and Space Science (LCRSS) lunar visibility criteria. For Salat (prayer times) calculations, see our Freeware page.

Disclaimer
In many parts of the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by local authorities. While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of 2008 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Nigeria, we cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented above. You are therefore advised to verify the above dates with the embassy or consulate of Nigeria, before planning any trip to Nigeria. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.