Gallery of the Nations
Federal Republic of Nigeria
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Map of Nigeria |
Nigeria is a country of many peoples with distinct
cultures and languages. The largest three of these ethnic groups are the Hausa of the
north, Igbo of the east and Yoruba of the west. Others include the Ijaw of the
Niger Delta, the Ibibio of the southeast, the Idoma of the Middle Belt, the Edos
of the south-midwest and the Kanuri of the northeast.
Archeological evidence
shows that people have lived in the area of Nigeria for at least 12,000 years, and practiced
settled agriculture for at least 8,000 years.
The country was founded as a colony of the British empire in 1914. Before
Europeans began colonization of the region in the late 19th century, various
parts of the country were controlled by different independent societies under
republican and monarchical rule. In the north, the previously independent seven Hausa kingdoms had
been brought under Usman Dan Fodio's Muslim Fulani rule by the early 19th
century. In the south west there were a number of independent Yoruba kingdoms
who, in the 19th century, paid tribute to the Oba of Benin. In the east the
Igbos existed in numerous independent republican communities connected by a
common culture and trade with each other and with other societies and
kingdoms around them.
European contact came, first with the Portuguese who came to the West African coast in
the 15th century. European arrival gave rise to the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the 16th
century. In the late 19th century, during the European "Scramble
for Africa", the British began a piece-meal pacification of the various
communities and kingdoms that made up Nigeria. In 1861 they took over Lagos as a
colony. Trade relations with the people of the Niger Delta led to the
establishment of a British (Oil Rivers, later renamed Niger Coast) Protectorate over
the region in 1887. Between 1897 and 1900 the British subdued the emirates of the north and
declared the area the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria.
In 1900 the British colonial government in Nigeria divided the country into
three separate administrative entities, the Protectorates of Northern Nigeria,
the Protectorate of
Southern Nigeria (formally Niger Coast Protectorate), and the Colony of Lagos. In 1903 the Colony of Lagos was
joined to the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. In 1914 the two protectorates
were 'amalgamated' by being given one central government with headquarters in Lagos.
The British governed Nigeria by indirect rule, a system by which
traditional administrative structures were retained and used to collect taxes and
maintain order in the colony.
Opposition to colonialism sprouted early. By the 1920s the Nigerian National
Democratic Party and the Nigerian Youth Movement had arisen to agitate for native
rights. Nnamdi Azikiwe established a chain of newspapers in 1937 with which he
championed Nigerian nationalism and the demand for national independence. By 1944
he had established the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, a nationalist
political party, that became the vehicle for seeking national independence.
Independence was ultimately granted on October 1, 1960.
Nigeria Today
After a brief period of British-style parliamentary democracy that
lasted from 1960 to 1966, the country went into military rule and a 30
month civil war from 1967 to 1970. The military continued in power for
nine years more after the war before handing over power to an elected
civilian government in 1979. The new civilian administration proved
disastrous as the country's economic and political crisis deepened. On new year's eve 1983, the military came
back and stayed in power until 1999 when they were forced, through a
combination of world opinion and political unrest at home, to organize
democratic elections.
Nigeria today is a democracy with a bicameral parliament consisting
of an upper chamber - the Senate, and a lower one - the House of
Representatives. The president is the chief
executive of government and head of state. There are 36 states, plus the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT), each with its own government apparatus. There
are elected governors and legislatures in all the states except for the
FCT which is run as a government ministry headed by a minister appointed by the
president of the country.
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