I.

Introduction

Nigeria, officially Federal Republic of Nigeria, federal republic, western Africa, bounded on the north by Niger, on the east by Chad and Cameroon, on the south by the Gulf of Guinea, and on the west by Benin. The most populous country in Africa, Nigeria has an area of 923,768 sq km (356,669 sq mi). Its name is derived from that of its major river, the Niger. Abuja is the capital and Lagos is the largest city.

Initially composed of a number of ethnically based kingdoms and states, the area of modern Nigeria was brought under British rule by 1906. It became an independent state and member of the Commonwealth of Nations on October 1, 1960. Following a period of tension among its ethnic groups, especially the Yoruba of the south-west, the Igbo of the south-east, and the Hausa and Fulani of the north, Nigeria was ruled by the military from 1966 to 1979. During 1967-1970 the Igbo people attempted—without ultimate success—to secede from Nigeria by forming the Republic of Biafra. A brief period of civilian rule (1979-1983) ended with a military coup. Military rule under different leaderships continued until 1999, when civilian rule was once again restored after the death of General Sani Abacha.

II.

Land and Resources

Much of Nigeria consists of a low plateau cut by rivers, especially the Niger and Benue. Most of the country is suitable for agriculture. Its major non-agricultural economic resources are its massive offshore petroleum and natural-gas deposits.

Nigeria can be divided into four distinct geographical regions. Along the coast is a belt of mangrove forests and swamps, stretching some 16 km (10 mi) inland in most places. This region is cut by numerous lagoons and creeks. In the Niger delta region, the coastal belt extends some 100 km (60 mi) inland. Beyond the coast, lowlands follow the valleys of the Niger and Benue, but otherwise the land gives way to a broad, hilly, forested belt that gradually rises to the rocky terrain of the Jos and Bauchi plateaux. Beyond these plateaux is a region of savannah, which stretches to the semi-desert Sahelian zone in the extreme north. A great plain, marked by occasional outcroppings of granite, the savannah region is Nigeria’s main agricultural area. In the east is the Adamwa Plateau, which borders Cameroon and in which is Nigeria’s highest point, Dimlang (Vogel Peak), 2,042 m (6,699 ft) high.

A.

Rivers and Lakes

The Niger River and its tributaries—principally the Benue, Kaduna, and Sokoto rivers—drain most of Nigeria. In the north-east, the rivers drain into Lake Chad. Navigation of the Niger and its tributaries is restricted by rapids and seasonal fluctuations in depth.

B.

Climate

Nigeria has two distinct climatic zones. Along the coast the equatorial maritime air mass influences the climate, which is characterized by high humidity and heavy rainfall. To the north the tropical continental air mass brings dry, dusty winds (harmattan) from the Sahara; the temperature varies considerably with the season, as does rainfall, which is far less than in the south. The main rains occur between April and October; average rainfall ranges from 2,497 mm (100 in) at Port Harcourt on the Niger Delta to 869 mm (35 in) at Kano in the north.

C.

Natural Resources

Iron-ore deposits are widespread in the savannah region of Nigeria, as are salt deposits. Tin and columbite are found in the plateau area. Great deposits of petroleum and natural gas are located in the Niger delta and offshore in the bights of Benin and Bonny (Biafra) of the Gulf of Guinea. Nigeria also has large deposits of coal, lead, and zinc, and small deposits of gold and uranium.

D.

Plants and Animals

Vegetation zones in Nigeria parallel the climatic zones. In the south the well-watered zone is partly covered by the remnants of dense tropical forests that contain hardwoods such as mahogany and obeche. Oil palms are particularly plentiful. In the plateau and savannah regions, forests give way to grasslands and to such hardy trees as the baobab and the tamarind. In the extreme north-eastern Sahel region, semi-desert vegetation prevails. Crocodiles and snakes are found in the swamps and rainforest zones. The large African mammals once indigenous to Nigeria have disappeared in the face of heavy settlement. Some antelope, camels, and hyenas live in the north.

E.

Environmental Concerns

Population pressure in Nigeria has accelerated serious environmental deterioration, and a history of unstable governments has hampered efforts to conserve natural resources. Nigeria has lost about 84 per cent of its total forest cover and around 90 per cent of its moist forests, the remainder of which exist in small reserves. Woodland now accounts for only about 29 per cent (1995) of the country’s total land area.

Nigeria has an organized system of nature reserves, game reserves, and national parks in addition to a forest management system, but most management is carried on at the state level. Law enforcement and protected system infrastructure are lacking, and abuses of protected land are common. The considerable wetlands of Nigeria include vast mangrove swamps along the coast, riverine wetlands, and expansive floodplains. Protection of these wetlands is limited, however, except around Lake Chad. Desertification is a major problem, made worse by massive water impoundment and irrigation schemes. Uncontrolled grazing and livestock migration put tremendous pressure on the environment in some areas. Other environmental threats include poaching and settlement within protected areas, brushfires, increasing demand for firewood and timber, road expansion, and oil extraction activities.

Nigeria is party to the World Heritage Convention, although no sites have been recognized. One biosphere reserve has been designated under the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Man and the Biosphere Program. Nigeria has ratified international agreements concerning biodiversity, climate change, endangered species, hazardous wastes, law of the sea, marine dumping, marine life conservation, nuclear test ban, ozone layer, and whaling. Regionally, Nigeria cooperates with Cameroon, Chad, and Niger in the joint management of wildlife in the Lake Chad Basin. The country also participates in the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

III.

Population

With more than 250 ethnic groups Nigeria is a complex linguistic, social, and cultural mosaic. More than half the population consists of the Hausa and Fulani peoples of the north, the Yoruba of the south-west, and the Igbo of the south-east. Other ethnic groups include the Edo, Ijaw, and Ibibio of the south, the Nupe and Tiv of the central part of the country, and the Kanuri of the north-east.

A.

Population Characteristics

Although Nigeria is recognized as the most populous country in Africa, the exact size and distribution of its population have been a matter of great political controversy within the country. The 1963 census recorded 55,670,055 people; the results of a 1973 census were rejected by the government. Estimates of the country’s population by the UN, the World Bank, and the Nigerian government in the late 1980s ranged well above 100 million, but the results of the 1991 census showed a total of only 88,514,501. Nigeria’s population is 135,031,160 (2007 estimate), which gives an average density of 148 people per sq km (384 per sq mi). Around 48 per cent of the population lives in urban areas. The population growth rate in 2007 was 2.38 per cent; life expectancy at birth was 47 years for men, 48 years for women.

B.

Principal Cities

Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, main commercial centre, and one of its principal ports, has a population of 11,100,000 (2005 estimate). Ibadan, population 1,731,000 (2000 estimate), is the only other city with more than a million inhabitants. Cities with more than 225,000 inhabitants include Aba, Abeokuta, Ado Ekiti, Ede, Enugu, Ife, Ila, Ilesha, Ilorin, Iwo, Kaduna, Kano, Maiduguri, Mushin, Ogbomosho, Onitsha, Oshogbo, Port Harcourt, and Zaria. Many communities have more than 100,000 inhabitants. In December 1991 the federal capital moved from the coastal city of Lagos to Abuja in the centrally located Federal Capital Territory.

C.

Religion

At least 50 per cent of Nigeria’s people are Muslim, the bulk of whom live in the Hausa, Fulani, and Kanuri areas in the north. About 40 per cent of Nigerians are Christians; Roman Catholicism is centred in the south-east, while Methodism and other Christian denominations and sects have a strong following in various parts of both the south-east and south-west. Some 18 per cent practise traditional religions. In recent years ethnic and religious tension and rivalry has resulted in outbreaks of communal violence.

D.

Language

Nigeria is known for having a high proportion of languages in comparison to other African countries. Of an estimated 2,058 languages in Africa, over 500 are thought to be spoken in Nigeria. The official language is English (first taken to Nigeria by European traders before colonization), used in educational, governmental, business, the media, and other official domains, but multilingualism is common among Nigerians through daily interaction and trade.

The names of the three main peoples in Nigeria (the Hausa, the Igbo (or Ibo), and the Yoruba) correspond to the languages spoken by those peoples. Yoruba (a Niger-Congo language) and Hausa (Chadic) are the most widely spoken languages (with over 18.5 million speakers of each in Nigeria itself), followed by Igbo (around 18 million), and then Fulfulde (over 7.5 million) and Kanuri (3 million). Edo, Efik, and Idoma are also important national languages.

Many Nigerians also speak Nigerian Pidgin English (creolized in some areas), which is mutually intelligible with some other West African pidgins. This acts as a lingua franca across the many languages spoken in Nigeria and its use is growing in literature, advertising, television, and radio.

E.

Education and Culture

Within the boundaries of modern Nigeria are some of the earliest educational and artistic traditions in western Africa. Superimposed on these have been influences of British colonial rule and European missionary educational systems. The Benin Bronzes first brought to the notice of a wider world the country’s rich and ancient artistic and craft traditions. Post-colonial Nigeria has developed an equally rich artistic tradition, with painters, sculptors, and workers in metal, as well as a vigorous film and television industry. Modern Nigerian literature is particularly rich. During the 1970s an increasingly self-confident federal government sought to modernize Nigeria rapidly, using Western-style education as a major tool. Revenue from the sale of crude petroleum helped to finance such modernization.

E.1.

Education

Traditional Koranic schools are widespread throughout the north, and missionaries brought Western education to the coastal areas as early as the 1830s. Until the 1970s, enrolment in Western-oriented schools was significantly higher in the south. In 1976 free primary education was established throughout Nigeria. Educational facilities are insufficient, however, and the adult illiteracy rate remains about 57 per cent. In 1994, some 16.1 million pupils were enrolled in primary schools and more than 4.8 million students attended secondary and tertiary schools. Under a new educational system introduced in 1982, primary schooling (officially compulsory) takes six years to complete. Secondary schooling is organized in two successive phases of three years each. In 1994, 1.7 per cent of the country’s gross national product (GNP) was spent on education.

Western-style higher education, begun in 1948 with the founding of the University of Ibadan, is found throughout the country. There are 31 universities and more than 380,000 students attend 133 higher education institutions. Other major institutions include Ahmadu Bello University (1962), in Zaria; the Obafemi Awolowo University (1961), in Ife; the University of Lagos (1962); and the University of Nigeria (1960), in Nsukka. British-style universities have been augmented by a growing system of American-influenced teachers’ colleges and technical colleges.

E.2.

Culture

Nigeria has a long and rich tradition of arts and literature. Terracotta sculptures were made by Nok artists of northern Nigeria as early as 500 bc, and Ife terracottas and Benin bronze work, first made about ad 1200, are world famous. Today, traditional folk art is augmented by Western-influenced graphics, painting, and sculpture. Traditional oral literature has had a significant impact on such world-famous 20th century Nigerian writers as Amos Tutuola, the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, and more recently Ben Okri. Parallel to the rich modern literature, most often written in English, is a written vernacular literature, augmented by professional theatre companies and dance groups. See African Art and Architecture; African Literature; African Theatre.

The National Museum in Lagos has a rich collection of art from all periods. Museums in Benin City, Ibadan, Ife, Ilorin, Jos, and Kaduna are also outstanding. The Nigerian government has made a concerted effort to prevent the removal of significant Nigerian art from the country and has sought the return of art taken out during the colonial era. Major collections of books and documents are housed in the National Library of Nigeria (Lagos) and the National Archives (Ibadan) as well as in university libraries.

IV.

Economy

Nigeria was traditionally an agricultural country, providing the bulk of its own food needs and exporting a variety of agricultural goods, notably palm oil, cacao, rubber, and groundnuts (peanuts). By the 1970s, however, oil had supplanted cash crops as the major source of foreign exchange and transformed Nigeria’s economic fortunes. After oil prices collapsed during the 1980s the federal and state governments embarked on ambitious development programmes aimed at diversifying the economy. Only some of these have proved sustainable and oil revenues remain the principal generator of economic activity in the country. However, Nigeria’s unpopular military rulers have failed to make significant progress in moving the economy away from over-dependence on oil, 60 per cent of which is state-owned. The government’s domestic and international arrears continue to limit economic growth; the largely subsistence agricultural sector has failed to keep up with rapid population growth, and Nigeria, once a large net exporter of food, must now import food. Inflation runs at around 57 per cent.

In 2004, Nigeria had a GNP of US$55,326 million (World Bank), equivalent to US$560 per capita. Influenced by rising oil revenues, Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose by an annual average of 6.9 per cent during 1965 to 1980. During 1980 to 1988, GDP shrank by 1.1 per cent annually as oil prices and revenues dropped; in 1996, however, it grew by 3.25 per cent. In 2005 GDP was estimated at US$98,951 million (US$752.30 per capita).

Agriculture made the largest contribution to GDP until 1997, when industry’s share increased to around 47 per cent. Crude petroleum exports dominate external trade revenues: in 1994 they accounted for over 97 per cent of the total value of exports. The volatility of international oil prices in the 1970s and 1980s helped to generate Nigeria’s large foreign debt burden of more than US$28,000 million (1994).

A.

Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing

Most Nigerians are subsistence farmers, producing sorghum, millet, and cattle in the north, and maize, rice, and yams in the south. Cassava, legumes, and tomatoes are raised throughout Nigeria, as are poultry, goats, and sheep. Large amounts of plantains and sugar cane are also produced. Palm oil became an export crop to Europe in the early 19th century. Cacao and groundnuts later grew in importance, surpassing palm oil as export crops in the early 1950s. Cotton, raised in the north, began to be grown for domestic use in the early part of the 20th century.

Most crops are grown on small family farms. Large plantations were discouraged until the 1950s, but since then they have been significant in the production of rubber, palm oil, and cacao. Principal crops in 2006 (with annual output in tonnes) included: cassava (45.7 million); sorghum (8 million); millet (6.28 million); peanuts (3 million); and sugar cane (776,000). Palm oil, palm kernels, yams, and maize are also important. Livestock included 28 million goats, 15.9 million cattle, and 23 million sheep.

The annual harvest of roundwood in 2005 was about 70.7 million cu m (2.50 billion cu ft), of which the majority is used for household fuel. About 35 per cent of Nigeria’s annual fish catch comes from the country’s rivers and lakes, with most of the rest being taken from the Gulf of Guinea. The annual catch in 2004 was about 509,201 tonnes.

B.

Mining

Nigeria is one of the world’s leading producers of crude oil; the annual output was about 818 million barrels in 2004. Nigerian oil has a low sulphur content, making it particularly attractive to American and European buyers seeking to reduce air pollution. It is extracted by major international oil companies working in joint ventures with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Much natural gas is also produced; in 2003 annual production was about 19.2 billion cu m (678 billion cu ft), which is used to fuel domestic power stations. The amount of gas recovered at present is only a minority of what is produced as a by-product of the oil industry; the majority is flared. A major project to increase the recovery rate and to produce liquefied natural gas for export is under construction and due to become operational in 2000. Reserves were estimated at 3,114 billion cu m (109,924 billion cu ft) in the early 1990s, and estimates have increased since. Tin and columbite are mined in the Jos Plateau area, and coal is produced in the Onitsha region. Small amounts of limestone, salt, lignite, and iron ore are also mined.

C.

Manufacturing

Scattered throughout Nigeria are small family businesses producing traditional craft goods—pottery, carvings, ornamental cloth, and leather goods—and more modern consumer goods, such as bricks and other building materials, milled grain, and beverages. In the 1970s large-scale enterprises were established, mostly in the south. They include motor-vehicle assembly plants, oil refineries, and factories producing textiles, fertilizers, rubber goods, pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, pulp and paper, cigarettes, aluminium, iron and steel, and petrochemicals.

D.

Energy

In 2003, about 52 per cent of Nigeria’s electricity was produced each year in hydroelectric facilities; the rest was generated in thermal plants. The installed electricity-generating capacity was about 4.55 million kilowatts; in 2003 production was about 16 billion kilowatts.

E.

Currency and Banking

The monetary unit of Nigeria is the naira of 100 kobo (132.98 naira equalled US$1; early 2007). Currency and banking are supervised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (1958). In the early 1990s some 120 banks were operating, including a number of European and American banks. After 1976 all banks operating in the country were required to have at least 60 per cent Nigerian ownership; this requirement was relaxed in 1995. The naira has depreciated steadily in recent years, its value dropping appreciably in January 1999 with the merger of the official exchange rate and the autonomous market rate.

F.

Commerce and Trade

Much of the internal trade of Nigeria revolves around the sale of foodstuffs and domestically produced consumer goods. Open-air markets, often operated by women in the south, and small general stores are widespread. Modern department stores are found in the large cities. Lagos, Onitsha, Aba, Kano, and Ibadan are major commercial centres.

In 2003 Nigeria’s annual imports cost about US$14,892 million, and its exports earned about US$24,078 million. Major imports included motor vehicles and parts, machinery, basic manufactured goods, and foodstuffs. Nigeria’s principal trade partners are the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Canada, Brazil, and Portugal.

Nigeria’s strongly positive balance of trade is offset by heavy outflows on the invisibles account of the balance of payments—that is, payments relating to non-merchandise items, notably interest and capital repayments on foreign debts, but also including the transfer abroad of dividends and profits. Although debt repayments push Nigeria into deficit on its balance of payments, the country is not meeting all its debt obligations—and has not done so for more than a decade. By the end of 1995 Nigeria’s foreign debts totalled US$35,600 million. Arrears on repayments comprise a significant proportion of the total and continue to mount.

Throughout the 1980s attempts were made to negotiate a rescheduling programme for debt repayments with Nigeria’s creditors. In the early 1990s Nigeria reached a rescheduling agreement with the London Club, an international grouping of banks with substantial debts in the developing world. In 2000, negotiations with the foreign governments and certain international bodies grouped in the so-called Paris Club finally made some progress. Agreement was reached during a World Bank meeting at the end of 2000 to restructure US$23.4 billion of debt. The stumbling block previously had been Nigeria’s failure to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—a prerequisite for Paris Club debt-reschedulings.

International aid has been greatly reduced because of the worsening of Nigeria’s human rights record, which included the execution of the human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995 (see History below).

G.

Labour

The Nigerian workforce (everyone aged over 10 years of age) totalled 47.9 million in 2005. More than 3.5 million workers belong to unions affiliated with the Nigerian Labour Congress.

H.

Transport

Nigeria depends heavily on its nationwide network of roads. Approximately 31 per cent of Nigeria’s 194,394 km (120,791 mi) of roads are paved. In the 1970s and 1980s motorways were built linking Lagos to Ibadan and Benin City and in other populated areas of the country. In 1997 there were 7 passenger cars per 1,000 people. Railways have declined in importance because of competition from Nigeria’s road system. The country has about 3,528 km (2,192 mi) of operated railway track. The main seaports are at Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri, Calabar, Bonny, and Burutu. International airports are sited at Lagos (Mutala Muhammad), Port Harcourt, and Kano, and smaller airfields serve other major cities. Nigeria Airways, the government-owned airline, offers international services.

I.

Communications

The first Nigerian newspaper was established in the 1830s in Lagos. Since then numbers of daily and weekly newspapers, published in local languages and in English, have been established. About 20 English-language daily newspapers and more than 30 weekly newspapers and magazines are in regular publication. Even though the federal government has an interest in several newspapers, including Nigeria’s largest, the Daily Times of Lagos, government censorship was sporadic rather than sustained until the 1993 coup introduced a more coherent attempt at control through the closure of some newspapers.

The national government has been active in broadcasting since 1957, when a chain of radio stations was established. In 1976 the federal government established control over all television stations, placing them under the Nigerian Television Authority. Radio and television programmes are broadcast in English and the major Nigerian languages. Some 24 million radios and 8 million television receivers were in use in 1997. The telecommunications network is being expanded and around 9 telephones per 1,000 people are in use.

V.

Government

The central reality of Nigeria’s political life since independence in 1960 has been the rivalry and suspicion between the more traditionalist Muslim north, dominated by Hausa and Fulani, and the more Westernized south led by Yoruba and Igbo politicians—and continual military interventions in politics. Following military rule from 1966 to 1979, civilian government was restored on October 1, 1979, under a western-style constitution promulgated in 1978. This constitution was suspended following a military coup on December 31, 1983.

A new constitution in 1989 was expected to pave the way for a return to civilian rule in the early 1990s. Executive powers were vested in the president, acting in consultation with the 29-member Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC). However, following a new military coup in 1993, all political activity was banned, the two official political parties were disbanded, parliament was dissolved, and the 30 elected state governors were dismissed to be replaced by a transitional council. Defence Minister General Sani Abacha assumed the functions of head of state and set up an 11-member Provisional Ruling Council, headed by himself. A 33-member Cabinet, the Executive Council, was appointed, also chaired by Abacha.

A National Constitutional Conference was established in May 1994. In April 1995 it formally adopted a new draft constitution. This envisaged a rotating presidency, with the post alternating between northerners and southerners. It also specified the creation of new states and local government areas, new electoral agencies, and the lifting of the ban on politics. However, on October 1, 1995, Abacha announced that the transitional stage would take at least three years to complete, and that the military government would remain in office until 1998. He paid lip service to international demands for democracy in Nigeria by holding legislative elections in April 1998 and scheduling presidential elections for October. He carefully orchestrated the electoral process to make sure that his followers were elected to the legislature and that he would be elected president. After Abacha died suddenly in June 1998, his successor, Major-General Abdulsalam Abubakar, promoted a transition to democratic, civilian rule and appointed a constitutional commission to draft a new constitution.

A.

Executive and Legislature

The new constitution took effect in May, 1999, when President Olusegun Obasanjo was sworn in after winning the February presidential elections with 63 per cent of the vote. This constitution is Nigeria's fourth since the country gained independence from Britain in 1960, and adopts the provisions of the 1979 constitution, with some amendments. In the 1979 constitution, the government was to have been modelled on a modern democratic republic, with a president, a bicameral legislature, and an independent supreme court. The president, who is both head of state and head of government, must gain at least a quarter of the vote in at least two thirds of the states and is limited to two four-year terms. The president’s running mate becomes vice-president for the same term. Cabinet appointments are made by the president and approved by the Senate. The constitution gives extensive self-governing powers to Nigeria's constituent states.

The constitution calls for a two-chamber National Assembly with members elected to four-year terms. The upper chamber, or Senate, contains three seats for each of Nigeria’s 36 states and one seat for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. In the lower chamber, or House of Representatives, the number of seats representing each state is based on the state’s population. Legislative elections were held in April 2003 for 109 Senate seats and 360 seats in the House of Representatives.

B.

Political Parties

Before independence, Nigeria’s political life was dominated by the Northern People’s Congress (NPC); the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), an Igbo-led party that was prominent in the south-east; and the Action Group (AG), which was controlled by Yoruba politicians and directed the government of the south-west. At independence the NPC and the NCNC formed a coalition. Splits within the southern parties led to violence and allegations of corruption during federal and regional elections in 1964 and 1965. In 1966 political parties were abolished; since independence, political parties have been variously banned and allowed, according to the whim of the leaders in power.

In the elections of 1979, the relatively new National Party of Nigeria (NPN) gained the greatest support. The other registered parties were the Unity Party of Nigeria, the Nigerian People’s Party, the People’s Redemption Party, and the Greater Nigeria People’s Party. A second round of elections in 1983 gave control to the NPN. However, many of the results were contested amid allegations of vote-rigging and corruption. The politicians were widely accused of mismanagement of the economy, and in December of that year the military launched a successful coup. All political parties were banned.

The military government announced a resumption of political activity in 1989, but disallowed all 13 parties that applied for registration. Instead, it established two new groups, the Social Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention, which were slightly left and right of centre, respectively. The Social Democrats won majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate—the lower and upper chambers of the National Assembly—in the 1992 elections.

In June 1993 a presidential election between the two parties was annulled by the military president, General Ibrahim Babangida. In August he stepped down and handed power to a non-elected interim national government. Three months later, in December 1993, Abacha seized power and immediately banned both parties. Opposition to Abacha and the military government was expressed through unofficial political organizations, such as the National Democratic Coalition (Nadeco). Many former political leaders as well as political activists were subjected to harassment and imprisonment. In early 1996 the military government promised to allow a resumption of approved political activity. About 70 political groups were founded, 23 applied for official approval, and 5 were approved. Abacha was nominated to represent all 5 approved parties in the elections planned for 1998, which would have ensured his victory. After Abacha’s death, Abubakar allowed the free formation of political parties, and the five parties approved by Abacha disbanded voluntarily. In the 1999 legislative elections, all the seats in the National Assembly were divided between Obasanjo’s People’s Democratic Party (which won the majority of seats), the All People’s Party, and the Alliance for Democracy. In the 2003 elections the People’s Democratic Party once again won a majority of seats, with the All People’s Party and the Alliance for Democracy represented in both the National Assembly and the Senate.

C.

Judiciary

The highest tribunal of Nigeria is the federal supreme court. It is made up of a chief justice and up to 15 other judges, all appointed by the country’s president. Other important courts include the federal court of appeal, the federal high court, and a high court in each state. In addition, ten states have Islamic Shari’ah courts and courts based on traditional law.

D.

Local Government

At independence, Nigeria was divided into three regions—the north, ruled by the Hausa and Fulani traditional aristocracy; the west, dominated by the Yoruba; and the east, controlled by the Igbo. In 1966 the country was divided into a number of small states. The history of the states over the subsequent 30 years is one of increasing fragmentation to accommodate various ethnic and political ambitions. As the states have become smaller, they have become less viable and more dependent on federal government transfers. Nigeria is currently divided into 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. State governments consist of an elected governor, a deputy governor chosen by the governor, and a directly elected state assembly. The governor also nominates commissioners, who are confirmed by the assembly. The Federal Capital Territory is headed by a minister, who is appointed by the president. From 1983 to 1990 the ruling military council appointed all state governors. After the 1993 coup by Abacha, all state and local governments were dissolved, and military governors appointed to administer the states. Elections were not held again until the end of 1998.

There has been continuous lobbying for new local governments, which in 1997 numbered more than 700. Until 1976, traditional authorities controlled local governments, but reforms have since relegated traditional rulers to a mostly ceremonial role. In their place are democratically elected government councils with responsibility for things such as primary health care and primary education.

E.

Health and Welfare

In 2004 there were 3,715 people per doctor while in 2007 the country had an infant mortality rate of 96 deaths per 1,000 live births. Around 2.7 per cent of the country’s GDP was spent on health care in 1989. Health services are accessible to wealthier urban dwellers only. Malaria, yaws, and yellow fever are prevalent.

F.

Defence

At independence the national military of Nigeria was composed of a small British-trained and -equipped army, navy, and air force. The regional police forces rivalled the military in numbers. In the late 1960s, during the attempted secession of the south-eastern region of Biafra, all police functions were centralized in the federal government, and the military was expanded and modernized. During the 1980s the size of the military was sharply reduced. Even so, in 2004 the military had about 78,500 members, including an army of 62,000, making it one of the largest armed forces in Africa. In 2003, Nigeria spent US$853 million (1.8 per cent of its GDP) on defence.

G.

International Organizations

Nigeria is a member of the United Nations (UN), the African Union, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Economic Community of West African States, and several other major international associations. Its membership of the Commonwealth of Nations was suspended for a period following the execution of writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, and pending a return to democratic government.

VI.

History

Little is known about the history of Nigeria in ancient times, but archaeologists have discovered evidence of a Neolithic (c. 800 bc-ad 200) culture at Nok, south-west of the city of Jos in central Nigeria.

A.

Early States

The northern part of the present territory of Nigeria was the site of organized states during the Middle Ages. By the 8th century the region south-west of Lake Chad was part of the Kanem-Bornu Empire, which in 1086 adopted Islam. By about 1300 Bornu was a flourishing centre of Islamic culture, rivalling the Mali Empire in the west. Bornu reached its zenith as an independent kingdom under Idris Alooma, who extended his rule over many of the eastern Hausa states that had existed in the area west of Kanem-Bornu since the 11th century; the western states fell under the sway of the Songhai empire.

Following the breakup of Songhai and the decline of Kanem-Bornu in the late 16th century, the Hausa states regained their independence and continued to flourish until the early 19th century. The Fulani pastoralists, who then burst into prominence under Usuman dan Fodio, had been established throughout Hausaland (what is now northern Nigeria) since the late 16th century. In the southern part of the country, the Yoruba had their own states in the west, centring on Ife and Oyo; the Edo ruled in Benin in the present south-central parts; and the Igbo in the east, north of the Niger delta. All these people had functioning states before or around ad 1400.

B.

British Encroachment

The Portuguese, British, and others established slave-trading stations in the Niger delta area in the 17th and 18th centuries. The interior of Nigeria was first penetrated by Europeans, primarily British, in the late 18th century. The various expeditions were trying to discover the course of the River Niger, with the aim of opening up the region to European trade and influence.

The first significant information about the river was provided by the Scottish explorer Mungo Park, who led two expeditions in 1795-1796 and 1805. He died on the second expedition when he was drowned near Bussa (now submerged under the Kainji Reservoir in western Nigeria), having sailed 1,600 km (1,000 mi) down the Niger in search of its outlet, then thought to be an inland swamp or lake.

C.

Expeditions

British-government-backed expeditions in 1821 and 1825, led by naval lieutenant Hugh Clapperton, failed to further Park’s work, as hoped. However, Clapperton, who died on the second expedition, provided the first European account of northern Nigeria. Richard Lemon Lander, who was Clapperton’s assistant on the 1825 journey, and his brother John in 1830 finally completed what Park had begun when they reached the Niger delta from Bussa.

The other great explorer of the Nigerian interior was the German explorer Heinrich Barth. Crossing the Sahara in 1850, he spent the next two years exploring the north of the country, the central section of the Niger, Lake Chad, and the River Benue, whose source he discovered. His five-volume Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa (1857-1858), with its maps and detailed information, was for many years a standard work on the interior.

D.

Trade and Colonization

Helped by medical improvements, particularly the effective treatment of malaria by quinine, traders quickly followed explorers along the Niger. The agreements they negotiated with local rulers established British spheres of influence which paved the way for the eventual imposition of British colonial rule. The process of formal colonization started in the 1860s along the coast. During the first half of the 19th century, palm oil, produced in Yorubaland in the south-west and the Niger delta area, had become a major trade item. It quickly became so important an article of commerce that the delta region became known as Oil Rivers. A British consul was sent to Calabar on the delta, and later to Lagos island, to the south of Yorubaland, where British traders were firmly established. In 1861 Britain took full possession of Lagos Island, establishing the Colony of Lagos, which was administered from the Gold Coast Colony until 1886, when it was given its own governor and administration.

British authority was subsequently extended east and west along the coast. After the conclusion of several treaties with local rulers, the British Oil Rivers Protectorate, renamed the Niger Coast Protectorate in 1893, was established over the eastern delta area as far north as the Benue in 1885—the same year as the completion of the Berlin Conference, which precipitated the “Scramble for Africa” by the European powers. The conference agreement stipulated that no new protectorate or annexation along the coast would be recognized unless accompanied by “effective occupation” by the colonizing power; this rule was extended to the interior in 1890.

The kingdom of Benin in the south-west was added to the Niger Coast Protectorate in 1897. After further expansion in the south-east the region was renamed the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria in 1900.

Yorubaland—south-west Nigeria, south of the Fulani emirate of Ilorin—was brought under the effective control of the Colony of Lagos between 1886 and 1896. This was largely as a result of pressure on the British government by Lagos-based traders. Their businesses were being ruined by wars between the various Yoruba states over control of the trade routes through Yorubaland, and thus over European trade with the Fulani emirates.

E.

British Control Extended

The extension of British control over the Fulani emirates of the north and north-west began in 1886. In that year a royal charter was granted to the National African Company (NAC)—subsequently renamed the Royal Niger Company (RNC)—empowering it to administer justice and enforce order in areas where it had treaties with local rulers. The company was the brainchild of Sir George Goldie, a former British army officer with an interest in one of the British companies trading along the lower Niger. For several years, Goldie tried to persuade the leading British companies that the best way to resist incursions down the river by French and German rivals would be to combine forces. In 1879 the United African Company was formed; it was renamed the National African Company in 1883.

Thereafter, Goldie turned his attention to the Fulani states north of the NAC’s advance based at Lokoja. To prevent French and German companies moving into the emirates from the north and west he pushed for the company to be given a royal charter, along similar lines to the British East India Company. In 1885 the NAC signed exclusive trading agreements with the emirates of Sokoto and Gwandu. It was these agreements that formed the British claim at the Berlin Conference (then in session) that the Fulani emirates were under its protection. However, the British government had done nothing to make this protection a reality and was reluctant, for cost and staffing reasons, to extend its direct responsibility further north.

The 1886 charter establishing the Royal Niger Company was a solution to this dilemma; in 1887 a British protectorate was formally proclaimed over those emirates that had signed treaties with the RNC. In 1891 a strip of the Niger Coast Protectorate between the company’s headquarters at Asaba and the Niger delta was handed over to RNC administration. In 1897 the RNC conquered the emirates of Nupe and Ilorin near the border with French-controlled Dahomey. With French troops pushing across the border from the west and down the Niger from the north, the British government in 1897 founded the West African Frontier Force (WAFF) to support the RNC in its territorial ambitions. The WAFF was under the company’s control and commanded by Captain (later Lord) Frederick Lugard.

The WAFF held back the French, and in 1898 the present western and northern borders of Nigeria were demarcated. The following year the RNC’s royal charter was revoked. The British government, already paying for the WAFF, felt it should have direct control over the force. Additionally, it had agreed to give the French navigation rights on the Niger between Bussa and the sea. Because of the RNC’s practice of maintaining a trading monopoly within its area of control—in violation of the terms of the royal charter—it was felt to be inadvisable to give it responsibility for enforcing the navigation agreement. The British government took over the administrative and military assets of the RNC at the start of 1900. Lugard was given the task of establishing a British administration over the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria.

F.

The Protectorates

Neither of the two protectorates was under full British control at the time of its establishment. It took another 20 years to establish effective British administration over all of the territory of the original British Oil Rivers Protectorate (1885); Igboland resisted until 1906. It was also not until 1906 that Lugard completed the incorporation of Bornu in the north-east into the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria. The entire area of present Nigeria was, however, acknowledged to be British under agreements with Germany and France made during the 1890s.

In 1906 the governments of Lagos and of the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria were amalgamated to form the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. In 1912 Lugard, who had been pushing for the amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates, was made governor of both. In 1914 he achieved his ambition of a united Nigeria when the two administrations were merged as the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. For administrative purposes the country was divided into the Colony of Lagos and the Northern and Southern provinces.

Lugard became the governor-general of Nigeria. He retired in 1919; his successors until independence were all known as governors. During his years as Governor of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, Lugard had had too few British staff to rule the region directly. Instead, he utilized the sophisticated administrative and tax-collection systems of the Fulani emirates to control northern Nigeria in a system known as indirect rule. The emirs were left to rule their peoples within certain limits of British law (such as the prohibition of slavery) and under the supervision of a British resident attached to each court. The emirs were also allowed, as Native Authorities, to keep up to half the taxes collected in their emirates—provided they kept proper accounts and budgets. The other half went to the small central administration to finance services, such as roads, railways, and medical facilities, considered best provided by the British.

As governor-general of the whole country, Lugard tried to introduce indirect rule into southern Nigeria. In Yorubaland there were clearly defined states with rulers who could be recognized as Native Authorities. Elsewhere, however, the situation was very different. The large cities and towns of the south had fluid and mixed ethnic structures which made direct rule necessary in the form of European-style municipal authorities. The diffuse and egalitarian society of the south-east provided no obvious traditional rulers. The British tried to impose rulers, but the results were disastrous. Eventually the British administration agreed to recognize the traditional councils of the region as the Native Authorities for implementing indirect rule.

In 1922 the League of Nations mandate of Cameroons was added, administratively, to Nigeria. In the same year the Nigerian legislative council, which had limited legislative authority over Lagos and the southern provinces, was inaugurated; the northern provinces remained under the jurisdiction of a British governor. The former League of Nations mandate of Cameroons became a UN trust territory in 1946 and remained under British administration until 1961.

G.

Independence

Nigerian demands for self-government after World War II resulted in a series of short-lived constitutions. The first, in 1947, established provincial legislatures with limited participation in the government by Nigerians. By succeeding constitutional changes, Nigeria was provided with a federal type of government and the provinces were consolidated into three regions (Eastern, Western, and Northern), each with a measure of autonomy. In 1954 Nigeria became a federation and each region was given the option, dependent on certain safeguards for the federation, to assume a self-governing status. Internal self-government was granted to the Eastern and Western regions in 1957 and to the Northern Region in 1959.

On October 1, 1960, Nigeria became independent within the Commonwealth of Nations. On October 7 it was admitted to membership of the United Nations. The first prime minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, headed a coalition government representing the major parties of the Northern and Eastern regions. The governor-general was Nnamdi Azikiwe, who became president when Nigeria adopted a republican form of government on October 1, 1963. Meanwhile, on February 11 and 12, 1961, the northern section of the former British Cameroons had voted to become a part of Nigeria.

H.

Internal Strains

From the early days of independence, ethnic rivalries and religious and political differences seriously strained the unity of the federation. In 1962 a major political crisis developed in the Western Region, which was dominated by the Yoruba and their political party, called the Action Group. The Action Group, which had constituted the chief opposition bloc to the ruling coalition in the federal parliament, split in two during the year. Its parliamentary leader, Obafemi Awolowo, who had expressed fear of a federal plot to break the party’s power, was indicted for treason in 1963 and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment. Meanwhile, as the result of a referendum held in mid-1963 in two districts of the Western Region where non-Yoruba peoples were a majority, a new Mid-West Region was formed.

I.

Civil War

Political bickering and corruption, which left young army officers increasingly impatient, finally culminated in a military coup in January 1966. Prime Minister Balewa and two regional premiers were killed. A military government was established by the army commander Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, who abolished the federal system. In July northern officers led a countercoup and killed Ironsi. His successor, Major-General Yakubu Gowon, revived the federation. During the 1960s thousands of Igbo living in the north were killed or sought refuge in their homelands in the south-east.

Relations between the northern-dominated federal government and the Igbo deteriorated as a result. In May 1967 the federal government announced its intention to split the Eastern Region, where the Igbo were the majority of the population, into three states—a move which would leave the Igbo without access to the sea and cut them off from the region’s oil-rich areas. The Eastern Region, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, then seceded and proclaimed itself the Republic of Biafra. Civil war broke out in July and lasted for two-and-a-half years before the Biafran leadership signed a formal surrender on January 15, 1970. During this time an estimated one million people died in Biafra as a result of starvation caused by war-induced food shortages.

J.

Oil Wealth

As life in the south-east returned to normal, Nigeria enjoyed four years of rapid economic growth, fuelled by expanding oil revenues; the country became the world’s fifth-largest oil producer. Continued military rule, however, despite promises of return to a civilian government, led to renewed political instability. Gowon was ousted on July 29, 1975, in a bloodless coup led by Brigadier Murtala Ramat Muhammad. Muhammad was himself assassinated in an unsuccessful coup attempt on February 13, 1976. His successor, Lieutenant-General Olusegun Obasanjo, presided over the preparations for a return to civilian rule, which culminated in the promulgation of a new constitution and in the election of a new president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, in the summer of 1979.

The Shagari government, like its predecessors, tried to use oil income to fund ambitious development programmes. In addition, Shagari sought to implement a “green revolution” which would stimulate agricultural productivity and lessen the nation’s increasing dependence on food imports. The weakening of the oil market in the early 1980s dealt a crippling blow to these efforts. Revenues from oil exports, which exceeded US$20 billion in 1980, declined to US$10 billion in 1982, and Nigeria was unable to repay its short-term debts. With foreign exchange scarce, the country could no longer afford essential imports; the economy, already weakened by mismanagement and corruption, sank into severe recession.

In January 1983 the government ordered the expulsion of all unskilled foreigners. At least one million people left, although many soon returned. That August, Shagari was re-elected president; his political organization, the National Party of Nigeria, also showed commanding strength in subsequent voting for the federal legislature and for state offices, although there were widespread allegations of vote-rigging. Nigeria’s economic position continued to worsen, and in December 1983 Shagari was deposed in a coup led by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari.

K.

Return to Military Rule

Buhari installed a rigid austerity programme, in an attempt to revive the economy, which alienated many people. In August 1985 he was ousted in a bloodless coup led by Major-General Ibrahim Babangida, who rescinded the most unpopular decrees.

Babangida renegotiated some of Nigeria’s commercial debts and eased government controls over business, thus improving the economy. In early 1990 he thwarted a coup attempt. As part of a programme for a return to civilian rule, local elections were held in 1990 and parliamentary elections in 1992. Elections for a civilian president were held in June 1993. Moshood Abiola, a millionaire businessman, was the apparent winner, but Babangida annulled the election results. In August, Babangida stepped down as president, relinquishing power to an interim government, headed by Ernest Shonekan.

L.

The Abacha Regime

Nigeria’s defence minister, General Sani Abacha, overthrew the transitional government in November, banned all political activity, and imprisoned many of his opponents, including Abiola. However, under pressure from Nigeria’s creditor governments, he subsequently announced that there would be a phased return to civilian rule, beginning in January 1996, with the lifting of the ban on political activity.

A National Constitutional Commission, set up in 1994, endorsed a new draft constitution in April 1995, providing for the presidency to alternate between a northerner and a southerner. However, it also reversed the decision that party politics should resume in January 1996, saying that it was too soon to have the necessary mechanisms in place, and indicating that any return to civilian rule would be gradual. In October 1995 Abacha confirmed that the military were planning to stay, when he announced that any transition would take at least three years to achieve.

The slow pace of democratization and Abacha’s actions against political opponents led to increasing international condemnation of his regime during 1995. Abacha continued to keep Moshood Abiola and his aides imprisoned, despite the intercession in April of South Africa’s President Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, then Anglican Archbishop of South Africa. During the previous month General Olusegun Obasanjo, head of state from 1976 to 1979, had been placed under house arrest for allegedly plotting a coup. Four months later, on July 14, 1995, the government confirmed that Obasanjo and 39 others had been convicted in a secret trial of the alleged coup plot. Following the prosecution, the British government warned that Nigeria was unlikely to be welcome at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in November. The month before the Commonwealth meeting Abacha commuted the death sentences imposed on the alleged coup plotters.

M.

Execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa

Criticism of the regime intensified dramatically after the execution on November 10 of writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, despite international pleas for clemency. Eighteen other campaigners for the rights of the Ogoni people in the oil-producing Rivers State were hanged with him. The heads of the Commonwealth, meeting in New Zealand, immediately voted to suspend Nigeria from the organization; if there was no return to democracy within two years, Nigeria would face expulsion. At the same time, the National Democratic Coalition (Nadeco) and other Nigerian political groupings stepped up their demands for a return to democratic government. The European Union subsequently began enforcing sanctions against the country. Abacha decried the foreign criticism and Commonwealth action as interference in Nigeria’s internal affairs. However, a few days after the hangings two of Abiola’s aides were released; another was reportedly released in December.

N.

Commonwealth Exclusion

In the opening weeks of 1996, Abacha’s son Ibrahim was killed in an air crash and bombs exploded at Kano airport and at a hotel in Kaduna. Abacha subsequently accused foreign governments of providing exiled opponents of the regime with money and weapons. Efforts were made to implicate the exiled Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka in the bombings, and it was revealed that another 19 Ogonis faced trial. Following an investigative mission sent into Ogoniland by the UN in 1995, a number of Commonwealth sanctions were imposed on Nigeria, including suspension of air links.

In July 1997 the military government released an elections timetable for the eventual transfer to civilian rule by October 1998, a deadline that had already been set by Abacha in 1995. In October 1997 Commonwealth leaders meeting in Edinburgh decided to prolong Nigeria’s suspension for a further year, stating that oil sanctions would follow if the promised transition to democracy failed to occur on time. On November 8, the fourth anniversary of the military coup, Abacha dissolved the Cabinet; in December, it was claimed by the regime that a military coup attempt had been defeated, but this claim was seen by Nadeco as a means of purging opponents of Abacha. A new Cabinet consisting of some former ministers was appointed on December 15.

O.

Invasion of Sierra Leone

In February 1998 Nigerian forces invaded Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, in a bid to oust the ruling junta. Abacha maintained that his forces were trying to restore the country’s elected government to power as part of the regional peacekeeping force, Ecomog, but Nigeria’s quest for regional hegemony was thought to be the main reason for the invasion, as well as a means of acquiring Sierra Leone’s rich deposits of alluvial diamonds. Nearly 750,000 civilians were trapped in the city centre and many thousands had to flee the capital. On February 13 the Nigerian forces captured the presidential state house in Freetown, and by the end of the month the intervention force had evicted the military junta. Fighting continued elsewhere in the country and the UN brought in emergency aid.

P.

End of Abacha’s Rule

In April it emerged that August’s presidential election would have only one candidate—Abacha, who secured the backing of the last of the five officially approved political parties, in effect turning the election into a referendum requiring voters to vote only on whether they would support him. Each party agreed to be given US$250,000 (about £150,000) and was told to nominate Abacha for the presidency. This prompted the Commonwealth countries meeting at the October 1997 Edinburgh summit to impose sanctions, already implemented by the United Kingdom, if democracy had not been restored by October 1998. General Abacha’s sole candidacy made it clear that this would not happen.

At the end of April a Nigerian military court sentenced to death six people, including the former deputy head of state, General Oladipo Diya, for trying to overthrow the military government in the December 1997 coup. Abacha died of a heart attack on June 8, 1998. General Abdulsalam Abubakar took over as president and said that he would adhere to the transition programme intended to return Nigeria to a form of civilian rule in October 1998.

In July the Cabinet and a number of institutions associated with the purported transition to democracy that had been initiated by Abacha were dissolved. Abubakar released a draft of a civilian constitution in September, which had been prepared by constitutional conference in 1995 but suppressed by Abacha. In local elections in December, which were the first free elections since 1993, the recently formed centrist People's Democratic Party (PDP) achieved a landslide victory. The PDP achieved a similar success in state and gubernatorial elections in January 1999, gaining control of 20 of the 35 states, and in the legislative and presidential elections in February, with healthy majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Former general Olusegun Obasanjo, now leader of the PDP, was victorious in the presidential election.

In May Abukabar promulgated a new constitution, which gave substantial autonomy to the country's constituent states. This coincided with Nigeria's readmission to the Commonwealth. Obasanjo was inaugurated as president in May, and in June, when the National Assembly sat for the first time, he appointed a new Cabinet.

Q.

Challenges for Obasanjo

One of Obasanjo’s first acts was a radical purge to remove from office all senior military officers who held positions of power between 1985 and 1999. He also instigated an investigation into alleged human rights abuses committed during that period, and put forward an anti-corruption bill to try to tackle one of Nigeria’s major problem areas.

Late 1999 and early 2000 brought internal stability concerns. Controversies arose around the issue of Islamic Shari'ah law, which had been introduced in some states, including Zamfara in January 2000 and the state of Niger in February. Full implementation of Shari'ah was suspended as religious, ethnic, and economic tensions surrounding the issue became unmanageable. In February 2001 Bauchi became the tenth state to embrace Shari’ah law.

In early 2001 Nigeria was successful in obtaining the restructuring of a large amount of its overseas debt after negotiations with the IMF and the Paris Club. Despite this breakthrough, Obasanjo’s ongoing attempts at solving some of Nigeria’s economic problems were being hampered by increasing agitation from militant factions and separatist groups as well as accusations of ethnic and religious bias.

The summer months of 2001 were marked by fighting between Christians and Muslims in Jos and Kano; the violence intensified following the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on the US cities of New York and Washington, D.C. In clashes in Benue state over 200 people were killed. Bola Ige, the attorney-general and minister of justice, was assassinated.

An explosion at a munitions depot in Lagos killed over 600 citizens in January 2002; as many as 1,000 people were also thought to be missing. Most of the deaths were caused not by the explosion but by the stampede that followed which led to many people drowning in nearby canals.

The International Court of Justice awarded the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon in the dispute between the two countries. The ruling was challenged by Nigeria despite the fact that the decision cannot be overruled and for many months Nigeria refused to hand over the area. Talks continued to try to end the dispute. In November, rioting over the staging of the Miss World beauty pageant led to the deaths of over 200 people; the rioting was also in response to a ruling passed down under Shari’ah law to stone to death Amina Lawal, a woman found guilty of adultery.

In April 2003 in the first presidential election since the end of military rule in 1999, Olusegun Obasanjo was re-elected to serve a second term. At the same time, legislative elections returned President Obasanjo’s People’s Democratic Party to power with an outright majority. The elections were marred by allegations of vote rigging.

In July 2003 fuel price increases led to a nationwide general strike and rioting in Lagos. The strike was called off after the government agreed to lower oil prices.

Nigeria continued to refuse to comply with the International Court of Justice ruling that the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula should be awarded to Cameroon. UN’s Secretary-General Kofi Annan brokered talks which in October 2003 led to Nigeria’s agreement to hand over 33 border villages near Lake Chad to Cameroon. Despite an agreement in January 2004 to introduce joint security patrols in the disputed Bakassi peninsula, and to open consulates and exchange ambassadors, Nigeria continued to reject the ruling on the status of the territory and failed to hand over the territory by September’s deadline. Finally, in 2006, the dispute was resolved in favour of Cameroon and Nigeria agreed to withdraw troops from the region.

In August 2003 ethnic violence erupted between the Ijaw and Itsekiri people in the port of Warri, leading to around 100 deaths and 1,000 injuries. In September 2003 Amina Lawal was acquitted by an Islamic appeals court in the northern state of Katsina. Her case had been closely monitored by international human rights campaigners. Nonetheless, Nigeria’s human rights record was criticized by the US-based Human Rights Watch in a report published in December 2003; the report accused the government of silencing critics by using violence and intimidation.

President Obasanjo’s attempts to modify the constitution to allow him to stand for an unprecedented third term of office met with failure. Instead, the elections held in April 2007 saw victory for his approved successor, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua of the People’s Democratic Party, with around 70 per cent of the vote; however, international observers doubted the credibility of the vote.