Nigeria

Nigeria, federal republic in West Africa. Abuya is the capital.

Land and climate

Nigeria has an area of 356,667 sq mi (923,768 sq km). It is bordered on the north by Niger, on the east by Chad and Cameroon, on the west by Benin, and on the south by the Gulf of Guinea. Its 500-mi (800-km) coastline has sandbars, swamps, mangrove forests, lagoons, and the mouths of several navigable rivers, predominantly the delta of the country's most important river, the Niger. Beyond the coast and rain forests are savannas. North of the Niger River and its tributary, the Benue, the grass-covered Jos plateau falls away to the sandy high plains of Hausaland. Another watershed lies to the southwest, where the Yoruba highlands, covered with tall grass and hardwood forests, form the divide between northward-flowing rivers and those draining south to the gulf. Other highlands run along Nigeria's border with Cameroon, where Vogel Peak (6,700 ft/2,040 m) is the highest. In the far north, central highlands merge with the Sahara along the Niger border. Annual rainfall in this entirely tropical country, hot the year round, ranges from more than 150 in (381 cm) on the central coast to only 25 in (64 cm) in the northeast.

People

Nigeria is one of the most populous country on the African continent. Of the 250 ethnic groups that comprise two-thirds of the population, there are 3 major peoples: some 35.7 million Hausa-Fulani live in the Muslim north, and about 44 million Ibo and Yoruba live in the Christian south and east. With 31% of the land arable, more than half the Nigerians are farmers and herders. The country is one of Africa's most urbanized, with Lagos and Ibadan having more than 1 million inhabitants. English is the official language; Hausa, Yoruba, and Ibo are also spoken.

Economy

Oil is the leading export. Its revenues have fueled massive, mostly private development. Other leading exports are cocoa, palm kernels and palm oil, peanuts, soybeans, rubber, cotton, and bananas. Manufacturing includes oil refining, vehicle assembly, food processing, textiles, building materials, and furniture. In the south there are extensive fisheries.

History

The Nok, an advanced Iron Age culture (800 B.C.–A.D. 200), is the earliest known in Nigeria. From about A.D. 1000, small city-states arose. The sacred Yoruba city of Ife in the southwest developed its great culture during the 12th century, and during the 14th century Islam become predominant in the north, where several cities were trans-Saharan trade centers. In the south, the ancient city-state of Benin was a flourishing center when the Portuguese (1483) and the British (1553) arrived and began the trade in Nigerian slaves for Europe and the Americas. By the mid-19th century, palm products replaced slaves as the leading export, and Lagos, the chief port, was ceded to Britain (1861), which made it an outpost to fight the slave trade, and then a colony (1886). Soon the entire country was under control of the British, who made it a protectorate (1914). After World War II, responding to militant nationalists, the British increased self-government, and Nigerians from the 3 major ethnic groups took over by democratic means when the country became a federation of regions (1954), then an independent republic (1963). However, rival ethnic military factions battling for control tore Nigeria apart. Thousands of Ibos were massacred or fled their homeland, Biafra. When the military government reorganized Nigeria into ethnic states (1967), Biafra seceded. The ensuing civil war ended (1970) with Nigeria's unity preserved, but at the cost of perhaps 1 million Ibo dead from starvation. With a new constitution (1976), Nigeria returned to a democratically elected civilian government (1979), but it was ousted in a military coup (1983). Promises to restore the civilian government were not kept. Elections were held in 1992, but the military leadership under Sani Abacha (1943–98) remained in power. In 1998 general Abdusalam Abubakar succeeded Sani Abacha. In 1999 free elections will be held.