Country Profile
Nigeria,officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a Federal Constitutional Republic in West Africa comprising 36 States and its Federal Capital Territory Abuja.
The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country,setting up administrative structures and law while recognizing traditional chiefs.
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa(accounts for about 18% of the continent's total population )the 7th most populous country in the world and the most populous country in the world in which the majority of the population is Black.
The core north is largely Muslim, there are large numbers of both Muslims and Christians in the Middle Belt, including the Federal Capital Territory. In the west of the country, especially in the Yorubaland, the population is said to be evenly divided between Muslims and Christians, while in the southeastern regions are predominantly Christians.
Nigeria is the 12th largest producer of petroleum in the world and the 8th largest exporter, and has the 10th largest proven reserves.
Wole Soyinka,a Nigerian writer, notable especially as a playwright and poet was the first African Nobel Prize Winner in Literature.
Association football is Nigeria's national sport and the country has its own Premier League of football. Nigeria's National Football Team, known as the Super Eagles, has made the World Cup on four occasions - 1994,1998,2002 and 2010. They won the African Cup of Nations in 1980 and 1994 . They won the gold medal for football in the 1996 Summer Olympics (ibeat Argentina).
Capital Abuja
Currency Naira
Official Language English
Population 170 Million(2011 Estimate)
Flag of Nigeria
History
The British colonized Nigeria in the late 19th and early 20th Century.
In 1914, the British formally united the Niger area as the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. Administratively, Nigeria remained divided into the Northern and Southern Provinces and Lagos Colony.
On Oct 01,1960, Nigeria gained its independence from the United Kingdom.
On Nov 16, 1960, Dr.Nnamdi Azikiwe became the first Governor-General of a Federation of three Regions of the North, East and West, with Lagos as the Federal Capital. Each of the Regions was headed by a Premier with a Governor as Ceremonial Head.
On October 1, 1963, Nigeria became a Federal Republic and severed whatever ties were left with Britain.
In July 1966, a group of northern army officers revolted against the government, killed General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, and appointed the army chief of staff, General Yakubu Gowon as the head of the new military government.
In 1975, Gen. Yakubu Gowon was deposed and General Murtala Mohammed was the Head of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria until his assassination in 1976.
In October 1979,Nigeria was returned to democratic rule. The National Party of Nigeria emerged victorious in the presidential election and Alhaji Shehu Shagari was elected President
In Dec 31, 1983, the military overthrew the Second Republic and Maj. Gen Muhammadu Buhari emerged as the Chairman of the Supreme Military Council (SMC), the new Head of State.
In August 1985, the Gen. Buhari government was peacefully overthrown by the then Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen.Ibrahim Babangida who then became the President and chairman Armed Forces Ruling Council.
In August1993, General Babangida steps down in and chooses interim government headed by Ernest Shonekan.
In Nov 1993 Gen.Sani Abacha seizes power from Ernest Shonekan and became the president and Chairman Provisional Ruling Council.
On June 08, 1998, General Abacha dies at the presidential villa in the Nigerian capital, Abuja and Maj. Gen.Abdulsalami Abubakar became the new president and Chairman Provisional Ruling Council .
In May 1999, Maj. Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar steps down and the former military head of state Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo became the newly elected civilian president.
Politics and Government
Nigeria is a Federal Republic where the President is both the Head of State and Head of Govt.and of a Multi-Party System.The President is elected by Universal Suffrage.
Executive Power is exercised by the Govt.The executive branch is divided into Federal Ministries, headed by a minister appointed by the President(who must include at least one member of each of the 36 states in his cabinet) and confirmed by the Senate of Nigeria.
President of Nigeria
Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan is the 14th Head of State and Current President of Nigeria in office from Feb 09,2010(succeeding Former President Umaru Yar'Adua died on May 05,2010) .Goodluck Jonathan inherited the presidency in May 2010 on the death of his predecessor, and went on to win elections in April 2011 defeating General Muhammadu Buhari.
Earlier onathan was elected as vice-president to Umaru Yar'Adua in 2007, and had to serve as acting president as Mr Yar'Adua's health declined.
National Assembly of Nigeria
Legislative Power is vested in both the Govt and the two Chambers of the legislature -
House of Representatives which has 360 members, elected for a four year and
Senate which has 109 members, elected for a four year term
Together the two chambers make up the law-making body in Nigeria called the National Assembly.
State Of Emergency Declared - Dec 31,2011
President Goodluck Jonathan declared an indefinite state of emergency in four states (include parts of northeastern state of Yobe and the central states of Plateau and Niger and in parts of the northeastern state of Borno, a stronghold of the feared Islamic sect)which would all allow security agencies there to make arrests without proof and conduct searches without warrants. He also ordered the closure of international borders near the affected areas.This action was taken after a recent slew of deadly attacks blamed on a northern-based radical Muslim Sect killed dozens of people, as separate communal clashes in the country's southeast left more than 40 dead.
Fighting between a radical Muslim sect and paramilitary forces in Nigeria has killed at least 61 people over several days of violence in the nation's northeast that has left churches bombed and people hiding in fear.In hard-hit Yobe state, where at least 50 people died, the government ordered a dusk-till-dawn curfew following attacks by the sect known as Boko Haram. In Maiduguri, the capital of neighboring Borno state, bombs reduced at least three churches to rubble and raised fears of further attacks.
A Christmas service in Nigeria was targeted by terror on Sunday Dec 25,2011 as a bomb exploded outside St. Theresa Church in Abuja,near Nigeria's Capital in an attack by Islamist group Boko Haram.
Earlier in the year, an Aug. 26 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria's capital Abuja killed 24 people and wounded 116 others. The sect claimed responsibility for that attack.
Nigerian Plane Crash - Sunday June 03,2012
A commercial airliner crashed into a densely populated neighbourhood in Nigeria’s largest city on Sunday June 03,2012, killing all 153 people on board and others on the ground in the worst air disaster in nearly two decades for the troubled nation.
The cause of the Dana Air crash remained unknown Sunday night, as firefighters and police struggled to put out the flames around the wreckage of the Boeing MD83 aircraft.
The flight’s pilots radioed to the Lagos control tower just before the crash, saying the plane had engine trouble, a military official said.
President Goodluck Jonathan has declared three days of National mourning .
2 Indians among those dead
Two Indians were among the 193 victims of Sunday's plane crash in Nigeria. One was the co-pilot, Mahendra Singh Rathore, and the other was Kerala engineer Rijo Eldos.
Nigeria's Biggest Cement Plant
The biggest cement factory in Nigeria(Obajana plant in the central Kogi State ) by Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote(expected to produce about 10 million tonnes of cement a year) on June 11,2012
Arik Air Ltd. halted all its domestic flights indefinitely
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