FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA Official name: Federal Republic of Nigeria Location: West Africa International organisations: The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, The African Union, The Commonwealth of Nations, The Non-Aligned Movement, The Organisation of Islamic Conference, The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, The United Nations, The World Trade Organisation Borders: Benin, Cameroun, Chad, Niger Coastline: Gulf of Guinea Land area: 923,768 Km2 Population: 129,900,000

Ethnicity: Virtually all Nigerians are of West African stock. The largest communities are the closely related Hausa and Fulani 29%, Yoruba 21%, Igbo (Ibo) 18%, Ijaw 10%, Kanuri 4%, Ibibio 3.5%, Tiv 2.5
Languages: English is the official language, and is widely used in urban areas. Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo (Ibo) and Fulani are the most widely spoken West African languages.
Religion: Sunni Moslem 50%, Christian (many denominations) 40%, indigenous beliefs 10%. The Moslem population is concentrated in the north.
Form of government: Federal democratic republic. Nigeria is divided into 36 states and one territory.

Capital: Abuja Constitution: The new Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was adopted in May 1999. Head of state: The President, elected by direct universal suffrage for a four-year term. Head of government: The President, who appoints members of the Cabinet. Legislature: The National Assembly is a bicameral legislature. It consists of the House of Representatives, which has 360 members elected from single-member districts for four-year terms, and the Senate, which has 109 menbers, three from each state and one from the Federal Capital Territory, also elected for four-year terms. The National Assembly does not have a website.

Electoral authority: The Independent National Election Commission controls national elections in Nigeria.
Freedom House rating: Political Rights 4, Civil Liberties 4

Political history

The lands which now constitute Nigeria were brought under British rule between 1861 and 1900, uniting a largely animist and (later) Christian south with a strongly Moslem north whose cultural orientation was towards the Islamic world. Limited self-government was introduced in some areas in 1922, and expanded in 1947. Nigeria was granted self-government within a federal system in 1957, and independence followed in 1960. Nigeria became a republic in 1963.

Olusegun Obasanjo

Nigeria's first Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, led a northern dominated government. In January 1966 southern military officers overthrew the government, establishing a military regime which held power until 1979. The regime was led by Maj-Gen Yakubu Gowon, whose policies provoked the secession of the south-eastern region known as Biafra. A three-year civil war in which up to a million people died followed.

Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1979, when General Olusegun Obasanjo allowed free elections and Shehu Shagari was elected President. Allegations of corruption against Shagari led to another coup in 1983. Another 16 years of military rule followed, growing increasingly despotic and corrupt, and Nigeria, although possessing enormous oil wealth, was driven to bankruptcy and international isolation. Another attempt to restore democratic rule was aborted in 1993.

Following the death of the military ruler Sani Abacha in 1998, there was a return to civilian government. Olusegun Obasanjo, the former military ruler, was elected President in 1999. The new constitution tries to solve Nigeria's basic political problem, the incompatibility of the Christian south and the Moslem north, by requiring that presidential candidates demonstrate support in both parts of the country.

Nigeria has also tried to prevent sectional conflict by requiring that political parties be nationally rather than regionally based. This has produced a rather artificial party system, with parties mostly representing personal interests and with corruption endemic. The main parties are Obasanjo's People's Democratic Party, which is strongest in the north, the All People's Party, which is strongest in the south, and the Alliance for Democracy, which is also strongest in the south and is more left-wing than either of the other parties. Ideology plays little part in Nigerian politics, however.