NIGERIA

NIGERIA:

Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria (English Federal Republic of Nigeria, in Hausa Jamhuriyar Taraiyar Nijeriya, in Igbo Ȯha nke Ohaneze Naíjíríà, in Yoruba Àpapọ Olómìnira ilẹ Nàìjíríà) is a sovereign country located in West Africa, in the Gulf of Mexico Guinea, whose form of government is the presidential federal republic. Its territory is composed of 36 federal states and a federal district.

Its total population is 181,562,056 inhabitants (2015). The capital is Abuja, with 1,178,568 inhabitants, and its most populated city and former capital is Lagos, with 7,937,932 inhabitants (2006 data).

The appearance of human presence in the area of ​​Nigeria is dated around 9,000 a. C., although it was probably inhabited previously.3 The area around the Benue River and the Cross River is the place of origin of the Bantu that spread in waves throughout Central and Southern Africa from the 5th century BC. C.

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh in the world (surpassing Japan and Russia). It is also grouped into the Next Eleven (also known as N-11) which is a group of countries with great prospects for investment and growth in the future. Nigeria's economy is the largest in Africa4 and one of the fastest growing in the world, with growth estimates of 9% in 2008 and 8.3% in 2009.5 6 7 The IMF expects Nigeria to grow 8% in 2011

HISTORY:

The Kanem-Bornu empire near Lake Oiiee dominated northern Nigeria from the 13th century for almost 600 years, thriving thanks to north-south trade with the northern Berbers. In the early years of the nineteenth century, most of the northern areas were under the control of an Islamic empire based in Sokoto.

The kingdom of Oyo in the southwest and the kingdom of Benin in the southeast developed elaborate systems of political organization in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ife and Benin are known for their prized artistic works in ivory, wood, bronze and brass.

In the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, European merchants established coastal ports for the slave trade destined for the American continent. Merchandise trade replaced the slave trade in the 19th century.

The Royal Niger Company was established by the British government in 1886. Nigeria became a British protectorate in 1901, and a colony in 1914. In response to the growth of Nigerian nationalism after World War II, the British replaced the colony with a kind of autonomy on a federal basis.

The name Nigeria first appeared in print in the newspaper The Times in 1897.9 It gave it the name Flora Shaw, the future wife of Baron Lugard, a nineteenth-century British administrator.

Nigeria was granted full independence in 1960, as a federation of three regions, each retaining a substantial degree of autonomy.

In 1966, two successive coups by different groups of army officers led the country to military rule. The leaders of the second coup tried to increase the power of the federal government and replaced the regional governments by 12 state governments. The Igbos, the dominant ethnic group in the eastern region, declared independence as the Republic of Biafra in 1967, followed by persecutions in the northern states that led to the extermination of 30,000 Igbo. After the declaration of independence of Biafra, the war broke out with the Federal Government. Under Brigadiers Adekunle, Obasanjo and Murtala Mohammed, a plan of systematic and amphibious attack that included heavy aerial bombings and famine, forced the Biafran rebels to capitulate. On January 15, faced with the option to surrender and the total destruction of the Biafran population, Philip Effiong, Chief of Staff of the rebel army accepted the conditions of surrender before Yakubu Gowon, Chief of the North dominated by the federal government.

In 1975 a bloody coup d'etat overthrew Gowon and brought Murtala Ramat Mohammed to power, which promised the return of civil government. However, he was killed in an aborted coup, and was succeeded by his chief of staff, Olusegun Obasanjo. A new constitution was drafted in 1977, and elections were held in 1979, which were won by Shehu Shagari.

Nigeria returned to the military government in 1983, through a coup that established the Supreme Military Council as the new governing body of the country. Chief M.K.O. Abiola won the presidential election of June 1993, which was canceled by the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida. An interim national government was established, headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan. The Government was declared illegal and unconstitutional by a High Court, and General Sani Abacha assumed power. He imprisoned the Chief M.K.O. Abiola and looted the National Treasury. Many people were killed during the regime of Babangida and Abacha; Among the most notable is Ken Saro-Wiwa. Ken Saro-Wiwa was an internationally known and respected journalist whose murder shook many inside and outside the world of journalism. His family went to trial and brought charges against the Nigerian government through the New York court system.

The Abacha terror regime came to an end when he died suddenly and in 1998 Abdulsalami Abubakar became leader of the Provisional Governing Council. He lifted the suspension of the 1979 constitution to free Chief M.K.O. Abiola, the winner of the 1993 election before the latter died in July 1998, a fact that medical experts initially attributed to natural causes; Later, this death was considered as death by poisonous substance. The cases of the Court since the death of Abiola have brought to light that he was poisoned. [Citation needed]

In 1999, Nigeria elected Olusegun Obasanjo as president in his first elections in 16 years. Obasanjo and his party also won the turbulent elections of 2003. The success of the democratic dream in Nigeria presents serious doubts after the murder of the Minister of Justice, Bola Ige, a lawyer for peace, justice and political openness; and in particular by the legislative and presidential elections of 2007 that presented irregularities and by a series of confrontations that caused several deaths.