Nigeria can be divided into four distinct geographical regions from west to east: a swampy, wooded coastal region; a broad, hilly, forested belt that gradually rises to the Jos Plateau; a region of savanna, which stretches to a semidesert zone in the extreme north; and the eastern Adamawa Plateau, which borders Cameroon. Nigeria has two climate zones. The coast is characterized by high humidity and heavy rainfall. To the north, the tropical continental air mass brings dry, dusty winds from the Sahara. The temperature varies considerably with the season, as does rainfall. Vegetation zones parallel the climate zones.
The south has dense tropical jungles; in the northeast semidesert vegetation prevails. Grasslands cover the plateau and savanna regions. Nigeria has massive petroleum and natural gas reserves, as well as significant deposits of iron ore, salt, tin, columbite, and coal.
III. POPULATION
With more than 250 ethnic groups, Nigeria is a complex linguistic, social, and cultural mosaic. Nearly three-quarters of the population consists of the Hausa-Fulani peoples of the north, the Yoruba of the southwest, and the Ibo of the southeast.
Although Nigeria is recognized as the most populous country in Africa, its exact population has been a matter of great political controversy within the country.
Estimates by the United Nations (UN), the World Bank, and the Nigerian government in the late 1980s ranged well above 100 million, but results of the 1991 census showed a total of 88,514,501. In 1997 Nigeria's estimated population was 107,286,046.
English is the official language of Nigeria, but the most widely spoken language is Hausa. About 47 percent of the people are Muslims, and about 35 percent are Christians. Traditional religions are practiced by the remainder of the population. In 1976 free primary education was established throughout Nigeria.
IV. ECONOMY
Nigeria traditionally has been an agricultural country, and most Nigerians are subsistence farmers, producing sorghum, millet, and cattle in the north, and maize (corn), rice, and yams in the south. However, Nigeria is one of the world's leading producers of crude petroleum, which accounts for nearly all of the country's exports.
But dependence on oil income has also placed stress on Nigeria's economy. In the 1980s, for example, oil prices dropped and Nigeria accumulated substantial foreign debt.
Attempts to reduce the foreign debt have produced mixed results. After steps taken in the early 1990s resulted in public protests, a new military administration announced the abandonment of market reforms. The national currency of Nigeria is the naira (21.88 naira equal U.S.$1; 1996).
V. GOVERNMENT
Nigeria's political life since independence in 1960 has been dominated by rivalry and suspicion between the more traditional north, with its Muslim, Hausa, and Fulani influences, and the more modern, Westernized south, led by Yoruba and Ibo politicians. After three decades of political turmoil, including the drafting and cancellation of a more recent constitution, Nigeria is theoretically governed under a 1978 constitution. The elected president is both head of state and head of government. However, in a 1993 coup, General Sani Abacha took control of the military government. He held executive powers until his sudden death of a heart attack in June 1998, at which time General Abdulsalam Abubakar was appointed head of state.
Elections were last held in 1992 for the National Assembly, but the assembly was dissolved following the coup. State governments were also dissolved and were replaced in 1994 by nonelected caretaker committees.
VI. HISTORY
The northern part of what is now Nigeria was the site of organized states during the Middle Ages. By about 1300 Bornu flourished as a center of Islamic culture.
The Portuguese, English, and others established slave-trading stations in the Niger delta area in the 17th and 18th centuries. Under agreements between Britain, Germany, and France that divided much of Africa into so-called spheres of influence, British domination became complete in 1914. After a gradual move toward autonomy in the 1940s and 1950s, Nigeria became independent in 1960.
From the early days of independence, ethnic antagonisms and religious and political differences seriously strained the unity of the country. Political bickering and corruption that left young officers increasingly impatient finally led to a military coup in 1966. During the period from 1967 to 1970, peoples of the southeast attempted to secede from Nigeria by forming the Republic of Biafra. Civil war broke out in 1967 and lasted for two and a half years before Biafran resistance was overcome in 1970.
After several years of military rule, a civilian government took power in 1979. The weakening of the oil market in the early 1980s dealt a crippling blow to the Nigerian economy, however, and in 1985 Major General Ibrahim Babangida came to power through a bloodless coup. Babangida renegotiated some of Nigeria's debts and eased government controls over business, thus improving the economy.
Elections for a civilian president were held in 1993. Moshood Abiola, a businessman, was the apparent winner, but Babangida annulled the election results. Babangida then stepped down as president, handing over power to an interim government. Nigeria's defense minister, General Sani Abacha, subsequently overthrew the transitional government and banned all political activity.
In 1994 the government held elections that prodemocracy groups boycotted in an attempt to force General Abacha to transfer power to Abiola. After Abiola declared himself the rightfully elected president, he was arrested for treason.
His arrest provoked widespread strikes in Nigeria's oil industry, disrupting the economy and resulting in oil shortages. The strikes soon ended after Abacha's regime arrested union leaders and declared that the government had absolute power.
Despite international outcry, in 1995 the Nigerian government hanged writer and dissident Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others. Saro-Wiwa, a member of the Ogoni ethnic group of southern Nigeria, whose Niger Niger Delta has long been exploited for its oil deposits, had brought the plight of the Ogonis to the attention of the international media.
The hangings brought further international pressure on General Abacha, including economic sanctions and the suspension of Nigeria from the Commonwealth of Nations.
Also in 1995, Abacha lifted the two-year-old ban on political parties and announced that he would return Nigeria to civilian rule in 1998. In late 1996 the National Election Commission of Nigeria (NECON) named five political parties that will be allowed to participate in future elections.
In 1996 Nigeria and Cameroon agreed to allow a UN fact-finding mission access to the petroleum-rich Bakassi Peninsula to help settle a dispute over ownership of the region.
By mid-1998 the International Court of Justice had not yet reached a decision on ownership of the peninsula. In February 1998 Nigerian-led troops captured Sierra Leone's capital city of Freetown, ousting a military junta that seized power in a 1997 coup.
ABUJA, capital city of Nigeria. The population is 305,900 (1992 estimate). Abuja is located in a scenic valley of rolling grasslands in a relatively undeveloped area. Government agencies began moving into the capital in the early 1980s, as residential neighborhoods were being developed in outlying areas
Sir Abubakar Tafawa (1912-1966), first prime minister of Nigeria (1960-1966). Born in northern Nigeria of Muslim parents, Balewa was educated as a teacher. Entering politics, he became a member of the Northern Region's House of Assembly in 1947, and in 1951 he was elected to the federal House of Representatives.
He was a founder and deputy president of the Northern People's Congress, which had its base among the Muslim Fulani and Hausa peoples of the north. Balewa was appointed prime minister of the Nigerian Federation in 1957, and after independence 1960 he remained in that post.
He was killed in a January 1966 military coup that was part of the reaction to northern domination. A period of violent political unrest followed the coup, culminating in the Biafran secessionist movement from 1967 to 1970.
Nnamdi (1904-1996), Nigerian politician, founder of modern Nigerian nationalism and first president of Nigeria (1963-66).
Born at Zungeru, the son of an Igbo clerk, Azikiwe was educated in Nigeria and the United States. In 1937 he founded a newspaper chain, and in 1946 he became president of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons.
He was premier in Igbo-dominated Eastern Region (1952-59), then governor-general, and later president. Following the military coups of 1966, Azikiwe was adviser to the Igbo secessionist state of Biafra. He was chancellor of Lagos University from 1972 to 1975 and ran unsuccessfully for president in 1979.
Gowon, Yakubu (1934- ), head of the federal military government of Nigeria (1966-1975). Following the confusion of the 1966 coup, Gowon was selected to head the military government. From 1967 to 1970, he directed the military effort to subjugate Biafra. He later tried to reintegrate the country and modernize the economy, but was overthrown in a bloodless coup led by Brigadier Murtala Ramat Muhammad. The photograph shows Gowon in 1973.
SANI ABACHA
Abacha, Sani (1943-1998), military president of Nigeria (1993-1998). Born in Kano, in northern Nigeria, Abacha graduated from the Nigerian Military Training College in Zaria in 1963, and became a captain in the army in 1967.>P> Abacha was instrumental in the military coup in 1985 that brought General Ibrahim Babangida to power, and he remained valuable to Babangida throughout his presidency.
When Babangida resigned in 1993 after annulling the results of a democratic presidential election in which Moshood Abiola was the apparent winner, Abacha was named defense minister of a transitional government by a committee appointed by Babangida.
In November 1993 Abacha installed himself as head of state, abolishing all state and local governments and the national legislature, banning all political parties, and replacing many civilian officials with military commanders.
He named an 11-member Provisional Ruling Council, consisting mainly of generals and police officials, which would oversee a 32-member Federal Executive Council, which included prominent civilians and some prodemocracy activists, created to head government ministries.
In January 1994 Abacha presented a budget in which he abandoned market reforms instituted in 1986, which made a new agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) impossible. In the face of increasing foreign debt, low industrial output, and harsh autocratic rule, resentment against the military government grew steadily in 1994.
In response, Abacha announced details of his political transition program, but when the constitutional conference held in May was widely boycotted by prodemocracy groups, Abacha had the police issue a strong statement affirming that nongovernmental political activity was illegal.
In June Abiola proclaimed himself president and was arrested for treason. Civil unrest intensified, particularly in Lagos, and oil workers declared a strike in support of Abiola's release. The strike crippled Nigeria's leading industry, but Abacha clung to power, and the strike ended in September. Abacha continued to suppress opposition brutally, even within his own camp, until his sudden death in June 1998.
Obafemi (1909-87), Nigerian nationalist and Yoruba political leader. Born in Ikenne, the son of a farmer, Awolowo was trained as a lawyer. He became involved in politics in the 1940s and organized the Action Group in 1951.
He was premier of Western Nigeria from 1954 to 1959, when he became opposition leader in the federal House of Representatives. An unyielding advocate of federalism, he was arrested in 1962 for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government.
Imprisoned in 1963, he was freed three years later by General Yakubu Gowon, head of Nigeria's military government. Serving as federal commissioner for finance (1967-71), he resigned in protest over postponement of civilian rule. In 1979 he ran unsuccessfully for president.
SINCE DEC 19 1999
