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Nigeria was once a
number of ethnically based kingdoms
and rival Yoruba states until the
British brought them under its
control, in the early 1900s.
The country
became independent on October 1,
1960, but tension among its
ethnic groups soon followed.
The Yoruba were mainly in the
south-west, the Ibo in the
south-east, and the Hausa and
Fulani in the north.
When Nigeria came under military
control in 1966, the mainly
Christian Ibo people tried to
separate from Nigeria -- after
suffering a masacre at the hands of
the mainly Islamic Hausa and Fulani
people who dominated the government
-- by forming the Republic of
Biafra (1967-1970).
This sparked
off a civil war, and an
estimated million people died in
Biafra from starvation caused by
food shortages.
By Road
Nigeria's
excellent network of roads
include motorways linking Lagos
to Ibadan and Benin City.
By Rail
Like many
European countries, railways in
Nigeria have declined in
importance because of
competition from the expanding
road system.
By Air
Airlines and Airports:
International airports serve
Lagos on the coast and Kano in
the north, while smaller
airfields provide services to
other major cities. Nigeria
Airways is the state-owned
airline.
Security at
Lagos airport has not always
been considered at its best in
recent years.
Bellview Airlines:
Flies from Lagos to Abuja,
Amsterdam,
Banjul,
Bombay,
Freetown, Kano,
Nairobi and Port Harcourt.
Ritetime Aviation and Travel
Services:
Under the contract with Ritetime
Aviation, World Airways operate
weekly flights to Lagos from New
York, Atlanta and Houston.
The Niger
river enters Nigeria at the
northwestern border with
Niger and
Benin, and empties into the
Atlantic Ocean in the south; forming
the largest delta in Africa.
In this
area you can find mangrove
forests, lagoons, and swamps;
and of course crocodiles and
snakes.
In the
northeast, the rivers drain into
Lake Chad.
Large African
mammals have mostly disappeared
from Nigeria, as a result of
man's heavy presence in the
country.
Abuja,
in the centre of Nigeria, replaced
Lagos -- the largest city -- as the
national capital in December 1991;
after 15 years of planning and
construction.
Planners sought to create a
national city in an ethnically
neutral area, where none of
Nigeria's social and religious
groups would be dominant.
Lagos
is built on several islands and
parts of the mainland, on the Bight
of Benin. It is still considered the
cultural and commercial capital of
Nigeria, and at times it seems as
though the whole country is in the
streets.
The old city is on western Lagos
island.
The main ethnic group of Lagos
are the Yoruba people, and it
was on this old Yoruba
settlement that early Portuguese
traders bestowed the name of one
of their home ports.
Landing in Lagos:
Lagos might not be the ideal
starting point for a trip to
West Africa, but at least the
Nigerians speak English, and to
travel West from here gives you
the beaches of
Gambia to relax on at the
end of it all.
Motherland Nigeria:
This is the mother of Nigerian
websites. Packed to the brims
with useful information on
Nigeria, with links out of the
site to help you further. If
you've still got a question, try
the
questions and answers
section.
Nigeria.com:
Nigerian community portal with
the latest news headlines,
discussions, chat, alumni,
business pages, classifieds,
naira rates, jobs and more.
Nigeria World:
Latest news headlines from
Nigeria and a messageboard
frequented by the eCommunity of
Nigerians worldwide.
The
official language of Nigeria
is English.
Hausa is the most widely spoken
of the African languages --
mainly in the north -- followed
by Yoruba, Ibo, Kanuri, and Tiv.
Nigeria has a rich cultural
tradition. Terracotta sculptures and
Benin bronze work from the region
are famous throughout the world.
Traditional storytelling
has also influenced the modern
written work of
Amos Tutuola,
Wole Soyinka,
Chinua Achebe, and
Ben Okri.
This House Has Fallen:
To understand Africa, you have
to understand Nigeria, and few
Americans understand Nigeria
better than Karl Maier. In the
tradition of Philip Gourevitch's
bestselling We Regret to Inform
You... and Redmond O'Hanlon's No
Mercy, This House Has Fallen is
a bracing, disturbing, evocative
report on the state of Africa's
most populous, potentially
richest, and most dangerously
dysfunctional nation.
Museums
The Nigerian government has
tried to stop the sale and
shipment of major Nigerian works
of art out of the country, and
has requested the return of art
taken out during the colonial
era.
This gives the visitor to
Nigeria a culturaly rich choice
of museums to visit in many
towns outside of Lagos: Benin
City, Ibadan, Ife, Ilorin, Jos,
and Kaduna.
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