All About Countries - Nigeria by allaboutcountries

Nigeria

Contents General Information

History 6 Nature 26 People 34

Nigerian Personalities

Economy & Transportation

Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

Usman dan Fodio

Wole Soyinka

Chinua Achebe

Omotola Jalade Ekeinde

Hakeem Olajuwon

Sunny AdĂŠ

Jay-Jay Okocha

Nwankwo Kanu

Herbert Macaulay

Culture 52

Nigerian Cuisine

Garri 85 Egusi Soup

Jollof Rice (Nigerian Style)

Pounded Yam (Iyan)

Akara 87 Efo Riro

Afang Soup

Nigeria Travel

Suya 89 Abuja 93 Pepper Soup

89 Lagos 96

Moi Moi

90 Kano 101

Zobo 91 Other Places

103

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General Information Location

Nigeria is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Cameroon to the east, Chad to the northeast, Niger to the north and Benin to the west. The country has access to the Gulf of Guinea at the Atlantic Ocean. Nigeria covers an area of 923.768 km2, has a density of about 197 persons/km2 and its capital is located in the city of Abuja, which hosts approximately 1.000.000 people. Nigeria’s national anthem is called “Arise, O Compatriots” and was written by John A. Ilechukwu, Eme Etim Akpan, B. A. Ogunnaike, Sota Omoigui and P. O. Aderibigbe on the music of the Nigerian Police Band under the directorship of B. E. Odiasse. The country’s motto is “Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress”. Nigeria is organized as a federal presidential republic and is divided into 36 states and 1 federal capital territory. The country’s total population reaches up to about 190.000.000 people. Other important Canadian citizens living abroad can be found in countries like: United States of America (260.000), United Kingdom (190.000), Cameroon (170.000), Ghana (60.000) or Italy (50.000). The national day of Canada is celebrated on 1 October every year. As of 2015, Nigeria is the world’s 20th largest economy, worth more than 500 billion $ and 1 trillion $ in terms of nominal GDP and purchasing power parity respectively. It overtook South Africa to become Africa’s largest economy in 2014. The 2013 debt to GDP ratio was 11%. Nigeria is considered to be an emerging market by the World Bank. It has been identified as a regional power on the African continent, a middle power in international affairs, and has also been identified as an emerging global power. Nigeria is a member of the MINT group of countries, which are widely seen as the globe’s next “BRIC-like” economies. It is also listed among the “Next Eleven” economies set to become among the biggest in the world. Nigeria is a founding member of the African Union and a member of many other international organizations, including the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations and OPEC. 4

Flag

The Nigerian flag was adopted after gaining its independence from Great Britain in 1960. The flag was chosen in 1959 out of more than 200 projects and the winning designer was a student from the city of Ibadan named Taiwo Akinkunmi. Originally, the flag consisted of three vertical stripes: two green stripes on the sides and one white in the middle. In addition, there was a red sun in the middle of the white stripe, but it was omitted later so only three stripes remained to this day. The flag should evoke the wavy Niger River between the greenery of the fields and the forests of Nigeria. Another interpretation says that green refers to the agricultural tradition of Nigeria and that the white stripe represents peace.

Coat of Arms

The Nigerian coat of arms was adopted in the day of independence, on 1 October 1960. It is composed

of a black shield with two wavy silver lines, which represent the two main rivers that cross Nigeria: the Niger and its tributary, the Benue. The black colour stands for the fertile Nigerian land. The shield is flanked by two silver horses, a symbol of dignity, and above it there is a red eagle with outstretched wings, which represents strength. The white and green band on which the eagle stays represent the colors of the flag of Nigeria. The colors of the national flag are strongly related to the agricultural wealth of Nigeria. The shield stands on a green field with red and white flowers that represent the Costus spectabilis species, the Nigerian national flower. At the bottom stands a gold ribbon with the national motto written in English: Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress. The motto is the only change that the coat of arms has experienced since its adoption, as it initially had only written Unity and Faith. The Nigerian Naira (â&#x201A;Ś) is the official currency of the country

History Prehistory and the first cultures

In prehistoric times, groups of black hunters, fishermen, shepherds and farmers gradually extended their territories throughout the Nigerian savannah to the strip of the tropical forest. Archaeological investigations have found evidence of human presence in the southeast of present day Nigeria (in Okigwe) that were dated at least 9.000 years before the Christian era. The first known culture that developed within the Nigerian territory was the Nok Culture, which flourished between the 6th and 1st centuries BC in the Benue river area. Later, between the 10th and 14th centuries AD, a new Nigerian culture started developing around Ife, the sacred city of the Yoruba people. The main characteristics of this culture are the beautiful human heads in brass and terracotta, whose admirable features recall those of the Greek art Benin Kingdom Art from the 6th century BC. These heads were used for the worship of their ancestors, especially in religious ceremonies, and also in the circumcision of young people. Also in the Igbo country, bronze and copper objects have been found, denoting the existence of an advanced culture between the 8th and 10th centuries AD. The first Igbo State was Nri, which arose around 900 AD. Linked to the Yoruba tradition, the Kingdom of Benin, located south-west of the Niger River delta, whose founder was, apparently, Eveka, a prince from Ife, emerged towards the 12th century. From there it seems that a technique that allowed the creation of a very valuable statuary art in bronze has emerged. Heads of kings and queens, animals and bas-reliefs adorned the facade of the royal palaces.

Hausa States

The northern part of the country was in contact with the neighboring kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, Kanem-Bornu and Songhai and, from the 14th century onwards, received Islamic influences. The chronicle of Kano reports the conversion of the reigning Kano dynasty by clerics from Mali, testifying to the Malian influence far to the east. The acceptance of Islam was progressive, and animistic beliefs persisted for a long time in the countryside. Kano and Katsina, thanks to the reputation of their schools and mosques, took an 6

Nok Sculpture

important part in the intellectual and cultural life of the Muslim world. In this area, the mixture of the Sudanese black population with Berbers and Arabs resulted in the apparition of the Hausa people, who created a political organization of city-states (Kano, Daura, Gobir, Katsina, Zaria, Biram, Rano) dedicated to salt, gold and slaves trade with the states of North Africa. It reached its peak between the 15th and 17th centuries. Thus, the city of Kano became an important commercial center. Until the 15th century, these small states were on the periphery of the great Sudanese empires of the time. They were under constant pressure from the Songhai Empire in the west and Kanem-Bornu in the east, to whom they paid a tribute. Armed conflicts usually had economic motives, such as when the Hausa coalition waged a war against Jukun and NupĂŠ in the center of the region, to bring back slaves or control the trade routes.

Oyo Empire

During the last third of the 15th century, the Nigerian coast was explored by the Portuguese. In 1485, Hausa double-spouted water jar art the expedition of JoĂŁo Afonso de Aveiro, who brought the first firearms and the first coconut seeds, arrived on the slave trade. At the same time, the first Christian in Benin. Since then, a continuous trade with the missionaries made their presence. The traffic of slaves Europeans has been initiated and it was mainly focused came to acquire such magnitude that the region became

Map of the Songhai Empire

known as the “Slave Coast”. When the Atlantic trade was established with the European powers, some local city-states, such as Benin and Yoruba Oyo, became politically and economically powerful, while others, like Ife, declined, although the latter retained its importance as a religious center. The Oyo Empire, which was located on the edge of the savannah between Ife and the Niger River, knew how to exploit its position to act as a commercial intermediary and was able to organize an army of cavalry in the free tsetse fly meadows. During the 17th century, Oyo imposed its supremacy on the kingdom of Nupé and on its Yoruba relatives, established further south, and much of Nigeria’s slave trade moved from Benin to ports such as Badagri and Lagos. The situation changed once with the arrival of the Fulani (or Peul) shepherds who, since a long time ago, had begun to penetrate with their cattle within the Hausa territory. In 1790, Usman dan Fodio, a Fulani who lived in the Hausa State of Gobir, broke relations with the rulers of the country and proclaimed the holy war against them, on the ground that the Hausa kings were worse than pagans. The movement led by Usman dan Fodio involved the replacement of the old Hausa dynasties by Fulani Emirs, the most important of which will be the Sokoto Caliphate.

João Afonso de Aveiro

Map of the Oyo Empire

Pre-colonial Period

Another important exporter of slaves was the confederation led by the Aro people, a clan of â&#x20AC;&#x153;mixedâ&#x20AC;? Igbo and Ibibio origin, whose homeland was in the region near the Cross River. Since the late 17th century, the Aro people established a complex network of alliances and treaties with many of the Igbo clans and their famous supreme deity or oracle, Chukwu, became highly respected. Thus, their religious influence as priests of the oracle, together with a combination of business acumen and diplomatic skill, allowed the Aro to create an important mercantile empire east of the Niger River. The Igbos served as commercial intermediaries with the coastal towns. They sold salt and bought them slaves to further sell them to the Europeans. They were a poorly structured community, although they practiced longdistance trade from an early age, as shown by the use of imported minerals for bronze crafts. In the Niger River Delta, small states also formed in order to control the benefits of trafficking. Thus, a multitude of small cities with an apparently republican or monarchical constitution started using the traditional institutions of the secret, cephalic societies to maintain an appearance of authority. The representative of the founding family of the city or village, which in the African tradition enjoyed a certain hierarchical preponderance, presided over the assembly

of the people. He used to be in charge of representing the community in front of foreigners, in whose eyes he appeared as a true leader, although most of the time he did not exercise the corresponding authority at all. In practice, power was in the hands of an oligarchy of wealth that relied on the aforementioned religious or military associations. Towards the end of the 18th century, after more than three centuries of European trade, on the coasts of present day Nigeria, European influence had not been felt too much and that of the religious missionaries had also been scarce. Only the Portuguese navigators had been interested in the expansion of Christianity. It was at that time that the decline of the Oyo Empire had begun and, with it, a time of great changes started to manifest. According to tradition, the breakdown of the Oyo Empire began around 1793 when Alaafin (King) Aole committed the sacrilege of attacking the city of Apomu, which depended on Ife, the holy city of the Yoruba people. When he was repudiated, he committed suicide around 1796 and an interregnum of about twenty years (1797-1817), which was a period of political and economic instability then followed. In fact, the situation co-responded in large part to the transformations that were beginning to take place in both the north and the south. In the north, the Hausaâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Fulani Muslims under the command of Usman

Sokoto Caliphate

Aro People

Dan Fodio, conquered the Kingdom of Nupé and, from there on, advanced towards the northern Yoruba region. The area in which Islam became the state religion was divided into emirates that were dependent on the Sokoto Caliphate. The capture of Ilorin in 1832 caused the definitive disintegration of the Oyo Empire. The Fulani barrier brought to an end the main source of slaves and the internal struggles finished submerging the country into confusion. The population was forced to massively emigrate and settle in the vicinity of the forested region near the New Oyo (Ọyọ Atiba), around 1837. In the south, starting from the 1810’s, several communities began to shake off the yoke of the Oyo Empire and fought against each other so that they could extend their borders and control trade routes. As a result of these wars, also known as The Yoruba Wars, a large number of captives were brought into slavery, making this area one of the most important slave markets in West Africa. Thus, new centers of power such as Ibadán, Abeokuta, Owo and Warri went on to 10

dispute the control of the slave trade at a time when the British Empire had not only abandoned the idea of slave trafficking but also engaged in chasing and hunting down ships of slave dealers. Under British pressure, the great majority of the remaining European maritime powers gradually accepted to declare slavery as illegal.

Abolition of Slavery and Explorations

The abolition of slave trafficking marked a decisive turn in all of southern Nigeria. The crisis was overcome by the re-adaptation of the heads of the coast who organized a lucrative market for palm oil, so the area came to be known as Oil Rivers. The initiator was King Opubu the Great of the Kingdom of Bonny (17921830), who took the initiative of combining oil with slaves traffic, basing his prosperity on a fleet of large canoes armed with small cannons. However, the power of the merchants of the Nigerian coast was progressively disrupted by the British advance. In 1830, the brothers Richard and John Lander, landed at Badagry in present day Nigeria, took

Usman Dan Fodio

The Lander brothers in Nigeria

Clappertonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s route to Bussa, then ascended the river for 160 km before descending to explore the Benue River and the Niger Delta, which was unexplored until then. Richard Lander had been the only survivor of Hugh Clappertonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expedition. The United Kingdom, which had not yet officially taken an interest in this region that seemed without a future, once it found out about the discovery of the Niger Delta, changed its decision. British merchants started to frequent the area more often and the British consul on the Fernando Poo Island (now Bioko Island) was appointed to deal with the affairs of the delta.

Lagos Colony

In 1861, motivating that they wanted to avoid confrontations between Africans, the city of Lagos was occupied and converted into a British colony. Twenty years later, the Consul of the United Kingdom in Fernando Poo resided in Calabar and had under his jurisdiction all the coastal territory from Lagos to Cameroon. Paradoxically, the great economic depression of 1873-1895 had a dynamic effect on European expansion: the exasperation of commercial rivalries led merchants and local administrators to promote a new political equilibrium. From 1851 to 12

1881, the price of palm oil fell from 40 to 22 ÂŁ per ton. Faced with the reduction of their profit margins, the Lagos companies (12 in 1880 and only 5 in 1892) were faced with two contradictory objectives: to increase the mass production and the price of the goods that they exchanged with the natives, at the same time. The crisis caused a commercial war not only between the English and the French, but also between Europeans and Africans. The native producing African states also took coercive measures. Fraud increased on both sides and commercial routes became more frequently attacked. At the same time, as many chiefs of inner Nigeria still made their businesses with smuggling slave trade, when it proved to be impracticable, they naturally resorted to their traditional practices: the looting of vassals and tribute. However, these methods seemed increasingly anachronistic in a world of international capitalism. This led to the intensification of the interventionist movement as British merchants claimed needless protection while business had been prosperous. The Lagos Chamber of Commerce, which was responsible for the ports of the metropolis, blamed the situation on the native leaders. The companies were supported by local administrators who were anxious to see the French and Germans advance in the neighboring

starting from 1877. He quickly took control of trade in the delta and formed the United African Co., which in 1882 became the National African Co. Ltd. To a certain extent, he repeated the operations made by Cecil Rhodes in South Africa and, in connivance with the British Government, traced the course of the Niger River that the French were trying to descend from the interior. However, when convoked at the Berlin Conference on Africa, the British Government decided that it was time to officially intervene. In 1884, the British Government sent an agent named Edward Hewett, which was provided with the title of Calabar consul, to officially conclude agreements with the local chiefs of the Niger Delta. The following year, the British Parliament ratified the agreements reached at the Berlin Conference and constituted the protectorate of the Nigerian Delta (Oil Rivers Protectorate), whose capital was in Calabar. For a long time, this protectorate remained merely theoretical. In reality, it was still Sir George Goldie who acted. It was his company that concluded agreements with the Hausa people, mainly with the Emir of Sokoto. In 1886, the enterprise managed to obtain the trade monopoly in the Lower Niger for the British Government, thus becoming the privileged Sir George Taubman Goldie (by Sir Hubert von Herkomer) Royal Niger Company Chartered and Limited. However, regions and eager to alleviate the mediocrity of the it couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t respect the commitment made in Berlin on colonial budget by inwardly expanding customs the control of navigation and internationalization of the revenues. A British businessman from the Isle of Man, river. Sir George Goldie had to defend his monopoly George Goldie, later known as Sir George Taubman against the French companies, who started to descend Goldie, became interested in the Niger River Delta the Niger River. A French expedition on the river was

Flag of the Royal Niger Company

rejected in 1889 by an allied tribe of the company.

Military Conquest

After the French subjugated the Kingdom of Dahomey, Goldie feared for his projects in the Hausa country and asked for help from Frederick Lugard, a former Indian army officer recruited by the African Lakes Company in 1888 and who has already proved his gifts as a military commander and administrator after pacifying Uganda. Lugard took command of the private army of Goldie’s company (subsidized, on the other hand, by the British Government) and in 1897 began to exercise his authority in the northern territory of what will soon be called Nigeria. The superficial treaties signed by the Royal Niger Company with the Emirs and the Sultan of Sokoto became practically useless. His campaigns against the Nupé people and against Ilorin, marked the decline of a company that was unable to establish serious commercial relations and was not in a position to assume, at the same time, a war of conquest against the natives and against the French ambitions. In 1898, a Franco-British agreement delimited the borders and allowed the French to access Chad. The Company lost its monopoly, although it continued its commercial activity under the name of United Africa Company,

Frederick Lugard and his wife

who associated with Unilever in order the exploit palm oil and practically was absorbed by it. On 1 January 1900, the Northern Nigeria Protectorate was created and Frederick Lugard was appointed High Commissioner. His task was, on the one hand, to put an end to the existing slave trade in the Fulani Emirates (for which he will need several years to almost achieve it) and, on the other hand, to block any attempt of the French to advance, in order to organize the protectorate. Lugard then instituted the typically British system of indirect administration and “native authorities”, thus limiting the intervention of British agents to the maintenance of the order, the commercial traffic with French possessions and the suppression of slave trafficking. The south of Nigeria also formed a protectorate and was separated, in principle, from the Lagos colony and protectorate. It extended all over the Yoruba country. The Kingdom of Benin, which had been occupied militarily by the British in 1897, was also annexed to the Southern Nigeria Protectorate. In 1906, the Lagos colony and protectorate merged with the Southern Nigeria Protectorate. Finally, in order to complete the unification, Sir Frederick Lugard, who at that time was in Hong Kong, was once again summoned. In 1912, he was entrusted with the role of Governor of the two protectorates, the Northern Nigeria Protectorate and the Southern Nigeria Protectorate. Two years later, he was appointed General-Governor of the new and unified Colonial Nigeria, which has just been created. The northern emirs were maintained in power, obviously under British supervision, as well as the Legislative Council of Lagos, which, in turn, had to incorporate the two African protectorates. The Governor-General of the

Map of Northern and Southern Nigeria Protectorates

Flag of British Colonial Nigeria

colony was to be assisted by a Grand Council composed of officials, who made up the majority. Out of these officials, seven were British businessmen and six were African chiefs. Europeans were prohibited from owning land, while traditional Koranic schools were maintained in the north and Christian missions in the south.

Nigeria as a British Colony

The colony was barely organized when the First World War broke out on August 1914. The Nigerian troops, under the command of British generals Charles Dobell and Frederick Cunliffe-Owen, actively intervened in the conquest of Cameroon and later in the East African Campaign. While the conflict lasted, the colonial government allocated a large part of the Nigerian budget to the imperial war efforts. In addition, Lugard took measures to increase tax collection, which caused a strong discontent, especially in the south, and provoked riots and protests against the British policy. In 1919, Hugh Clifford succeeded Lugard as GovernorGeneral. In 1920, the League of Nations assigned the north-west area of former German Cameroon to the United Kingdom, which administered it as part of Nigeria, and soon this country was transformed into one of the colonies that provided the greatest benefits to the United Kingdom. Located entirely outside the desert area, its resources were numerous: peanuts, millet and cotton were grown in the north and domestic animal breeding was an important activity. Palm oil,

cocoa and wood were obtained in the humid savannas and jungles from the south, besides important mineral resources. There were good ports and an excellent route of penetration through the Niger and Benue Rivers, besides an excellent network of railways. However, there was a big problem: the diversity of the populations. There were spoken more than 250 dialects and the only language of communication was English. Hence, Nigeria was called â&#x20AC;&#x153;The African Indiaâ&#x20AC;?. The country was the result of the division and efforts carried out by Lord Lugard before the First World War, and very few things linked the three regions in which the colony was subdivided. The North was mainly populated by the Hausas and the Fulani, but besides these Muslim people there were very diverse pagan populations (Tivi, Nupe). In the West there were the Yoruba people and their kinfolk: the Edo-Bini, Muslims and Protestant Christians, while in the East there was a majority of Igbos, among whom the action of the Christian missionaries, mainly Catholics, had great successes. To these ethnic and religious differences, there were added those of evolution. As elsewhere, the coastal regions, who had been in contact with the Europeans for a long time, took advantage in the fields of westernization and education. Numerous Nigerians from those areas, mostly Igbos, studied and even obtained doctorate degrees in European and American universities, gradually emerging a well-educated elite. 15

Ergo, the Igbos started occupying, according to their level of training and their spirit of initiative, important positions in public administration, in companies and in security forces, gradually spreading throughout the country. But this, together with a certain tendency of being considered indispensable, made their compatriots disregard them. The Igbos also provided Nigeria with its first great political leader, Nnamdi Azikiwe. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, familiarly called “Zik” was an Igbo born in Northern Nigeria. After studying in Pennsylvania, he returned to Lagos in 1934 and became an active member of the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) and founded several newspapers, including West African Pilot. However, in 1941 a Yoruba individual, Obafemi Awolowo, who had studied in London, removed Azikiwe from the control of the youth movement and subsequently reorganized it as a predominantly Yoruba political party under the name of Action Group. In 1944, Azikiwe returned to the Igbo country and founded a political movement there, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, which called for Nigeria’s independence within the framework of the Commonwealth. The northern territories, for their part, were left out of the political movement. The emirs, in the end, accommodated themselves very well to the British tutelage and didn’t expect anything good from total independence, from a democratization of the

Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe

masses and from a diffusion of political activity.

Independence

In the years that followed the Second World War, nationalism spread among Africans and Great Britain began to adopt measures so that these states would begin to participate in the administration. In 1946, Governor Sir Arthur Richard promulgated a constitution called “The Richard Constitution”, which consecrated the division of the country in three regions: the North, the West and East, while each one would’ve had an autonomous assembly. The capital, Lagos, would have formed a separate district. In addition, it established a federal Legislative Council whose members were almost totally appointed. The introduction of the federal principle indicated the definitive recognition of the country’s diversity. However, although realistic in its assessment of the situation in Nigeria, the “The Richard Constitution” was considered by its author as a transitional institution. It undoubtedly intensified regionalism as an alternative to political unification and ended up not satisfying anyone. A new governor, Sir John Macpherson, tried to channel the claims for greater autonomy, which

Governor Sir Arthur Richard

resulted in the convocation of an inter-parliamentary conference in Ibadan in 1950, where the terms of a new constitution were drafted. The so-called “Macpherson Constitution”, which came into force the following year, created a federal House of Representatives, composed of a president and 184 members elected by the regional assemblies, as well as a central government composed of six official members and twelve members elected by the House of Representatives. Subsequent revisions incorporated into the new “Lyttelton Constitution”, enacted in 1954, firmly established the federal principle and paved the way to independence. This constitution established a Council of Ministers under the presidency of the British Governor-General (Sir James Wilson Robertson from June 1955) who represented the Queen. The number of ministers was 10, three from each of the regions and one from Cameroon. In May 1957, the Constitutional Conference of Nigeria was held in London and chaired by the British Minister of Colonies, Lennox-Boyd, in order to prepare a new series of reforms leading to the country’s independence. Among its agreements, the convenience of appointing a federal prime minister was reached and, on 30 August 1957, the prime minister of the North region, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, was appointed

to that position. His government led the country for the next three years, operating with almost complete autonomy in internal affairs. This type of organization favored the British interests since the artificial union of very different people was a sure cause of discord and weakness in the country. The tribal leaders of the northern region also benefited from this organization as they were the most populous and could dominate the House of Representatives. Finally, on 1 October 1960, Nigeria became an independent state. On that day, in a colorful ceremony in Lagos, Princess Alexandra of Kent, representing Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, handed over to the Nigerian Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the documents that ratified the independence. The ceremony was attended by numerous foreign personalities representing about sixty countries, including the New York governor Nelson Rockefeller. Nigeria became the largest sovereign nation in Africa and the 16th state of the continent that gained independence that same year. Only one incident ruined the celebrations for the great event: a few days before, tribes from the northern region unleashed a series of violent acts due to the tyrannical behavior of certain local chiefs. There were almost a hundred dead and

Jaja Wachuku (left) as First indigenous Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives together with Prime Minister Balewa and Princess Alexandra of Kent

several hundred detainees. The new country adopted the monarchical form of government. The head of the state was the British sovereign, represented by a governor-general, while the head of the government was the prime minister. Following the resignation of British governor Sir James Robertson, the office was taken over by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, while Tafawa Balewa continued to act as Prime Minister. The constitution in force prior to a federal structure had a central authority and the three partially autonomous regions (North, West and East) already mentioned. The central government had jurisdiction over foreign relations, defense, banks, customs and communications. The parliament comprised two chambers: a House of Representatives elected by universal suffrage and a Senate composed of twelve members for each region, plus four for Lagos and other four designated.

of Nigeria on 16 November 1960 and then president of the country in 1963 following the proclamation of the republic. He appointed Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as prime minister. According to the first republican constitution of 1963, the country remained part of the Commonwealth. As soon as independence was proclaimed, ethnic tensions started being felt in the country. These tensions affected the 3 main ethnic groups which dominate the autonomous provinces established in 1954: the Igbos, an ethnic group located mainly in the East and composed out of a majority of Christians and animists; the Hausa, an ethnic group populating the north of the country and composed mainly of Muslims and the Yoruba, an ethnic group populating the west of the country and composed of both Muslims and Christians. In the 1965 elections, the Nigerian National Alliance, along with the Yoruba conservative party and other Hausa conservatives, largely defeated the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA), an Igbo party The First Republic Nnamdi Azikiwe, former governor of the East, allied with Hausa progressives. Considering that the one of the three Nigerian provinces since the Lyttelton votes were fraudulent, leftist Igbo officers overthrew Constitution of 1954, first became governor-general the government and placed General Johnson AguiyiIronsi as head of the state on 15 January 1966. AguiyiIronsi had put an end to federalism on 24 May 1966 and strengthened the domination of the capital, but tensions continued throughout the country. An antiIgbos rebellion erupted in the North, triggering a mass exodus to the Eastern Province. According to Jean Guisnel, “the massacres caused more than 30.000 deaths until October”.

The dictatorship of Yakubu Gowon

Aguiyi-Ironsi was assassinated on 29 July 1966, and another coup d’etat established a federal military government. The junta, predominantly Muslim, placed a Christian, General Yakubu Gowon, at the head of the state, with the mission of restoring peace in the country and establishing a civil regime for his government. In the north of the country, mostly populated by Muslims, persecutions and pogroms were perpetrated on the Christian Igbo ethnicity, despite attempts by Lagos to calm the situation. General Gowon modified the administrative structures of the country, which aroused the opposition of Igbos who started losing their oil, which was present mainly east of the Delta and was the object of exploitation by British companies Shell and British Petroleum (BP). Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the military governor of the Eastern Igbo region, refused Sir18 Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the first Prime Minister of Independent Nigeria

Nigeria chose to remain part of the British Commonwealth

to recognize Yakubu Gowon’s authority and the tension between Christians and Muslims started rising again, putting the country on the verge of a civil war. In January 1967, the Aburi Accord was proposed in Nigeria after a Ghanaian mediation. The idea of dividing the country into regions was abandoned in order to establish a federal republic composed of twelve states. General Gowon proposed for his part a new administrative division that would have deprived the Igbos of most of the oil resources. Ojukwu rejected those proposals and said that all revenues generated in the eastern region would be requisitioned by the governorate in terms of compensation for the cost of the tens of thousands of Igbos that fled in the North.

Civil War and 1975 coup d’etat

After long negotiations between Gowon and Ojukwu took place, no agreement was reached and in early May 1967, the federal government initiated a postal and telecommunications blockade against the East region, which, weeks before, had already frozen the shipment of federal taxes to Lagos. The events deteriorated in such a way that on 27 May, Gowon established by decree that Nigeria would change its federal structure and the country would be divided into twelve regions instead of four. This implied the division of the East region, homeland of the Igbo people, into three separate districts. On 30 May, Ojukwu retaliated by proclaiming the independence of his region with the

name of the Republic of Biafra, thus initiating a bloody civil war that lasted for 31 months. Like in Congo, where the rich copper province of Katanga wanted to separate itself from the Congolese state, Ojukwu tried to convert the oil-rich area of Nigeria into an independent country. Therefore, the interests of foreign companies did not stop influencing these events. The Biafrans initiated the attack and occupied most of the area between the cities of Benin and Lagos, hoping that the population from the West would make a common front with them against those from the North. However, this intrepid move failed and by the end of the 1967 summer, the civil war turned in favor of the federal government. Enugu, the capital of Biafra fell on 10 October. From then on, the advance of the federal troops was continuous, although slow. The military campaign turned into a series of sackings and massacres of which the civilian population was the victim. Despite the recognition it received from some countries (Tanzania, Zambia, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Haiti) and the military aid it received, mainly from Portugal and France, the Republic of Biafra couldn’t overcome the support that the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union provided to Gowon. The fall of Port Harcourt on 24 May 1968 has cut off the secessionist forces’ access to the sea and the republic was reduced to an enclave in the heart of the Igbo country, fulfilled with hungry refugees. The fate of the Biafra population shocked the world, but 19

despite the spectacular aerial attempts of international aid, a disastrous famine occurred. At the beginning of the 1968 summer it was estimated that about 3.000 people died of starvation daily. In April 1969, federal forces seized the cities of Umuahia, the administrative capital of Biafra, and Owerri. The latter was recovered on 25 April by the Biafrans who, in the month of May, launched a desperate offensive with the aim of prolonging the existence of the separatist nation for as much as possible. In the same month, Biafra began to bomb Nigeria’s military airfields and oil installations,

causing significant damage, despite the rudimentary quality of its aircraft attack: North American T-6 Texan, piloted by Portuguese, and Malmö Flygindustri MFI-9B Swedish made Minicom, which Count Carl Gustav von Rosen piloted against the Nigerian nerve centers. The Nigerian federal forces launched their final offensive against Biafra in the second week of January 1970. After reuniting their government for the last time, the Biafra leader, Ojukwu, ceded the power to his Chief of Staff, General Philip Effiong, and on the 11th of January fled the country by plane for Côte d’Ivoire.

General Yakubu Gowon

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu

Officially, the conflict ended on 15 January 1970, when Effiong declared the end of the existence of the Republic of Biafra and surrendered directly to General Gowon. There were no reprisals against the defeated and the Government of Nigeria treated the former inhabitants of Biafra better than they expected. As the war came to an end, a certain degree of national reconciliation was achieved after a few years. However, nothing could erase the scars, nor the effects of a cruel civil war that cost approximately one million lives, the vast majority being civilians and direct victims of hunger.

On 29 July 1975, Gowon was overthrown by a military coup while attending a meeting of the OAU (Organization of African Unity) in Kampala, Uganda, and was replaced by General Murtala Mohammed, who in October 1975 promised to return the power to the civilians. He also promised that a new constitutional text would be drafted. Mohammed was assassinated on 13 February 1976 in a coup attempt led by Lt. Col Buka Suka Dimka. He was succeeded by General Olusegun Obasanjo, who continued the plans of his predecessor to re-establish a civil government. In that same year, seven new states were created and the construction of a new capital in Abuja, in the center of the country, to replace the overcrowded Lagos was announced. In 1977, a Constituent Assembly was elected to discuss the draft of the new constitution, which was approved in September of the following year, when the prohibition on the activity of political parties was also abrogated. On the other hand, the Obasanjo government experienced progressive economic problems that forced it to adopt austerity measures, which provoked a student opposition.

Flag of the Republic of Biafra

Map of the short-lived Biafra independent state

The Second Republic

Finally, in 1979, five political parties competed in a series of elections in which Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) was elected president. The five parties obtained representation in the National Assembly. In August 1983, Shagari and the NPN obtain another great electoral victory with a majority of seats in the National Assembly. However, the elections were clouded by violence and fraud accusations. The coup d’état of 31 December 1983 led by General Muhammadu Buhari ended with the ouster of the democratically elected government. Another coup d’état in 1985 placed General Ibrahim Babangida in power. The adoption of a series of drastic measures to alleviate the economic deterioration caused great discomfort among the population, which reflected in serious disturbances. In 1988, a process was initiated to re-establish a civil government, authorizing the formation of political parties with intentions of holding elections in 1990, but they were banned in that same year. Although 22

Babandiga later reaffirmed his promise to return the power to civilians, the democratic process was carried out under rigid control. After all the existing political organizations had been dissolved, two parties that would be the only ones that could’ve participated in the presidential elections were created: the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC). Both were financed and directly supervised by the government. In January 1990, President Babandiga dismissed the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, General Domkat Bali, considered the third most powerful man in the country. Babandiga’s power and the distrust on the part of the population have increased, the latter accusing him of wanting to “Islamize” the country. Apparently this was the reason that motivated a group of officers led by Major Gwaza Orkar to try to overthrow him in April 1990 through a coup d’etat, the seventh since the independence of the country. However, the coup failed and many people that were involved in it were arrested

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo with US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

and put on trial. In July, despite international requests, 42 people of those involved in the attempt, including Gwaza Orkar, were executed and in the second phase of the trial, out of the 160 detainees, 27 of them were sentenced to death.

The Third Republic

In January 1993, the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s government was taken over by the Transitional Council, as well as the National Security and Defense Council. In June 1993, presidential elections were held. The leader of the opposition and head of the Social Democratic Party, Moshood Abiola, won the elections, but the military regime annulled the result, imprisoned Abiola and handed the presidency to General Sani Abacha. In March 1995, a new coup attempt took place and in November of the same year, the military dictatorship headed by Abacha ordered the execution of nine leaders of the Ogoni ethnic group. After the execution took Muhammadu Buhari

Chief Femi Fani-Kayode (Left) with former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida in Lagos in 2010

place, Nigeria became internationally isolated as the European Union withdrew its ambassadors from the country and Nigeria was temporarily expelled from the Commonwealth, an organization that only reinstated it in 1999. International pressure forced the Abacha government to make steps towards democratization and, in December 1997, elections were held for the representatives of the 36 states of the nation in order to form an Assembly, in which the United Nigeria Congress Party supported by General Abacha won. However, the unexpected death of the general in June 1998 plunged the country into a vacuum of power.

The Fourth Republic and Contemporary Nigeria

In 1999, the first democratic elections in 16 years were won by Olusegun Obasanjo, who was reelected in the turbulent elections of 2003. In 2007, agitated elections brought to power the appointed successor of Olusegun Obasanjo: Umaru Yar’Adua, who died on 5 May 2010. His vice-president, Goodluck 24

Jonathan, succeeded him then. Since 2002, and more particularly since 2009, the Nigerian government has been confronted in North-East Nigeria with the Boko Haram movement, a Salafist movement advocating a radical and rigorous Islam. The Boko Haram was at the origin of numerous attacks and massacres against the civil population. The year 2014 was marked by the rise of the Boko Haram group, which kidnaped more than 200 high school girls, causing global scale reactions of indignation. In early 2015, Boko Haram razed several towns and villages in the north-east of the country. This series of attacks pushed Nigeria’s neighbors (Chad, Niger and Cameroon) to intervene against the Islamist sect. In 2015, Boko Haram pledges allegiance to the Islamic State. Following the presidential elections of 2015, marked by tensions and especially by the war against Boko Haram in the north, Muhammadu Buhari was elected. This was the first time in Nigeria’s contemporary history that a state leadership transition was made via democratic means.

General Sani Abacha

Goodluck Jonathan

Nigerian Army fighting against Boko Haram

Nature Landforms

Nigeria is located in West Africa on the Atlantic Ocean and covers an area of 923.768 km2 with an east-west and north-south extension of 1.200 and 1.100 kilometers, respectively. A striking feature of the country is represented by the south-eastern extension of the Niger River, respectively its south-western tributary extension, the Benue River, which flow together over the territory of Nigeria and drain into the Gulf of Guinea in the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta is one of the largest river deltas on the earth and extends over an area of approximately 70.000 km². The approximately 850 km long coastal strip on the Gulf of Guinea is characterized by lagoons (in the west, for example, the Lagos Lagoon) and mangrove swamps. It reaches its largest extent in the Niger Delta. The country’s morphology is broadly characterized by the contrast between the mountainous or occupied by highlands Center and North and the South, which is predominantly flat or even amphibious. The Niger and Benue Rivers mark the demarcation between these two parts of the country. The rivers flow towards Lokoja where they flow into one another. To the west of the country, the territory is occupied by the Yoruba Plateaus, which are directly linked to the Benin and Togo peaks. In the east, on the other hand, besides

Boat on Niger River

the Benue River, the Shebshi mountain ranges (with Mount Dimlang at 2.042 m) also link with Cameroon’s Adamawa state. All of South Nigeria consists of an almost continuous range of recent alluvial soils formed by continuous water courses, which the vast Niger Delta divides into two: to the west the formerly known Oil Rivers region (which gained its name due to the intense trade of palm oil) and to the east the Delta region of the Cross River. The country’s highest point is Chappal Waddi at 2.419 meters. The western coastal region is a succession of islets, coastal lagoons and sandy banks that encircle an internal seamlessly waterway between the border with Benin and the Niger Delta. It is a complex and inhospitable region surrounded by mangroves, which finds its natural economic and human center in the vast Lagos Lagoon. The landscape changes considerably further north in the Yoruba territory, where it is quite

Benue River

Mount Chappal Waddi

rocky. As it is scarcely inhabited and difficult to cultivate in the western region of the country, on the other hand it is extremely populated in the central part, which for many centuries has benefited from considerable trade with the coast and has profoundly been affected by the influences of European colonization. The many market centers, many of which have now become urban agglomerations and the dense network of road connections testify the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s importance. Here it begins the Cocoa Belt and although the soils are not particularly suitable for it, cocoa culture employs about 3/5 of the entire population. The Niger River Delta was long considered to be one of the unhealthiest areas in whole Africa. For some decades rice fields have been spreading, but the great wealth of the region is made up of the exploitation of oil fields. To the east of the delta, the coast resembles the typical aspect of western Africa shores, but it is more uniform and instead of the lagoons there are numerous watercourses and creeks. This south-eastern region, which is largely part of the Cross River Basin, is scattered with farms and fishing villages. This is the heart of the Biafra or more precisely Owerri, a vast, poorly drained and poorly landscaped lateral region,

yet densely populated although the civil war has subverted any demographic value. Almost everywhere, the old shrubby forest has been replaced with oil palm plantation which despite the poor soil conditions grows well due to the warm and humid climate. To the north, the dual Niger-Benue River system encloses a vast highlands and plateau region, which in turn includes several sub-regions like the Jos Plateau, the Hausa and Bauchi highlands, the north-west plateau and the vast Sahel landscapes of Bornu. The Jos Plateau dominates the central region and is bordered by abrupt rocky granite stumps engraved by deep gorges. At an average altitude of 1.280 meters, it is widely considered to be a massif that shows numerous and well preserved volcanic cones. Near the border with Niger lies the Sokoto region, a flat and uniform territory run across by a network of dry waterways for several months a year.

Lagos Lagoon

Niger River Delta as seen from the satellite 27

The poor soils and widespread aridity have always kept this region within relatively low demographic values. However, dryland farming of peanut, cotton, sugar cane and tobacco plantations bring a special value to

the region. To the north-east, near the Chad Lake Basin, there are extremely monotonous and arid landscapes. The only fertile soils are located along the Yobe River. On the banks of the Chad Lake, rice cultivation alternates

Open Plateau in Jos

Mambilla Plateau

in the dry season with sorghum.

Climate

The climate of Nigeria can be presented in two different ways: the typical climate of the coast and that of the central and northern part of the country. The climate of Nigeria on the coast is an equatorial climate and in the center and north it is a rather tropical one. Although the northern zone can be classified as tropical dry due to the influence of the Sahara desert, broadly speaking, it can be said that the Nigerian climate is a warm climate that has low thermal amplitude throughout the year. The Nigerian climate of the coast is a typical tropical forest climate with a very high humidity (sometimes unbearable) due to the mass of

equatorial air coming from the Atlantic Ocean. It is also a climate that is characterized by heavy rainfall. These can range between 2.000 to 4.000 mm per year, depending on the area and the season. In the months from March to November, rains occur more often. As for temperatures, in this coastal territory of the country there are few differences throughout the year, the average temperature being around 26ºC to 28ºC. This small variation is also maintained between day and night. It should be noted that the more than 800 km of Nigerian coastline is hardly suitable for tourism. Only around the city of Lagos are the main suitable beaches of the country. Lagos is the most populous city in the country and the old capital of Nigeria. Its coastline, with crystal clear waters is one of its main tourist attractions.

Nigeria’s Köppen Climate Classification

Also noteworthy are its large caves, perfect for boat trips in the Lagos Lagoon. Towards the north of the country, the climate in Nigeria is changing considerably. In the north there is a tropical savannah climate with a very long dry season. This heat is accentuated by the warm air mass coming from the Sahara Desert, which carries very dry and dust loaded winds known as harmattan. The maximum annual average temperatures can vary between 18ยบC and 36ยบC with strong drops of temperature during the nights. As for rainfall, the annual average drops to 600700 mm. From April to September, rains occur more often. In the central zone of the country, the climate is very similar to that of the northern part, although with much more moderate temperatures throughout the year. As for rainfall, they range between 1.200-1.600 mm per year. Abuja is the capital of the country, located in the middle of the African savannah, at the confluence of the Benue and Niger rivers. In the surroundings of the city there is the Aso Rock monolith, having a height of almost a thousand meters. It was created over the years by water erosion and is very worthwhile to go visit and see its impressive size from up close. One could say that the best time to visit Nigeria is from December to March. Although it is the driest time, the humidity is much lower than during the rest of the year and the rains are more moderate. Outside the agglomerations of the city, the Gashaka-Gumti National Park and the Cross River National Park are the lungs of Nigeria. In the GashakaGumti National Park, bordering Cameroon, Waddi

The sand-dust from the harmattan coming from the Sahara gives this Mosque in Abuja, Nigeria a nice glow

Chappal is the highest peak of the West African country. Inside the park, between its valleys and rivers, fishing is commonly practiced. It is also characterized by the abundant bird observatories that it has. On the other hand, the Cross River in the south-eastern part of the country houses the last vestige of the tropical forest ecosystem of Nigeria. If the nature and climate of Nigeria are known for something it is for the Wikki and Ikogosi springs, where water is emanating from the earth itself. The Wikki springs are characteristic for their warm waters and abound in the state of Bauchi, in the middle of the savannah and around the Gagi River. The Ikogosi springs are located in the Ekiti state and can have either hot or cold water. These flow from the hills and come together creating a continuous stream.

Ikogosi Warm Water Spring

rainforest, especially in the southeast of the country, were cleared for agriculture and woodworking (such as mahogany, iroko) and then replaced with oil palm plantations. Towards the north, wet savannah, tall grassland, baobab and carob trees all grow together. In the dry savannah, further to the north, there can be found only a few trees, most of them growing by the rivers. Acacia and Hyphaene are found in the dry north-east, near the Chad basin. According to estimates, Nigeria has lost more than 80% of its original forest area. The remaining parts have now been designated as protected areas and are located in wildlife and national parks such as Kainji National Park, but the protection measures seem to be insufficient or are being paid too little attention. The Afara tree is a hardwood West African tree that is native to Nigeria. It is a tall tree and is usually cultivated for its timber. The tree has light colored hardwood. Afara wood is slightly bright and also Costus Spectabilis, the national flower of Nigeria produces a delicate odor. The Nigerian Walnut Tree can be found not only in Nigeria but also in other parts Flora Depending on the various amounts of of Africa. It has several other names, including Alona precipitation, there are different vegetation zones in Wood, Anamila, BIgbolo, Bombulu, Congowood, Nigeria. In the coastal areas, mangrove forests and Dibetou, Dubin Biri, Man, Eyan, Ghana Walnut, Lifaki wetlands predominate. Large parts of the tropical Muindo, Lovoa, Lovoa Wood, Mpengwa and Nigerian

Baobab Tree and Truck in Nigeria

nation with the most population, with almost twice as many inhabitants as Egypt, the next most populous country on the continent, pressure from its inhabitants has accelerated environmental deterioration and a long history of unstable governments has hampered efforts to conserve natural resources. Nigeria has lost about 84% of its forested area and about 90% of its wet forests. What still exists is found in small reserves. Forests now cover 12% of the country’s surface.

Fauna

Vegetation Map of Nigeria

Gold Walnut to name a few . These trees are commonly used for chairs, stools, tables and cupboards. This tree can grow up to 130 meters in height and its smell can be compared to that of a cedar. Along the coast and in the Niger Delta, there are marshes of fresh and brackish water that few kilometers farther make way to tropical forests. In the more densely populated regions, forest vegetation was replaced by palm trees. In the south-west, large areas were cleared for the plantation of cocoa and rubber trees. Blessed with baobab, tamarind trees and carob trees, the savannah occupies the northern area of the forest zone. The region of Lake Chad presents semidesert conditions and is home to several species of acacia and African palm. Riparian forests are also common in the open savannah of the northern regions. In areas of greater population density, such as Sokoto, Kano and Katsina, human intervention in the form of burning and depletion of the land destroyed most of the vegetation. As a result, there is a gradual advance of the Sahara Desert in the northern states of Nigeria. Nigeria has an organized system of nature reserves and national parks, in addition to the forest management system. However, most of the management is carried out at the state level, the law is not enforced, there is no infrastructure for the protection system and abuses on protected land are common. Nigeria’s important wetlands include vast mangrove swamps along the coast, fluvial zones and extensive flood plains. However, the protection of these wetlands is limited, except around Lake Chad. As Nigeria is the African 32

The once very rich wildlife species of Nigeria were greatly decimated following the destruction of their habitat. This affected mainly species from the tropical rainforest which include forest elephants, African wild dogs, various species of monkeys such as mandrills or gorillas, sea cat species, African forest buffalo, okapis, leopards and red-eared pigs. In the savannah there live various antelope species, giraffes, crocodiles and hippos. Nigeria’s birdlife includes various species of parrots and prey birds. In swampy and jungle regions crocodiles and snakes can be found. The large African mammals that were characteristic to Nigeria have largely disappeared because of the numerous human settlements. There are still some antelopes, camels and hyenas in the north. Wildlife hunt for food is also threatening the existence of these animals as well as the greater use of farmlands. Yet hippos and crocodiles are quite commonly found in the largest rivers crossing Nigeria. African wildlife includes camels, antelopes, hyenas, lions and giraffes in the savannas and elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees (one of the rare countries in which these species can be found), as well as a large variety of birds and reptiles in the rainforest. There are also leopards, many other types of monkeys, wolves and African wild boars both in the savannah and in the forest. In the northern savannah, the guinea-pig lives in profusion. In the rivers, the amount of crocodiles and hippos is enormous. Four main types of habitats exist within Nigeria’s borders: savannah grasslands, tropical

Hippo Lake in Kainji National Park

Chimpanzees are an endagered species in Nigeria

forests, mountain plateaus, and mangrove swamps. The savannah grasslands are filled with herbivorous species of animals such as warthogs and elephants. Carnivorous animals such as jackals and wild dogs also dwell within these places, besides lions, cheetahs and leopards. Where rivers run through the grasslands, hippopotamuses and crocodiles are common. In Nigeria there are different kinds of snakes, the most common ones being the Python, Green snake and the anaconda which can be scarcely seen in many places in Nigeria. The mangrove swamps and tropical forests

The Eagle is the national animal of Nigeria

are home to many reptiles, some of which are unique to Nigeria. The worm lizard and the aptly named Nigerian crag gecko are among the reptilian species unique to the area, as well as several species of fish in the waters of the country. The Jos Plateau Indigo bunting and the rock firefinch are unique birds that can be found in Nigeria. Two national parks located in the country serve as wildlife preserves. They offer a safe habitat for many vulnerable and endangered species. These parks are the Kainji Lake National Park near Lagos and Yankari National Park, located in the Bauchi State in the north-eastern part of the country. Endangered species of animals from Nigeria include the chimpanzee, the West African gorilla, the red-bellied monkey and the savannah swamp shrews.

Okapi

People Language

Nigeria has a large number of languages. It is the first African country in terms of number of languages and has a remarkable “linguistic mega-diversity”. A review conducted by SIL International reported that 529 languages are spoken across the territory of Nigeria, out of which 522 are still spoken nowadays and 7 extinct. Three African languages have the status of major languages: Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. They are taught in the school system, where each student must learn at least one of them. Other languages have the status of minor languages and primary education begins with one of these. Yoruba and Igbo are Nigerian-Congolese

languages while Hausa is Afro-Asian. Kanuri, spoken in the north-east, mainly in the state of Borno, is a language that is part of the Nilo-Saharan family. The three major African language families are thus present in the country. On the other hand, in some parts of Nigeria, certain ethnic groups speak more than one language. While still waiting for the three major African languages of Nigeria to obtain an official status, Article 55 of the constitution states that: “The affairs of the country are conducted in English as well as in Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba when appropriate measures are being taken for this purpose”. Nigeria’s official language, English, has been chosen to facilitate the cultural and linguistic unity of the country. This choice was related to the fact that a small part of the Nigerian population, especially its elite, spoke English following the British colonization that ended in 1960. Although most ethnic groups prefer to communicate in their own language, English is used in

Linguistic Groups of Nigeria

particular for commercial transactions and for official purposes. English, however, remains representative for a small minority of the country’s urban elite and it isn’t spoken at all in some areas of the country, including rural ones. The majority of Nigeria’s population lives in rural areas, so the major languages of communication in the country remain the indigenous languages. Some peoples, including the Yoruba and Igbos, have standardized language derivatives from a number of different dialects and are now widely spoken by these ethnic groups. The Nigerian Pidgin, often simply called pidgin, broken English or pidgin English, is a popular lingua franca (a Creole language based on English lexicon), with more or less regional influences on its dialect and slang. It is widely spoken in the Niger Delta regions, mainly in Warri, Sapele, Port Harcourt, Agenebode, Edo and Benin City.

Thus, although English is the official language of the country, it can also be considered as a foreign language, as it is a language poorly mastered by the entire Nigerian population. The great linguistic diversity of the country is proving to be an obstacle to a true linguistic unity. In addition, Nigeria is an English-speaking “enclaved” state between the Frenchspeaking states of Benin, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. As a result, trade with these countries is important, hence the usefulness of spreading French among Nigerians. It was during the 1990’s that the Nigerian federal government expressed its desire to bring French culture in the country by considering compulsory education in French or even instituting French as a second official language. French has become the second compulsory foreign language after English. The development process of introducing French as a

Map of the main languages spoken across Nigeria, Benin and Cameroon

secondary compulsory language has nevertheless been slowed following the death of dictator General Sani Abacha, the rapprochement of Nigeria with the United States and because of the encountered difficulties (shortage of French teachers, the population’s lack of interest, etc.). In 2014, despite these uncertainties, the country has still put the development of Francophonie at the heart of its regional ambitions, and nowadays the learning of French is progressing despite the shortage of teachers. The Francophone environment is one of the driving forces of French teaching and learning in Nigeria. Finally, awareness of its importance is growing rapidly among the ruling classes and the middle classes.

Religion

In Nigeria there is a huge variety of religious communities. A 2003 Nigerian study found out that 50.5% of its citizens were Muslims and 48.2% were Christians. According to numerous other estimates, about 50% of Nigerians are Muslims and between 40 and 46% are Christians, while the remainder persons are committed to traditional African religion. Of the up to 48% Christians, 74% of them are Protestants, 25% Catholics and 1% Orthodox. By contrast, according to individual Christian estimates, Christians are said to have a very thin majority of 50.8% in the country. The Christian Council of Nigeria represents Nigerian Christians that are mainly living in the south of the country and acts within the Christian Association of Nigeria umbrella organization.

The Muslims live mainly in the north of the country, but there are also Muslim majorities in the south-western states of Oyo, Ogun, Osun and up to Lagos, which are predominantly inhabited by Yoruba. Traditionally, Islam in Nigeria is strongly influenced by the Sufi brotherhoods. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, the Sufi orders of Qādirīya and Tidschānīya experienced a strong popularization. In the area of the confluence of the Niger and Benue Rivers, the Niass-Tidschānīya order founded by Ibrahim Baye Niass is widespread. Qādirīya and Tidschānīya, however, fought each other in the 1950’s and 1960’s, thing which also led to violent clashes. Large populations of Nigeria live polygamous due to this particular religious imprint. It is estimated that 40% of the married women from the north-east of the country share a husband. Most polygamous marriages are conducted by wealthy men of higher age, and to a lesser extent by destitute young men. Under the influence of Abubakar Gumi, who was appointed Grand Kadi of northern Nigeria in 1962 and heavily criticized the practices and religious concepts of the Sufi brotherhoods in books and on the radio, the Islamic identity in Nigeria shifted away from the Sufik in the 1970’s to an explicitly anti-Sufi attitude. A particularly important role was played by the Izala Society which was founded in Jos in March 1978 and between 1978 and 1980 had violent clashes with the two Sufi brotherhoods and was recognized by the state as a corporation in 1985. In cities like Kano, Islam has increased sharply and Wahhabi classics from Saudi

Nigeria has English as its official language although French has been tried to be introduced

Abuja National Mosque

Arabia experienced a strong spread. After the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Shia revolutionary teachings also found their way into Nigeria, further complicating the conflict between the various Islamic groups. A first initiative to overcome the discord among the Nigerian Muslims was the so-called Sokoto Accord of 1988.

National Cathedral in Abuja

Temple of áť&#x152;sun in Osogbo

Although scarcely less than 10% of the population practices traditional religions, the transitions between them and the popular African Islam, the West African Christianity and their local variants are fluid. Ancestor worship and fetishism play a big role in both Nigerian Christians and Muslims communities. In northern Nigeria, the obsession cults for the Bori and Dodo spirits are among the Muslim majorityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most despised traditions. In the south, the influence of the Yoruba religion becomes evident during the festivities from the holy city of Ile-Ife. In the past there were often disputes between the various religious groups. Since the democratization of Nigeria in 1999, Islamization tendencies increased across the country. Sharia law was introduced in response to pressure from Islamic groups in the states from the northern part of the country. Since then, thousands of religious pogroms took place. Islamist groups such as Boko Haram are campaigning for the introduction of Islamic Sharia law throughout Nigeria and for the ban on Western education, which often leads to bloody confrontation with Christians or moderate Muslims. From 1999 to 2004, the conflict on both sides is said to have cost about 10.000 lives. Repeated attacks such as the attacks on Christian churches in 2011 resulted in numerous deaths and 37

seven people were injured in an attack against a Koran school.

Demographics

Country Meters estimated the population of Nigeria in 2017 at around 190.000.000 inhabitants. According to this study, Nigeria is the most populous World Heritage On UNESCO’s list there can be found 2 cultural country in Africa and the 7th most populous country in the world, with approximately 1/5 of the total population objectives in Nigeria: of the African continent. Although less than 25% of Cultural Objectives: Nigerians live in urban settlements there are at least 24 • Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove cities with a population greater than 100.000 inhabitants. • Sukur Cultural Landscape The variety of customs, languages and traditions given

Religion in Nigeria as of 2009

by the 250 ethnic groups that coexist in Nigeria offer the country a great diversity. The dominant ethnic group in the northern region is the Hausa-Fulani, of which the majority are Muslims. Other important ethnic groups in that area are the Nupe, Tiv, and Kanuri. The Yoruba ethnic group predominates in the south. More than half of the Yoruba people are Christians and about a quarter are Muslims. The rest of them mostly follow traditional beliefs. The predominantly Christian Igbo group is the largest ethnic group in the southeast. Most of them are Catholics, although Anglicans, Pentecostals and other evangelical denominations are also important. The Efik, Ibibio, Annang, and Ijaw communities (the four largest ethnic groups in the country) also make up a substantial segment of the population in the area. People with different languages usually communicate in English, although knowledge of two or more Nigerian languages is common. The most widespread languages are Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. In recent years there have been sporadic clashes between Christian and Muslim groups, particularly in the north of the country, where there was a huge pressure to introduce Islamic or Sharia law.

Yoruba, Hausa-Fulani and Igbo form the socalled Big Three that characterized the political and military conflict of all Nigerian independent history since 1960. The fundamental issue is the allocation of resources and the division of powers at political-military level between the North and the South, a matter that has always seen a favorable imbalance in the Muslim north, in contrast to the greater productivity, cultural and entrepreneurial emancipation of the Christian south. The unequal allocation of resources at the regional level has led to the most bloody and turbulent civil conflict in the history of Nigeria, namely the Biafra War of 1967, an attempt to secede the south-eastern region inhabited by the Igbo ethnicity. Even nowadays, the ethniclocal issue is at the center of the African-American political-economic debate, with particular emphasis on the claims of minorities in the Niger Delta, headed by Ijaw, Ilaje, Urhobo and Ogoni, leading to violence against the federation and oil mining companies installed in the region. Shell Company was accused of economically exploiting oil resources without contributing to ecological sustainability and lacking in proper redistribution of profits. The Ijaw Youth Council

Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population by states

(IYC) movement operates with armed operations and constantly seizes technical staff of refineries. The fragmentation of the Nigerian Federation (a kind of balkanization) is nothing more than an attempt to provide greater political representation and economic power to every single ethnicity. Balkanization led to the 3 post-independence macro-regions (representing the above-mentioned Big Three) to a total of 36 nowadays states. At present, there are pressures in the Niger Delta to create 3 new states representing the Ilaje, Urhobo and Ijaw people as the only solution to the ethnic conflict that inflames the region. Although Nigeria has a relatively low number of emigrants, thousands of people leave the country every year, with the European Union being their main destination, especially the United Kingdom, although in recent years a large number of Nigerians have settled in Ireland. The United States of America is another common destination for Nigerian immigration. One issue that has been complicated by political chaos has been the effort of the World Health Organization to

eradicate polio from the planet. Northern Nigeria was the location of half of all registered polio cases in 2003, but Muslim clerics have repeatedly protested against the vaccine as an effort by Westerners to sterilize Muslim girls. The national vaccination program was suspended in several states in August 2003 and the disease almost quintupled (119 cases in the first quarter of 2004 against 24 cases in 2003). By May 2004, it was reported that polio had spread from there to many other African nations that had previously been declared free of that disease. On 18 May 2004, the state of Kano agreed to resume vaccination programs using vaccines created in Indonesia. By 2007, Nigeria had a population of 135.000.000. The average of children per woman was 5.45, one of the highest rates in Africa, which is causing a population growth that has never been experienced in the history of the country. It is estimated that by 2050, Nigeria will have 260.000.000 inhabitants. Nigeria is divided into 36 states and 1 federal territory as following:

Population Density Map of Nigeria

State Abia Adamawa Anambra Akwa Igbom Bauchi Bayelsa Benue Borno Cross River Delta Ebonyi Enugu Edo Ekiti Federal Capital Territory Gombe Imo Jigawa

Capital Umuahia Yola Awka Uyo Bauchi Yenagoa Makurdi Maiduguri Calabar Asaba Abakaliki Enugu Benin City Ado Ekiti Abuja Gombe Owerri Dutse

Kaduna Kano Katsina Kebbi Kogi Kwara Lagos Nasarawa Niger Ogun Ondo Osun Oyo Plateau Rivers Sokoto Taraba Yobe Zamfara

Kaduna Kano Katsina Birnin Kebbi Lokoja Ilorin Ikeja Lafia Minna Abeokuta Akure Osogbo Ibadan Jos Port Harcourt Sokoto Jalingo Damaturu Gusau

Map of the three main ethnic groups of Nigeria

The top 10 largest cities from Nigeria can be seen in the following table: Rank

City

State

Population

Lagos

9.000.000

Kano

3.200.000

Ibadan

Oyo

2.800.000

Benin City

Edo

1.500.000

Jos

Plateau

1.100.000

Ilorin

Kwara

1.050.000

Abuja

1.000.000

Kaduna

Federal Capital Territory Kaduna

Enugu

900.000

Warri

Delta

800.000

Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Region Map

950.000

Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Life Expectancy

Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Population Pyramid

Administrative Map of Nigeria

Economy & Transportation Economy

Nigeria is the only country in the world with significant oil resources to run a budget deficit. A report realized by the non-governmental organization Global Financial Integrity on 26 March 2010 quantified for the first time the illicit leakage of funds related to financial practices outside the African continent. Nigeria is cited as the country being, by far, the most subject to leakage of funds by illicit financial practices. It is estimated that from 1970 to 2009, Nigeria’s leakage of funds amounted to 89.5 billion $, at an average rate of 2 billion $ per year. The report also indicated that although much attention was usually accorded to corruption processes (Nigeria ranks 130th out of 180 in the Corruption Perceptions Index ranking), the corruption index was 2.4 / 10. In the analysis of illicit cross-border flows, the funds involved in these processes account for about 3% of the total for Africa as a whole. Criminal practices related to drug trafficking, racketeering, and counterfeiting are at 30-35%. Tax evasion processes, mainly through commercial and financial rigging techniques are by far the main component, accounting for between 60 and 65% of the total. These massive and illegal leaks are facilitated by a global opacity of the financial system. In her speech to the European Convention, Eva Joly also pointed out that Nigeria “has been looted for probably 20 billion $ in thirty years, the main funds being in Europe, mainly in England, France, Switzerland”. According to 2001 Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz, economic inefficiency has also caused the leak of 100 billion $ which were mostly invested abroad rather than inside the country. In fact, barely a quarter of the population benefits from oil revenues. At the end of September 2005, the World Bank helped recover 700 million $ diverted into Swiss banks by Sani Abacha and his clan while he was in power. Thanks to its oil resources, Nigeria is the continent’s leading economic power, ahead of South Africa. This wealth has little effect on the standard of living of its population, which is average for African countries. Thus, in 2015, more than half of Nigerians lived on less than 1.25 $ a day. Nigeria’s economic and demographic weight has earned it the nickname of “Giant of Africa”. Oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1956 in the 44

Nigeria Export Tree Map

Niger Delta. Nigerian oil is interesting because it is crude and softened with low sulfur content, thanks to which refining is easy. The country joined then OPEC in 1970. The city of Port Harcourt is the main production site of the country and attracts many workers. Nigerian oil (40% produced by Shell) accounts for 95% of export earnings and 80% of the country’s income. It is the 5th largest OPEC producer and the 10th largest in the world. It is the 6th largest oil exporting country. However, while Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil-producing country, it doesn’t have refineries and must import its fuel from Europe and the United States of America. The oil companies in the region, backed by the Nigerian state, have been heavily criticized and tensions between local residents and the police have resulted in several massacres and assassinates. In the 1990’s, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) was created to non-violently fight against the actions of Shell. After the executions of five of their leaders, including Ken Saro-Wiwa on 10 November 1995, the movement has gradually been extinguished, but NGO’s still struggle against the oil companies. A more violent and active group emerged in the years that followed, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). Nigeria ranked 7th on the list of OPEC producers during the 2010 decade, behind Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, the UAE, but also Kuwait and Venezuela. India became in 2014 the largest importer of Nigerian crude oil. In April 2002, Nigeria’s estimated oil reserves reached 15.6 billion barrels, and natural gas reserves reached 3 billion cubic meters. The rest of the economic activity is based on the cultivation of cocoa, to which half of the arable land is dedicated and which constitutes another

Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Exports as of 2006

Nigerian farmers working in agriculture

In 2014, Nigeria was the 4th largest OPEC crude oil exporter

fundamental part in the exports chapter. Although it is declining slightly, cocoa cultivation is keeping hundreds of thousands of farmers in the country alive and helps to resist the rural exodus, cocoa being planted in a wide variety of areas. During the first six years of the 2010’s, the Ivorian neighbor from West Africa has always been the world’s largest producer of cocoa, ahead of Ghana, the second largest in Africa and the world, and Nigeria

now holds the 4th place worldwide and 3rd on the African continent. Of the top five world producers, four are West African countries. Nigeria has important deposits of coal, iron ore and tin. Agricultural production, in addition to cocoa, is almost of subsistence due to the problems posed by the northern zone subjected to a strong desertification, as well as the overexploitation of the country’s forests

Nigeria’s Main Trade Partners

to the south. The main products are for domestic consumption: sorghum, millet, corn and rice. Livestock, which has been greatly reduced since 1980, focuses on sheep, goats and cattle. Since 2008, the government showed signs of willingness to implement the economic reforms suggested by the International Monetary Fund, such as modernizing the banking system, reducing inflation by controlling wage demands, and resolving regional disputes to control the profits of the oil industry.

Transportation

In Nigeria, driving is on the right side of the road. Nigeria has the largest road network in West Africa and the second largest south of the Sahara, with roughly 110.000 km of surfaced roads in 1990. The national highway system connects the main centers, although some secondary roads are impracticable during the rainy season. There have been cases of armed robbery in broad daylight and on rural roads in the northern half of Nigeria. There are buses and taxis or â&#x20AC;&#x153;bush taxisâ&#x20AC;? in Ford Transit vans between the main towns. It is not difficult to rent a car in Lagos and Abuja. It is recommended to do it through hotels and it is advisable to hire cars with a driver. It is recommended to carry an international driving license and two passport size photographs. Public transport in Lagos is chaotic. The city constantly has traffic jams, which makes it difficult to

Nigerian Bus

operate buses and taxis, especially during peak hours. There are many private bus companies and thousands of private minibuses. The bus network in Nigeria is quite extensive and connects all major cities of the country via long distance services. Each city also has public transport buses, which provide an economical fair manner of getting around. ABC Transport Services and Greener Line Transport are the major bus transport companies. Besides buses, people travel around cities in a sort of private minibuses that operate similar to shared taxis and generally take in more people. These vehicles are always painted yellow so they can be easily found. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t expect too much comfort inside them though.

Entrance Road in Abuja

Railways in Nigeria are operated by the Nigerian Railway Corporation. Nigeria’s railway system has 4.000 kilometers of track. The two main railways are from Lagos to Kano via Ibadan-Oyo-Ogbombosho-KadunaZaria and from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri via AbaEnugu-Makurdi-Jos. These two railway roads connect Kaduna with Kafachan. There is also a railway network from Zaria to Gusau and Kaura Namoda. There is a daily service on the main routes and sleeping wagons must be booked in advance. The trains have three classes and some even have a restaurant and air conditioning. Trains are slower and less reliable than buses, but they are cheaper. The old national airline, Nigeria Airways, no longer exists. The new Virgin Nigeria airline operates domestic flights to Abuja and Port Harcourt. Aero Contractors offers charter flights to Lagos. It is recommended to book flights well in advance. It is common for domestic flights to be delayed. The shortage of oil means that commercial flights have to be canceled without much notice. Nigeria’s main airports are Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.

Three other international airports are Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu and Port Harcourt International Airport in Port Harcourt. Overall, Nigeria’s airports, whether international or regional, suffer from a poor reputation for operational efficiency and safety. Private domestic air carriers began to win business at the expense of Nigeria Airways, the former government-owned national airline which was declared bankrupt in 2004. The national flag carrier of Nigeria was Air Nigeria, in which Virgin Atlantic owns 49% and the remaining 51% by Nigerian investors until Virgin withdrew from the partnership on 18 September 2009. The national flag carrier then became Air Nigeria which suspended operations in 2012. Arik Air is now a large airline serving Nigeria and has transported over 10 million passengers. There are ferries along the south coast and along the Niger and Benue rivers. To obtain schedules and prices, ask at the place. Nigeria has 8.600 km of inland waterways. The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is responsible for managing Nigeria’s ports, some of which

Nigeria Railway Corporation Train

Virgin Nigeria is the national air carrier of the country

Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos

have fallen behind international standards in terms of the quality of facilities and operational efficiency. Recognizing that the government lacks the funding and expertise to modernize facilities and run the ports efficiently, the NPA pursues partial port privatization by means of granting concessions to private port operators. Ergo, under the terms of concession agreements, the government would transfer operating rights to private companies for a finite number of years without forgoing ownership of the port land. Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s principal container port is the port of Lagos, which handles about 5.75 million tons of cargo each year. The port, which consists of separate facilities at Apapa and Tin Can Island, has a rail connection to points inland. Port Harcourt, a transshipment port located 66 kilometers from the Gulf of Guinea along the Bonny River in the Niger Delta, handles about

815.000 tons of cargo each year and also has a railway connection. Both ports are not only responsible for Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seaborne trade but also serve inland countries such as Niger and Chad. Taxis in Lagos are yellow and the rate and tip must be agreed in advance. There is a ferry service to the Lagos Island. Taxis are plentiful in Nigeria, and in some cities they even outnumber buses. Taxis are generally considered an affordable and convenient transport method of getting around in Nigeria, although they do cost more than buses. One should always ask the taxi drive before getting in the car and negotiate the fare. There is also the option of traveling via shared taxi in between cities. The driver will depart once the vehicle is full of people wishing to travel to the same destination. In Lagos you can call Red Cab Taxi Service or Orange Cabs are the most well-known.

Port of Lagos

Lagos Ferry Service

Nigerian Taxi Driver 51

Nigerian Holidays

Culture Nigerian Proverbs

1. A hunter who has only one arrow does not shoot with careless aim. 2. If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach him to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. 3. Big muscles do not make a farmer. 4. A farmer does not boast that he has had a good harvest until his stock of yams lasts till the following harvest season. 5. It is from a small seed that the giant Iroko tree has its beginning. 6. When the right hand washes the left hand and the left hand washes the right hand, both hands become clean. 7. It is the fear of what tomorrow may bring that makes the tortoise to carry his house along with it wherever it goes. 8. To do one’s duty is to eat the prized fruit of honor. 9. He who goes to sleep with an itching anus wakes up with smelly fingers. 10. He who shits on the ground never remembers, but the person who cleans up the mess never forgets. 11. One does not become a master diviner in a day. A forest is not made in a season. The swoop of an eagle has seen many seasons and floods... 12. The frown on the face of the goat will not stop it from being taken to the market. 13. Success is 10% ability, and 90% sweat. 14. When a dying man cries, it is not because of where he is going which he knows nothing about, but because of what he wishes he would have done in the world he is leaving behind. 15. He who the Gods want to destroy, they first make mad. 16. A fowl does not forget where it lays its eggs. 17. A person who sells eggs should not start a fight in the market. 18. He who marries a beauty marries trouble. 19. No matter how hot your anger is, it cannot cook yams 20. If you don’t eat yam for the sake of palm oil, you’ll eat palm oil for the sake of yam. 52

Holiday New Year’s Day Women’s Day Good Friday Easter Monday Worker’s Day Children’s Day Democracy Day Eid al-Fitr Eid al-Adha Independence Day Mawlid Christmas Boxing Day

Period 1 January 8 March Variable (March/April) Variable (March/April) 1 May 27 May 29 May Variable (June/July) Variable (August/September) 1 October Variable (November/December) 25 December 26 December

Nigerian Fulani Couple

Nigerian Hausa Men in Traditional Costumes

Yoruba Bride

New Yam Nigerian Festival celebrated in Dublin, Ireland

Nigerian women working in agriculture

Igbo people in a Roman Catholic Church

Nigerian Personalities

Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (b. December 1912 in Bauchi, Northern Nigeria Protectorate, now Nigeria – d. 15 January 1966 in Lagos, Nigeria) was a Nigerian politician, and the first prime minister of an independent Nigeria. He was of both Gere and Fulani ethnicity. By 1944, he was elected among other teachers from northern Nigeria to study at the University of London’s Institute of Education, which today is now part of the University College London. Together with Ahmadu Bello, he founded the Northern People’s Congress (NPC). After completing his studies he devoted himself to teaching, occupying several teaching posts and later becoming a member of the Northern Region legislature in 1947. After professing as a secondary school teacher, Balewa began his political career as co-founder of the Northern People’s Congress, the party of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate of the former British colony of Nigeria. Already in 1946, Tafawa Balewa was a member of the regional parliament of the Northern Protectorate and in the first elections in 1951 he was both a member of the regional and the national parliament. In the same year, he was elected to the Federal House of Representatives. In 1952 he was appointed Minister of Labour, in 1954 he became Minister of Transport and the de faction leader of his party in the parliament. In 1957 he was elected the first Prime Minister of Nigeria (the President held only ceremonial functions), which he led to independence. Before Nigeria’s independence, in 1954, a constitutional conference had adopted a regional political framework for the country and all regions were offered a considerable amount of political freedom. The three regions of Nigeria were then composed of diverse cultural groups (Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, etc.). The premiers and some prominent leaders of these regions started adopting policies for their regions that were against the political encroachment of other regional leaders. However, this political environment later influenced Balewa’s administration. His term in office was turbulent as regional factionalism constantly threatened his government and civil tensions between the main ethnic groups sparked often. As Prime Minister of Nigeria, Abubakar Balewa played important roles in Africa’s formative

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

indigenous rule. He had an important leader in forming the Organization of African Unity and created a cooperative relationship with French speaking African countries. Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa also got involved in negotiations between Moïse Tshombe and the Congolese authorities during the Congo Crisis of 1960–1964. He led a vocal protest against the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 and also entered into an alliance with Commonwealth ministers who wanted South Africa to leave the Commonwealth in 1961. A treason charge and conviction against one of the western region’s leaders named Obafemi Awolowo led to protest and condemnation from many of his supporters. The 1965 election in the region produced violent protests. 55

Rioting and violence were soon synchronous with what was perceived as inordinate political encroachment and an over-exuberant election outcome for Awolowo’s western opponents. During his period as the Prime Minister of Nigeria, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and his government created an official Foreign Affairs and Commonwealth Relations ministerial position in favour of Jaja Wachuku who became, from 1961 to 1965, the first Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Commonwealth Relations. Despite his willingness to reform the country and his modest appearance, his reign was not as good as expected, especially in the cumulative domestic political crises, where he often didn’t act independently and was increasingly regarded as an instrument of the northern elite of the country. He received the title of knight granted by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 1960. As civil unrest intensified, in 1966 the first military coup brought to an end the First Republic and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was abducted and murdered by the military forces. His body was found six days after the abduction on a road near Lagos and was buried in Bauchi. His picture can be found nowadays on the 5 Naira banknotes.

Abubakar Balewa as Prime Minister of Nigeria

Prime Minister Balewa and Princess Alexandra of Kent with Jaja Wachuku during Nigeria’s Independence Ceremonies on 1 October 1960

Usman dan Fodio Shaihu Usman dan Fodio, born Usuman ɓii Foduye (b. 15 December 1754 in Gobir, Nigeria – d. 20 April 1817 in Sokoto, Nigeria) was a religious teacher, writer and Islamic promoter and the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate. Dan Fodio was one of a class of urbanized ethnic Fulani living in the Hausa States in what is today northern Nigeria. He was a leader who followed the Sunni Maliki school of Jurisprudence and the Qadiri branch of Sufism. Usman dan Fodio was a highly educated person in classical sciences, philosophy and Islamic theology, as well as an acclaimed religious thinker. His Master, Jibrīl ibn’Umar, a Tuareg of Aïr, was a learned North African Muslim student devoted to the formation of disciples so that he could help the difficult reform process in every part of the Islamic world. His father, Mohammed, was a Toucouleur from Fouta-Toro. He was considered a scholar and a holy man, hence the name Usman dan Fodio (the son of the scientist). Usman thus came from a family of Fulani scholars who have been living at Gobir since the end of the 15th century and belonged to the urban elite of the Fulani that were living in the Hausa states. Dan Fodio pledged to intelligently secure the growth of a religious community in his native land of Degel, which in his dreams would have become a city model. In this place, he lived for about twenty years. During all of this time, he wrote, taught and preached. He criticized the Muslims from Gobir whom he blamed for not strictly observing the rules of the Koran. He preached for several years in Gobir and in the neighboring Hausa states (Zamfara, Katsena, Kebbi) starting from 1774. As he returned to his native Degel, his influence expanded even greater. After 1795, the community of his supporters at Degel envisaged the holy war against the infidels, that is to say the sovereigns of Gobir. Usman dan Fodio asked them to arm themselves and pray for Sudan to be governed by Islamic law. Nafata, the Sarkin (King) of Gobir, worried about the military preparations and tried to hinder his actions. In 1802, Yunfa, who governed the Gobir region and one of dan Fodio’s disciples have revolted against Usman, thus revoking Degel’s autonomy and attempting to assassinate him. Usman dan Fodio and his supporters fled to the western grasslands of Gudu, where they asked

Usman dan Fodio

for the help of the Fulani nomads that were living in that place. In his book, Tanbīh al-ikhwān’alā aḥwāl al-Sūdān (Concerning the Government of Our Country and Neighboring Countries in the Sudan), Usman wrote: “The government of a country is the government of its kings without any question. If the king is a Muslim, his lands will be Muslim. If he is an infidel, his lands will be infidels. In this case, it is compulsory for anyone to abandon it for another country.” Usman did exactly the same thing when he left Gobir in 1802. After he left, Yunfa sought support from other members of the Hausa states, warning them that dan Fodio would trigger a global jihad. Usman dan Fodio was proclaimed Amir alMu’minin, or Commander of the Faithful in Gudu. This made him, besides a religious teacher, also a political man, thus offering him the authority to proclaim and implement the jihad, raise an army and become a commander. An extensive insurrection took place in the Hausa territories, largely inhabited by the Fulani, who organized a powerful military with their cavalry forces. The uprising was largely supported by the Hausa farmers who have greatly opposed to the oppression and taxes imposed on them by their rulers. Usman proclaimed the jihad against Gobir in 1804. The Fulani 57

communications during the war were ensured along the commercial streets and the rivers that drained into the Niger-Benue valley, as well as in its delta and lagoons. The jihad call reached not only Hausa states such as the Kano Kingdom, the Emir of Katsina and the Emirate of Zazzau (or Zaria), but also the Bornu Empire, the Emirate of Gombe, the Adamawa Emirate, the Kingdom of Nupe and the Ilorin Emirate. These locations comprised larger or smaller groups of Fulani alims. A few years after the outbreak of the Fulani War, dan Fodio became the command of the largest African state, the Fulani Empire. His son, Muhammad Bello, and Usman’s brother, Abdullahi dan Fodio, completed the jihad and took care of the empire’s administration. Dan Fodio managed to establish an efficient government based on Islamic law. The Sokoto Caliphate was in fact a combination of an Islamic state and a modified Hausa monarchy. Muhammed Bello introduced Islamic administration and Muslim judges, market inspectors, and prayer leaders were appointed. An Islamic tax and land system was instituted with revenues on the land considered kharaj and fees called jizya were imposed on individual subjects as in classical Islamic times. After 1811, Usman withdrew from governmental commitments and continued writing about the righteous conduct within the Islamic faith. After his death in 1817, Muhammad Bello succeeded

him as Amīr al-mu’minīn and became governor of Sokoto Caliphate, who was at that time the largest subSaharan empire. Abdullahi dan Fodio had the title of Emir of Gwandu and his authority was recognized over all Western Emirates, from the Kingdom of Nupe to that of Ilorin. Thus, all the Hausa states, parts of Nupe and Ilorin, as well as the Fulani outposts in Bauchi and Adamawa were governed by a single political-religious system. From the time of Usman dan Fodio until the British conquest in the early 20th century there were a total of twelve Caliphs. Many of Usman dan Fodio’s Fulani commanders were dissatisfied with seeing that the rulers of the Hausa states mixed Islam with aspects of traditional local religion. Usman created a theocratic state based on a narrow interpretation of Islam. In his Tanbih al-ikhwan ‘ahwal al-Sudan, he wrote: “As for the Sultans, they are undoubtedly unfaithful, despite professing the religion of Islam because they practice polytheistic rituals and divert people from the divine path and raise the flag of their ground realm above that of Islam. All of this is unbelief, according to the consensus of the opinions (ijmā’).” In the book Islam outside the Arab World, David Westerlund wrote: “The jihad resulted in a federal theocratic state, with extensive autonomy for emirates, recognizing the spiritual authority of the Caliph or the Sultan of Sokoto.” Usman faced in his books what he saw

Usman dan Fodio and The Sokoto Caliphate

as defects and demerit of non-Muslim African rulers or only nominally Muslims. Some of the accusations he was addressing to the rulers were those of corruption at the various levels of administration and injustice regarding the basic rights of the people. Usman also

criticized high taxation and the obstruction in business and trade in the Hausa states. Usman dan Fodio wrote about 480 poems in Arabic, Fulfulde and Hausa. The “Al Risalah” Magazine’s 4th issue by the terrorist group AlQaeda praised the administration of Usman dan Fodio.

Drawing of Usman dan Fodio

Wole Soyinka Akinwande Oluwole “Wole” Babatunde Soyinka (b. 13 July 1934 in Abeokuta, Nigeria Protectorate, now Ogun State, Nigeria) is a Nigerian playwright and poet. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African to be honoured in this category. He completed his studies at Ibadan and Leeds, in England, where he received his Ph.D. in 1973. After two years at the Royal Court Theater in London as a playwright, in 1960 he returned to Nigeria, where he started teaching literature and theater in various universities and founded the theater group “The Masks 1960”. In 1964, he created the company “Orisun Theater Company” with which he also performed his own works. In 1965, he published the first novel written in English, The Interpreters. During the Nigerian civil war, he was imprisoned from 1967 to 1969 for an article in which he was asking for a ceasefire. His isolation cell experience was written in The Man Is Dead. Wole Soyinka was born in the Ogun state in Western Nigeria at the time of the British Kingdom, in the family of 6 children of Samuel Ayodele Soyinka, director of Saint Peters School in Abeokuta and Grace Eniola Soyinka, an owner of a small shop and political activist within the local feminist movement. His mother was of Anglican faith, though in his father’s family and within the neighborhood, Yoruba mythologies and religious practices were widespread. Soyinka grew up in an atmosphere of religious syncretism that had a great influence on his formation since he was a little boy. At the same time, he was in contact with both traditional Yoruba and Christian religions. In 1940, after completing his elementary studies, Soyinka attended the Abẹokuta Grammar School. In those years, he gained numerous awards for his literary compositions. In 1946, Wole was admitted to the Government College of Ibadan, then the most prestigious high school in Nigeria. After completing his studies, he moved to Lagos, where he found a job as an office clerk. In that period, he wrote short texts and short stories for some Nigerian radio programs. In 1952, Soyinka began his studies at the University College Ibadan, which was affiliated to the University of London. There, he attended English, ancient Greek and history courses. In the years 1953 and 1954, respectively, Soyinka 60

Wole Soyinka

began working on his first official work, “Keffi’s Birthday Threat”, which was broadcasted by the national radio station in Nigeria in July 1954. While at the university, Soyinka along with six other students founded the Pyrates Confraternity, the first university brotherhood in Nigeria. He then moved to Leeds to perfect his studies in English literature under the supervision of his mentor, Wilson Knight. Even before completing his studies in England, Soyinka gained considerable success as a writer and playwright, in particular thanks to some short comedies. In those years, he worked at The Eagle, a humorous English magazine. His university studies and European experiences led him to create a fusion between some of the elements of the traditional Nigerian theater, the theatrical literature of the West and the particular characteristics of Yoruba’s expressiveness. In 1958, he wrote The Swamp Dwellers, his first major play, and a year later wrote The Lion and the Jewel, the comedy that aroused the interest of many members of the London Royal Court Theater. Soyinka decided to move to London where he began to work as a play reader for the Royal Court Theater. At the same time, two of his works went on stage at Ibadan. In 1960, Soyinka received a scholarship

as a researcher from the Rockefeller Foundation and returned to Nigeria. In March of that same year, he wrote a new satirical comedy, The Trials of Brother Jero, who definitively established his fame as a playwright. One of his most beloved works, A Dance of the Forest, a pungent attack on the Nigerian power elites, won the Nigerian Independence Day prize. In the same year,

Soyinka founded a popular theater company that for at least five years was the center of his theatrical activity: “The Masks 1960”. In 1962, he opposed the famous concept of Negritude, founded by Aimé Césaire and taken over by Léopold Sédar Senghor, with the concept of Tigritude about which he said “a tiger does not proclaim its

Wole Soyinka intends to Africanize knowledge

Tigritude. He leaps on his prey and devours it”. He participated in a controversial conference on the subject at Makerere University, Uganda in 1962. The author was imprisoned in Nigeria between 1967 and 1969 for supporting the Republic of Biafra independence movement. After his release, he stayed in Nigeria and taught at the drama departments of the Ife and Ibadan Universities. He also traveled around the world to stage his plays, gave lectures and published literary magazines like Transition. In 1994, he was forced into exile after being sentenced to death by the government of Dictator Sani Abacha. He could only return to the country after the death of the dictator in 1998. He was also one of the co-founders of the Parliament of Writers and the President of the African Community of Culture. On 25 September 2010, he announced the creation of his party, the Democratic Front for a Peoples’ Federation (DFPF), thus aiming to participate in the general elections scheduled for January 2011 or April 2011. In 2014, he wrote the preface to an anthology entitled Africa39: New Writing from South Africa in the Sahara, highlighting 39 young African writers, as part of the Africa39 project. Wole Soyinka was the first African author and the first Black person to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. The Swedish Academy thus saluted a “writer who portrays in a vast cultural perspective enriched by poetic resonances, a dramatic

representation of existence”. About the award, Soyinka said: “There are people who think that the Nobel Prize makes you insensitive to bullets, for my part, I never believed it”. Besides fiction and essay writing, Wole Soyinka has established himself a name in Africa and the West through his theater and poetry works. In particular, he is well known for re-evaluating the Nigerian theater and the “Yoruba folk opera”. He has written over twenty dramas and comedies and has adapted to an African context the The Bacchae of Euripides, The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht, Les nègresby Jean Genet. Among his most famous plays are: The Lion and the Jewel, Madmen and Specialists, Death and the King Horsemen, The Dance of the Forest, The Road, Kongi’s Harvest. Among his poetic collections are: Idanre and Other Poems; A Shuttle in the Crypt; Ogun Abibiman (1992); Mandela’s Earth and Other Poems. Soyinka has taught at numerous universities, including Yale, Cornell, Harvard, Sheffield and Cambridge, and is a member of the most prestigious international literary associations. He has received several awards worldwide and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. Persecuted and condemned to death by Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha, Soyinka lived in exile in the United States of America until 1998, the year when the dictator died. Nowadays he lives in Abeokuta, the Nigerian town where he grew up.

Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka renounced to his US green card after Donald Trump won the elections

Chinua Achebe Albert Chinụalụmọgụ “Chinua” Achebe (b. 16 November 1930 in Ogidi, Nigeria Protectorate, British Kingdom, now Nigeria – d. 21 March 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His first novel Things Fall Apart (1958), often considered his best, is the most widely read book in modern African literature. He won the Man Booker International Prize in 2007. Albert Chinualumogu Achebe was born in eastern Nigeria as the 5th of a family of six children. Both of his parents, Isaiah Okafo and Janet Achebe, were Igbos and fervent Christians. He changed his name during his studies for a classic Igbo name: Chinua. He was a good student and obtained a scholarship and studied at the Government College Umuahia, a city that

is often mentioned in his books, from 1944 to 1947, and at the University of Ibadan from 1948 to 1953, when he obtained his BA degree. In the same University of Ibadan, where he learned English, history and theology, studied many other Nigerians who later became famous in African literature. Among them were: Wole Soyinka (Nobel Prize for Literature winner), Elechi Amadi, John Pepper Clark and Christopher Okigbo. During college studies, Achebe decided to renounce her English name and adopt the indigenous “Chinua”. Before joining the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), Achebe made some trips to Africa and the United States of America and worked for some time as an English teacher. He was selected as Staff School at the British Broadcasting Company, and began working at NBC in 1954. In the following years, Achebe devoted himself to publishing and literary criticism, contributing to the magazines Okike (co-founder) and Uwa ndi Igbo (the latter, in the Igbo language) and founding the African Writer Series, a series of books published by Heinemann

Chinua Achebe

which became a fundamental tool in the evolution and diffusion of postcolonial African literature. At the same time, he wrote a famous treatise entitled An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, one of the most controversial essays and influential in the history of African literary criticism. In this essay, Achebe criticized the representation of Africa made by Conrad in the Heart of Darkness: “a metaphysical battlefield devoid of any recognizable humanity in which the wandering Europe comes at its own risk and danger.” According to some, Chinua Achebe’s open hostility towards Western and European culture is one of the reasons why this influential author has not received the Nobel Prize. Similar critiques of racism were charged by Achebe against Albert Schweitzer, winner of the Nobel

Peace Prize in 1952. In 1958, he published his first novel, Things Fall Apart. Many reviews, including those from The Guardian or The Observer classified him among the greatest novels of the 20th century. The work translated the 50 languages (an absolute record for an African work) and sold over 10 million copies worldwide. On 10 September 1961, he married Christie Chinwé Okolie with whom he had four children: Chinelo, Cidi, Nwando and Ikechukwu. In 1962, he participated in a controversial conference on African writers at Makerere University, Uganda and founded that same year a collection called AFRICAN at an English publisher. At the end of the 1960’s, he distinguished himself in the Republic of Biafra conflict, during which he supported

Chinua Achebe in the 1990’s

the secessionist party of Colonel Odumegwu Emeka Ojukwu. During the Civil War (1967-1970), he was in favor of the Republic of Biafra, for which he became an ambassador. In this conflict died Christopher Okigbo, Achebe’s friend. The poem A Wake for Okigbo is dedicated to this moment. In general, the Biafra war marked Achebe deeply and the memory of the conflict re-emerged in several passages of his work. In 1972, he was appointed editor of the Obike periodical. In 1987, the leader of one of the main northern Muslim parties asked him to be his deputy. He agreed to the idea in order to show his compatriots that it is possible for a person from the east part of the country to join a party of the northern part of the country, led by a mullah. After teaching at many British, American and Nigerian universities, he became a professor at Bard College, New York, and then at Brown University. In 1990, an accident nailed him in a wheelchair. He died on 21 March 2013 in a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Among his most famous quotes are: “Authors like Ernest Hemingway have portrayed the black African population as savages and are the cause of an immense blasphemy. That’s why I decided to try to write books where the characters were Africans as I know them.” or “For my part, I would be more than satisfied if my novels could already show my readers that their past, with all its imperfections, was not a long night of savagery from which they were delivered by the first Europeans acting on behalf of God.” His works are a profound meditation on colonialism. His novels place African heroes at the crossroads of two worlds: a Western world with abstract rationality, without justice, and an African world whose disqualified traditional values make its subjects handicapped for the new times. He is one of the most famous English-speaking African writers. This made him several times to be approached for the Nobel Prize for literature. The Things Fall Apart novel from 1958 describes an African world facing the shock of the arrival of Europeans. This book was sold in 400.000 copies since 1969 and reached three million copies in 1987. It was translated into more than 45 languages. Much of Achebe’s work focuses on the denunciation of the cultural catastrophe brought to Nigeria first by colonialism and then by corrupt regimes succeeded by the country’s independence. In the Anthills of the Savannah, Achebe describes an African world taken over by corruption, the false position of intellectuals or the woman’s role in the future. In 1972, a critic wrote that Achebe, as well

Picture of Chinua Achebe

as Armah and Okara, are opening up “new ways to the African novel”, notably by denouncing the evils of African society. But, given the political situation, they must disguise their criticism: hence their tendency to “social and political satire”. Chinua Achebe has received honorary degrees from more than 30 universities in various countries, including England, Canada, South Africa, Nigeria and the United States of America. He has received numerous literary awards for his work, including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the New Statesman Jock Campbell Prize, the Margaret Wrong Prize, the Nigerian National Trophy and the Nigerian National Merit Award. In 2004, he refused the honorary mandate of the Commander of the Federal Republic offered by the Government of Nigeria as a sign of protest against his country’s social and political situation. 65

Omotola Jalade Ekeinde Omotola Jalade Ekeinde (b. 7 February 1978 in Lagos, Nigeria) is a Nigerian actress, singer, philanthropist and former model. Since her Nollywood film debut in 1995, the leading actress has appeared in 300 films, selling millions of video copies. After receiving numerous high-profile awards, launching a music career, and amassing an enviable fan base, the press has revered the Screen Nation “Best Actress” as the “African Magic”. She is the first African celebrity to receive over 1 million likes on her Facebook page. She currently has a total of 3 million followers on Facebook. Omotola was born in the state of Lagos State in a family of Ondo descent. She has two younger brothers, Tayo and Bolaji Jalade. Her mother, Oluwatoyin Jalade née Amori Oguntade, worked at J.T Chanrai Nig, while her father, Oluwashola Jalade, worked with the YMCA and the Lagos Country Club. Omotola initially wanted to work in the business management sector. As she was waiting for her university results, Omotola began modelling in order to earn a living. She attended Chrisland School Opebi (1981–1987), Oxford Children School (1987), Santos Layout, and finally Command Secondary School Kaduna (1988–1993). Omotola Jalade had spent a brief period at the Obafemi Awolowo University and completed her studies at Yaba College of Technology (1996–2004), where she studied estate management. Omotola was introduced to the world of acting after accompanying one of her friends to an audition. Her first acting role was in the 1995 movie Venom of Justice, directed by Reginald Ebere. Reginald has been often regarded as launching Omotola’s career. The Nigerian actress was offered the lead role in that movie, which set the stage for a flourishing career in the Nollywood film industry. Omotola got her first big role in the critically acclaimed film Mortal Inheritance (1995). In the movie, she played a sickle-cell patient who fought for her life despite the relatively small odds of survival. Omotola’s character eventually overcame the disease and in the end had a baby. The film is regarded as one of Nigeria’s best movies ever made. Since then, she has starred in several blockbuster movies such as: Games Women Play, Blood Sisters, All My Life, Last Wedding, My Story, The Woman in Me and others. After a career defining role in Mortal 66

Jalade Ekeinde at AFRIFF

Inheritance, Omotola Ekeinde’s portrayal won her the “Best Actress in an English Speaking Movie” and “Best Actress Overall” awards at the 1997 THEMA. Thus, she became the youngest actress in Nigeria at that time to achieve such an accomplishment. During the late

1990’s and early 2000’s, the famous Nigerian actress starred in several sequel movies such as: Lost Kingdom 2, Kosorogun 2, and Blood Sister 2, leading to a Grand Achiever Award at the Global Excellence Recognition Awards in 2004. By the mid-2000’s, Omotola Jalade became an international figure. She was awarded the “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” award at the African Movie Academy Awards in 2005. After starring in more than 300 video movies, Omotola received her first cinematic movie role in the 2010 movie Ije. The film was shot in Jos, California, and Los Angeles. Ije was the highest grossing Nollywood

movie at the time. This record was eventually broken by Phone Swap (2012). Last Flight to Abuja (2012) in which Jalade Ekeinde was the main actress currently holds this record. The movie has managed to beat Hollywood blockbusters like Spiderman, Think like a Man, Ice Age, The Avengers, and Madagascar and became the 2nd highest-grossing movie in West African cinemas in 2012. Omotola has gone on to win over 40 domestic and international awards throughout her career. She is considered Africa’s biggest box office actress. In 2015, Omotola had celebrated her 20th anniversary in the movie entertainment industry. She has appeared in

Omotola Jalade Ekeinde

more than 200 movies by 2017. OmoSexy launched a long-awaited music career in 2005 with the release of her debut album titled GBA. The album produced singles like “Naija Lowa” and “The Things You Do To Me.” Her unreleased sophomore album, Me, Myself, and Eyes, has featured songs like “Feel Alright” (featuring Harry Song) and “Through the Fire” (featuring Uche). In late 2012, the Nigerian artist began working on her 3rd album and enlisted the help of The Bridge Entertainment. She went to Atlanta to work with some prominent producers and songwriters who promised to help her create an album that would resonate to American audiences. Studio sessions included Grammy winning producer Kendrick Dean, Drumma Boy and Verse Simmonds. She also recorded with Grammy recording artist Bobby V. Omotola became a United Nations WFP (World Food Program) Ambassador in 2005 and went on missions in Sierra Leone and Liberia. She has participated in the Walk the World campaign in Liberia together with President Ellen Sir Leaf-Johnson. The Nigerian artist is known as a fierce human rights campaigner and her philanthropy efforts are centered on her NGO project entitled the Omotola Youth Empowerment Programme (OYEP). Omotola became an Amnesty International campaigner in 2011 and has participated in campaigns in Sierra Leone (Maternal Mortality). In her recent campaign of The Niger River Delta in Nigeria, she shot a video asking Shell and the government to Own Up, Clean Up, Pay Up and take responsibility of the Oil spills in the Niger Delta. Omotola Jalade’s inimitable viewpoint landed her a now famous column in OK! Nigeria Magazine. On 5 November 2013, Omotola Ekeinde was honoured with the Ebony Vanguard Award at the Music Video and Screen Awards (MVISA) held in Birmingham, England. On 9 November 2013, Oba Victor Kiladejo, the royal king of the Ondo Kingdom conferred Omotola with a chieftaincy title in her hometown within the Ondo State. In 2012, CNN Travel included Omotola’s famous accent on their list of the world’s 12 sexiest accents. The Nigerian accent ranked 5th on the list. The following year, Omotola Jalade was named one of the most influential persons in the world by TIME magazine for their annual TIME 100 list. In 2015, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde was listed among the highest-grossing movie stars. The listing included Shah Rukh Khan, Frank Welker, Bob Bergen, Jack Angel, Mickie McGowan, Michael Papajohn, Martin Klebba, Clint Howard and Chris Ellis. This listing was compiled and researched by 68

Yahoo! In 2012, Jalade Ekeinde launched her own reality show entitled Omotola: The Real Me, on Africa Magic Entertainment, a M-Net subsidiary broadcast on DStv. This made Omotola the first Nigerian celebrity to star in her own reality show. Omotola married pilot Captain Matthew Ekeinde in 1996 and the couple held a ceremony on board a Dash 7 aircraft while flying from Lagos to Benin in 2001 with their close family and friends. Omotola gave birth to her first daughter on 30 March 1997. Together, nowadays they have four children: Princess, M.J, Meraiah and Michael. Omotola lost her father in 1991.

Omotola Jalade at a photo shoot with her son

Hakeem Olajuwon Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon (b. 21 January 1963 in Lagos, Nigeria), formerly known as Akeem Olajuwon, is a Nigerian-American former professional basketball player. From 1984 to 2002, he played the center position in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Houston Rockets and the Toronto Raptors. He led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995. In 2008, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and in 2016, he was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame. Listed at 2.13 m, Olajuwon is considered one of the greatest centers ever to play the game. He was nicknamed “The Dream” during his basketball career after he dunked so effortlessly that his college coach said it “looked like a dream.” Born in Nigeria in a wealthy Yoruba family, Akeem (the “H” was added only after arriving in the United States in order to adapt the pronunciation) began his sports career by practicing both football and handball, a widespread sport in Nigeria. After a few years of playing these sports, young Hakeem moved to the United States of America and enrolled at the University of Houston. Houston University’s technical staff was not well aware of what his potential was, as he was only noted by a former Cougars coach, Guy Lewis. At Houston, he was teammate with Clyde Drexler, his future companion at Houston Rockets. Together, thanks to their fantastic chemistry and spectacular above-the-rim prowess, they were attributed the name Phi Slama Jama. Olajuwon managed to bring his team to three consecutive NCAA’s Final Four (1982-1984). The Houston Cougars reached the final twice, but were defeated in both 1983 and the following year. Despite the defeat suffered in the final, in 1983, Hakeem was elected the best player of the NCAA tournament. After a great university career, Olajuwon was chosen by the Houston Rockets as their first choice within the 1984 NBA draft. This was one of the best ever drafts as stars like Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and John Stockton, among others, were part of. With Olajuwon as a rookie, the Rockets had an immediate success during that season. The Nigerian basketballer shared team with the 1984 Rookie of the Year, Ralph Sampson, to form the original NBA duo known as the “Twin Towers”. They took Houston Rockets to the 1986 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Boston

Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon

Celtics. The Rockets played very well but the Celtics front line formed by Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale and Bill Walton was definitely too strong for the Houston’s “Twin Towers”. Olajuwon averaged 20.6 points, 11.9 rebounds and 2.68 blocks in his first season. He finished as runner-up in the 1985 rookie vote after Michael Jordan. The “Twin Towers” experiment failed and Houston Rockets entered a period of leisurely successes. At the beginning of the 1990’s, Hakeem was even ready to abandon his basketball career, given his frustration for the poor prospects for the Rockets. Between 1987 and 1991, the team from Texas, while still playing the playoffs, didn’t advance past the second round of playoffs, despite Olajuwon being among the Stars of the League. In 1992, the arrival of Rudy Tomjanovich on the bench instead of Don Cheney and the formation of a core of good players around Hakeem (Kenny Smith, Vernon Maxwell, Otis Thorpe, Sam Cassell and 69

Hakeem Olajuwon playing for Houston Rockets

Robert Horry) brought a turning point to the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s progress. The next season, the team registered its best ever victories record as Olajuwon won the title of best defender and dragged his comrades to the second round of playoffs, where they were defeated by Seattle SuperSonics for the 3rd time in the last 6 postseason. In 1993, Hakeem Olajuwon acquired US citizenship. He had intense rivalries with other great pivots of the time, especially with Patrick Ewing and David Robinson, as 70

well as with Karl Malone. Olajuwon earned the reputation of being a great team player and along with David Robinson was hailed as the best pivot of his generation. He used to outscore pivots such as Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo and Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Neal in his early years, as well as other great defenders such as Dennis Rodman or Karl Malone. His most difficult duels were against rival David Robinson, whom Olajuwon usually topped in individual statistics. The two played

for different Texas teams, but Olajuwon lost 12-30 against Robinson in regular league, although in the playoffs he defeated him with a 4-2 record. Olajuwon’s Houston Rockets finally won the title in 1994 in an epic seven-game series against the New York Knicks, the team of one of his most reputed rival, Patrick Ewing. After five games, the Knicks took advantage by 3-2. The Rockets defended an 86-84 lead in the final seconds of the 6th game. At the last second, Knicks forward John Starks (who had scored 27 points until then) threw a triple that could be worth the finals, but Olajuwon made a memorable defensive play by plugging the shot. In the 7th game, Olajuwon dominated the game and his double-double of 25 points and 10 rebounds was enough to beat the Knicks, bringing the first title to Houston Rockets since the Houston Oilers won the AFL in 1961. Hakeem was at the height of his career. That year, he became the only player in NBA history to win the MVP, Finals MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. Olajuwon’s fame was well-deserved as the Rockets were probably the least-likely champion of all time. None of the other players on the starting lineup (Robert Horry, Otis Thorpe, Vernon Maxwell and Kenny Smith) or 6th man Sam Cassell were considered stars, a fact that is proven by the certitude that Olajuwon was the only All-Star of the Rockets of that year’s team. The Houston Rockets won the title again in 1995 with Olajuwon as their main star, that time in an even more obvious way because when the Rockets faced San Antonio Spurs in the Conference Finals, the recently crowned league MVP, David Robinson, was overtaken by Olajuwon in scoring by 35-24. Robinson told Life Magazine: “Hakeem? You can’t do anything against Hakeem.” The Houston Rockets won every road game in that series. In the NBA Final, the Rockets faced the Orlando Magic team led by a young Shaquille O’Neal. The whole world of basketball had waited for the confrontation between the two big pivots and it was Olajuwon who outscored O’Neal by 33-28 points per game, scoring more than 30 points in each and raising his regular-season rate by five while O’Neal’s production dropped by one. As a fact, Hakeem was again the only All-Star player of the Rockets that year. He is one of four players in the history of the NBA who has achieved a quadruple-double, more specifically, on 29 March 1990 against Milwaukee Bucks after scoring 18 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists, and had 11 blocks. In fact, there has been a historical controversy about it

because only twenty-six days before, in another match against the Golden State Warriors he achieved another quadruple-double with 29 points, 18 rebounds, 9 assists and 11 blocks. The glory of Houston Rockets soon ended as Michael Jordan returned from his retirement and the Chicago Bulls dominated the league for the next three years. Although the Rockets have made history, they could not beat the Chicago Bulls led by Michael Jordan. They never met in the playoffs anyway because the Rockets were a Western Conference team, while the Bulls were an Eastern Conference team. The only way to meet in the post-season was in the NBA Finals, but the Rockets failed in their attempt in the following years despite the efforts of Olajuwon, Drexler, Barkley and Scottie Pippen in the 1998-1999 season. Houston Rockets began rebuilding their team by acquiring youngsters Cuttino Mobley and Steve Francis, coRookie of the Year 2000. On 8 August 2001, Hakeem was traded to the Toronto Raptors, where he would play his final season in the NBA, making an average of 7.1 points and 6.0 rebounds per game (the lowest of his career) before retiring as one of the best centers of all time. Shortly after his retirement, the number 34 was removed from the Houston Rockets.

Olajuwon’s retired No. 34 basketball jersey

Sunny Adé “King” Sunny Adé (b. 22 September 1946 in Ondo City, Ondo State, Nigeria), born Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye, sometimes also called the Minister of Enjoyment, is a Nigerian musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and a pioneer of modern world music. He has been classed as one of the most influential musicians of all time. In March 2017, he was appointed as the “Change Begins With Me” campaign ambassador by the Nigerian minister of Information, Lai Mohammed. Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye was born in Osogbo to a Nigerian royal family from Ondo, thus making him an Omoba of the Yoruba people. While his father was a church organist, his mother was a trader from Akure. Adé decided to leave grammar school in Ondo as he claimed he would go to the University of Lagos. It was in Lagos where he started his mercurial musical career. Sunny Adé’s musical sound has evolved much from the early days. His career began with Moses Olaiya’s Federal Rhythm Dandies, a highlife band, but then left it in order to form a new band entitled The Green Spots, in 1967. Over the years, for various reasons ranging from changes in his music to business concerns, Sunny Adé decided to change its band’s name several times. Its first new name was African Beats and then it was changed to Golden Mercury. Legendary Tunde Nightingale, an early extraordinary Jùjú pioneer, had greatly influenced King Sunny, who borrowed stylistic elements from Nightingale’s So wa mbe style of jùjú. He founded the King Sunny Adé Foundation, an organization that includes a performing arts center, a state of the art recording studio, and housing for young musicians. Sunny is also a visiting lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile- Ife. He received the national honour of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic. During the 1970’s and 1980’s, Sunday Adegeye embarked on a tour to America and Europe. His stage act was mainly characterized by dexterous dancing steps and mastery of the guitar. After a period of resounding success in his native country, the Nigerian artist was well received and acclaimed in Europe and North America in 1982. The global release of Jùjú Music and its accompanying tour was “almost unanimously embraced by critics everywhere”. Adé was described in The New York Times as “one of the world’s great 72

King Sunny Adé

band leaders”, in Record as “a breath of fresh air, a positive vibration we will feel for some time to come” and in Trouser Press as “one of the most captivating and important musical artists anywhere in the world”. His album Syncro System (1983) was also successful, earning him his first Grammy Award nomination in the ethnic/traditional folk recording category, ergo making him the first Nigerian Grammy award nominee ever. On 16 July 2017, Sunny Adé announced that he would be returning to stage in London alongside his rival act Ebenezer Obey for a musical comeback themed A Night 2 Remember with the Legends. King Sunny Adé’s music is mostly characterized by the talking drum, an indigenous instrument to his Yoruba roots, the guitar and his peculiar application to jùjú music that would easily put him in the same class as guitar musicians like Santana. His music is in the age-old tradition of singing poetic lyrics and praise of dignitaries as well components of Jùjú (traditional

African belief) called the Ogede (casting a spell). Thus, Adé’s music represents a record of the oral tradition of his people for posterity. King Sunny Adé was the first to introduce the pedal steel guitar to Nigerian pop music. He had also introduced the use of synthesizers, clavinet, vibraphone and tenor guitar into the jùjú music repertoire such as dub and wah-wah guitar licks. Adé claimed that he used these instruments not as an attempt to innovate, but rather as a substitute for the traditional jùjú instruments which were too difficult to find or impractical for touring. The pedal steel guitar, for example, was added to his repertoire as a soundalike for an African violin. After Bob Marley’s death, Island Records started looking for another 3rd world artist to sign as Mali’s Fela Kuti had just been signed by Arista Records. King Sunny Adé was introduced by producer Martin Meissonnier to Chris Blackwell and thus, the Nigerian artist released the Jùjú Music in 1982. Robert Palmer said that he was the one who have brought King Sunny Adé to Island’s attention, his familiarity being from his

life on Malta in the 1960’s listening to African Radio and Armed Forces Radio. Sunny Adé obtained a great success with this album and was soon nicknamed “the African Bob Marley”. The Nigerian musician refused to allow Island Records to meddle with his compositions and over-Europeanize or over-Americanize his music. For these reasons Island Records decided to look for another artist to collaborate with. Throughout his musical career, King Sunny Adé has collaborated with major artists such as Manu Dibango (Wakafrika) and Stevie Wonder (who played harmonica on Aura), as well as younger Nigerian artists such as Wasiu Alabi Pasuma and Bola Abimbola. Sunny Adé’s brief period of recordings with Island Records opened the floodgates for other world music artists like Senegalese Youssou N’Dour, Mali’s Salif Keita and many others. In the 1980’s, Adé decided to embark on a career at Hollywood. Thus, his music was featured in the 1983 film Breathless, starring Richard Gere, and the 1986 comedy One More Saturday Night, and starred in Robert Altman’s 1987 comedy O.C. and Stiggs as

King Sunny Adé at the Brooklyn African Festival

himself. Sunny Adé has received numerous awards during his career. For instance, in November 2016 he became a recipient of the AFRIMA award and in the following month he was inducted into Hard Rock Café’s Hall of Fame. In 1987, Sunny Adé returned to the international spotlight when together with Rykodisc, he realized a live concert in Seattle. He soon employed American manager Andrew Frankel, who negotiated another three album record deal with the Mesa record label, a division of Paradise Group in America. One of these three albums was the 1988’s Odu, a collection of traditional Yoruba songs, thanks to which he was nominated for the second Grammy Award. Thus he became the first African musician to be nominated twice for a Grammy. Besides being an international musician, Sunny Adé is also prominent in the business sector in his native Nigeria, where he runs multiple companies in several industries and has created a non-profit organization called the King Sunny Adé Foundation. He also worked with the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria.

In recent times, hip hop music appears to be holding sway with the electronic media in Nigeria with massive airplays. Nonetheless, Sunny Adé’s musical output has continued to inspire a vast generation of other Nigerian musicians, who believe in the big band musical set up which Sunny Adé and late Fela Kuti were noted for. Lagbaja is one of the very many musicians whom Sunny Adé’s music has inspired. In 2008, his contributions to world music were finally recognized after receiving an award for his outstanding contribution to world music at the International Reggae and World Music Awards held at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. Following another record tour in the United States of America and Canada, Sunny Adé, also known as The Chairman in his home country, was appointed as a visiting professor of music at the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife. In the month of July of the same year, King Sunny Adé was inducted into the Afropop Hall of Fame at the Brooklyn African Festival in the United States of America. He dedicated the award to the recently deceased American artist Michael Jackson.

DJ Abass and King Sunny Adé

Jay-Jay Okocha Augustine Azuka “Jay-Jay” Okocha (b. 14 August 1973 in Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. A quick and skillful playmaker, who is widely regarded as the best Nigerian player of his generation and one of the greatest African players of all time, Okocha was known for his confidence, technique, creativity, and dribbling skills, as well as his use of feints, in particular the step-over. Due to his skill, he was described as being “so good that they named him twice”. Born to a Somali mother, Okocha started playing football with the youth teams of the local club, Enugu Rangers International Football Club. In his adolescence, despite already having impressive performances, his reputation remained relatively unknown outside the borders of Nigeria. At his club, the gifted young Nigerian polished his technique on poor football grounds. At the age of 18 years old, Augustine went to Germany with a friend, Binemi Numa, a good player from VfB Borussia Neunkirchen and managed to impress the coach on the training grounds of this German Division 3 club. When he returned to the locker room, the club has already decided to offer him a contract. At only 18 years old and thousands of kilometers away from his native country, Okocha instantly became an important part of the first team by playing 35 games and scoring 7 goals. Quickly thereafter, the clubs of the elite division started watching him more often as they were impressed by his technique, dribbling and the power of his strikes. German football club Eintracht Frankfurt started manifesting interest in the player and in December 1991, Augustine Okocha discovered the rigorous Bundesliga. As he performed well in an elite European Championship side, the doors of the national football team soon opened to him. His attitude was a little dilettante to the rigidity and the rigor used in the German Championship. However, Okocha had a strong character. The Nigerian didn’t like the idea of though football and together with two other teammates they refused to comply to the requirements of Jupp Heynckes, the then coach of Eintracht Frankfurt. After an extra training imposed with the reserve team the day before a match against Hamburg SV, he refused to accept to play. His popularity prevented him from being

Jay-Jay Okocha

excluded from the team though. An adored player, he became an important figure in the German city. As he became increasingly popular, Augustine Azuka recorded a disc and a clip under the title “I’m Jay-Jay”. A dazzling success, this rhythm rock song sold 10.000 copies. He left Germany after 90 matches, 17 Bundesliga goals and 2 goals in 14 UEFA Cup matches played with Eintracht Frankfurt. Augustine accepted the offer of Fenerbahçe SK, who bought him for 22 million francs, an amount considered low at that time for the level of a player like Jay-Jay. The 1994 Atlanta Olympic champion literally exploded in Istanbul, instantly revealing himself as one of Süperlig’s most spectacular players. He became a celebrity in the country and even sold the images of his marriage with Nkeshi, a Nigerian model for 300.000 francs. Turkish football fans loved the Nigerian player and nicknamed him “Okochamania”. He also adopted Turkish citizenship and took the name of Muhammet Yavuz, a surname that will remain essentially known only to Turkish fans. At his first season at Fenerbahçe, he finished top scorer with 16 goals. During the 19971998 season, he helped defeat Manchester United at Old Trafford, a performance for a Turkish club at that time. Much more efficient in front of the goal than he was in Germany, Jay-Jay Okocha was also more regular in his performances, extremely decisive in the heart of the games played at Fenerbahçe. It was at Şükrü Saracoğlu 75

that he had the highest ratio goals per game over his career, since he scored no less than 30 goals in two seasons and 60 games (one in the Champions League). His singular, hyper-telegenic style and relaxed attitude made him a huge star in the Bosphorus, yet in the rest of the world, the 25 years old playmaker was still only a talented player among so many others. The 1998 World Cup in France helped the player come in the spotlight. After the elimination of his team, Charles Biétry, then director of the sports channel Canal + and future delegated president of the PSG became

Okocha with the Nigerian national football team

interested in the playmaker. Once appointed at the head of the great Ile-de-France club he began negotiations with the leaders of Fenerbahçe SK and an agreement was agreed over 90 million francs, making him the most expensive transfer of the French Division 1 and the most expensive African player in football history. At the headquarters of Fenerbahçe, the announcement of the departure of Okocha was like a bomb and the local Istanbul club was assaulted by hysterical fans. Jay-Jay Okocha signed a four-year contract with Paris Saint Germain, a contract he would honor until the end. Jay-Jay arrived at Camp des Loges at the beginning of August. In Bordeaux, he came on to the field after 76 minutes and dribbled two players and scored a goal from 25 meters away against the opposing goalkeeper, Ulrich Ramé. At PSG, Okocha strengthened his reputation as a balloon artist with a flawless individual technique, above average, an innate talent and a unique sense of dribbling, one of them also bearing his name, the “JayJay” (roulette of the right foot, then roulette feint of the left foot linked with a feint of the body). As for his famous strikes, they were both very powerful and precise. During his four years at PSG, Jay-Jay impressed the viewers of the TV channel D1. Jay-Jay Okocha evolved alongside Stéphane Dalmat, Peter Luccin, Nicolas Anelka, Mikel Arteta, Gabriel Heinze and Ronaldinho, all often constituting a great team on paper. Over the years, successive coaches and team compositions, Okocha abandoned his role of a playmaker to more often take a role of first torchbearer in front of the defense. He played in 84 league games where he scored 12 goals, 8 games in national cups where he scored 1 goal and 11 European Cup matches where he scored 2 goals. Regarded as one of the best players in the league, he didn’t win any titles with PSG (just an Intertoto Cup). He renounced to his number 10 shirt in favor of Ronaldinho and transferred to Bolton Wanderers at the end of his contract in June 2002. Following a much less impressive 2002 World Cup than the previous ones for the Super Eagles, Jay-Jay Okocha transferred to Premier League and like another former Parisian, David Ginola, his genius talent would be recognized by becoming a regular first team player. At Bolton, he played with PSG acquaintances Bernard Mendy and Yuri Djorkaeff, but also with Ivan Campo, former defender at Real Madrid, at a club that then had as a recruitment policy the acquisition of experienced players more or less at the end of their careers. As in his previous clubs, he was adored by the fans very quickly and ultimately entertained the viewers. Jay-Jay Okocha

Jay-Jay playing for PSG

was still described by many as an incredible footballer. As in his best moments in Turkey and Germany, the Reebok Stadium would soon devote him a real cult. Despite his prestigious teammates, he was undeniably the star of the team. He has helped save the small club from the suburbs of Manchester to avoid relegation by scoring 7 vital goals in his first season in England. The following year, he was named captain and he took the team to the final of the League Cup. That year, Bolton Wanderers obtained the best ranking in the Premier League in the history of the club (8th). Okocha was both captain of the Super Eagles and captain of Bolton. He was voted the best African player by the BBC in 2003 and 2004 and was the only player to have won this trophy twice, let alone twice in a row. He was also considered the second biggest player in Bolton’s history after Nat Lofthouse (a 1950’s international Englishman). At the end of his contract with Bolton and attracted like others by the petrodollars of the Middle East clubs, he decided not to prolong his contract (he was also removed from the captaincy a few months earlier) and to move on to Qatar SC for the 2006-2007 season. He has played 124 Premier League matches for Bolton Wanderers and scored 14 goals, and for his last season, Jay-Jay has had a UEFA Cup tournament with the Wanderers. In the Arabian Gulf, he played 41 games and

scored 6 goals. In the 2007-2008 season, he returned to England at Hull City in the Coca Cola Championship (2nd British Division). At 34 years old, Okocha participated at the ascension of the club to the Premier League, playing 18 games before finally retiring. Okocha made his official debut with the Super Eagles in May 1993 against Ivory Coast, which resulted in a two-goal victory. Nigeria was on its way to the World Cup in the United States, the first in its history. Despite his many fans, the stars of that team were Emmanuel Amunike, Daniel Amokachi and Rashidi Yekini. Clemens Westerhof ignored him until the semi-finals of the 1994 Olympic Tournament. Okocha then exploded against Ivory Coast and became indispensable. Nigeria reached the round of 16 of the World Cup, only to be eliminated by Italy. Nigeria eliminated Brazil with Bebeto in top form and won the competition at the expense of Argentina’s Hernán Crespo. The gold generation of Okocha, Kanu, Oliseh, West was then born. He then proceeded playing on equal level with Yekini, Amokachi and others and became one of the most formidable national selections of the late 1990’s. Decisive during the qualifying campaign and the undisputed number 10 of the national team because of the persistent injuries of Amunike, and helped by Sunday Oliseh in the middle of the team, Jay-Jay Okocha arrived on French soil convinced that the Super Eagles can easily get out of their group. The draw has made them play against Spain, Paraguay and Bulgaria. The media also presented Nigeria as the first African selection to possibly win the World Cup. Okocha was the star of the squad as he had incredible performances during the competition, embroidering the most prestigious defenders with his inimitable style made of improbable tricks, powerful thrusts, violent accelerations, precise transversals and spontaneous and heavy strikes. On the occasion of the match against Spain, he delivered, just like his teammates, a legendary performance and the Super Eagles crucified Fernando Hierro’s Spain by three goals to two. Unfortunately, they were eliminated then by Denmark. As four years earlier, the adventure has stopped in the round of 16 and the fans were disappointment. Jay-Jay Okocha was one of the key figures of an otherwise unrelenting World Cup 98 Nigeria team. Jay-Jay was then recognized at the height of his talent: he has shown that he was one of the most talented number 10 on the planet and a global star. The 2002 World Cup was much less impressive than the previous ones for the Super Eagles because of a difficult group and the transition of generations. 77

Jay-Jay Okocha during a friendly legends match

Nwankwo Kanu Nwankwo Kanu (b. 1 August 1976 in Owerri, Imo, Nigeria) is a retired Nigerian footballer who played as a forward. He was a member of the Nigerian national team and later captained the Eagles for 16 years from 1994 until 2010. Kanu is a member of the Igbo ethnic group. His name, Nwankwo, means Child born on Nkwo market day in the Igbo language. Kanu has won a UEFA Champions League medal, a UEFA Cup medal, three FA Cup Winners Medals and two African Player of the Year awards amongst others. He is also one of few players to have won the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, UEFA Cup and an Olympic Gold Medal. He made the 3rd most substitute appearances in Premier League history, appearing from the bench 118 times. Born in the city of Owerri, the capital of the Imoen state in southeastern Nigeria, Kanu began his career in the Federation Works team, a modest team that belonged to the working class in 1991, a year before being transferred to Iwuanyanwu Nationale, also known as Heartland FC where he won the National League title in 1993. After a remarkable performance with Nigeria’s Under-17 team at the 1993 youth championship in Tokyo, Japan, in which his team were crowned champions after defeating Ghana with the score of 2-1, Kanu signed a contract with Ajax Amsterdam for 207.000 € in 1993. During his time at Ajax, the Nigerian footballer played a total of 54 matches, totaling 25 goals. He was substituted and entered the 54th minute of the final match that Ajax played in Vienna against AC Milan, in which the team won the Champions League title, thanks to the goal scored by Patrick Kluivert with 5 minutes before the end of the game. Nwankwo Kanu experienced his most successful part of his career at Ajax Amsterdam, where he was trained at the time by Dutch coach Louis van Gaal. He obtained with the team a total of 6 national titles: 3 Eredivisie (Dutch League) and 3 Dutch Super Cups, as well as the the 1994-1995 Champions League, Super Cup of Europe (winning by a total score of 4-3 against Real Zaragoza of Spain) and the Intercontinental Cup (winning by 4-0 in the penalty shoot-out against International Porto Alegre of Brazil). In 1996, after the Olympic Games held in Atlanta, USA, Ajax sold Nwankwo Kanu to Inter Milan for an approximate amount of 4 million Italian

Nwankwo Kanu

liras. That same year he obtained the distinction as the best African footballer of the year for his contribution to European football. He was also fundamental in obtaining the gold medal with his representative in the 1996 Olympic Games of Atlanta, United States. During the Inter Milan medical examinations, it was found that Kanu had heart problems and surgery on the aortic valve had to be performed. It was thought that Kanu could no longer play football anymore and that he would abandon his career to work in the public relations department at Inter Milan. The controversy revolved on the questionable ignorance that had its previous club Ajax Amsterdam sell the player to Inter Milan for an insignificant figure of 4 million Italian liras. The Nigerian forward was then only 20 years old. Piero Volpi, a doctor who worked at Inter and who was responsible for the diagnosis, expressed his dissatisfaction with the board of Ajax Amsterdam. The club doctors defended themselves by claiming that they’ve never noticed any anomaly. The same accusations were brought upon the Nigerian team, Piero Volpi stating that: “A simple electrocardiogram could have detected the lesion, which must have manifested from at least at 15 years. How is it possible that no one had warned him until now? My only consolation as a doctor is that the disease has been discovered within the necessary time to treat it. If not, his life was in danger.” The medical tests in Milan proved that there 79

was no doubt that Kanu suffered from “aortic valvular insufficiency”. “In my opinion, it is clear that he will not be able to play again, otherwise there would be serious risks of accelerating the disease”, said Bruno Carú, one of the doctors who had examined the Nigerian player. Carú had also treated the heart arrhythmias of Riccardo Morandotti and Gregor Fucka, allowing them to continue their careers, but the doctor had said at the time that “Kanu’s case is very different. His disease is probably rheumatic and should be operated as a first measure”. For his part, the Nigerian declared: “I do not know what to say, I did not understand what is happening to me, but above all, I do not know what to do, I am desperate, and that’s enough”. Nwankwo Kanu had joined Inter on 15 August 1996 and at that time he had played only three friendly matches with the Milan team: two of them in Vigo and one in Barcelona. On 1 October 1996, the then general director of Inter Milan, Luigi Predeval, declared that it was not decided whether the player would be operated, nor who would be the doctor in charge of the intervention. Finally, on 29 November 1996 Nwankwo Kanu was successfully operated on his cardiac malformation

at a hospital in Cleveland, in the US state of Ohio. The then Nigerian consul in the United States, Sunmonu Bello-Ossagie, who accompanied Kanu from his arrival in Cleveland, said at the end of the surgery that lasted four hours that “everything had gone very well”. Before entering surgery, Kanu said: “I’ll be back”, while doing with the fingers the “V” sign for victory. On 6 December 1996, the Nigerian government announced the donation of 50.000 $ to cover for the player’s medical expenses. On 13 December 1996, the Nigerian footballer left the hospital in Cleveland (USA) where a valve was implanted in his aorta and on 2 May 1997, the doctors gave him the green light to start playing football again, five months after being operated. On 17 July 1997, Kanu joined Inter Milan after undergoing an exhaustive medical examination that showed that the disease was completely healed. This experience allowed him to become aware of heart problems and led him to the decision of founding an organization to help African youth with heart problems. The organization is known as Kanu Heart Foundation. At Inter Milan, he played along with figures such as Ronaldo, Ivan Zamorano, Gianluca Pagliuca, Roberto Baggio, Javier Zanetti and

Kanu (far up right) at Ajax Amsterdam

The Nigerian footballer playing for Arsenal FC

others, winning the UEFA Cup in 1998. However, he couldn’t win any domestic title. His three seasons at Inter Milan paid off with just 12 games and 1 goal. Later, Nwankwo Kanu was transferred to Arsenal FC in England, where he played alongside players like Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Robert Pirès and was trained by Arsène Wenger. He won the Premier League title in two occasions, as well as the English Cup. In 2004, he went to play with West Bromwich Albion, but did not perform as well as in his previous years, until Portsmouth FC employed him. In 2008, he scored the winning goal against Cardiff City and won the FA Cup with Portsmouth. During the 2010 World Cup there were rumors that the player could have falsified his age and that he would be 42 years old instead of 33. After 6 years spent at Portsmouth FC and following the relegation of his team to Football League One, adding that the team had to get rid of its best players so that it wouldn’t disappear due to the serious economic problems that suffered from, Kanu decided to leave the team after they didn’t pay the debt they had to him. He retired from Portsmouth FC in 2012. Nwankwo Kanu has represented his national team 87 times and has scored 12 goals. His successes

with the Super Eagles were the winning of the U-17 World Cup in 1993, as well as the Gold Medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, won after defeating Brazil in the semifinals and Argentina in the final. In the competition, Kanu was the captain of the team. He also participated at the 1998, 2002 and 2010 World Cups. On 11 June 2011, Nwankwo Kanu retired from the national team in a match played at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos between a selection of African footballers called “Nwankwo Kanu Friends” and the “Super Eagles All Stars” composed of current and former members of the Nigerian national team. When he played for the national team, his shirt number was 4.

Nwankwo Kanu representing the Nigerian National Team

Herbert Macaulay Olayinka Herbert Samuel Heelas Badmus Macaulay (b. 14 November 1864 in Lagos, Nigeria – d. 7 May 1946 in Lagos, Nigeria) was a Nigerian nationalist, politician, engineer, architect, journalist, and musician and is considered by many Nigerians as the founder of Nigerian nationalism. Herbert Macaulay was born in Lagos to the family of Thomas Babington Macaulay and Abigail Crowther. His parents were children of people captured from what is now Nigeria, resettled in Sierra Leone by the British West Africa Squadron, and eventual returnees to present day Nigeria. Herbert’s father was one of the sons of Ojo Oriare, while Abigail Crowther was the daughter of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, a descendant of King Abiodun. Thomas Babington founded of the first secondary school in Nigeria, known as the CMS Grammar School, Lagos. Herbert Macaulay went to primary school in 1869 and until 1877, he learned at Saint Paul’s Breadfruit School, Lagos and CMS Faji School, Lagos. Starting from 1877 until October 1880, he attended CMS Grammar School, Lagos for his secondary education. He was just a student when his father died in 1878. In 1880, he decided to join his uncle’s trade steamer and embarked on a trade and missionary journey across the Niger River. During this expedition, he visited Bonny, Gbebe, Lokoja and Brass. After finishing his studies at a Christian missionary school, Herbert took a job as a clerical assistant and indexer at the Department of Public Works in the city of Lagos. He received support from the colonial administration and left Lagos on 1 July 1890 for England. From 1891 until 1894, the young Nigerian went on to study civil engineering in Plymouth, England. In 1893, Macaulay graduated from the Royal Institute of British Architects in London and also turned out to be an accomplished musician as he received a certificate in music from Trinity College, London, as well as a certificate in violin playing from Music International College, London. When Macaulay left civil service, he established a romantic relationship with Caroline Pratt, who was the daughter of an African Police Superintendent. The couple later got married but Caroline suddenly died in August 1899. The 2 of them had no kids from the marriage. Even after his wife’s death, Herbert maintained good relations with her family and ensured their welfare. 82

Herbert Macaulay

The Nigerian nationalist then married Maria Pase even though there were some records that indicated that he also kept a string of mistresses who bore him a battalion of children. One of his sons, Ogedengbe Macaulay, also got involved in politics. Ogedengbe was a Zikist and in 1948, as the NCNC was becoming increasingly weaker, together with some other Zikists decided to take some pro-active steps in this direction. On one occasion, he said “If we tell the Governor to come down, he will not. We must drag him down and take over.” Herbert Macaulay returned to Lagos in September 1893 and resumed his work with the colonial service as a surveyor of Crown Lands. He left the service as land inspector in September 1898 due to the growing distaste for the British rule over the Lagos Colony and the position of the Yorubaland and the Niger Coast Protectorate as British colonies in all but name. Patrick Dele-Cole has also denounced the abuse of office allegations and went on a pursuit of private gain controversy that eventually caused Macaulay’s resignation as surveyor of Crown Grants. Macaulay is thought to have behaved dishonestly after using “his position as Surveyor of Crown Lands to help friends acquire crown grants and persecute enemies by granting their land to others”. In October 1898, Herbert obtained a license to practice as a surveyor. His plans and valuations included E.J. Alex Taylor’s house on Victoria Street, Henry Carr’s residence in Tinubu, Akinola Maja’s

Olayinka Herbert Samuel Heelas Badmus Macaulay’s face on the 1 Naira Banknote

house and Doherty villa in Campos Square. Macaulay fought against numerous injustices by writing articles with the help of which he contributed to the Lagos Daily Times. He opposed the British authorities’ attempts to expand their administration by interpreting these developments as detrimental to the interests of indigenous Nigerians. He even went on to agitate against the payment of water rates in 1915 and, after assuming his role as a leader of the Lagos auxiliary of the Antislavery and Aborigines Protection Society, managed to lead the opposition against the government’s plans to reform land tenure arrangements in Lagos and Yorubaland. Herbert Macaulay has succeeded

Statue of Herbert Macaulay in Lagos Island, Nigeria

in his antigovernment activities plans and rose to preeminence in Lagos politics. In 1921, the Nigerian activist was sent to London by the King of Lagos (Eleko) in order to represent him in a legal appeal of a local land tenure case. In England, Herbert Macaulay stated that the British colonial government eroded the power and authority of the Eleko, who was recognized by all Nigerians as the rightful and true king of Lagos. The British were embarrassed by the accusations even though they didn’t put an end to their activities. They have decided to assign Macaulay as a leading advocate of the rights of traditional leadership in Lagos. In 1922, there was introduced a new Nigerian constitution that provided for limited franchise elections in Lagos and Calabar. Macaulay decided to organize the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) so that he could contest the three elective seats in Lagos. The platform of the NNDP advocated for the self-government of the Lagos Colony, the introduction of institutions of higher education into Nigeria, compulsory primary school education, the Africanization of the civil service, as well as nondiscrimination policies in the development of private economic enterprises. Unfortunately, Herbert’s political activities were only limited to Lagos affairs until the end of the second world war when Nigerians started fighting for their right to independence. In 1944, Herbert Macaulay participated at the meeting of the Nigerian Union of Students, from which it ultimately emerged the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), which then became Nigeria’s first national political party. Herbert Macaulay was eventually elected president of the NCNC and was engaged in a national tour for the party in 1945, when he became ill. After returning to Lagos, he died few months later, on 7 May 1946. Herbert Macaulay was buried at the Ikoyi Cemetery in Lagos on 11 May 1946. Following his death in 1946, the leadership of the NCNC party went to Nnamdi Azikiwe, the man who later became the first president of independent Nigeria. Nnamdi Azikiwe delivered a funeral oration at Macaulay’s burial ceremony and Isaac Babalola Thomas, the editor and proprietor of the Akede Eko was executor of Macaulay’s Last Will & Testament. Herbert Macaulay’s private collection, entitled The Macaulay Papers are at the African Section of the University of Ibadan Library. The Macaulay Papers include a vast assortment of political pamphlets, newspapers, and government documents, as well as personal papers, correspondences, diaries, and photographs. 83

Nigerian Cuisine

Garri

Egusi Soup

Ingredients:

• 4 cups yellow or white Garri (fried grated cassava flour) • Water • Groundnuts • Honey

Ingredients:

• • • • • • Steps: • 1. Boil some water and put it into a bowl. • 2. Add the garri into the boiled water and pour out the • excess water. • 3. Mold it into small portions if desired. • 4. Serve with groundnuts and honey or with any kind • of soup.

1 kg fish or / and beef Spinach (chopped) 2 tomatoes 1 red pepper 3 green peppers 1 carrot (minced) 1 teaspoon dried dill 3 tablespoons oil 250g pumpkin seeds (peeled and milled) 1 onion 2 liters of water Salt and Pepper

Steps:

1. Cut the meat, clean the bones and excess fat then boil it together with desired spices and leave to medium heat until it softens. 2. Wash and chop the spinach and blend the tomatoes in a kitchen robot along with red and green peppers, carrots, dill, onion and pepper. 3. Add the cut pieces of meat in a pot alongside 5 teaspoons of oil, milled pumpkin seeds, chopped spinach, blended vegetables and some of the soup in which the meat was boiled. 4. Leave everything at medium heat for 25 minutes until all ingredients are softened then take the soup from the fire, season if necessary and serve with cream (optional).

Garri

Egusi Soup

Jollof Rice

Jollof Rice (Nigerian Style) Ingredients: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

500g rice 300g canned (peeled) tomatoes 2 carrots (cut into cubes) 50g green peas 2 onions 2 fresh chilies 1 ginger root 3 garlic cloves 1 teaspoon curry 2 chicken/beef/vegetable cubes Salt and Pepper Oil Water (or chicken soup)

Steps:

4. 5.

6. 7.

chicken/beef/vegetable cubes. Let everything on fire for about 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 250 ml of water or chicken soup. Add the rice and some water to cover the rice. Add salt. Cover the pot and leave it for about 10 minutes. If extra water is needed then add, but the rice grain shouldn’t be neither hard nor soft. Put the carrot and peas in the pot and leave them for about 5 minutes. Let everything on fire for about 10 minutes. Before serving, let the Jollof rice cool for about 5 to 10 minutes. It can be served with any type of meat.

Pounded Yam (Iyan) Ingredients:

• 350g pounded yam flour

Steps:

1. Put the tomatoes, chili and grated ginger in a 1. Bring about 1,125 liters of water to boil in a large blender. saucepan. 2. In a saucepan, put about 3 to 4 tablespoons of oil 2. Using a wooden spoon, stir in 350g pounded yam then add the sliced onion and garlic and fry them a flour until combined. bit for about 3 to 5 minutes. 3. Reduce heat to low and continue to stir for 5 minutes 3. Pour the sauce out of the blender, add a teaspoon of or until thick, soft and smooth. Add more water if curry, mix, leave for about 2 minutes then add the 2 necessary. 86

• Salt • Chili pepper • Fry oil

Steps:

Pounded Yam (Iyan)

Akara Ingredients:

• 200g eye beans • Onion (sliced)

1. Soak the beans in water for no more than 10 minutes. 2. Peel the beans. Soak the peeled beans for half an hour so that they soften slightly then pass them into a blender until you get a smooth and no lumps composition. 3. Add the finely sliced onions, salt and chili to the bean composition and mix the dough well. Divide the composition into several pieces. 4. In a frying pan, pour plenty of oil with a piece of onion. 5. Add the doughs of bean composition to the pan and cook on both sides until they turn golden. 6. When the onion you have put into the oil begins to caramelize, take it off otherwise the Akara will get a bitter taste. 7. Drain the Akara over absorbent paper and serve hot.

Akara

Efo Riro

Efo Riro Ingredients: • • • • • • • • • •

2.5 kg blanched spinac 3 red bell peppers (blended) 1 small onion (diced) 2 tablespoons blended crayfish 2 tablespoons locust bean Prawns Fish stock (shredded) 1 seasoning cube ¼ cup palm oil Any kind of pre-cooked meat (optional)

Steps:

1. Preheat the palm oil and add the diced onion in a pot. Fry until golden-brown. 2. Add the blended red bell peppers and fry them then add the seasoning cube. 3. Throw in the pot the blended crayfish and locust bean then add salt and pepper to taste. 4. Add the shredded fish stock, prawns and meat (optional) then pour some water to thin the sauce. Cover the pot and let it simmer. 5. In the end, add the spinach and mix everything together. Cook the food for 5 to 10 minutes more or until it is ready. 88

Afang Soup Ingredients: • • • • • • •

400g sliced Afang leaves 250g Water leaves 20 to 25 cl red palm oil Beef, Kanda and Dry fish 2 tablespoons ground crayfish (or prawns) Pepper and salt 2 stock cubes

Steps:

1. Wash, drain and slice the water leaves into tiny pieces then grind the sliced Afang leaves in a blender with a small quantity of water. 2. Grind the crayfish and slice the onions. 3. In a small quantity of water, bring the beef and Kanda to a boil alongside the diced onions and stock cubes. Once the water is boiling, add the dry fish and cook for about 7 more minutes. 4. Add the palm oil, crayfish and pepper. After the water starts to boil, add the Afang leaves and water leaves. 5. Once the Afang leaves have softened and the water has dried up a bit, add some salt and pepper and let the soup simmer for about 5 to 10 more minutes. Serve hot.

Pepper Soup Ingredients: • • • • • • • •

600g Assorted Meat 1 onion 3 bell peppers (thinly chopped) 2 Tablespoons Pepper Soup Spice 3 cloves of garlic (diced) 1 small ginger root (diced) 1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper 3 Tablespoons Dry or fresh Efinrin/ Basil/ leaves or Utazi Leaves • 1 Tablespoon Black Pepper • 3 seasoning cubes • Salt to taste

Steps:

Afang Soup

1. Wash the meat and throw them into a pot. Add the diced onion, garlic and ginger root, as well as the seasoning cubes and salt. Do not add any water! 2. On medium heat, let the meat sweat out its moisture and absorb the flavours of the onion and garlic for about 10 to 15 minutes. 3. Add water and cook everything until the meat becomes tender. Once the meat is tender, add the chopped bell peppers and cayenne pepper. 4. Stir occasionally and add the black pepper and pepper soup spices. 5. In the end, add the chopped Basil or Utazi Leaves and let the soup simmer for 3 more minutes.

Suya Ingredients: • • • •

500g Beef Tenderloin (cut into cubes) Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon curry Oil (for frying)

Steps:

1. Take the beef tenderloin cubes and let them macerate a little in Worcestershire sauce. 2. Add a generous tablespoon of curry. 3. Fry the meat cubes on all sides then place them on skewers and serve. Suya

Pepper Soup

Moi Moi

2. 3.

Ingredients: • • • • • • • • • •

350g black eyed beans 1 small onion (sliced) 1 red bell pepper (chopped) 1 scotch bonnet pepper (chopped) 4 Eggs (boil and peel 2 of the eggs) 1 tablespoon ground crayfish 3 tablespoons palm oil 3 tablespoons melted butter (optional) 1 seasoning cube Salt

Steps:

4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

1. Soak the beans in warm water overnight. The following day, peel, rinse and remove the beans’ 9. 90

skin. In a blender, add the black eyed beans, chopped red bell pepper, onion and a cup of water. Pour the mixture into a bowl and break 2 eggs over it. Add the palm oil, salt, seasoning cube and ground crayfish in a bowl where you had previously added 2 or 3 tablespoons of boiling water. Set aside to cool. Once the mixture has cooled, pour it over the beans, red bell pepper and onion composition. Mix the batter thoroughly. Pour some water in a large pot and bring it to boiling point. Oil a loaf pan, pour half of the batter in it, add the 2 boiled eggs than pour the other half of the batter. Cover the loaf pan with some aluminum foil. Put the covered loaf pan in the pot filled with water (it mustn’t be covered by water), place a lid over it and reduce the heat from high to medium. Steam the composition for about an hour. Remove from heat and set aside. Serve warm. Moi Moi

Zobo

Nigeria Travel

Abuja

Millennium Park

93 National Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Park and Zoo

Zuma Rock

Abuja Arts and Crafts Village

Abuja National Mosque

Aso Rock on the outskirts of Abuja

Lagos

Awolowo Memorial Statue

Elegushi Royal Beach Gate

Nike Art Gallery

National Nigerian Museum

Freedom Park on Victoria Island, Lagos

Jaekel House

Bar Beach

Victoria Island, Lagos

Tarkwa Bay Beach

Eleko Beach

Kalakuta Museum

Rele Art Gallery

Lekki Market

Lekki Conservation Center

100

Kano

Kurmi Market

101

Palace of the Emir of Kano

Gidan Makama Museum

New Gate to the palace of the Emir of Zaria

102

Other Places

Awhum Waterfall

103

Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary

104

Agodi Gardens

Cross River National Park

105

Jhalobia Recreation Park and Gardens

Dreamworld Africana

Yankari National Park

Man on Lake Chad

106

Erin-Ijesha Waterfall

Gashamka Gumti National Park

107

Kajuru Castle

Kamuku National Park

108

Hippo Lake on Kainji Lake National Park

Old Oyo National Park

Kaduna Museum

109

Lufasi Nature Park

110

Obudu Mountain Resort

Boats in the Niger River Delta

111

Oguta Lake

Olumo Rock

Usman Dam

Osun Osogbo Sacred Grove

112

Port Harcourt Zoo

Sukur Cultural Landscape

UI Zoological Garden Ibadan

Sarius Palmetum

113