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Ethnic Diversity
Nigeria is home to more than 250 ethnic groups, including the Hausa and Fulani (29%), Yoruba (21%), Ibo (18%), Ijaw (10%), Kanuri (4%), Ibibio (3.5%), and Tiv (2.5%). While English is the official language of the country, the inhabitants also speak indigenous languages such as Hausa, Yoruba, Ibo, Fulani, and more than 200 others.
Religious differences have led to much instability in the region. Nigeria's population is 50% Muslim, 40% Christian, with 10%Â following indigenous beliefs. The religions are mainly split along geographic lines, with the majority of Muslims living in the north of the country.
Politics
Nigeria gained independence from the British in 1960. The new country held a number of peoples aspiring for their own sovereign nation, one of which (those in the area called Southern Cameroon) opted to join the newly formed Republic of Cameroon, while others stayed within Nigeria. The northern part of the country, dominated by Muslim political parties, was now far larger than the southern part. This imbalance coupled with corrupt political and electoral processes led to several back-to-back military coups after 1966. The Eastern Region of Nigeria declared itself an independent state called the Republic of Biafra in 1967. The area was populated mainly by the Igbo people, who had suffered discrimination and violence under the military regimes. A short war ending in 1970 reclaimed the territory for Nigeria, but did nothing to quell the ethnic divisions and strife in the country.
During the oil boom in the 1970s, military elites in the northern oil-rich Niger Delta benefited immensely at the expense of the Nigerian people and economy. Nigeria found itself in grave international debt. Several more military coups followed in the 1980s and 1990s until the regime of Ibrahim Babaginda promised a return to free and fair elections in 1992. After results showed a presidential victory for his rival, however, Babaginda declared the election null and void, sparking mass civilian protest which forced him to step down in favor of a new civilian-run government. This government was short-lived, as General Sani Abacha took power in another military coup in 1993. Abacha's regime employed wide-scale violence to suppress the continuing civil unrest, until his mysterious death in 1998. In 1999, Nigeria returned to democracy by electing Olusegun Obasanjo, though the elections that brought him to power in 1999 and returned him to it in 2003 have been widely perceived as unfair.
The April 2007 elections - the country's first transition from one democratically elected president to another - were marred by widespread allegations of fraud, ballot stuffing, violence, and chaos. Just days before the election, the Supreme Court ruled that the election commission's decision to remove Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a leading candidate and bitter rival of President Olusegun Obasanjo, from the ballot was illegal. Ballots were reprinted, but they only showed party symbols rather than the names of the candidates. Umaru Yar'Adua, the candidate of the governing party, won the election in a landslide, taking more than 24.6 million votes. Second-place candidate Muhammadu Buhari tallied only about 6 million votes. International observers called the vote flawed and illegitimate. The chief observer for the European Union said the results "cannot be considered to have been credible."Â The results, however, have remained.
Nigeria's stability has been repeatedly threatened by fighting between fundamentalist Muslims and Christians over the spread of Islamic law (sharia) across the heavily Muslim north. One-third of Nigeria's 36 states are ruled by sharia law. More than 10,000 people have died in religious clashes since military rule ended in 1999. Ethnic and interreligious violence is especially high in the oil-producing Niger Delta, where minority ethnic groups such as the Ogoni and Ijaw have felt exploited by the government and foreign oil corporations. Competition for oil wealth has led to the militarization of nearly the entire region by ethnic militia groups as well as the Nigerian military and police forces.
Part Two - Transitional Justice in Nigeria
Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission - Summary Report
Strategies for Peace in the Niger Delta (USIP)
Responding to Crisis in Nigeria (USIP)
State Department Human Rights Report 2007 - Nigeria