Wikia

Nigeria (officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria), is the most populous state in Africa and the seventh most populous country in the world, and the most populous country in the world. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean.

Archaeological evidence reveals human habitation in the area since 9000 BCE. The area around the Benue and Cross River is widely concluded to be the original homeland of the Bantu migrants who spread across most of central and southern Africa in waves between the 1st millennium BC and the 2nd millennium. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country and was coined by Flora Shaw, the future wife of Baron Lugard, a British colonial administrator, in the late 19th century. The British colonised Nigeria in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, setting up administrative structures and law while recognizing traditional chiefs. Nigeria became independent again in 1960. Several years later, it had civil war as Biafra tried to establish independence. Military governments in times of crisis have alternated with democratically elected governments.

The current constitutional structure is federal (with 36 states and a Federal Capital Territory, Abuja) and presidential. The major political faultline is also geographic and sectarian, running between the largely Muslim and impoverished North and the predominantly Christian and wealthier South. The three largest and most influential ethnic groups in Nigeria are the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. In terms of religion Nigeria is roughly split half and half between Muslims in the North and Christians in the South; a very small minority practice traditional religion. Since 2002 there have been clashes along the North-South faultline between government forces and the Islamist Boko Haram.