HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF NIGERIA
A young lady Flora gave the name Nigeria to the
country, she
laterbecame the
wife of Sir Lord Lugard, the name was derived from the word Niger which is the name of the river that make up one of the most outstanding landmark in the
country. The 1991 population census put the numbers of people a little above eighty-nine million people, the United Nation organization give a population projection of about one hundred and fifty million people. The country has an area of 923,768 square kilometers, it lies East of Benin
Republic, South of Niger an Chad Republic, West of Cameroon and North of Gulf of Guinea.
Nigeria is made up of different ethnic groups that have different cultures and languages, the major tribes are Hausa, Yoruba, and Ibo. The river Niger and Benue naturally divided the country into three regions, these regions are the North, West and the East. But because of the British economic interest in the country and for easy administration, Lord Lugard amalgamated the country in 1914, the geographical land mass that follows was named Nigeria. She became independence on October 1st, 1960, with Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa becoming the first Prime Minister, she became a republic on October 1st, 1963, with Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe as the first indigenous Governor General and later the president of the senate.
The country is blessed with so much natural and human resources, but she is rated among the poor nations of the world. She is rocked with political instability. In her forty-five years of independence, the military has ruled for about twenty-nine years, while the civilians have ruled for about fifteen years. The nation was divided into “12 state on May 27th, 1967, from the existing four regions by Gen. Gowon. Gen. Murtala made it nineteen on June 29, 1975. On October 1987, Gen. Babangida increased it to 21 state and later to 30 states on August 23rd, 1991. On October 1st, 1996, Gen. Abacha made it 36 state that the country currently has. The country returned to civilian rule on May 29th, 1999, with Olusegun Obasanjo emerging as the president of the fourth republic.