Nigeria

Nigeria's territory held some of Africa's most powerful pre-colonial states: the Kanem-Bornu Empire by Lake Chad, the walled Hausa trading cities, the Sokoto Caliphate founded by Usman dan Fodio's 1804 jihad, the Yoruba kingdoms centred on Ife and Oyo, the Kingdom of Benin with its celebrated bronzes — looted by a British expedition in 1897 — and the trading states of the Niger Delta. Britain took Lagos in 1861 and, in 1914, amalgamated its northern and southern protectorates into a single colony called Nigeria. Independence came on 1 October 1960.

The First Republic collapsed in 1966 in two coups and pogroms against the Igbo, after which the Eastern Region seceded as Biafra. The civil war that followed, from 1967 to 1970, cost between one and three million lives, most of them to starvation under blockade. Decades of mostly military rule followed, punctuated by short-lived civilian governments, the oil boom and bust of the 1970s, the annulment of the 1993 election, and the kleptocratic rule of Sani Abacha, until a return to democracy in 1999.

Under the Fourth Republic, power passed peacefully to an opposition party for the first time when Muhammadu Buhari won in 2015. Bola Tinubu took office after a disputed three-way election in 2023 and immediately removed the fuel subsidy and floated the naira, setting off a cost-of-living crisis, all against a backdrop of the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast, mass kidnappings in the northwest, and farmer–herder violence in the Middle Belt.

Nigeria's cultural output is enormous. Nollywood is the world's most prolific film industry; Afrobeats — Fela Kuti's sound updated by Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido, Tems, and Rema — is a global force; and writers from Chinua Achebe and the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie have shaped world literature.

Religion is intense — a Pentecostal megachurch movement with vast auditoriums and celebrity pastors in the south, and a devout, sharia-influenced Muslim north — and traditional rulers such as the Sultan of Sokoto, the Ooni of Ife, and the Oba of Benin still command deep respect alongside the state. Festivals such as the Durbar horse parades of Kano, the Osun-Osogbo grove festival, and the Calabar Carnival draw huge crowds.

Across a very diverse country, common threads include the primacy of family and community, elaborate weddings and funerals, aso ebi matching outfits and owambe parties, jollof rice and the friendly "jollof wars" with neighbours, and a shared passion for football and the Super Eagles.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous country by a wide margin — young, urbanising fast, and defined by hustle. Lagos, a megacity built across lagoons and islands, is the commercial and creative capital, as famous for its traffic as for its energy; Abuja is the planned, orderly seat of government; and Kano, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Benin City, and Onitsha are major cities in their own right.

The economy is one of Africa's largest and highly diversified — oil and gas from the Delta, but also agriculture (the biggest employer), Nollywood, music, a booming fintech sector, and a vast informal economy. Yet the state delivers little: the national power grid fails constantly, so homes and businesses run on generators; public services are thin; and corruption is a persistent drag.

Youth unemployment and, since 2023, steep inflation have driven "japa" — the mass emigration of skilled young Nigerians, especially doctors, nurses, and tech workers, to Britain, Canada, and the United States — while remittances from the diaspora run into the tens of billions of dollars a year.

Jollof rice — rice simmered in a rich tomato, pepper, and onion base — is the centrepiece of every celebration and the subject of a proud rivalry with Ghana. Everyday eating is built on "swallows": pounded yam, eba from cassava, amala, and fufu, dipped into soups such as egusi (melon seed), ogbono, okra, and the fiery pepper soup.

Suya, thin spiced beef skewers dusted with peppery yaji, is the national street food, grilled at smoky roadside stalls in the evening. Beans appear as moin moin steamed pudding and akara fritters, plantain is fried as dodo or roasted as boli, and the north favours masa rice cakes, tuwo, and sweet tea.

To drink there are palm wine, Star and "33" lagers, hibiscus zobo, millet kunu, and chapman, a bittersweet mixed soft drink found in every bar.

Tourism is underdeveloped and shaped by the security map, but there is plenty to see. Lagos is the main draw — live music and nightlife, a strong art scene and galleries such as the Nike Art Gallery, the beaches of the Lekki peninsula and Tarkwa Bay, and the canopy walkway at the Lekki Conservation Centre. Abuja has the monolith of Zuma Rock on its approach and the National Mosque and Christian Centre facing each other across the city.

In the southwest, the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove is a World Heritage Site of shrines and sculpture along the river, Olumo Rock rises over Abeokuta, and the Erin-Ijesha waterfall and the hill town of Idanre are within reach. Benin City preserves the moat and royal court of the old Kingdom of Benin.

Further afield, the Calabar Carnival fills late December in the southeast, Obudu Mountain Resort sits on a plateau near the Cameroon border, and Cross River National Park protects rainforest. The cool Jos Plateau in the centre and Yankari National Park in Bauchi, with its elephants and warm Wikki Spring, round out a country whose northern walled cities remain culturally rich but currently hard to reach safely.