"text":"<p>In ancient and pre-colonial times, the area of present-day Nigeria was occupied by a variety of ethnic groups with different languages and traditions. These included large Islamic kingdoms such as Borno, Kano, and the Sokoto Caliphate dominating the north, the Benin and Oyo Empires that controlled much of modern western Nigeria, and more decentralized political entities and city states in the south and southeast. In 1914, the British amalgamated their separately administered northern and southern territories into a Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. <br><br>Nigeria achieved independence from Britain in 1960 and transitioned to a federal republic with three constituent states in 1963 under President Nnamdi AZIKIWE. This structure served to enflame regional and ethnic tension, contributing to a bloody coup led by predominately southeastern military officers in 1966 and a countercoup later that year masterminded by northern officers. In the aftermath of this tension, the governor of Nigeria’s Eastern Region, centered on the southeast, declared the region independent as the Republic of Biafra. The ensuring civil war (1967-1970), resulted in more than a million deaths, many from starvation. While the war forged a stronger Nigerian state and national identity, it contributed to long-lasting mistrust of the southeast’s predominantly Igbo population. Wartime military leader Yakubu GOWON ruled until a bloodless coup by frustrated junior officers in 1975. This generation of officers, including Olusegun OBASANJO, Ibrahim BABANGIDA, and Muhammadu BUHARI, who would all later serve as president, continue to exert significant influence in Nigeria to the present day. <br><br>Military rule predominated until the first durable transition to civilian government and adoption of a new constitution in 1999. The elections of 2007 marked the first civilian-to-civilian transfer of power in the country's history. National and state elections in 2011 and 2015 were generally regarded as credible. The 2015 election was also heralded for the fact that the then-umbrella opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, defeated the long-ruling (since 1999) People's Democratic Party and assumed the presidency, marking the first peaceful transfer of power from one party to another. Presidential and legislative elections in 2019 and 2023 were deemed broadly free and fair despite voting irregularities, intimidation, and violence. The government of Africa's most populous nation continues to face the daunting task of institutionalizing democracy and reforming a petroleum-based economy whose revenues have been squandered through decades of corruption and mismanagement. In addition, Nigeria faces increasing violence from Islamic terrorism, largely in the northeast, large scale criminal banditry, secessionist violence in the southeast, and competition over land and resources nationwide.</p>"
"text":"Niger river mouth (shared with Guinea [s], Mali, Benin, and Niger) - 4,200 km<br><br><strong>note:</strong>[s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth"
"text":"largest population of any African nation; significant population clusters are scattered throughout the country, with the highest density areas being in the south and southwest, as shown in this population distribution map"
"text":"the Niger River enters the country in the northwest and flows southward through tropical rainforests and swamps to its delta in the Gulf of Guinea"
"text":"largest population of any African nation; significant population clusters are scattered throughout the country, with the highest density areas being in the south and southwest, as shown in this population distribution map"
"text":"15.946 million Lagos, 4.348 million Kano, 3.875 million Ibadan, 3.840 million ABUJA (capital), 3.480 million Port Harcourt, 1.905 million Benin City (2023)"
"text":"Niger river mouth (shared with Guinea [s], Mali, Benin, and Niger) - 4,200 km<br><br><strong>note:</strong>[s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth"
"text":"named for the Niger River that flows through the west of the country to the Atlantic Ocean; the name of the river probably comes from the local Tuareg name, <em>egereou n-igereouen</em>(big rivers)"
"text":"the newly built city of Abuja replaced Lagos as the capital city in 1991; Abuja takes its name from a nearby town, now renamed Suleja, that was named after Abu JA (\"Abu the Red\") in 1828"
"text":"proposed by the National Assembly; passage requires at least two-thirds majority vote of both houses and approval by the Houses of Assembly of at least two thirds of the states; amendments to constitutional articles on the creation of a new state, fundamental constitutional rights, or constitution-amending procedures requires at least four-fifths majority vote by both houses of the National Assembly and approval by the Houses of Assembly in at least two thirds of the states; passage of amendments limited to the creation of a new state require at least two-thirds majority vote by the proposing National Assembly house and approval by the Houses of Assembly in two thirds of the states"
"text":"president directly elected by qualified-majority popular vote with at least 25% of the votes cast in 24 of Nigeria's 36 states; president elected for a 4-year term (eligible for a second term)"
"text":"<br><em>2023:</em> Bola Ahmed Adekunle TINUBU elected president; percent of vote - Bola Ahmed Adekunle TINUBU (APC) 36.6%, Atiku ABUBAKAR (PDP) 29.1%, Peter OBI (LP) 25.4%, Rabiu KWANKWASO (NNPP) 6.4%, other 2.5%<br><br><em>2019: </em>Muhammadu BUHARI elected president; percent of vote - Muhammadu BUHARI (APC) 53%, Atiku ABUBAKAR (PDP) 39%, other 8% <p></p>"
"text":"All Progressives Congress (APC) (180); People's Democratic Party (PDP) (116); Labour Party (LP) (35); New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) (19); Other (10)"
},
"percentage of women in chamber":{
"text":"3.9%"
},
"expected date of next election":{
"text":"February 2027"
}
},
"Legislative branch - upper chamber":{
"chamber name":{
"text":"Senate"
},
"number of seats":{
"text":"109 (all directly elected)"
},
"electoral system":{
"text":"plurality/majority"
},
"scope of elections":{
"text":"full renewal"
},
"term in office":{
"text":"4 years"
},
"most recent election date":{
"text":"2/25/2023"
},
"parties elected and seats per party":{
"text":"All Progressives Congress (APC) (59); People's Democratic Party (PDP) (36); Labour Party (LP) (8); Other (6)"
"text":"Supreme Court (consists of the chief justice and 15 justices)"
},
"judge selection and term of office":{
"text":"judges appointed by the president upon the recommendation of the National Judicial Council, a 23-member independent body of federal and state judicial officials; judge appointments confirmed by the Senate; judges serve until age 70"
},
"subordinate courts":{
"text":"Court of Appeal; Federal High Court; High Court of the Federal Capital Territory; Sharia Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory; Customary Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory; state court system similar in structure to federal system"
"text":"Accord Party or ACC<br>Africa Democratic Congress or ADC<br>All Progressives Congress or APC<br>All Progressives Grand Alliance or APGA<br>Labor Party or LP<br>New Nigeria People’s Party or NNPP<br>Peoples Democratic Party or PDP<br>Young Progressive Party or YPP"
"text":"three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and green; the color green stands for the country's forests and natural resources, and white for peace and unity"
"text":"largest African market economy; enormous but mostly lower middle income labor force; major oil exporter; key telecommunications and finance industries; susceptible to global energy price shocks; regional leader in critical infrastructure; primarily agrarian employment"
"text":"nearly 70 federal government-controlled national and regional TV stations; all 36 states operate TV stations; several private TV stations; cable and satellite TV subscription services are available; network of federal government-controlled national, regional, and state radio stations; roughly 40 state government-owned radio stations; about 20 private radio stations; transmissions of international broadcasters are available; transition to digital completed in three states in 2018 (2019)"
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> as of the end of 2018, there were only six operational locomotives in Nigeria primarily used for passenger service; the majority of the rail lines are in a severe state of disrepair and need to be replaced"
"text":"Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN): Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy (includes Coast Guard), Nigerian Air Force<br><br>Ministry of Interior: Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC); Ministry of Police Affairs: Nigeria Police Force (NPF) (2025)",
"note":"<strong>note 1: </strong>the NSCDC is a paramilitary agency commissioned to assist the military in the management of threats to internal security, including attacks and natural disasters<br><br><strong>note 2: </strong>some states have created local security forces akin to neighborhood watches in response to increased violence, insecurity, and criminality that have exceeded the response capacity of federal government security forces, but official security forces remained the constitutional prerogative of the federal government; in 2023, the federal government began deploying thousands of \"agro rangers\" across 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory to help safeguard farmland and mediate conflicts, especially in areas hit by farmer-herder clashes"
"text":"the military's inventory consists of a wide variety of imported weapons systems of Chinese, European, Middle Eastern, Russian (including Soviet-era), and US origin; the military is undergoing a modernization program, and in recent years has received equipment from a range of suppliers, including Brazil, China, France, Italy, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, and the US; Nigeria is also developing a defense-industry capacity, including small arms, armored personnel vehicles, and small-scale naval production (2025)"
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> Nigeria has committed an Army combat brigade (approximately 3,000 troops) to the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), a regional counter-terrorism force comprised of troops from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger; MNJTF conducts operations against Boko Haram and other terrorist groups operating in the general area of the Lake Chad Basin and along Nigeria's northeast border; national MNJTF troop contingents are deployed within their own country territories, although cross‐border operations are conducted periodically"
"text":"the Nigerian military's primary concerns are internal and maritime security, and it faces a number of challenges; the Army is deployed in all 36 of the country's states; in the northeast, it is conducting counterinsurgency/counterterrorist operations against the Boko Haram (BH) and Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham in West Africa (ISIS-WA) terrorist groups, where it has deployed as many as 70,000 troops at times and jihadist-related violence has killed an estimated 35-40,000 people, mostly civilians, since 2009; in the northwest, it faces threats from criminal gangs--locally referred to as bandits--and violence associated with long-standing farmer-herder conflicts, as well as BH and ISIS-WA terrorists; bandits in northwestern Nigeria are estimated to number as many as 30,000 and violence there has killed approximately 14,000 people since the mid-2010s; the military also continues to protect the oil industry in the Niger Delta region against militants and criminal activity; since 2021, additional troops and security forces have been deployed to eastern Nigeria to quell renewed agitation for a state of Biafra (Biafra seceded from Nigeria in the late 1960s, sparking a civil war that caused more than 1 million deaths)<br><br>the Navy is focused on maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea; since 2016, it has developed a maritime strategy, boosted naval training and its naval presence in the Gulf, increased participation in regional maritime security efforts, and acquired a number of new naval platforms, including offshore and coastal patrol craft, fast attack boats, and air assets<br><br>the Nigerian military traces its origins to the Nigeria Regiment of the West African Frontier Force (WAFF), a multi-regiment force formed by the British colonial office in 1900 to garrison Great Britain's West African colonies; the WAFF (the honorary title \"Royal\" was added later) served in both World Wars; in 1956, the Nigeria Regiment of the Royal WAFF was renamed the Nigerian Military Forces (NMF) and in 1958, the colonial government of Nigeria took over control of the NMF from the British War Office; the Nigerian Armed Forces were established following independence in 1960 (2024)"
"text":"National Space Research and Development Agency (NARSDA; established 1999); NARSDA originated from the National Centre for Remote Sensing and National Committee on Space Applications (both established in 1987), and the Directorate of Science (established 1993); Defense Space Administration (DSA; established 2014) (2024)"
"text":"has a formal national space program, which is one of the largest in Africa; focused on acquiring satellites for agricultural, environmental, meteorology, mining and disaster monitoring, socio-economic development, and security purposes; designs, builds (mostly with foreign assistance), and operates satellites; processes overhead imagery data for analysis and sharing; developing additional capabilities in satellite and satellite payload production, including remote sensing (RS) technologies; has a sounding rocket program for researching rockets and rocket propulsion systems with goal of launching domestically produced satellites into space from a Nigerian spaceport by 2030; has relations and/or cooperation agreements with a variety of foreign space agencies and industries, including those of Algeria, Bangladesh, Belarus, China, Ghana, India, Japan, Kenya, Mongolia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the UK, the US, and Vietnam; has a government-owned satellite company and a small commercial aerospace sector (2024)",
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> further details about the key activities, programs, and milestones of the country’s space program, as well as government spending estimates on the space sector, appear in the Space Programs reference guide"
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> details about the history, aims, leadership, organization, areas of operation, tactics, targets, weapons, size, and sources of support of the group(s) appear(s) in the Terrorism reference guide"
"text":"3.09 million (northeast Nigeria; Boko Haram attacks and counterinsurgency efforts in northern Nigeria; communal violence between Christians and Muslims in the middle belt region, political violence; flooding; forced evictions; cattle rustling; competition for resources) (2024)"
"text":"<p>Nigeria is a major hub for transnational drug trafficking networks entrenched throughout the world and supplying cocaine to Asia and Europe, heroin to Europe and North America, and methamphetamine to South Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand; also exporting massive quantities of opioids such as tramadol and captagon along with crack cocaine; a major source of precursor or essential chemicals used in the production of illicit narcotics</p> <p></p>"
