Historic Events
Anglo - Aro War:
The Anglo-Aro War took place from 1901 to 1902, and was a conflict between the Aro Confederacy in present day Eastern Nigeria, and the British Empire. The Aro Confederacy, whose powers extended across Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, and Cameroon, was crumbling in the late 19th century due to the European colonists. The Aro people felt a need to take action against the colonists who threatened their culture and sovereignty. The Aros knew that British penetration would destroy their dominance. They also opposed their religion, Christianity, which some of the Aros were converting to. Aro rulers saw the new religion as a British method of peacefully capturing Aro territories. Aro raids and invasions on many communities were conducted in order to bully those who favored the British, but the Aro invasion of Obegu around November 1901 signaled for the direct invasion of Arochukwu. Four-hundred people died and the government of Obegu was destroyed. Obegu was a town belonging to the rival Ngwa clan which had been at war with the Aros for many years and was siding with the British. After this attack, the British would retaliate.
Nigerian Independence:
On October 1, 1960, Nigeria gained independence from Britain. An all-Nigerian Executive Council was created, lead by a Prime Minister, Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. On November 16, 1960, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, a pioneer of West African nationalism, became the first Governor-General of a Federation of three Regions of the North, East and West, with Lagos as the Federal Capital. Each of the Regions was headed by a Premier with a Governor as Ceremonial Head. On October 1, 1963, Nigeria became a Federal Republic and severed whatever ties were left with Britain. She decided, however, to remain in the British Commonwealth of Nations. The Governor-General's position was, therefore, re-designated as President. Eight military regimes emerged, beginning in 1966, interspersed between the fourth and fifth military regime by a return to civilian rule with the Second Republic between October 1979 and December, 1983. The final military regime left power on May 29, 1999, when the current Fourth Republic was installed and the president democratically elected president.
Nigerian Civil War:
In 1960, Nigeria gained independence from Britain. Six years later, the Muslim Hausas in northern Nigeria began massacring the Christian Igbos in the region, prompting tens of thousands of Igbos to flee to the east, where their people were the dominant ethnic group. The Igbos doubted that Nigeria's oppressive military government would allow them to develop, or even survive, so on May 30, 1967, Lieutenant Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu and other non-Igbo representatives of the area established the Republic of Biafra, comprising several states of Nigeria. Five weeks after its secession, the Republic of Biafra is attacked by Nigerian government forces. After diplomatic efforts by Nigeria failed to reunite the country, war between Nigeria and Biafra broke out in July 1967. Ojukwu's forces made some initial advances, but Nigeria's superior military strength gradually reduced Biafran territory. The state lost its oil fields (its main source of revenue) and without the funds to import food, an estimated one million of its civilians died as a result of severe malnutrition. On January 11, 1970, Nigerian forces captured the provincial capital of Owerri, one of the last Biafran strongholds, and Ojukwu was forced to flee to the Ivory Coast. Four days later, Biafra surrendered to Nigeria.
Second Nigerian Republic:
In 1977, a constituent assembly was elected to draft a new constitution, which was published on September 21, 1978, when the ban on political activity was lifted. This constitution was modeled after the American Constitution. In 1979, the Second Nigerian Republic is created. Five political parties competed in a series of elections. These parties included Chief Obafemi Awolowo's Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe's Nigerian People's Party (NPP), Alhadji Waziri Ibrahi's Greater Nigeria People's Party (GNPP), Alhaji Aminu Kano's People's Redemption Party (PRP), and Alhaji Shehu Shagari's National Party of Nigeria (NPN). Of the five competing parties, Alhaji Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) was elected president. All five parties won representation in the National Assembly. In August 1983 Shagari and the NPN were returned to power in a landslide victory, with a majority of seats in the National Assembly and control of 12 state governments. But the elections were marred by violence and allegations of widespread vote rigging and electoral malfeasance led to legal battles over the results. On December 31, 1983, the Second Nigerian Republic was overthrown by the military.
Nigerian Delta Conflict:
Nigeria, by the early 1980s, had become almost completely dependent on petroleum extraction as support for their economy, generating 25-60% of its GDPC. Consequentially, the current conflict in the Niger Delta arose in the early 1990s over tensions between the foreign oil corporations such as Shell and Chevron, and a number of the Niger Delta's minority ethnic groups who felt they were being exploited. Competition for oil wealth has fueled violence between many ethnic groups, causing the militarization of nearly the entire region by ethnic militia groups as well as Nigerian military and police forces. The ethnic militia often uses guerilla warfare, and they roam the delta in speedboats, waging sporadic war against the oil companies and the petro-funded military that defends the plunderers. The guerillas have met with some success: in 2008, their attacks on wells and pipelines forced Shell to evacuate oil fields and temporarily cease production. Yet the militants have also destabilized the region, incited violence against innocent villagers, and even killed the very people whose rights they claim to be defending.