Nigeria 2015: analysis of election issues and future prospects

Nigeria: country profile

1. History

Early History		5000 BC		Archaeological evidence suggests that there was human habitation in the region at this time.
	Circa 800 BC		The Jos Plateau is settled by the Nok – a Neolithic and iron age organised society.
	Circa 800 AD		Kanem-Bornu and the Songhai Empires emerge. The age of city-states, kingdoms and empires in the region begins.
	Late 11^thCent.		The ruling elite of the Kanem-Bornu Empire converts to Islam.
	1200-1300		The Kingdom of Benin and Oyo, a Yoruba state, emerge.
	1472		First European contact.
	1591		The Songhai Empire is conquered by Sultan of Morocco.
	1700s		Britain and other European states become heavily involved in trans-Atlantic slave trade.
	1809		The Sokoto Caliphate is formed in the north of what is today Nigeria.
Colonial Period	1861		Lagos is annexed by Britain, marking a first step towards formal colonisation.
	1885-6		The Royal Niger Company is given responsibility for the British sphere of influence.
	1893		The Ibadan Empire is defeated by Britain; The Yoruba agree to a British Protectorate. The British Niger Coast Protectorate is established.
	1900-3		The Igbo people are conquered and the Sokoto Caliphate falls. The Royal Niger Company has its charter revoked. The British establish a Protectorate of Southern Nigeria and a Protectorate of Northern Nigeria. Frederick Lugard is appointed High Commissioner in the Northern Protectorate, where he establishes a system of ‘indirect rule’ through traditional leaders.
	1914		Abeokuta, the last independent polity, is conquered by Britain. The Protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria are unified.
	1922		Part of the German colony of Kamerun is added to Nigeria under a League of Nations mandate.
	1947		A Federal Constitution based on extensive autonomy for the three regions – north, south and east – comes into force. It represents an attempt to accommodate ethnic and religious tensions between the regions.
	1954		The Federation becomes self-governing.
	1959-60		Elections to a bicameral federal parliament are held. On 1 October 1960, Nigeria gains its independence under northern Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa.
Post-independence	1963		Nigeria becomes a Republic.
	1966		Major-General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi, an Igbo, leads a military coup in January. Prime Minister Balewa is assassinated. The federal system is abolished. In August, a counter-coup is successfully carried out by Lieutenant-General Yakubu Gowon. Ironsi is assassinated. A federal system is reintroduced.
	1967		Three states in the east of the country secede as the Republic of Biafra, provoking civil war.
	1970		Biafra surrenders and is reintegrated into Nigeria.
	1975-6		Gowon is overthrown and replaced by Brigadier Murtala Mohammed. Following his assassination in 1976, Mohammed is in turn replaced by Lieutenant-General Olusegun Obasanjo.
	1979		Obasanjo returns Nigeria to civilian rule under a presidential system. Shehu Shagari is elected.
	1983		Shagari is re-elected amidst claims of fraud. In December, Major-General Muhammed Buhari seizes power in another military coup.
	1985		General Ibrahim Babangida seizes power from Buhari.
	1993		A return to civilian rule is aborted when General Sani Abacha seizes power following the annulment of preliminary results indicating that Moshood Abiola had won the presidential election.
	1995		Execution of Ogoni campaigner and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa. EU imposes sanctions against Nigeria and the Commonwealth suspends the country’s membership.
	1998		Abacha dies and is succeeded by Major-General Abdulsalami Abubakar. Abiola dies in custody.
	1999		Olusegun Obasanjo, a southerner and the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), is elected civilian president. Membership of the Commonwealth is restored and international sanctions lifted.
	2000		Several northern states adopt Sharia law amidst rising ethnic and religious violence in different parts of the country.
	2003		Obasanjo is re-elected. His second term is also marked by ethnic and religious violence as well as low-level insurgency in the Niger Delta, the heartland of Nigeria’s oil industry.
	2007		PDP candidate and northerner Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is elected president in deeply flawed elections.
	2009		Radical Islamist movement Boko Haram launches a campaign of violence in northeast Nigeria. The security forces respond with their own operations. Boko Haram’s leader Mohamed Yusuf dies in police custody. An amnesty programme helps to calm the situation in the Niger Delta.
	2009-10		President Yar-Adua falls ill and is incapacitated, provoking a constitutional crisis. Southerner Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan takes over, first in an acting role, and then as his permanent replacement.
	2011		Having initially said that he would not stand in the presidential election, Goodluck Jonathan does so and is elected.
	2011-14		Boko Haram escalates its campaign of violence. President Jonathan declares a state of emergency in three northern states: Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. Ethnic and religious violence continues in the ‘middle belt’ of the country. Jim O’Neill declares that Nigeria could become an emerging economic giant.

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