ABSTRACT
Located in West Africa, Nigeria is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the south, Benin and Togo in the west, Cameroon in the east, and Niger and Chad in the north. The country covers 336,669 square miles, “twice the size of California and three times the size of the United Kingdom” (Falola 1999, p. 1). Nigeria is not mountainous or flat, and Africa’s third largest river, River Niger, flows throughout it. Once described as “a collection of independent Native states, separated from one another . . . by great distances, by differences of history and traditions and by ethnological, racial, tribal, political, social and religious barriers,” Nigeria is home to over 100 million people from over 250 ethnic groups (Obasanjo, 1980, p. 1). It is Africa’s most populous nation (Oyewole & Lucas, 2000). The major ethnic groups and languages in Nigeria are Igbo, Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba. English is the official language as Nigeria was a British colony from 1861 to 1960. Nigeria is a federation made up of 36 states and a federal capital territory, Abuja. Economically, while agrarian, 80 percent of Nigeria’s revenue comes from crude oil (Okonta & Douglas, 2001). Nigeria is the world’s ninth largest oil producer, with the fourth largest reserve of natural gas (Bourgault, 1998). The country also exports various minerals including tin, columbite, uranium, limestone and coal (Oyewole & Lucas, 2000). Nigeria is a member of several international organizations, including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United Nations, African Union, and the Commonwealth of Nations.
